The Presentation in the Temple
In the wonderful Ignatius Press book Salvation is from the Jews: The role of Judaism in salvation history from Abraham to the second coming, Roy H. Schoeman identifies a list of core roles entrusted to the Jews:
1. Exhibiting a faithfulness and devotion to God that would support a unique intimacy and covenant with Him, through which the Messiah would eventually come.
2. In this loyalty and covenant being the primary channel of grace for all mankind.
3. Prophetically, typologically foreshadowing salvation history in their own history.
4. Providing a people of sufficient spiritual purity, virtue, and morality to be able to be the people among whom God became man.
5. Making God’s laws known to mankind.
6. Preparing the Mother of the Redeemer.
7. Praying for the coming of the Messiah.
8. Adoring and worshiping the Messiah before He came.
9. Providing a temporal home for the Messiah and announcing the good news when He came.
Shortly afterwards, he asks the question: “How well did they do at the job they were given?”
Demonstrating how on the surface, from a Christian worldview, it would appear that they completely failed, still a faithful remnant always remained to respond with love and faith when all others had failed, and the tremendous blessing which flowed from their obedience has always healed the world. Connecting biblical personalities with later accepted private revelations of the saints, he argues for the idea that in the story of Israel, that faithful remnant has always and will always perfectly fulfill the roles they were given.
He then goes on to intertwine those roles and the historical experience of the Jews as they relate to the Church. It’s a fascinating topic, one close to my heart—and one whose theological and practical insights seem inexhaustible.
Above all, the question remains: In our days and in the times of the end, will we be that faithful remnant? Or will we will be like the faithless masses?
Of the list above, number seven stands out to me as the solitary task which reveals our heart to answer that question, as well as our intentions and mindset. It is a crucible through which only the strong may pass, those whose faith in God allows them to overcome the greatest of difficulties.
As Schoeman point out, the prayers of the saints and private revelations are later proof of God working through us—sometimes just one of us—to effect change on the planet. Countless are the stories of personal victories gained through prayer, but less well-known are the stories of wars stopped and atrocities or judgements prevented due to the faithful prayers of few.
These examples should do wonders to build our faith. As protestant pastor and eceumenical leader Jack Hayford points out: “Prayer is invading the impossible.”
It is an act of faith, the spiritual equivalent of lighting a match in a dark, cold night…. A match which may ignite a fire which may engulf your home, your city, your nation—the world.
“Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.” (Mk 11:24)
But is it that easy?
No. Breakthrough comes by the sweat of our brow and through our willingness to suffer and seek. Breakthrough comes through our own detachment from things which hold no real spiritual value but which appear to us down here to be indications of our own success. It bursts forth through our willingness to let God’s Spirit lead us though we have not seen nor understood why He does what He does.
It is precisely for this reason that the parental task of teaching obedience is so crucial—it is the fundamental task of the human being to trust and obey God when it does not make sense.
This isn’t to say that a study of God’s laws do not ultimately demonstrate a very reasonable “cause” and “effect” in which we realize that His ways work and His reasons are right. Rather, it means that the fundamental focus of our religious life is FAITH… a faith which is the assurance of things hoped for, evidence in things yet unseen. (Hebrews 11:1)
Like children, we learn that we must do these things not because He said so, although that should be reason enough. Rather, we obey because He loves us, and what He asks is good.
If God reserved a people for Himself to fulfill the role of interceding for the world, how important is it for us individually to respond to that call within? Indeed, by the Cross He has called ALL people to himself, chosen us, and set us apart, gentile and Jew alike!
Those of us who have not seen God move in power have not seen it because we have not been willing to say to Him: “here I am, Lord! Send me!” (Isaiah 5:8)
Those who have:
-the woman who quietly suffers painful fibromyalgia with joy, offering up every bodily pain for the local public school to be flooded with God’s peace and truth.
-the man who endures his wife’s adultery with patience, love and tenderness, offering up his sufferings for her personal salvation.
-the police officer who prays the rosary in his vehicle, as he stakes out a suspected drug dealer’s house, asking God to give him success not only temporally but in the spiritual, impacting the dealer’s life.
-the exhausted mother who joyfully fulfills her menial tasks, offering herself for the eternal well-being of her family and her local priest’s faithfulness to his vocation.
