He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.”
Acts 1:3
Theme
Jesus sends His spirit to form us into one body
Grace
Ask for a deepening awareness of the power of Jesus’ spirit in us and a growing desire to serve Jesus in his members.
Prayer
Lord,
I offer
my body from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet
my mind
front to back
and my soul
even unto the darkest recesses
for You to guide
in the way You would have me go this hour,
this day, this week, this month, this year,
all the rest of my years.
Amen.
So like the verse above, during these nine months of the Spiritual Exercises, God has presented himself alive to me and has appeared to me, speaking about His kingdom…
…and like the disciples I did not recognize Him right away even for all the miracles He has performed in my life, including waking up the dead man in me over the last nine months…
…and providing my wife and me financially when I wasn’t trusting in Him (Matthew 6:33-34).
Time and time again, I have been drawn back to the footnote in my Bible, The Catholic Bible: Personal Study Edition, on Matthew 6:30 on the phrase: “Of little faith.” The footnote reads:
Except for the parallel in Luke 12, 28, the word translated of little faith is found in the New Testament only in Matthew. It is used by him of those who are disciples of Jesus in whose faith in him as not as deep as it should be (see Mt 8, 26; 14:31; 16, 8 and the cognate noun in 17, 20).”
If there is one thing I am learning — I won’t say, I’ve learned yet, because it always is a learning process — from the Spiritual Exercises, it is this: my faith is not as deep as it should be. I need to learn to have faith in God. He will provide.
