The Holy Spirit inspired our blog.
Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Extraordinary Time
Optional Memorial of Saint Romuald, abbot
O LORD, my heart is not proud,
nor are my eyes haughty;
I busy not myself with great things,
nor with things too sublime for me.
Nay rather, I have stilled and quieted
my soul like a weaned child.
Like a weaned child on its mother’s lap,
so is my soul within me.
O Israel, hope in the LORD,
both now and forever.
Emphasis mine Ps 131:1bcde, 2, 3
Reviewing the readings for the Eleventh Week of Extraordinary Time, we realized we had talked about these readings, and The Holy Spirit urged me to look at the Optional readings.
The above Psalm, The Holy Spirit, encouraged me to memorize and pray daily a few years ago. We changed O Israel to I so that the last two lines read:
I hope in the LORD,
both now and forever.
We also removed the response, so if you are drawn to this Psalm as I was, you can print it out and learn it.
What sections drew me into learning this Psalm?
My Heart is not proud; we have talked about the ongoing fight I, yes, I am having with a proud heart. This goes back to C.S. Lewis’s writing in The Screwtape Letters, that if satan can get us to use the words I and My, he has us.
I and My are words that clearly say I am doing this or that, and God is not in the process.
For God NOT to be in the process also means you, I, have control of the situation, and frankly, God is not needed.
Only an idiot—and sadly, I was an idiot for far too long—could consider going it alone when God is anxious to be THE MAJOR part of your life.
Never forget that when we die, we take nothing!
If you read Ecclesiastes, Old Testament—and if you haven’t read it, you should—you will see King Solomun lamenting his having everything and having done everything and, in the end, dying, taking with him the exact same amount as a beggar in the street.
All of the work, thought, and planning for anything but God is a waste of time. You will stand before a Loving God naked. We stand before God, and all that we will take with us is our Love for God and our Neighbors.
I have stilled and quieted
my soul like a weaned child.
By saying this Psalm, I have noticed that my soul is stiller and quieter, as we have reported over the past two years. Yes, I do not get as agitated as I used to. God is more in control, and this is where God and I want to be.
I Love it!
Combine this with learning and daily Praying The “Nine” Fruit of The Holy Spirit, and you have a one-two punch against satan.
Join Team Jesus:
We suggest starting daily with, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.”
Sidebar:
We are considering stopping the Join Team Jesus section.
Why?
I don’t have any other prayers that we say every day.
Actually, we just mentioned a Psalm we say every day. I don’t like this version, so we will use the version we use every day from the New American Bible Revised Edition 2016.
You may not know this from reading the above paragraph, but the Holy Spirit encouraged me to make this last-minute change.
I love it!
A few days ago, as we were walking, The Holy Spirit raised the question, what are the three prayers we should be sure to pray daily?
The answers that came to mind were:
The Our Father,
Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner,
Jesus, You are innocent; I am guilty; remember me when You come into Your Kingdom.
We are bringing this up because Fr. Richard Rhor wrote in two of his blogs, which we are paraphrasing:
Jesus said that we have eyes yet do not see (Mk 8:18). Jesus saw God in everything Jesus saw. It didn’t matter if it was His Mother or a prostitute, a Disciple or a Scribe, people at a wedding feast or His executioner, a bird or a tree—God is in everyone, and everything, and Jesus saw the glory of Their creation with Joy.
How about you?
Are you judging instead of enJoying what God Created?
By judging and criticizing, you are not awakening your sight to see as God sees.
This is one reason why I was encouraged by The Holy Spirit to learn the above Psalm:
I have stilled and quieted
my soul like a weaned child.
In a second blog, Fr. Richard suggested we pray, “Lord Jesus, Have Mercy on me,” all the time. Once you get accustomed to saying this prayer all the time, you can no longer live without it. We started this prayer years ago, and Fr. Rohr is right: I can’t live without saying this prayer.
Why?
By praying all the time, we keep satan at bay.
From the Bible, we read:
This is how you are to pray:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread;
and forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors;
and do not subject us to the final test,
but deliver us from the evil one.
Emphasis mine Mt 6: 9-13
Side note: (Notice Heaven, Hallowed, Name, Kingdome, Your, and Heaven are not Capitalized, which bothers me.)
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ Lk 18:13 Jesus said, ”The latter (Tax Collector) went home Justified.
The third powerful prayer, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Lk 23:42
NEVER forget the man crucified on the right of Jesus first said that Jesus was innocent. They, the man on His right and left, were guilty before he Prayed, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,” and Jesus responded, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Lk 23:43
Jesus welcomed him into Heaven.
Are you suggesting we throw out all the other prayers?
Absolutely NOT! We pray the Rosary daily, plus five Psalms, as mentioned.
The three above prayers, however, achieve Forgiveness, Justification, and Paradise.
I didn’t say this; Jesus did.
Picture:
Mark sent four pictures of the backside of a tornado, which we found fascinating.
At first, we thought we would show only one, but after looking closely at the pictures, I was drawn by the beauty and power the pictures projected. Picture by Mark Rusch
Please keep Snapping!
If you want a copy of the prayers we discussed, email me.
fprince101@gmail.com
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, no people, please, because we have to get permission from that person to use their photograph.
By submitting a picture, you agree to let us include it in our next God Thoughts 2024 book.