-the parish priest, who daily offers to God the one-time sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ on behalf of the people.
-the group of families who get together once a week to offer praises to God and seek Him for their community.
These are just some of the ways we are asked to participate in our intercessory calling--- a role which was for through the history of the Jewish people and to which every member of the Church is called to respond today.
How does it work?
In the book: “Intercessory Prayer,” Dutch Sheets gives some insight as to how we can begin to pray.
He says: “Our challenge is not so much to liberate as to believe in the Liberator; to heal as to believe in the Healer.”
The Catholic Church teaches that Prayer need be both communal and individual, the work of the mouth, the mind, the body, and also the heart. The Catechism of the Church is clear:
Sheets reminds us that intercession creates a meeting: when we meet with Heaven, heaven meets with the forces of darkness, and meets with the person or place we are meeting about. The “collision” between Light and Darkness creates a physical reality we experience here on earth.
He states: “All of our praying intercession will involve one or both of these facets: reconciliation or breaking; uniting or disuniting.” This is the binding and loosing we are called to.
In Hebrew, the word paga is used to connotate a violent meeting, and is the word we often translate as “intercession.”
“The prayers of an understanding intercessor WILL create a meeting (paga). And when the meeting comes to a close, something will have changed.”
Another great insight gained through Sheet’s book is that many of our earthly difficulties and trials come through our own failure to secure our own spiritual boundaries—our “forgetting” to war in the spiritual realm on behalf our family and friends and for our good.
Most of us will reflect back over sufferings and difficulties and recognize that personal growth occurred that certainly created “holiness” within us that was not present before. On the other hand, many of our own challenges are self-made. We are cursed because we remain under the curse of sin. We are struggling because our sin-nature causes us to make stupid decisions and take stupid actions. Then we shake our fist at God and say: “why??”
If we pray before we make decisions, we will be sure to listen for God’s wisdom about each situation we encounter and avoid (or at least try to) making poor, and quick, decisions. If we remember to pray consistently to protect and shield our family and city from harm, we certainly do only good to those we love, and often our watchman-role can keep us from unnecessary trials and also give us insight which helps us to love God and love our neighbor more. But prayer is not a magic formula—saying the right words or “feeling the right feelings” when we pray do not make us more “effective.” What matters is only love… the Love we have for God and for each other, often gained through prayer.
Many protestants mistakenly believe (and often innocently, for they do not realize the grave theological implications) that their “effective”prayer will move heaven to give them material blessings, and that the measure of material blessing, health, or “good” they receive demonstrates the power in their own faith. The Catholic Church takes a more balanced approach… while we understand the great benefit – and indeed, or deep responsibility—to set up our own spiritual success (spiritual, not physical…. Although we do pray for our physical needs, of course, and often have them answered) by “covering our bases” in the spiritual realm, we also recognize the great necessity of uniting our sufferings to Christ’s and believe in redemptive suffering, which is the idea that there is both meaning and a meeting (paga) that happens when we suffer.
Our ultimate goal, as Catholic prayer warriors, is not to cease suffering, but to suffer well, offering ourselves to God for the healing of the world in imitation of and union with our Messiah, the Savior of the World. Like the Jews, we have been promised the Kingdom, now we must walk in faith, through the desert, believing and acting in accordance with that belief, until we inherit it.
God is indeed good, all the time, and yet bad things happen—both to good people, and are allowed by our good God. How can we explain this unless we take the Catholic view… the pain and suffering go hand in hand with joy and laughter.
The famous poet Khalil Gibran said:
“Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?”
Prayer is like this--- a continual acceptance and lifting of the soul to God who knows when we need hollowing out and when we need filling.
When Pope Paul VI proclaimed St. Teresa of Avila the first woman Doctor of the Church, he selected one of her many titles as the basis for conferring that honor on her: Teacher of Prayer.
Her teachings involve the personal journey into prayer, but an effective personal journey affects the lives of all those who we encounter, so her teachings are well worth heeding.
The most basic level of prayer, according to Saint Teresa of Avila, is a simple vocal prayer in which we make the physical effort to acknowledge God and His purposes and His will in our lives. The deepest level is union with God—a state in which the soul wants what God wants and trusts and loves God completely, often accompanied by mystical graces which are fascinating to study.
