SPIRITUAL EXCERCISES & RSV BIBLE EXTRACTS - WEEK 126
STARTS THURSDAY 24th JUNE 2010
THE FRUITS OF “MARIAN HOLINESS OF LIFE”
Weekly message No. 121 (19th June 1986).
1. The joy of Jesus through Mary.
“Dear children! During these days my Lord is allowing me to be able to intercede more graces for you. Therefore, I wish to urge you once more to pray, dear children! Pray without ceasing! That way I will give you the joy which the Lord gives to me. With these graces, dear children, I want your sufferings to be a joy. I am your Mother and I desire to help you. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
PRACTICAL:
This week make every effort to reflect the joy of Jesus in you by the way you speak and act.
Thursday: Effective prayer.
Matthew 7:7-11.
7Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9Or what man of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Friday: The fruits of the Holy Spirit, including joy.
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. 26 Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another.
Saturday: Our Lady praises God with joy.
Luke 1:46-48.
46And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, 47and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, 48for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.”
Saturday: Cf. 1 Samuel 2:1-2.
1Hannah also prayed and said, “My heart exults in the LORD; my strength is exalted in the LORD. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. 2There is none holy like the LORD, there is none besides thee; there is no rock like our God.”
Sunday: Jesus prays filled with the Holy Spirit.
Luke 10:21-22.
21In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will. 22All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Monday: By remaining faithful to Jesus and in his love, we are sharing his joy.
John 15:10-11.
10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
Monday: Cf. John 17:13.
13But now I am coming to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
John 16:20-24.
20Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. 21When a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she is delivered of the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a child is born into the world. 22So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. 23In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name. 24 Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
Wednesday: Saint Paul’s example of how to pray with the heart.
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.