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Miracles are very real, but we must pray with great faith in order to obtain them. We must visualise that our prayers are already answered before we finish them this is why we should thank the Heavenly Father before we ask for anything. When something is very important, we pray for a miracle.
Jesus looked up to Heaven and thanked the Heavenly Father before He asked for the miracle of the loaves [Matthew 15:36], He also thanked the Heavenly Father before the miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus [John 11:41-42].
Miracles occur when we proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven and then we pray with thanksgiving, this to confirm the words of our Lord " And going, preach, saying: The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils: freely have you received, freely give. " [Matthew 10:7-8]
[Mark 16:16-20]
16 He that believes and is
baptised, shall be saved: but he that believes not shall be condemned.
17 And these signs shall follow them that believe: In
my name they shall cast out devils: they shall speak with new tongues.
18 They shall take up serpents; and if they shall drink
any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them: they shall lay their hands upon the sick, and
they shall recover.
19 And the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was
taken up into heaven, and was seated at the right hand of God.
20 But they going forth preached every where:
the Lord working withal, and confirming the word with signs that followed.
Miracles have occurred since the time of the resurrection of Our Lord when we ask God the Father in the name of Jesus.[John 15:16] or when we ask Jesus in His Holy Name too [John 14:13-14].
Many saints have prayed and miracles have occurred by the power of God. No one has power to perform miracles because all power comes from God, of course we live in the confusing times of the Anti Christ when the enemy is causing false miracles to deceive many who refuse to love the truth about Jesus Christ, who is the Son of the Living God [2 Thessalonians 2:9-10].
We receive our healing only through the wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ who took upon Himself the punishment due for our sins [1 Peter 2:24], He bore our sicknesses and deceases. We should always ask for a miracle by the power of His holy wounds, by his sufferings and pain and by the merits of His Holy Passion and death, likewise we can ask our petitions through the merits of the holy tears of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
It is the holiest of devotions to venerate the passion of Our Lord Jesus, which we can offer to God the Father in the Holy Mass, we can also meditate on the Passion of Our Lord separately and on His Divine Mercy, we can also venerate Our Lady in her sorrows.
All these devotions honour the Love of God for us, and they contribute to our thanksgiving to God who will answer our prayers.
Mary the Holy Mother of God has caused many miracles at the sites of her apparitions, there are more than 64 documented miracles about Our Lady of Lourdes, many miracles at Fatima and others.
Through the Blessed Virgin Mary's intercession we can pray for miracles, with the assurance that the mother of God will intercede as Mediatrix of all Graces and that our prayers will be answered just as She interceded for the first miracle of Our Lord in Cana. [John 2:1-11] We can also ask through the intercession of the saints since many miracles have occurred that way too.
We are encouraged to pray for miracles because this is the ultimate test of our faith, miracles come as testimonies of the power of God through prayers of intercession.
The Work of God Apostolate has been favoured with several miracles in the period of the past eight years, there have been healings of leukemia, cancer, asthma, depression, back problems, a brain tumour, ear problems, eye problems, etc.
As well as these miracles the Lord has brought many people back to the Sacraments, some have received healings of their relationships and there are many more miracles than we are not aware of, since the Lord is very happy to answer prayers from the heart.
It is very sad to see that not everyone gives Glory to His Name when they are healed. When we receive an answer to our prayers, we must bow down in adoration and thanksgiving, we must not be like the ungrateful nine lepers who were healed and did not come back to thank the Lord [Luke 17:12-19]
If we live in the Spirit of God, we must pray also in His Spirit, but most of the time we pray away from Him, because we get caught up in the weaknesses of the flesh. The Lord is always with us but we are not always with Him, since our sins and our indifference create a separation that blocks His Light, then we have to find our way back to Him with a humble and contrite heart.
The Lord lives in His high throne in eternity, surrounded by inapproachable light, but He also lives in those who repent and come humbly before Him :[Isaiah 57:15] 15 For thus saith the High and the Eminent that inhabiteth eternity: and his name is Holy, who dwelleth in the high and holy place, and with a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
We are called to have our minds renewed in the Spirit of God [Ephesians 4:23], so that the Spirit becomes our teacher and leader.
Pray at all times in the Spirit [Ephesians 6:18], by this kind of prayer we lift our selves beyond what is commonplace to us to enter into the powerful Spirit of God.
