Gift of His Presence

“Cast me not out from your presence and your Holy Spirit take not from me.”  (Psalm 51: 13)

After David committed adultery and murder to cover up the adultery, he prayed desperately with the words in Psalm 51.  Central to his wrenching prayer is the plea that God does not cast him from His presence and deprive him the anointing of the Holy Spirit.  Christians have come to realize that God’s presence in us and the gift of the Holy Spirit are linked.

God’s presence is sufficient for us in every circumstance.  If God is with us, we can endure anything.  We can accomplish any task.  God is the source of all inspiration and power.  His presence assures us of continuous flow of inspiration and power.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  (2 Corinthians 12: 9).   Rejoice when you consider yourself weak in any area or resource because you can call upon the sufficiency of God’s grace to come to fill you up.

God’s presence means sufficiency of God’s action in us at all times. 

“Cast me not out from your presence and your Holy Spirit take not from me.”  (Psalm 51: 13)

Enticement for the eyes

“From the roof he saw a woman bathing; she was very beautiful.”  (2 Samuel 11: 2)

What David saw from the roof of his palace one summer evening caused him grave trouble all his life.  When David got up from his siesta this evening, he did not intend to see what he saw.  He saw by  pure chance from the roof top a woman that was bathing in her courtyard.  This woman was oblivious that anybody was watching her.  It is a scene easy to imagine.  The woman was on the ground level and David was on the roof top of a multi storey building.  David’s problem started when he saw and lingered to see more.  Everybody occasionally sees what he never intended to see.  This is a fact of life and cannot be avoided. 

“For all that is in the world, sensual lust,^* enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life, is not from the Father but is from the world.” (1 John 2:16)

Things that entice the eyes will continue as long as man lives in this world.  Woe to one who succumbs to this enticement.  We are saved by Christ’s death and resurrection.  Our concupiscence wars against us all the same till the final breath.   The enticements or the lures are constantly searching for people with corresponding lust to jump into action.

Thanks be to Jesus Christ who has not left us without the means of working out our salvation in fears and trembling.  The Sacraments of the Church, the word of God and prayers are always available.

Name of Jesus Christ repeated billions of times a day

“ Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:9-11)

In 1 Corinthians 1:2, Paul writes of “all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.”

I was knelling this morning during Mass when this thought occurred to me out of the blues. How many people call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ everyday and how many times a day is that Name repeated?    I followed up by asking myself:  How many times do I repeat this name every day?  I repeat the name of Jesus at least a hundred and fifty times a day and probably more.  I repeat the name of Jesus at least 60 times when I say the Holy Rosary.  The name of Jesus is the first word that I utter when I wake up.  I have had this habit for a very long time. 

Is it a coincidence that this question surfaced in my study of 1 Corinthians 1 this morning?   “How many times is Jesus Christ mentioned by in 1 Corinthians 1: 1 – 9?  Why do you think Paul uses this repetition in the opening of his letter?”  I answered thus:

9 times in 9 verses the name of Jesus is repeated.   Jesus Christ is the name by which we are saved.   The name of Jesus is the sweetest sound on earth.  Paul wants the name to be on the lips of the Corinthians all the time.  The Jesus prayer builds on this theme.  It is said that demons dread the name of Jesus.  We pray in the name of Jesus.   Any prayer made to the Father in the name of Jesus is promised to be answered.

People all over the world repeat the name of Jesus billion of times every day.   Think of the number of times the name is repeated in the Mass, in Rosary and other prayers always and everywhere in the world.    Millions of Rosaries are said every day all over the world.  Prayers rise up to the Father from millions of lips in the name of Jesus.   It makes Jesus Christ by far the most repeated and most popular name in the world.  No contest! Curiously enough, I googled the question of what is the most repeated name in the world before I started this Blog and found no answer.