Friar’s Corner: Peace and joy flow into us from the heart of Jesus

Fr. Bob Hilz, TOR

Fr. Bob Hilz, TOR

Exodus 17:8-13; Ps 121:1-8; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2; Luke 18:1-8

We continue to beg God for his mercy on our country with this election, the conversion of all terrorists and care for the refugees. Thank you for having responded to God’s call.”

Please come Holy Spirit, and fill our minds with your Divine Light.

I see two major themes in the four scripture readings this weekend. One is that “the Lord will guard your coming and your going, both now and forever,” Ps 121:8.

Continual prayer

The second is continual prayer. When we look at human history, we find in a way, “good and evil contending with one another.” That is nothing new since Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 and 4. We see it in our world history books, on the TV and newspapers daily. Who are those our God protects? Those who are faithful and devoted to God and his directions.

In the Exodus 17 story today, Amalek was waging war against Israel. As long as Moses and his two assistants kept Moses arms raised in prayer to God all day on the mountain, the Israelites were winning. In Luke’s gospel section today a widow kept pleading with a dishonest judge to give her a right judgment against her enemy. With the woman’s constant pleading, the judge finally gave her a good decision. Jesus, at the end of the story, asked if he will find “faith on earth,” when he comes for the final judgment.

Ways to pray

First I beg you to pray a few times a day the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, which Jesus, himself, gave to Sr., now St. Faustina, in the 1930s in Poland. he gives us direct access to his heart of love. It only takes about 6 minutes.

Most of us also have an urgent sense that we need to pray for our country and the upcoming election. I have never seen anything like this. We definitely need to change direction toward God’s principles in so many areas.

Can we pray all day? For most of us, no, since we have many responsibilities. Yet we can have our mind and heart in the place where God wants us to be. Our church gives us many forms and styles of praying to God. And God gives us the “best meal on earth” at daily Mass with the Body and Blood of Jesus.

Pray for Muslims

I think the second most important things to pray protection about is the spreading war in the Middle East. Some understand a rivalry between the Sunnis, which are about eighty-five percent of the world’s Muslim population, and the Shiites, which are spiritual and temporal (lay) leaders as in Syria and Saudi Arabia. This history gets complicated and goes back to a “prophet” Mohammad who died in 632.

Our Bible and God are very different than the description and characteristics of god described in the Koran. We believe in a loving, compassionate and forgiving God Who calls us to love and care for one another. The Koran is divided into two major parts. One for the care of fellow Moslems. There are many good Moslems throughout the world.

The second part of the Koran is calling its followers to jihad or destruction of those who do not accept Islam and its tenets. We call them terrorists. We have seen this for the last fourteen hundred years. Catholics have fought several wars to protect our holy places in and around Jerusalem from jihad. ISIS is making the most recent attempt to take over the world. However, Jesus is appearing to countless Moslems across the world showing them that he is a God of love and forgiveness.

So we come into the heart of Jesus and beg him to pour more of his love and mercy into the hearts of all of his children especially the current terrorists.

Jesus, we trust in you to have mercy upon us.

Blessings,
+ Fr. Bob Hilz
(© 2016 Fr. Bob Hilz, TOR)

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Nancy Ward

Nancy Ward writes about conversion, Christian community, and Catholicism. After earning a journalism degree, she worked for the Diocese of Dallas newspaper and the Archbishop Sheen Center for Evangelization, then began her own editing service. She’s a regular contributor to CatholicMom.com, SpiritualDirection.com, CatholicWritersGuild.com, NewEvangelizers.com and a contributing author to The Catholic Mom’s Prayer Companion. Now, through her Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story: Tools, Tips, and Testimonies workshops, retreats, book, and DVD, she shares her conversion story at Catholic parishes and conferences, equipping others to share their own stories.

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