St John speaks of being in the Spirit when He received the revelations of the Apocalypse, whenever He was moved to different visions He was in the Spirit:
[Apocalypse 1:10 - 4:2 - 17:3 - 21:10].
Those who dwell in the Spirit of God and are led by Him are sons of God [Romans 8:14]
We must appeal to the Spirit to intercede for us [Romans 8:26-27] 26
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity. For we know not what we should pray for as
we
ought; but the Spirit himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings.
27 And he that searcheth the hearts, knoweth what the Spirit
desireth; because he asketh for the saints according to God.
[1 Corinthians 2:12-16]
12 Now we have received not the spirit
of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given
us from God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the learned words of
human wisdom; but in the doctrine of the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with
spiritual.
14 But the sensual man perceiveth not these things that are
of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it
is spiritually examined.
15 But the spiritual man judgeth all things; and he himself
is judged of no man.
16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that we may
instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
[Romans 8:6] For the wisdom of the flesh is death; but the wisdom of the spirit is life and peace.
So we live in the Spirit because God lives in us. We are temples of the Holy Spirit and yet we have to live in such humility that we always feel poor in spirit in order to receive the blessings of God. [Matthew 5:3 ]
Jesus said to the Samaritan woman that the Father seeks those who adore Him in Spirit and in truth, because God is Spirit [John 4:23-24] , so we must strive to raise our spirits before God in our worship, overcoming the heaviness of the flesh, the senses and our passions. [Galatians 5:16]
And we know that we are walking and living in the Spirit of God when we produce the fruits of the Spirit: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control and chastity. [Galatians 5:22-25]
We must saturate our selves completely with the Spirit of God, we must be filled like those empty jars in Cana [John 2:7-11], Jesus will transform us into temples of His spiritual living water, yes, we must be drunk in the Spirit with the precious wine of the Kingdom of Heaven [Ephesians 5:18].
When we pray in the Spirit of God, our minds are transported before Him and no trace of ourselves comes before Him except the purity of our intentions, this way our Spirits come in communion with the Spirit of God. When we are in the Spirit of God, we can transcend time and space, since God is infinite and eternal.
To pray in the Spirit of God means also to enter into His omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence, this is hard to explain because no one has words to describe these experiences correctly, however as children of God we have the power to stretch the hands of the spirit, to reach out and touch souls with our love, we can embrace them with our consolation and pray for them, we can present them to God and serve as intercessors for them, we can speak to God, to the heavenly spirits, to the angels, to the saints and to other souls. The Spirit is limited only by our lack of faith and by the questions of our reasoning. We must be like little children to enjoy these beautiful gifts.
The apostles asked Jesus why they could not cast out devils even after they had received that power from Him and the Lord replied:" because of your unbelief. For, amen I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove from hence hither, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you. If you have faith"[Matthew 17:20]
[Ephesians 1:15-18]
15 Wherefore I also, hearing of your
faith that is in the Lord Jesus, and of your love towards all the saints,
16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making commemoration of
you in my prayers,
17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation, in the knowledge of him:
18 The eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what
the hope is of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.
We also pray in the Spirit of God when we pray in tongues.
[1 Corinthians 14:2] For he that speaks in a tongue, speakes not unto men, but unto God: for no man understands. Yet by the Spirit he speaks mysteries.
The gift of tongues is not just restricted to languages to be used with men, some tongues are angelic languages, expressions of the spirit that come in confirmation of the previous words of St. Paul. In the spirit those expressions are humility, praise, adoration, thanksgiving and intercessions.
The value of these intercessions is so well marked that people have received many charismatic gifts at the moment when others are praying in tongues which is a beautiful way of praying in the Spirit. Many have received miracles, visions, joy and a gift of deeper faith when they were prayed over in tongues.
This gift of the Holy Spirit is most neglected today, some who don't have it criticise bitterly those who speak or pray in tongues, claiming all kinds of Scriptures against it, some who have received it are afraid of doing it for fear of criticism, others practice it at first but then they slacken because they think they are wasting their breath. And yet the Lord has given it for a purpose. Find out !.
If your receive this gift, praise the Lord daily in tongues, after all He has given you a new way in the Spirit to worship Him and to let your spirit communicate with Him.
[Isaiah 28:9-11]
9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and
whom shall he make to understand the hearing? them that are weaned from the milk, that are
drawn away from the breasts.
10 For command, command again; command, command again;
expect, expect again; expect, expect again: a little there, a little there.