From there, she goes on to describe other spiritual “states” that result from the cultivation of a regular prayer life. A study of her teachings on prayer will surely lead the interested soul to a union with God, as it has many of our well-known, and little-known, saints.
If we are going to draw our “call” to intercede out of Israel’s example, we must also look at Jewish prayer.
The Hebrew word for prayer is Tefilah, derived from the root Pre-Lamed Lamed and the word l’hitpalel, which means “to judge oneself.” This insight should help to understand that the purpose of Jewish prayer, regardless of its “type” is to unite the soul to God in purpose and to look introspectively at the soul’s progress.
Like Catholic prayer, Jewish prayer is not something that happens only in a Synagogue but rather throughout the day, helping the Jew to remember God at all moments of his life. Like Catholics, Jews pray at varying intervals and in all situations…. Upon arising, before beginning the day, upon accomplishing, or before accomplishing good works throughout the day, before and after eating, at bedtime, and ultimately at all moments. Catholics and Jews both also pray communally using words like “us” and “our” to remember that their prayers are effected on behalf of ALL believers and ultimately, the world. We are a universal communion of persons, not alone on the journey of life.
A wise Rabbi was once asked: “Rabbi, what should I do when I don’t believe in G-d anymore?”
He answered: “You should continue to pray and act as a good Jew. Faith will return to you.”
Indeed, this is the true teaching of all the saints: continue to pray, even in periods of darkness and great dryness, and you will experience God and faith will return. But how does a “good Jew” pray?
The “mindset” of Jewish prayer is called Kavanah. (Catholics call this intention.)
It means “an intent, a focus or a concentration.” At the very least, a Jew must realize that he is talking to God and that he is fulfilling an obligation toHim in order to have his action count as “prayer” and not just reading.
Jews use liturgical melodies, as well as movement (the swaying you see traditional jews making when they pray), to keep the mind free of other distractions and focused on God.
One other interesting point is that Jews pray in Hebrew. While the Talmud, or record of Oral Law, states that one may pray in any language they understand, traditional Judaism gives priority to Hebrew.
As the Church uses Latin as her formal language, Judaism uses Hebrew. Among other reasons, the Church uses Latin because it is a "dead language," therefore no changes in meaning can be ascribed to the words. It is a unifying language, a language which peoples of all nations can use, thus emphasizing the universality of the Church. The chief component of Christian worship is the offering of the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass each day. The official language of this liturgy is Latin, which the priest uses when speaking to God. Homilies and other addresses to the people are made in the common language. The use of Latin also ensures the purity of the offering of the mass—there are no “gray areas” in which the priest can ad-lib. The words also remain sacred, old as the ages, and unchanged, just as the sacrifice being offered is unchanged. Catholics who do not speak Latin can use missals to understand what is being said which contain the text in the common language and in the Latin language so that they may follow along.
Demonstrating how on the surface, from a Christian worldview, it would appear that they completely failed, still a faithful remnant always remained to respond with love and faith when all others had failed, and the tremendous blessing which flowed from their obedience has always healed the world. Connecting biblical personalities with later accepted private revelations of the saints, he argues for the idea that in the story of Israel, that faithful remnant has always and will always perfectly fulfill the roles they were given.
He then goes on to intertwine those roles and the historical experience of the Jews as they relate to the Church. It’s a fascinating topic, one close to my heart—and one whose theological and practical insights seem inexhaustible.
Above all, the question remains: In our days and in the times of the end, will we be that faithful remnant? Or will we will be like the faithless masses?
Of the list above, number seven stands out to me as the solitary task which reveals our heart to answer that question, as well as our intentions and mindset. It is a crucible through which only the strong may pass, those whose faith in God allows them to overcome the greatest of difficulties.
As Schoeman point out, the prayers of the saints and private revelations are later proof of God working through us—sometimes just one of us—to effect change on the planet. Countless are the stories of personal victories gained through prayer, but less well-known are the stories of wars stopped and atrocities or judgements prevented due to the faithful prayers of few.
These examples should do wonders to build our faith. As protestant pastor and eceumenical leader Jack Hayford points out: “Prayer is invading the impossible.”
It is an act of faith, the spiritual equivalent of lighting a match in a dark, cold night…. A match which may ignite a fire which may engulf your home, your city, your nation—the world.
“Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.” (Mk 11:24)
But is it that easy?
No. Breakthrough comes by the sweat of our brow and through our willingness to suffer and seek. Breakthrough comes through our own detachment from things which hold no real spiritual value but which appear to us down here to be indications of our own success. It bursts forth through our willingness to let God’s Spirit lead us though we have not seen nor understood why He does what He does.
It is precisely for this reason that the parental task of teaching obedience is so crucial—it is the fundamental task of the human being to trust and obey God when it does not make sense.
This isn’t to say that a study of God’s laws do not ultimately demonstrate a very reasonable “cause” and “effect” in which we realize that His ways work and His reasons are right. Rather, it means that the fundamental focus of our religious life is FAITH… a faith which is the assurance of things hoped for, evidence in things yet unseen. (Hebrews 11:1)
Like children, we learn that we must do these things not because He said so, although that should be reason enough. Rather, we obey because He loves us, and what He asks is good.
If God reserved a people for Himself to fulfill the role of interceding for the world, how important is it for us individually to respond to that call within? Indeed, by the Cross He has called ALL people to himself, chosen us, and set us apart, gentile and Jew alike!
Those of us who have not seen God move in power have not seen it because we have not been willing to say to Him: “here I am, Lord! Send me!” (Isaiah 5:8)
Those who have:
-the woman who quietly suffers painful fibromyalgia with joy, offering up every bodily pain for the local public school to be flooded with God’s peace and truth.
-the man who endures his wife’s adultery with patience, love and tenderness, offering up his sufferings for her personal salvation.
-the police officer who prays the rosary in his vehicle, as he stakes out a suspected drug dealer’s house, asking God to give him success not only temporally but in the spiritual, impacting the dealer’s life.
-the exhausted mother who joyfully fulfills her menial tasks, offering herself for the eternal well-being of her family and her local priest’s faithfulness to his vocation.
-the parish priest, who daily offers to God the one-time sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ on behalf of the people.
-the group of families who get together once a week to offer praises to God and seek Him for their community.
These are just some of the ways we are asked to participate in our intercessory calling--- a role which was for through the history of the Jewish people and to which every member of the Church is called to respond today.
How does it work?
In the book: “Intercessory Prayer,” Dutch Sheets gives some insight as to how we can begin to pray.
He says: “Our challenge is not so much to liberate as to believe in the Liberator; to heal as to believe in the Healer.”
The Catholic Church teaches that Prayer need be both communal and individual, the work of the mouth, the mind, the body, and also the heart. The Catechism of the Church is clear:
2720 The Church invites the faithful to regular prayer: daily prayers, the Liturgy of the Hours, Sunday Eucharist, the feasts of the liturgical year.
2721 The Christian tradition comprises three major expressions of the life of prayer: vocal prayer, meditation, and contemplative prayer. They have in common the recollection of the heart.
2722 Vocal prayer, founded on the union of body and soul in human nature, associates the body with the interior prayer of the heart, following Christ's example of praying to his Father and teaching the Our Father to his disciples.
2723 Meditation is a prayerful quest engaging thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. Its goal is to make our own in faith the subject considered, by confronting it with the reality of our own life.
2724 Contemplative prayer is the simple expression of the mystery of prayer. It is a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus, an attentiveness to the Word of God, a silent love. It achieves real union with the prayer of Christ to the extent that it makes us share in his mystery.
Sheets reminds us that intercession creates a meeting: when we meet with Heaven, heaven meets with the forces of darkness, and meets with the person or place we are meeting about. The “collision” between Light and Darkness creates a physical reality we experience here on earth.
He states: “All of our praying intercession will involve one or both of these facets: reconciliation or breaking; uniting or disuniting.” This is the binding and loosing we are called to.
In Hebrew, the word paga is used to connotate a violent meeting, and is the word we often translate as “intercession.”
“The prayers of an understanding intercessor WILL create a meeting (paga). And when the meeting comes to a close, something will have changed.”
Another great insight gained through Sheet’s book is that many of our earthly difficulties and trials come through our own failure to secure our own spiritual boundaries—our “forgetting” to war in the spiritual realm on behalf our family and friends and for our good.
