SPIRITUAL EXCERCISES & RSV BIBLE EXTRACTS - WEEK 148
STARTS THURSDAY 25th NOVEMBER 2010
THE GLORY OF ‘MARIAN HOLINESS OF LIFE’
II. ‘MARIAN HOLINESS OF LIFE’: OUR WAY TO HEAVEN
Weekly message No. 144 (27th November 1986).
First step: Consecration of our life to Mary.
“Dear children! Again today I call you to consecrate your life to me with love, so I am able to guide you with love. I love you, dear children, with a special love and I desire to bring you all to Heaven unto God. I want you to realize that this life lasts briefly compared to the one in Heaven. Therefore, dear children, decide again today for God. Only that way will I be able to show how much you are dear to me and how much I desire all to be saved and to be with me in Heaven. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
PRACTICAL:
This week renew your consecration to Jesus through Mary every day.
Thursday: Do not judge!
Matthew 7:1-5.
1Judge not, that you be not judged. 2For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. 3Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
Thursday: Cf. Romans 2:1-2.
1Therefore you have no excuse, O man, whoever you are, when you judge another; for in passing judgment upon him you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. 2We know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who do such things.
Friday: Consecration of the first-born to the Lord.
Exodus 13:1-2.
1The LORD said to Moses, 2“Consecrate to me all the first-born; whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”
Friday: Cf. Exodus 13:11-16.
11“And when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you, 12you shall set apart to the LORD all that first opens the womb. All the firstlings of your cattle that are males shall be the LORD’s. 13Every firstling of an ass you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every first-born of man among your sons you shall redeem. 14And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By strength of hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 15For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both the first-born of man and the first-born of cattle. Therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all the males that first open the womb; but all the first-born of my sons I redeem.’ 16It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes; for by a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt.”
Saturday: Samuel being consecrated to the Lord by Hannah.
1 Samuel 1:27-28.
27For this child I prayed; and the LORD has granted me my petition which I made to him. 28Therefore I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he lives, he is lent to the LORD. And they worshipped the LORD there.
Sunday: We are entrusted by Jesus to his Mother, in the person of John.
John 19:26-27.
26When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
SPIRITUAL EXCERCISES & RSV BIBLE EXTRACTS - WEEK 148-2
STARTS THURSDAY 25th NOVEMBER 2010
Monday: Jesus prays to the Father for us that we may be consecrated by means of the truth, as he consecrated himself.
John 17:16-19.
16They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth. 18As thou didst send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth.
Tuesday: Consecration: being set free from sin and bound to the service of God, leading to eternal life.
Romans 6:19b, 22.
19I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification. 20When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life.
Tuesday: Cf. 1 Peter 1:22-23.
22Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brethren, love one another earnestly from the heart. 23You have been born anew, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.
Wednesday: Being God’s children through baptismal consecration.
1 John 3:1-2.
1See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Wednesday: Cf. Galatians 3:25-27.
25But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; 26for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Wednesday: Cf. Romans 8:14-17.
14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.