11 For with the speech of lips, and with another tongue he
will speak to this people.
The Kingdom of Heaven is for little children [Matthew 18:2-4] and for those who can become like them; in our surrender to the Spirit of God we become His children and we don't just call Him Father, we call Him "daddy" Abba. It is in this littleness and abandonment to God that He gives some of this special charismatic gifts which in a way let others know that the children of God are already enjoying His goodness.
St. Paul teaches how to use tongues in prayer meetings, He encourages those who receive them to strive to possess the gift of Prophecy, He also says do not forbid speaking in tongues [1 Corinthians 14:39].
There are times when we pray on our own and this is very important for our sanctification, but most edifying for the whole Church is to pray with others. For where there are more than two gathered in the name of Jesus, He is in their midst [Matthew 18:20]
It is the same for a musical instrument when it is played solo, it is very distinct and beautiful to hear, but it is more beautiful to hear the harmony of a complete orchestra. This togetherness of prayer invoked the Holy Spirit the day of Pentecost. Prayers have more power when more people are praying for the same purpose.
When someone prays the Holy Rosary, he or she prays 53 Hail Maries and other prayers, if other people join in prayer, by the grace of God the spiritual benefits for the individual are multiplied times the people praying. This is a secret revealed by St. Louis de Montfort.
No wonder our Lady is asking humble people to pray the Rosary in families to keep them together, in communities to grow in togetherness and She asks the whole world to be united through the confraternities of the Rosary to enjoy mutually the benefits of this great prayer.
Those who are called to know, love and serve God more intimately are advised to join different kinds of prayer meetings to participate in the common fervour that attracts the Presence of God so strongly.
Of course no prayer or offering can surpass the Holy Mass which is an obligation for every Catholic at least on Sundays and days of obligation.
The Holy Mass is the re-enactment of the Sacrifice of Jesus in Calvary. It is the offering of His Precious Body and Blood in an unbloody manner. It is done following the command of the Lord given at the Last Supper "Do this in memory of me". He wants us to eat His flesh and to drink His blood which becomes a reality in the transubstantiation of the consecrated bread and wine at the altar [John 6:53].
He instituted this sacrament the night before His sacrifice on Holy Thursday, through it we are cleansed and purified from our sins with His Precious Blood, because He is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
In the Old Testament, they celebrated the Passover meal commemorating the freedom granted to the Israelites who were enslaved by the Egyptians. This pass from slavery to freedom is the same today as we pass from the slavery of sin to the freedom of Grace through the red sea of the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The consecrated priests offered sacrifices of animals to God and sprinkled their blood on those present in order to cleanse them from their sins, In the New Testament we eat the consecrated bread offered to God by a Catholic or Orthodox priest, we eat the body of the Lamb of God and we drink His Precious Blood in order to be cleansed of our sins.
Jesus is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, He invites us to this Holy Banquet and we must be in a state of grace to receive Him. This means that we must have confessed our sins with sorrow to a priest for having offended God, so that we may be worthy to receive Holy Communion. To do otherwise is a great sacrilege that only adds more sins to our sins.
When we receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, we are partaking of His offering to the Heavenly Father for the forgiveness of our sins. Through the Holy Mass and the Eucharist, we transcend time to enter into eternity where this Sacrifice of Thanksgiving has infinite value.
There is no greater form of worship on this earth than to offer the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass, [Psalm 50:14], the sacrifice of Jesus in Calvary is the most perfect way in which we can thank God for His infinite Mercy.
By offering the merits of the Most Precious Body and Blood of Jesus, through the Holy Mass we unite ourselves with all our needs to the offering of Jesus.
It is through the prayers of this most humble virgin that God responded the prayers of the people of Israel by sending His Son into the world, the awaited Messiah. Jesus came to us through Mary, so we have such a debt of thanksgiving to Our Lady that we will never be able to pay back.
Jesus revealed to us in Calvary, that She was also our Mother [John 19:27]. What a great wonder of God, what a beautiful creature, containing the Sun of Justice, clothed in the Divinity, full of Grace, shining the Light of God to men through her Son Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God [Isaiah Chapter 60].
"Holy Mary, Holy City of God, New Jerusalem please teach us to pray the way you did, teach us to love God the way you did in such a triple way, honouring and worshipping God the Father, caring and loving God the Son and being the faithful and virgin spouse of God the Holy Spirit."
