Tagged: Prayers in English

“Remaining seated, He continued to teach the crowds from the boat. When He had finished speaking He said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.’ ” –Luke 5:3-4 On January 6, 2001, on the feast of the Epiphany, at the official end of the Great Jubilee, Pope St. John Paul II proclaimed and prophesied that the Lord’s call for the Church at the beginning of the third millennium was: “Put out into the deep” (Lk 5:4, our transl). Nearly twenty years later, we need to ask ourselves how we have responded to the...

“I could not talk to you as spiritual men but only as men of flesh, as infants in Christ.” –1 Corinthians 3:1 Many times God’s people are sick, “in the grip of a severe fever,” and unable to serve God and His people (Lk 4:38-39). We become sick and non-functional when the body of Christ is dislocated and divided. Our debilitating divisions are partially due to our immaturity. Our immaturity and spiritual retardation are partly due to our lack of spiritual nourishment (see 1 Cor 3:2ff). Our lack of spiritual nourishment is partly due to spiritual anorexia. We have lost...

“The Spirit we have received is not the world’s spirit but God’s Spirit.” –1 Corinthians 2:12 The Spirit: • “scrutinizes all matters” (1 Cor 2:10), • alone “knows what lies at the depths of God” (1 Cor 2:11), • helps “us to recognize the gifts He has given us” (1 Cor 2:12), • teaches us the words with which to speak of spiritual things (1 Cor 2:13), and • makes it possible for us to “have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16). We are trapped in ignorance, confusion, and a superficial relationship with the Lord unless we are docile...

“No prophet gains acceptance in his native place.” –Luke 4:24 When Jesus comes to town, He comes not to do what we want but what He wants. He comes not to take orders from us but to give orders to us. He will do things beyond our understanding (see Is 55:8-9). He will expect us to trust Him as Lord. When Jesus came to His hometown as Lord, He was not accepted. As He began His public ministry, the people of Nazareth threatened to murder Him by throwing Him over a cliff (Lk 4:28-30). This was a preview of the...

“I beg you through the mercy of God to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God, your spiritual worship.” –Romans 12:1 As part of a total commitment of our lives to the Lord, we offer our bodies to Him as living sacrifices. This means the Lord (and no one else) determines what we eat and drink, our bodily habits, under what conditions we use our sexual organs, how we think, how we dress, how we use our eyes, how we use our tongues, where we go, and several other aspects of life involving our bodies....