Theme
Discovering Gods invitation to greater friendship and intimacy with Jesus.
Grace/Desire
I want a deep-felt knowledge of God become human for me so that I might love Jesus more and follow his Spirit more closely.
Prayer Material for this week
1. Luke 5: 1-11 Jesus calls the first disciples.
2. Matthew 5: 1-16 The Sermon on the Mount the Beatitudes. You are the light of the world
3. Prayer of Consideration: See Three Types of Persons Fleming, AND Three Couples Tetlow.
4. Mark 10: 17-31 The rich young man. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor
5. Luke 8: 35-43 The Blind Beggar. What do you want me to do for you? I need to identify
where I need healing. Have sight. Your faith has saved you.
6. Luke 7: 1-10 The cure of the centurions servant.
7. Luke 10: 1-24 Jesus missions the seventy disciples to help him in his work. The person who
hears you hears me.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, You seem always to ask, What do you want?
Lord, let me find it in my own spirit to want to know You as friends know, to know You knowing me and loving me.
Let my wish to be healed of all sin and unfreedom as much as You wish to heal me.
Lord, let me find it in my spirit to want to seek You, no matter the limitations I may feel.
Oh, Lord, I say with my whole heart:
Seeing or not, limping or leaping, I will come where You are, if only You will call me.
Additional Scripture and Prayer Material
1. Luke 19: 1-10 Jesus and Zacchaeus. Today salvation has come to this house.
2. Luke 8: 26-39 Healing of the Demoniac.
when the people approached Jesus, the
discovered the man from whom the demons had come out sitting at his feet.
3. Mark 8: 22-26 Cure of blind man at
4. John 9:1-41 Cure of the man born blind.
5. John 5:1-18 Cure of the paralytic at
6. Luke 17: 11-19 Jesus heals ten lepers.
7. Matthew 9:1-8 Cure of a paralytic
For Further Reflection and Consideration
How did I find the consideration on "The Three Types of Persons"? Does it relate to me or challenge me in any way? How? In looking at what Jesus asks of his disciples, what am I learning about myself? What is happening to my relationship with Jesus at this time?
Have I identified where I want healing to take place in my life? Have I identified what it is I must do so that this healing can take place? What would I like to do regarding the next two weeks of the Spiritual Exercises?
"Because we must work out our salvation through our whole lifetime by the grace of God, we must avoid getting stuck in extremes. Being pessimistic to the point of despair, we could act as if we have no ability to act freely or to change and so we deny the God-given gift of our personal freedom as well as the power of God's grace, with which we need to cooperate. Or being presumptuous, we could act as if we ourselves can change and grow and become holy solely through our own efforts, with God and grace being incidental to our salvation."
St. Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises [#367]
"... there is always the danger of so stressing the importance of faith in God and God's grace for our salvation that we ignore the necessity of our own daily effort in living lives of active love for our neighbor and for our world. Similarly we can so stress the power of grace that we can be remiss in taking the human means to remedy physical, psychological, and spiritual evils. We must not try to escape from the responsibility to use our freedom to choose from all the various means for our growth and development which God has given us in our contemporary world."
St. Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises [#368-369]
Lord Jesus, You humbled Yourself by sharing with friends what You thought and felt and desired. Lord, as You gave them the gift of knowing You and feeling Your great love for them, let me come to know You, too, even so far away in another country and another time. If only I could feel Your love for me, I would love You then, and in my whole heart would resonate with what You think and feel and desire. That is what I want, if it please You, Lord.