The greatest happening in the History of God and His people, which is the Incarnation of the Word of God, occurred through the prayers of the holy virgin Mary, who drew God from Heaven by her love and humility.
The first miracle of Our Lord occurred at the petition of Mary in the wedding at Cana, as a sign of her power of intercession for those in need [John 2:1-11].
The miracle of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost occurred when the apostles were united in prayer with Mary [Acts 1:14].
Through the Blessed Virgin Mary, that powerful woman of the Holy Scriptures the devil's head is crushed as promised in the Proto evangelium [Genesis 3:15] ,She will crush your head !.
[Canticle of Canticles 6:9] Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?
St. Louis de Montfort recommends that we do all our prayers through Mary, with Mary, in Mary and for Mary.
This humble prayer taught by the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Dominic in the year 1214, was given to the Church as a powerful weapon against heretics and sinners.
It consists of The Creed, the Our Father, three Hail Maries and a Glory be in the beginning, followed by decades of Hail Maries preceded by the Our Father and finished by a Glory be.
Between decades we can pray this prayer revealed by Our Lady to the children of Fatima, "Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to Heaven specially those in most need of your Mercy."
The Rosary consists of fifteen decades which contain the life, death and Glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ together with His mother.
The complete Rosary or fifteen decades can be prayed in one single day or split into three different groups of five decades called Mysteries, to be prayed on different days: Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious.
The Joyful Mysteries are the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Presentation and the Finding of the Child Jesus in the temple. They are prayed on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays of Advent.
The Sorrowful Mysteries are the Agony in the Garden, the Scourging by the pillar, the crowning with thorns, the carrying of the cross and the Crucifixion, agony and death of Our Lord. They are prayed on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays of Lent.
The Glorious Mysteries are the Resurrection, the Ascension of Our Lord, the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Assumption of Our Lady and the Coronation of Our Lady as the Queen of Heaven. They are prayed on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays after Pentecost.
It is recommended at the beginning of the Rosary to present our intentions to Our Lord through the intercession of Our Lady.
At the end of the Rosary we pray the Salve Regina, and we may say other prayers like the Litany, and One Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be for the intentions of the Holy Father.
We pray the Holy Rosary using Rosary beads in order to have more concentration on the prayers we are saying. Since we want to pray from the heart, we must meditate the mysteries that we are praying and try to see with the eyes of Our Lady the events that were taking place.
By the prayers of the Holy Rosary, we learn to know more about Jesus and Mary; we receive light from the Holy Spirit Who will reveal many mysteries of the Love of God to those who pray fervently.
We should finish our Rosary with an act of consecration to Our Lady.
The Rosary is a beautiful prayer that keeps families united, it is a holy chain that binds us to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and it is also the chain that binds the enemy eventually in the pits of hell.
Any person interested in the spiritual life must treasure this prayer in his heart. Most of the known saints of the Catholic Church have prayed the Rosary daily.
To be more effective in our prayer life, we must pray without ceasing says St. Paul, this involves offering our lives totally to the Lord, so that even as we sleep we can pray in the spirit.
[Psalm 103] 1 For
David himself. Bless the Lord, O my soul: and let all that is within me bless his holy
name.
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and never forget all he hath done for thee.
If we make this psalm our prayer, we are instructing our soul to bless the Lord, now this happens at a subconscious level or at a spiritual level for a better word.
This prayer will cause the person to awake in the middle of the night praising the Lord and blessing Him, the Spirit will be motivated to come before God, and the Holy Spirit will begin instructing the soul in deep mysteries.
The soul gets so used to prayer that in every situation we learn to praise and thank God for his goodness, we learn to intercede immediately for those in need, we eventually learn to live in the Presence of God.
Moses was a great man of God, who delivered the people of Israel from the slavery of the Egyptians through the power of God. He interceded many times on their behalf and the Lord helped them.
He prefigured Our Lord Jesus Christ in many ways, at the time of His birth there was an order from the Pharaoh to kill all the Hebrew male babies so he was saved because his mother put him in a basket on the river and he was picked up by Pharaoh's daughter. Moses grew up, then received the call from the Lord, He went up to the mountain of the Lord, He fasted for forty days, He was given the Law of God to be passed to the people, His face shone after receiving the ten Commandments, He led his people out of Egypt, He performed miracles by the power of God and eventually died without being able to cross to the promised land.
