SPIRITUAL EXCERCISES & RSV BIBLE EXTRACTS - WEEK 116-1
STARTS THURSDAY 15th APRIL 2010
TRANSFORMATION IS GOD’S GIFT THROUGH MARY
(A) THE HALL-MARKS OF “MARIAN HOLINESS OF LIFE”
Weekly message No. 111 (10th April 1986).
1. Growing in love through God’s blessing.
“Dear children! I desire to call you to grow in love. A flower is not able to grow normally without water. So also you, dear children, are not able to grow without God’s blessing. From day to day you need to seek His blessing so you will grow normally and perform all your actions in union with God.
Thank you for having responded to my call.”
PRACTICAL:
Pray for God’s blessing before any undertaking during this week.
Thursday: Prayer in secret.
Matthew 6:5-6.
5And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Friday: Blessing prayer.
Numbers 6:24-26.
24The LORD bless you and keep you: 25The LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you: 26The LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.
Saturday: “Only God, who gives growth.”
1 Corinthians 3:5-9.
5What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8He who plants and he who waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labour. 9For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
Saturday: Cf. Hebrews 6:7-8;
7For land which has drunk the rain that often falls upon it, and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed; its end is to be burned.
Saturday: Proverbs 10:22.
22The blessing of the LORD makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.
Sunday: “We shall grow completely into Christ.”
Ephesians 4:15-16.
15Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and up builds itself in love.
Sunday: Cf. 2 Peter 3:18.
18But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Monday: Saint Paul’s prayer for “growing in the knowledge of God.”
Colossians 1:9-12.
9And so, from the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10to lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. 11May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
Tuesday: Saint Paul’s prayer for being “planted in love and built on love.”
Ephesians 3:14-19.
14For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, 17and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Wednesday: We can bear fruit only by being united with Jesus.
John 15:5-8.
5I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. 8By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.
Wednesday: Cf. 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13;
11Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you; 12and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all men, as we do to you, 13so that he may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
Wednesday: Cf. 2 Thessalonians l-3.
3We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, as is fitting, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.