Here and Now with Francis 5/26/16 (Christ, prayer, trust, faith, desire, God)

By Anonymous

Prayer is not a magic wand. It helps to keep faith in God and to entrust ourselves to Him, even when we do not understand His will. In this Jesus Himself – who prayed so much! – is our example. 

 From the audience
God truly saved Jesus from death giving Him complete victory over it, but the way followed to obtain it passed through death itself! The reference to the supplication that God heard refers to Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane. Assailed by imminent anguish, Jesus prays to the Father to let the bitter chalice of the Passion pass from Him, but His prayer is pervaded by trust in the Father and He entrusts Himself to His will without reservations: “Nevertheless – says Jesus – not as I will, but as Thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39). The object of the prayer passes to the second plane; what matters first of all is His relation with the Father. See what prayer does: it transforms the desire and moulds it according to God’s will, whatever it is, because one who prays aspires first of all to union with Him, merciful Love. [full text]

Popular posts from this blog

Front Matter (Preface) The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

By Anonymous
Image
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky Verily, verily I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. John xii,24 Preface I N STARTING out on the life of my hero, Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov, I feel somewhat at a loss. By this I mean that, although I refer to Alexei (Alyosha) as my hero, I am well aware that he is by no means a great man, and this leads me to anticipate such obvious questions as: “What is so remarkable about your Alexei Karamazov that you should choose him as your hero? What exactly did he accomplish? Who has heard of him and what is he famous for? And why should I, the reader, spend time learning the facts of his life?” The last question is the fateful one because all I can answer is: “You may find that out for yourself from the novel.” But what if they read the novel and are still unconvinced that my Alexei is a remarkable man? I say this because I sadly anticip...
Read more

Front Matter (preface) Lyrical and Critical Essays by Albert Camus

By Anonymous
Image
Lyrical and Critical Essays by  Albert Camus Preface 1958 [by Albert Camus] The essays collected in this volume were written in 1935 and 1936 (I was then twenty-two) and published a year later in Algeria in a very limited edition. This edition has been unobtainable for a long time and I have always refused to have   The Wrong Side and the Right Side   reprinted. There are no mysterious reasons for my stubbornness. I reject nothing of what these writings express, but their form has always seemed clumsy to me. The prejudices on art I cherish in spite of myself (I shall explain them further on) kept me for a long time from considering their republication. A great vanity, it would seem, leading one to suppose that my other writings satisfy every standard. Need I say this isn’t so? I am only more aware of the inadequacies in   The Wrong Side and the Right Side   than of those in my other work. How can I explain this except by admitting that the...
Read more

All Soul's Day

By
Image
A Cross-Shattered Church: Reclaiming the Theological Heart of Preaching by  Stanley Hauerwas We live in a death-denying world that seems determined to develop technologies that will enable us to get out of life alive. Yet the more we strive to be free of death the more our lives are shaped by the death-determined means we create to try to free ourselves of death. Even more paradoxical, the means we use to free ourselves from death only serve to increase our isolation from one another. We fear the loneliness we think death entails, but it turns out that the loneliness we fear death entails is the expression of the loneliness made unavoidable by our attempts to avoid death. Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead. But Lazarus is still to die. We are still to die. Jesus, by contrast, has been raised never again to die. His death makes possible a communion that overwhelms the loneliness our sin creates. ... That feast we call Eucharist, for in eating it we are made “living member...
Read more