Remember your mercies

"Remember your mercies, Lord, your tenderness from ages past. Do not let our enemies triumph over us; O God, deliver Israel from all her distress." (Psalm 25: 6, 3, 22)

God's mercies and tenderness from ages past extend from age to age to those who fear him. The Bible is a record of God's faithful mercies and tenderness towards man from age to age.

We pray to God daily not to allow our enemies triumph over us because our enemies are constantly alert and prowling around seeking for whom to devour. Today is the day of favor. It is also the day of battle with the enemy. The Bible is also a record of man's struggle with the enemy of mankind. Our success or failure in life depends on our trust in God and his word.

Finally, we pray to God to deliver Israel from all her distress. The Church is the new Israel. The distress of Israel/Church is the distress caused by her own sins and the sins of the world.

The Word and the Eucharist

"Lord, may the word we share be our guide in the kingdom. May the food we receive assure us of your constant love …. " (Mass Prayer in Lent)

In the Eucharist, God's word is broken open for our encouragement, light and guide. After the Mass, we go to our homes and our jobs to face issues concerning the family, job, money, health, tools and food. The word of God we hear at Mass should provide us light to deal with the various issues we face in the day.

In the Eucharist, we receive Jesus Christ as our food. This communion is a pledge of God's constant love for us. We find consolation in the truth that Jesus Christ is for us and with us because he gave himself freely to us in the Eucharist. This is the greatest gift.

The word of prophecy

"But I say this to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; so that you may be children of your Father in heaven for he causes his sun to rise on the bad as well as the good, and sends down rain to fall on the upright and the wicked alike." (Matthew 5: 44-45)

 

Every word of God is a prophecy and a promise containing a prediction and a condition for fulfillment. In the above prophecy, Jesus is predicting that those who love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them will be free. They will also be children of God and enjoy everything that comes with that status. Now is this promise true? Ask anybody who has tried forgiving his enemies and praying for his persecutors. I raise my hand in testimony. This action of forgiving and praying for our enemies has the most cleansing and liberating effect possible in life. Why is this so? This is because every word of God contains a powerful agent to bring about that which is promised.

Keeping God’s Commands

"Happy those whose way is blameless, who walk by the teaching of the Lord.

Happy those who observe God's decrees, who seek the Lord with all their heart.

They do not wrong; they walk in God's ways.

You have given them the command to keep your precepts with care. (Psalm 119: 1-4)

 

In reading through the Bible, I observe that a lot of blessings is attached to keeping God's commandments. Some of the Bible heroes may not be canonized by the Church because of the life they lived. Without exception, each of them lived with the fear of the Lord. They did their best to keep God's laws and when they failed, they were quick to repent. Every one of them was immensely blessed by God. King David is my star among the Bible heroes. He was a great sinner but he loved God intensely. He lived completely in a supernatural environment in which God is the first cause of everything. David sought the Lord with all his heart.

Worship in spirit and truth

"Eternal Father, turn our hearts to you. By seeking your kingdom and loving one another, may we become a people who worship you in spirit and truth …" Mass Prayer in Lent

God is our eternal Father. Lent is a time of divine favor. One of our desires in the period of Lent is to turn to God with all our hearts, to seek his kingdom and to love one another. The disciplines of Lent: Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving when undertaken with generosity enable us to attain this objective. We thus become who we are created to be – sons and daughters who worship our eternal Father in spirit and truth.

Observe all the commandments

"Yahweh your God commands you today to observe these laws and customs; you must keep and observe them with all your heart and with all your soul." (Deuteronomy 26:16)

Father, if I observe all your commands and customs, you promise me:

"That he will be your God, but only if you follow his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, his customs, and listen to his voice … he will raise you higher than every other nation he has made, and you will be a people consecrated to Yahweh, as he has promised." (Deuteronomy 26: 17-19)

Thank you Father for this promise. The Holy Spirit in me will help me to observe all God's laws and customs.

The word of God is perfect

"The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; his commandments are the wisdom of the simple." (Psalm 19:8)

The 10 commandments as a system of law is perfect. The word of God revives the soul. When the soul is depressed, burdened, give it the tonic of the WOG.

How are the simple and uneducated to attain wisdom? Through the word of God. God's word is the school of wisdom for everyone but especially for the simple.