Monday, September 5, 2022

PRAY AND ACT

Meditation for Tuesday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time
(1 Cor 6:1-11; Lk 6:12-19)

Let us meditate on Jesus who went into the hills and prayed all night. We must take not of His choice of the hill top, in the dark silent night. The time and environment points to the sacrifice of prayer. To commune with God is a spiritual act, which requires certain bodily discipline. Such discipline could be the timing or the location of the place of prayer. Every discipline is targeted at reducing distractions and uplifting the heart and mind to God.

 

Jesus is the master of prayer! That He spent all night in prayer shows importance of prayer; no matter how busy we might be, we must set aside quality time to pray. Thus, the plan of each day must include prayer time. At dawn, Jesus came down from the hill, and chose the twelve apostles.

 

From the hill of prayer, He moved down to the ground, where human choices and actions were carried out. These dynamics are important for us today. When the human action is powered by a heart and mind sanctified in prayer, it becomes a contemplative action. The action becomes a manifestation of the will of God. Sometimes when people want to make important decisions, such as choosing a life partner, they may rely on their human calculations alone. Some others may rely on extraordinary divine manifestations to make such decisions. This is where fake prophets and visionaries cash out from such gullible people. Action without prayer is dry; prayer without action is empty and mere euphoric!

 

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans” (Rm 8:26). The choice of each of the apostles was the fruit of an all-night prayer, still Jesus chose them after working closely with them as his followers. Prayer supplies the inspiration without which we cannot promptly act according to the will of God. “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the in the Spirit of our God.” Amen.

 

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R

Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,

Tedi-Muwo, Ojo, Lagos.

Tuesday September 6th, 2022.

www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com

 

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