I said my morning prayers this morning, and I was deeply
moved by some. They seemed most
appropriate at this time of serious trauma in the world. They seemed to make some sense of it, to
me. So I repeat them here in the hope
that they might offer you some hope also.
The first was a reading from the letter of the Apostle Paul
to the Romans, 6:3-11:
Are you not aware that we who were
baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Through baptism into his death we were buried
with him, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
Father, we too might live a new life.
If we have been
united with him through likeness to his death, so shall we be through a like resurrection. This we know: our old self was crucified with
him so that the sinful body might be destroyed and we might be slaves to sin no
longer. A man who is dead has been freed
from sin.
If we have died with Christ, we
believe that we are also to live with him.
We know that Christ, once raised from the dead, will never die again;
death has no more power over him. His
death was death to sin, once for all; his life is life for God. In the same way, you must consider yourselves
dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus.
He died to sin; I don’t think much of the world has. But we can choose to do so. “We too might live a new life,” if we can die
to sin. “You must consider yourselves
dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus.”
And I read this morning this closing prayer:
God our Father, creator of all,
today is the day of Easter joy. This is
the morning on which the Lord appeared to men who had begun to lose hope and
opened their eyes to what the scriptures had foretold, that first he must die,
and then he would rise and ascend into his Father’s glorious presence. May the risen Lord breathe on our minds and
open our eyes, that we may know him in the breaking of the bread, and follow
him into his risen life. Grant this
through Christ our Lord.
May He open our hearts and minds … And I also read these words this morning,
from Paul’s Letter to Titus, chapter 3:
Remind them to be submissive to
rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for honest work, to speak
evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy
toward all men. For we ourselves were
once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures,
passing our days in malice and envy, hated by men and hating one another; but
when the goodness and loving kindness of Go our Savior appeared, he saved us
not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own
mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he
poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be
justified by grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life. The saying is sure.
I desire you to insist on these
things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to apply
themselves to good deeds, these are excellent and profitable to men. But avoid stupid controversies, genealogies,
dissensions and quarrels over the law, for they are unprofitable and futile.
I wish things were different in the world right now, from
the disappearing of the virus to the disappearing of all the new rules imposed
on us. But as St. Paul says (as Jesus
said), be submissive to rulers. Paul
wants us to live good lives, in our days, “so that we might be justified by
grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life” --- that is what Jesus died for
and rose from the dead, that we MIGHT have eternal life. But we still have freedom; we have to choose
to avoid the sins Paul mentions, and in doing so CHOOSE, in freedom, eternal
life. I hope more may do so. And then the Psalm I read today (I read one
each morning) happened to be Psalm 69, which included these words:
With your faithful help rescue me
from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep
waters. Let not the flood sweep over me,
or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me.
Answer me, O Lord, for your
merciful love is good; according to your abundant compassion, turn to me for I
am in distress, make haste to answer me.
Draw near to me, redeem me, set me free because of my enemies!
You know my reproach, and my shame
and my dishonor; my foes are all known to you.
Insults have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none; and
for comforters, but I found none. They
gave me gaul for food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
I found these words most moving, for at first they resonated
with what I was feeling, but then I got to the third paragraph, and I recalled
that these words were a prophesy of what Jesus would be feeling. He felt in His suffering like I am feeling in
these days, alone, forgotten, abandoned.
And then He died to give us new life.
He lived through His sufferings for us.
These words reminded me that I must imitate Him, and live through my
sufferings for Him, and for my neighbor.
My sufferings must not lead me to despair; as were His, there is a
reason, there is a hope of a future --- with Him.
There was one more prayer I prayed this morning which deeply
moved me. It is A Prayer of Thanksgiving,
which I have published before on this blog I 2015. You can look it up. It is most moving; I say it every
morning. It gives me a resolve, and
hope.
- -
- - - - - - - -
This is a totally different matter, yet I think fitting with
my thoughts and feelings this Easter morn.
I watched an early mass, 8AM, on EWTN, and then I scanned the channels I
received to see if perhaps there might be some moving movies this Easter Day,
like the Ten Commandments or some such.
There weren’t. But I did see that
on Start TV there was an episode of Touched By An Angel, and so I watched
it. It was Season 9 Episode 8, about how
Tess, the lead angel, is overcome by Alzheimer’s disease. And then Monica, her assistant, is totally
lost and in despair. Things are beyond
her control and she, an angel, despairs.
She sees things move from what she was used to, to things beyond her
control. And she even cries in anger to
God. I understand her feelings very much,
very much. I was a caregiver and saw my
mom not know me, as Tess does not remember Monica. And I see this world beyond my control
today. I look forward to the concluding
of this episode tomorrow morning; I am sure there is a reason for Tess’ grave
illness. And I am sure there is a reason
for this world’s suffering right now.
Even an angel lost faith in this episode; it is a good example of how
hard it is to keep faith today in this world.
But as I will see tomorrow there is a reason, and at some tomorrow in
the future I will see that there is a reason for this suffering now. And I need to be touched by my guardian angel
to keep my faith.
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