Jesus by contrast was born in poverty, unknown to men, His infancy was threatened by Herod who was killing all male infants as He was searching for the future King, the holy family had to escape to Egypt. Jesus fasted for forty days, He was anointed with the Holy Spirit in Baptism and began the proclamation of the Good News, He performed unparalleled miracles, the apostles witnessed His transfiguration, by His death on the cross He delivered all humanity from the slavery of sin, He crossed the threshold of death into the resurrection and He opened the way to all those who are baptised in Him. He wants to lead everyone through the red sea of His Precious Blood to the promised land, our eternal life. Jesus is our intercessor before God the Father, He is our offering of thanksgiving to God the Father.
If we ask God the Father in the name of Jesus, our prayers will be granted because Jesus intercedes for us. [John 15:16] we can also ask Jesus in His holy name to favour us in our needs. [John 14:13-14].
There is only one God who listens to us, Jesus the Word of God who became man is the mediator between God and humankind, because He has saved us through his death on the cross. [1 Timothy 2:5] He has been given power and authority over all creation because He is the King of Kings [Matthew 28:18].
Jesus is the image of the unseen God [Colossians 1:15], and He has come to restore the image of God in us. He has come to make us like Him, by making us children of God.
Mary is the new Eve, because She conceived the firstborn of all creation, by Her Immaculate Conception She reflects the image of God perfectly because no sin ever came in contact with Her. Besides this privilege and dignity She has conceived all the children of God at the foot of the cross, St. John being the first to be told by our Lord "Behold your mother".
Now, who has more power to intercede for us after Our Lord Who is God, than His Mother? He has already interceded for us by dying on the cross and meriting our Salvation.
But not to leave us orphans [John 14:18], He has given us His Mother who has already proven Her powers of intercession.
She is our powerful advocate because She sits next to Him on His throne as Queen, She has helped in the work of redemption as Co-redemptrix, She is the Mediatrix of all Grace and She is our mother who loves us and wants to intercede for us before God.
Our Lady interceded through her prayers to draw God from Heaven, the promised Messiah.
The first miracle of Our Lord occurred at the petition of Mary in the wedding at Cana, as a sign of her power of intercession for those in need [John 2:1-11].
The miracle of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost occurred when the apostles were united in prayer with Mary [Acts 1:14].
Through the Blessed Virgin Mary, that powerful woman of the Holy Scriptures the devil's head is crushed as promised in the Proto evangelium [Genesis 3:15]
So, our first advocate before the Lord is Mary, our mother. And yet we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, all the patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles, the martyrs, the saints, the virgins, the confessors and also the living saints. They can help us too.
We ourselves are called to be intercessors for those who are sick or in need and the prayers of faith will draw the mercy of God upon those in need [James 5:14-15]
In the apocalypse St. John saw how incense in heaven represents the prayers of the saints.[Apocalypse 5:8]
Jesus says love your enemies and pray those who abuse you [Matthew 5:44], In silence He is saying also if I ask you to pray for your enemies, don't you think that I want you to pray for everyone else as well?
He says love one another as I have loved you [John 13:34], His greatest act of Love was to die for us, thereby interceding before God for our Salvation. In the same manner we are asked to offer our lives in prayer for the Salvation of our brothers and sisters who are far away from God.
Keep up your prayers!
[2 Timothy 3:16]
16 All Scripture, inspired of God, is
profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice,
17 That the man of God may be perfect, furnished to every
good work.
We must become very familiar with the Holy Scriptures because God has spoken first through the prophets, then through His Son Jesus Christ, who passed all His Wisdom to the apostles. The Church has been entrusted with this treasure and we are invited to receive the Lord in Word and in Sacrament.
St. Jerome says that ignorance of the Holy Scriptures is ignorance of God, we must learn the meaning of the Holy Scriptures in the light of the teachings of the Holy Catholic Church.
Bible Christians don't have any regard for the traditions and authority of the Church and they keep dividing themselves into thousands of denominations because everyone is claiming to be right.
Jesus is the Word of God who became flesh [John 1:14] We must saturate ourselves with His Word, until we shine the light of the gospel wherever we go.
To fulfil the mission that Christ has entrusted us, to be His ambassadors [2 Corinthians 5:20], we must make the Word of God our home and we must continue in it [John 8:31] to become true disciples and apostles of the Lord.
We can read the psalms and discover very good sources of prayers of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, we can read the Proverbs and all the books of Wisdom to learn more about God and about ourselves.
