SPIRITUAL EXCERCISES & RSV BIBLE EXTRACTS - WEEK 118
STARTS THURSDAY 29th APRIL 2010
TRANSFORMATION IS GOD’S GIFT THROUGH MARY
(A) THE HALL-MARKS OF “MARIAN HOLINESS OF LIFE”
Weekly message No. 113 (24th April 1986).
3. Transformation through prayer to become witnesses to Jesus.
“Dear children! Today my invitation is that you pray. Dear children, you are forgetting that you are all important. The elderly are especially important in the family. Urge them to pray. Let all the young people be an example to others by their life and let them witness to Jesus. Dear children, I beseech you, begin to change through prayer and you will know what you need to do. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
PRACTICAL:
During this week try to witness to Jesus by the way you speak, act and live.
Thursday: Fasting in secret.
Matthew 6:16-18.
16“And when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Friday: The example of Jesus living under parental authority.
Luke 2:51-52.
51And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. 52And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and man.
Cf. Proverbs 6:20-22.
20My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching. 21Bind them upon your heart always; tie them about your neck. 22When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.
Saturday: “Let the renewing of your minds transform you.”
Romans 12:2.
2Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Sunday: “Your mind was to be renewed in spirit.”
Ephesians 4:22-24.
22Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, 23and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Monday: Stripped of one’s old behaviour and putting on a new self.
Colossians 3:10-11.
10And have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.
Tuesday: Making the mind of Christ our own.
Philippians 2:5-7.
5Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Tuesday: Cf. 2 Corinthians 8:9.
8So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. 9For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything.
Wednesday: Saint Paul’s prayer for the Christians at Ephesus that they may be changed and renewed in Christ.
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.
Cf. Colossians 2:6-7.
6As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him, 7rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.