Scripture, Reflection and Prayer 11/6/2008

When you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
- Mt 6:6

Reflection: We must nourish in ourselves a personal religious activity. To meditate. To pray. To pray means to ascend; to ascend to the first source of everything: of being, thought, action, enjoyment.
- Pope Paul VI

Prayer: Lord Jesus, teach me how to pray even as You taught Your disciples. Send Your Spirit into my heart so that I may pray with You to the Father.

From: Minute Meditations from the Popes (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

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Scripture, Reflection and Prayer 11/5/2008

God is able to make all grace abound in you, so that ...having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
- 2 Cor 9:8

Reflection: Grace is Divine Life in the human soul, fruit of reconciliation, gifts of God in Jesus. It is the beginning of eternal life, that is of salvation.
- Pope John Paul II

Prayer: Pour Your grace upon me, O Lord; let it be like a river that nourishes the land. May it make my heart fruitful and my faith verdant and alive.

From: Minute Meditations from the Popes (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

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Scripture, Reflection and Prayer 11/4/2008

I say to you...unless you repent, you will all perish the same way.
- Lk 13:5

Reflection: To live the Christian life well there is need of continual repairing, of recurring reforms, of repeated renewals. The Christian life is not soft or easy. It is not blindly optimistic. It is joyous but it is not happy-go-lucky.
- Pope Paul VI

Prayer: O Lord, let me find a place for penitential practices in my life and in my spirituality. May I see fasting and mortification not as drudgery, but rather as avenues to freedom.

From: Minute Meditations from the Popes (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

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Scripture, Reflection and Prayer 11/3/2008

You are my rock and my fortress. For Your Name's sake, You will lead and guide me.
- Ps 31:4

Reflection: Brother Martin had three loves: Christ crucified, Our Lady of the Rosary, and St. Dominic. He also had three passions: charity, especially toward the poor and the sick; a very vigorous penance that he regarded as "the price of love"' and nourishing those virtues, humility.
- Pope Paul VI

Prayer: O Lord, may I learn from the example of St. Martin de Porres and develop a balanced spirituality. Let me not run away from those aspects of the spiritual life that I find difficult.

From: Mary Day by Day (Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York)

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