SPIRITUAL EXCERCISES & RSV BIBLE EXTRACTS - WEEK 117
STARTS THURSDAY 22nd APRIL 2010
TRANSFORMATION IS GOD’S GIFT THROUGH MARY
(A) THE HALL-MARKS OF “MARIAN HOLINESS OF LIFE”
Weekly message No. 112 (17th April 1986).
2. Praying for the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
“Dear children! You are absorbed with material things, but in the material you lose everything that God wishes to give you. I call you, dear children, to pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit which are necessary for you now in order to be able to give witness to my presence here and to all that I am giving you. Dear children, let go to me so I can lead you completely. Don't be absorbed with material things. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
PRACTICAL:
This week make a Novena to the Holy Spirit, and again before Pentecost.
Thursday: The Prayer taught by Jesus.
Matthew 6:7-15.
7“And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9Pray then like this: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11Give us this day our daily bread; 12And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors; 13And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. 14For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; 15but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. ”
Friday: The variety and the unity of gifts granted by the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:4-11.
4Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one. 7To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
1 Corinthians 12:31
31But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
Saturday: 1 Corinthians 13:1-7.
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; 5it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. 7Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Colossians 3:1-4.
1If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Sunday: Cf. Matthew 6:33.
33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.
Acts 1:8.
8But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
Monday: Cf. John 15:26-27.
26But when the Counsellor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me; 27and you also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning.
Galatians 5:22-26.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another.
John 16:13-14.
13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
Wednesday: Cf. John 14:26.
26But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.