As part of the Creed we believe in the Communion of saints, those who form the body of Christ, that is the Church. Christ is the head and we are the members.
In baptism we enter into a life in Christ, we share all the good things about Christ, such as being sons and heirs of God, we also share in His sufferings [Romans 8:17]
When one member of the body of Christ suffers, all members suffer and we must contribute with our prayers for the benefit of all.
The Church is divided in the militant Church which is all of us struggling to overcome evil and to become saints, the suffering Church which are the poor souls in Purgatory and the triumphant Church which is made of all the saints in Paradise.
Eventually we will be united in Heaven where there will be no more sufferings nor tears, where we will enjoy the Glory of God.
We should never pray alone when we can unite ourselves to the rest of the body of Christ and pray as one. In this communion of saints, we should always start our prayers in the Presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary, through her intercession and in communion with all the saints and angels. As we pray our prayers will be shared in spirit with infinite value.
Praise and Worship
Repentance
Thanksgiving
Petitions and intercessions
We must start the day with prayers of praise and worship to the God who has created us out of nothing, we must come before Him with humility and repentance for the guilt of our sins [Psalm 32:5].
We must worship the God of Life who reminds us of His Love in every beat of our hearts, in every breath that we take, in every thought that runs through our minds and in every instant of time.
We exist because God exists, " I am who I am" says the Lord, in other words I am existence, I am the causeless cause, I am [Exodus 3:14].
We claim the name of God every time we say I am, because we are saying I exist, therefore we should really say I am (by the Grace of God); I will do.. whatever (God willing), because whatever we say or do in our existence we are doing in God, since nothing is separated from Him [John 15:5], and because everything draws life from Him.
We get our bodies dirty every day of our lives, and we feel the need to wash them; in the same way we also dirty our souls when we sin, and we must wash them too. We start our cleansing by repenting of our sins and by prayer, then the precious blood of Jesus washes our souls clean in the Sacraments of Confession and Communion.
For this reason we must pray daily to God," forgive us our trespasses as we repent and forgive those who trespass against us" [Matthew 6:12]
We have to acknowledge that we are sinners [Romans 3:10] Because this is what we are.
We must confess daily our sinfulness and we must acclaim the holiness of God by contrast [Psalm 38:18]. We are sinners by nature, God is divine and holy by His own Grace.
How can we come to Him feeling that we are good, when it is by our own sins that we have crucified His Son? [Genesis 6:12] With Adam and Eve we feel the guilt of our sinfulness and the eyes of God pierce through the nakedness of our souls accusing us of our impurities and imperfections, therefore we need to humble ourselves before the Majesty of God in order to receive His blessing .
We are unworthy to be in His Presence [Matthew 10:38], we have an eternal debt that we can not pay, except with our Love for Christ. In baptism we are clothed with Christ and by His Grace we are dressed with the robes of Salvation, however as we all have sinned, we have desecrated that Holy Presence of God in us, so we must repent. We must turn away form evil and darkness, from sin and death and we must choose Goodness and Light, Grace and Life.
The Lord says unless you repent you will all perish [Luke 13:5]. Most of us come to confession to confess the same sins that we repeatedly confess every time. Have we really repented? Are we justifying our sins and playing games with our Salvation? Are we not supposed to come shedding tears like Mary Magdalene for our sins? The reason for our behaviour is that we confess our sins without sufficient remorse, without feeling any guilt, without pain of having crucified our Lord.
We must confess not only our sins, but also our guilt, yes, because our sins have crucified the Lord. [Zechariah 12:10]
We cannot become saints until we eradicate sinfulness from our lives. Whoever is born of God, commits no sin: for his seed abides in him, and he can not sin, because he is born of God. [1 John 3:9]
To be a saint means to become a son of God, we must strive for the purity of the holy angels, everything we do must be done in the Presence of God. We live before Him in the nakedness of our souls but our guilt is removed because the tears of our repentance demand His Mercy.
The saint is prepared to rather die than sin. To live to sin is a curse for Him, therefore He suffers in the flesh until He can be called to be in God forever [1 Peter 2:24].
The Lord healed ten lepers but only one came back to thank Him, He said did I not heal ten, where are the other nine? [Luke 17:17-18]
We must thank God for all the benefits He has bestowed upon us. The greatest gift is His Mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ, since He paid for the debt of our sins with His own sufferings, humiliation and death. We must thank Him daily not only for the gift of our temporal life, but for eternal life which is really something we almost take for granted.
