Friar’s Corner: Nourishing our seeds
Isaiah 55:10-11; Psalm 65:10-14; Romans 8:18-23; Matthew 13:1-9
The full power of God be with, in and surround you.
The three major graces or gifts that we received at Baptism are in seed form. They must be planted in the faith of our parents and the soil of the church Jesus founded in order to grow and bear fruit. The soil is the church, the sacraments and various channels of divine power. Jesus is the “Son-light” and the fountain of living water flowing from His divine presence. Our deeper relationship with Jesus and frequent prayer keep these channels vibrant. Jesus wants to fill us with more of His love, peace and joy in our relationship with Him. Our seeds are fruit trees that should produce fruit twelve times and year and the leaves of our trees are to help heal the nations. Read Revelations 22:1-2. God’s plan is truly amazing grace. Amen!
Four religious orders
I may be prejudiced, but I think four religious orders that did the most to save and spread the faith in our church were and still are, the Benedictines, the Franciscans, Dominicans and Jesuits. We remembered St. Benedict of Nursia, Italy, Saturday, July 11th. He wrote a rule of life for monks in the monasteries he founded. It was a life of prayer, study, work, common activity and relaxation. His world then was in crisis with the fall of the Roman empire and the invasion of the barbarians from the north. Benedict’s monasteries provided safety for many and education for the poor peasants. His monasteries in Western Europe became the educational institutions and what we see today as major cities. The Franciscans came some 800 years later and spread the faith widely as missionaries. The Jesuits came on the scene in education and great missionary work and map-making. My own Franciscan province, which administers two strong universities, just ordained five young priests on Saturday.
With the crisis in the world today, what might be our role as evangelists to help spread Jesus’ messages of love, peace, joy and stability? Like St. Benedict’s monasteries, our homes can be secure places of faith, peace, study, work and harmony for ourselves with God’s power flowing out into the culture around us. We don’t know what satan’s next plans are to destroy our families, churches, government and ourselves. We have to pray for God’s wisdom and open our spiritual eyes. We need to pray much and with our “spiritual wings” to rise above the fog to see more clearly. We need the Sacrament of Reconciliation frequently to get our past sins taken away. We need to go to church frequently for our daily bread (Jesus) at Mass.
Prayer helps
To help us develop a better prayer life, we can pray the scriptures and psalms as our Jewish and Christian ancestors did. We can do that easily with these apps on our iPhones or tablets. On the web, go to “laudate,” “ibrevary,” “divine office,” or “liturgy of hours.” Some are free. These ancient guideline prayers are mostly scripture with some prayers for various situations in our world. You can get a hard copy on Amazon with “Shorter Christian Prayer” for about $15.00. These give you the official structure for morning, evening and night prayer in a four-week schedule so you don’t repeat the same thing every day. It really gives your prayer the wings of the Holy Spirit to come more fully into the heart of God. Try it. You will like it. It will help you stay as close to God as “fish do to water,” or “bark to its tree.”
I might also recommend you get the awesome picture of Jesus, on the web at, truefaceofjesus.com by Bette Myers and check out “countdowntothekingdom.” That will give you perhaps a perspective from several current visionaries for what God may have next in the world’s timeline.
May the Holy Spirit guide you with His wisdom into God’s heart and mind so we are more sure that we want to get to heaven and not be blindly led to hell. Safe, MAGA blessings in God’s kingdom from my eagle’s nest in the Alleghenies.
(© 2020 Father Bob Hilz, TOR)