Most of us will reflect back over sufferings and difficulties and recognize that personal growth occurred that certainly created “holiness” within us that was not present before. On the other hand, many of our own challenges are self-made. We are cursed because we remain under the curse of sin. We are struggling because our sin-nature causes us to make stupid decisions and take stupid actions. Then we shake our fist at God and say: “why??”
If we pray before we make decisions, we will be sure to listen for God’s wisdom about each situation we encounter and avoid (or at least try to) making poor, and quick, decisions. If we remember to pray consistently to protect and shield our family and city from harm, we certainly do only good to those we love, and often our watchman-role can keep us from unnecessary trials and also give us insight which helps us to love God and love our neighbor more. But prayer is not a magic formula—saying the right words or “feeling the right feelings” when we pray do not make us more “effective.” What matters is only love… the Love we have for God and for each other, often gained through prayer.
Many protestants mistakenly believe (and often innocently, for they do not realize the grave theological implications) that their “effective”prayer will move heaven to give them material blessings, and that the measure of material blessing, health, or “good” they receive demonstrates the power in their own faith. The Catholic Church takes a more balanced approach… while we understand the great benefit – and indeed, or deep responsibility—to set up our own spiritual success (spiritual, not physical…. Although we do pray for our physical needs, of course, and often have them answered) by “covering our bases” in the spiritual realm, we also recognize the great necessity of uniting our sufferings to Christ’s and believe in redemptive suffering, which is the idea that there is both meaning and a meeting (paga) that happens when we suffer.
Our ultimate goal, as Catholic prayer warriors, is not to cease suffering, but to suffer well, offering ourselves to God for the healing of the world in imitation of and union with our Messiah, the Savior of the World. Like the Jews, we have been promised the Kingdom, now we must walk in faith, through the desert, believing and acting in accordance with that belief, until we inherit it.
God is indeed good, all the time, and yet bad things happen—both to good people, and are allowed by our good God. How can we explain this unless we take the Catholic view… the pain and suffering go hand in hand with joy and laughter.
The famous poet Khalil Gibran said:
“Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?”
Prayer is like this--- a continual acceptance and lifting of the soul to God who knows when we need hollowing out and when we need filling.
When Pope Paul VI proclaimed St. Teresa of Avila the first woman Doctor of the Church, he selected one of her many titles as the basis for conferring that honor on her: Teacher of Prayer.
Her teachings involve the personal journey into prayer, but an effective personal journey affects the lives of all those who we encounter, so her teachings are well worth heeding.
The most basic level of prayer, according to Saint Teresa of Avila, is a simple vocal prayer in which we make the physical effort to acknowledge God and His purposes and His will in our lives. The deepest level is union with God—a state in which the soul wants what God wants and trusts and loves God completely, often accompanied by mystical graces which are fascinating to study.
In her teachings on prayer, hailed as the foundational teachings on Catholic prayer, we learn that the soul grows from simply verbalizing what we “should” (reading prayers aloud) to desiring and understanding what God wills for us. She describes many “stops” along the path, giving us insight and detail into the mystical journey. She says:She calls this the prayer of infused recollection, and it is the beginning stages of the journey. In this prayer, the soul begins to experience the peace and sweetness of God, and often falls into a “sleep of the faculties,” noting though that people might fall into a false “sleep” due to hypersensitivity, poor health, or other conditions.
First of all, I will say something (though not much, as I have dealt with it elsewhere) about another kind of prayer, which almost invariably begins before this one. It is a form of recollection which also seems to me supernatural. . . . Do not think that the soul can attain to him merely by trying to think of him as present within the soul. This is a good habit and an excellent kind of meditation, for it is founded on a truth, namely, that God is within us. But it is not the kind of prayer that I have in mind. . . . What I am describing is quite different.
As I understand it, the soul whom the Lord has been pleased to lead into this mansion will do best to act as I have said… Let it try, without forcing itself or causing any turmoil, to put a stop to all discursive reasoning, yet not to suspend the intellect nor to cease from all thought, although it is good for it to remember that it is in God's presence and who this God is. If this experience should lead to a state of absorption, well and good, but it should not try to understand what this state is, because it is a gift bestowed on the will. Therefore, the will should be allowed to enjoy it and should not be active except to utter a few loving words (Fourth Mansions, chap. 3).
From there, she goes on to describe other spiritual “states” that result from the cultivation of a regular prayer life. A study of her teachings on prayer will surely lead the interested soul to a union with God, as it has many of our well-known, and little-known, saints.
