Can You Hear Me Now?

Can You Hear Me Now?

By Dwight Cunkle

Am I responsive to Jesus’ call to take up my cross daily, deny myself and come, follow Him into the world?

Luke 7: 31 “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;  we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’48 But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

Jesus describes a people who are unresponsive, not in the mood. They can go through the motions of religion but lack passion to know and love Him and others. Like a sulky teenager, moping around, listless and bored, yet spurning all invitations and suggestions. But that is a space we have all inhabited from time to time.  What invitation to celebrate and give thanks might the Lord be making to me now, that I might not be in the mood to hear? And in what ways, that I tend not to notice, might the Lord be inviting me to sorrow and remorse for my sins-especially of focusing on others and things instead of love for Him and His word?

Read again. Can you hear the frustration in Jesus’s voice? The exasperation of one whose gentle invitations are spurned and ignored? Can I ask the Lord now to transform any moodiness in me? To help me hear his gentle  invitations in my life, and to respond with excitement and delight?

Reading biographical notes on the lives of saintly servants and martyrs inspires us to love and good works I think more than just reading popular books and certainly more than the social media and entertainment we subject ourselves to. Expose your mind to godly lives and see the Scripture come alive in daily living.

Continuing to Prayerfully Read Scripture

Continuing to Prayerfully Read Scripture

By Dwight Cunkle

Read, Listen/meditate, Contemplate God, Obey

In John 13 Jesus washes their feet, predicts his betrayal and the denial of Peter. 

In John 14-16 He prepares his followers to seek for and receive the Promised Holy Spirit. 

Just as Jesus washed their feet, He washes ours. 

Just as they deserted Him, so we have denied and betrayed him by our sins. 

Jesus told them to love one another like Him but that we would not be able love without living in and with Him by the fullness of Holy Spirit.

He says they will be able to work miracles even greater than he did because the Father would also work in them by His Spirit. 

He told them that whoever obeys his commands will be loved by him and his Father and they will come and make their home in him.

He further says that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin but bring things from Jesus and make them known to his followers, leading them into truth and oneness with Him and God. 

He told them Holy Spirit will make them powerful witnesses for him.

But He warns them that because of the things Holy Spirit will do in them the world will hate them.

Clearly, Jesus wants them to see their need for and have both faith and desire to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. 

Clearly, we have a choice: we cannot be full of the world and full of Holy Spirit.
We cannot be filling ourselves with ourselves and have the fullness of God’s Spirit working in us.

What was the transformation that took place during the 40 days of Christ appearing to them, and the ten days of their preparation for Pentecost? Through sorrow and desolation they became more detached form the world, their agenda’s and themselves. They became hungry and thirsty for more of Him-which could only happen by obeying and asking for, seeking, knocking and receiving the fullness of Holy Spirit.

 Choose a passage from John 13-16, or from Acts 1-4, and read it several times, allowing Holy Spirit to highlight some phrase to you. Meditate and listen to God as you think and pray. Contemplate God just as the disciples were contemplating Jesus as He spoke these words to them, and as they waited in the upper room. What is God asking of you? Do you need to detach from the world and yourself or others and seek to be more filled with Holy Spirit, so you can love and obey him?

John 15:16, 26; 16:13-15, 35

Be filled with Holy Spirit.

SPEAK, LORD, YOUR SERVANT IS LISTENING

SPEAK, LORD, YOUR SERVANT 

IS LISTENING
 

When Samuel hear’s God’s call, he says, “Speak, for your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:10). This is the true spirit of prayer; not, “Listen, Lord, your servant is speaking!” Jesus shows that by prayer we attempt to submit our wills to the will of God, “Thy will be done.”  Prayer must never be an attempt to bend the will of God to our desires. When we submit our wills to his, miracles happen, and there is no greater miracle that the inner transformation of repentance and faith. Some years ago a very loving and humble elderly priest formed a prayer and study group for prisoners. At the end of the session, they all received a Christmas package. But they had to attend each session in order to receive the package. One prisoner, with a  life sentence for murder, heard about the prayer sessions with instructions in the Faith and wanted to attend. His sole purpose was the gift. However, after attending, he was deeply moved but the Catholic Faith and the offer for repentance from a merciful God. He asked for baptism. On fire with love, he is now a catechist. He has offered his life in prison for the salvation of his mother, a single barmaid who never knew love. This is the fruit of genuine prayer: 

one loving soul sets another on fire.


Reflection based on Matthew 6:7-15

Father Emmerich Vogt, O. P.




Father in Heaven, I willingly offer myself to you
to do with me as you will. Help me
to witness to your power, your love,
and your way of life.