We are accustomed to receive favours and then to thank for them. Since we have not seen Jesus hanging on the cross for our eternal life, then this is a matter of faith and it is difficult for many to thank God.
This is the reason why we celebrate the Holy Mass as a proclamation of His death and as an announcement of His Resurrection, we proclaim the Victory of Christ over the devil who is the author of death because he tempted man to sin. Christ's victory over death is our own resurrection and eternal life and we must pray daily in thanksgiving for such a great gift.
The saint truly understands the words of the "Our Father" Give us this day our daily bread, because your bread Oh Lord is the bread of Salvation, the bread that came down from Heaven, the bread of life. When we want to thank God for the gift of Salvation, there is no other way to thank Him than the Holy Eucharist. The word Eucharist comes from the Greek "eucharisto" meaning thanksgiving.
Does not the Holy Spirit tell you dear reader that you should thank
the Lord daily by receiving Him in the Holy Eucharist? This is truly worshipping God in
Spirit and in Truth.
This is really listening to God.[Hebrews 4:7]
And I say to you, Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you
shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you.
For every one that asks, receives; and he that seeks, finds; and to him that knocks, it
shall be opened. [Luke 11:9-10]
We of course come to pray as if prayer means only to ask, we become very inclined to pray when things go wrong and when something is lacking. But is that what the Lord wants us to pray for?
[Luke 11:11-13] And which of you, if he
ask his father bread, will he give him a stone? or a fish, will he for a fish give him a
serpent?
12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he reach him a scorpion?
13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much
more will your Father from heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask
him?
In our blindness we are asking temporal things of no permanent value, but in His Goodness, God is offering the Holy Spirit. Should we start changing our attitude regarding the things that we pray for? Perhaps if we pray for the Holy Spirit then we can pray for understanding of the Will of God, for Wisdom and for Love to reign in our hearts, this way we will have the mind of God and our prayers will be done in His Will and the Lord will answer us. We will pray for strength to carry the cross, for patience, for fortitude, for others to be relieved of their sufferings, and for the coming of His Kingdom.
Those who have become saints, have made their petitions mainly for others since they accept the Will of God in their lives and when they have a problem or some need they simply bring it before the Lord who always knows our needs and desires what is best for us. The saint awaits with patience the result of his prayers, He thanks in advance the Lord for His goodness. Whatever God's answer, it is always right for Him. Not my will but your Will be done.[Luke 22:42]
Christ has interceded for us. He has prayed, He has sacrificed Himself for us:
Father forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing. [Luke 23:34] Father forgive them because they sin and they don't understand that sin is the cause of my pain and death.
Father, sanctify them in the truth [John 17:17] The Lord was saying, Father I want them to be saints.
By His grace He could touch and heal, and through Him we can still
do the same He did.
[John 14:12] Amen, amen I say to you, he that believes in me,
the works that I do, he also shall do; and greater than these shall he do.
If you believe in the Power of the Word of God, you will believe these words, therefore you are receiving a guarantee from Jesus that you can do the same things He did.
[Mark 16:20] After the Ascension of Our Lord, The apostles went to preach the good news every where: the Lord was present in spirit working with them, and confirming the word with signs that followed. This passage is the guarantee that if we preach the word of God with conviction, He will be with us and manifest signs.
If we have to pray over someone, we must preach the good news first, the charism of healing is given not just to heal the body but the soul as well, the Word of God purifies and heals not only the outside but the inside as well. We are also encouraged to pray for those that we don't see with us who are in need of intercession.
Our Lady is the most powerful intercessor that we have before the Lord.
When we pray we should ask our petitions by the merits of the Holy Passion of Our Lord, his sufferings, agony and death, we should pray for deliverance of evil spirits by the merits of the Precious Blood of Jesus.
We can ask the intercession of Our Lady and pray by the merits of the sorrows of Her Immaculate Heart and by the merits of her holy tears.
These are links to different kinds of prayer topics:
+ Scriptures on Repentance
+ Scriptures on Praise
+ Scriptures on Worship
+ Scriptures on Thanksgiving
Joseph of Jesus and Mary
The Work of God Apostolate
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Links to the Holy
Bible:
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Acknowledgment. All Bible quotations taken from the Douay Rheims Bible 1582
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The Work of God
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