If we are going to draw our “call” to intercede out of Israel’s example, we must also look at Jewish prayer.
The Hebrew word for prayer is Tefilah, derived from the root Pre-Lamed Lamed and the word l’hitpalel, which means “to judge oneself.” This insight should help to understand that the purpose of Jewish prayer, regardless of its “type” is to unite the soul to God in purpose and to look introspectively at the soul’s progress.
Like Catholic prayer, Jewish prayer is not something that happens only in a Synagogue but rather throughout the day, helping the Jew to remember God at all moments of his life. Like Catholics, Jews pray at varying intervals and in all situations…. Upon arising, before beginning the day, upon accomplishing, or before accomplishing good works throughout the day, before and after eating, at bedtime, and ultimately at all moments. Catholics and Jews both also pray communally using words like “us” and “our” to remember that their prayers are effected on behalf of ALL believers and ultimately, the world. We are a universal communion of persons, not alone on the journey of life.
A wise Rabbi was once asked: “Rabbi, what should I do when I don’t believe in G-d anymore?”
He answered: “You should continue to pray and act as a good Jew. Faith will return to you.”
Indeed, this is the true teaching of all the saints: continue to pray, even in periods of darkness and great dryness, and you will experience God and faith will return. But how does a “good Jew” pray?
The “mindset” of Jewish prayer is called Kavanah. (Catholics call this intention.)
It means “an intent, a focus or a concentration.” At the very least, a Jew must realize that he is talking to God and that he is fulfilling an obligation toHim in order to have his action count as “prayer” and not just reading.
Jews use liturgical melodies, as well as movement (the swaying you see traditional jews making when they pray), to keep the mind free of other distractions and focused on God.
One other interesting point is that Jews pray in Hebrew. While the Talmud, or record of Oral Law, states that one may pray in any language they understand, traditional Judaism gives priority to Hebrew.
As the Church uses Latin as her formal language, Judaism uses Hebrew. Among other reasons, the Church uses Latin because it is a "dead language," therefore no changes in meaning can be ascribed to the words. It is a unifying language, a language which peoples of all nations can use, thus emphasizing the universality of the Church. The chief component of Christian worship is the offering of the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass each day. The official language of this liturgy is Latin, which the priest uses when speaking to God. Homilies and other addresses to the people are made in the common language. The use of Latin also ensures the purity of the offering of the mass—there are no “gray areas” in which the priest can ad-lib. The words also remain sacred, old as the ages, and unchanged, just as the sacrifice being offered is unchanged. Catholics who do not speak Latin can use missals to understand what is being said which contain the text in the common language and in the Latin language so that they may follow along.
Similarly, Judaism uses Hebrew, a language which has certain religious and cultural connotations that directly relate to the Jews and which are sadly lost when the common language is used. One example often used is that the English word “commandment” implies a stern law or judgement, whereas the Hebrew word, mitzvah-- often translated “commandment” carries a certain form of honor and respect in it, emphasizing the privilege of keeping the law.
There are many prescribed blessings and prayers throughout the day in both Catholic and Jewish tradtion.
These blessings and prayers, which many protestant theologians deem “religious” and therefore “stifling” to the effects and purposes of the Holy Spirit, are set moments at which specific words and actions are taken based on biblical words and actions which resulted in faith and blessing.
At best, protestants deem these unnecessary and superfluous, and yet their very function provides a very necessary opportunity at every moment throughout the day to remember God and fulfill His commandment to pray “without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
Knowing these things helps us to pray as we ought—for through understanding Jewish prayer we can see God bestows great honor on those whom He calls to obey his commandments, to heal the world through our own willingness to obey, to respond as the faithful remnant even among all those who externally appear to be doing the right things but whose hearts are not right with God.
Our personal prayer should be a warm conversation with a friend, as Teresa of Avila taught, and our liturgical prayer should hold fast to the sacred traditions which have been handed down to us as a people, in the balance of both lies the fate of each soul and of the world.
As Jewish faithfulness resulted in perfect preparation for the coming of the Jewish Messiah, so then must Catholic prayer reflect our sacred calling to heal the world and prepare for the second coming of the Jewish Messiah.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you so much for your comments! I look forward to hearing from you.