A. Back ground: last sunday we focused to about of God's will, how to renounce God in our life,and how human remonstrate, with human thinking!. Today it will further enhanced, How to have effective prayer with God, and what the characteristics of God's Will?
Preamble for todays reading:
B.1 praying
Prayer is speaking to God for help or thank HIM.'You pray but don't get it' James explain today WHY?.
You like bouquet of flowers rather packet of seed?.But you forget to realize limitation of cut flowers,no matter how beautiful they are and you are apt,not to spend your time gathering, sorting & planting seeds.
Praying is similar to this. When you don't follow commandments & rules given by Holy spirit(church)& not pray as a habit, reflecting at least sundayreadings,how can you receive good results from your instant prayers?.
God prized seed more than Bouquet. In addition to command:+adhering to rules, make strong habit to Recite daily Rosary+attending sunday Mass, with a good knowledge of sunday 3 readings,will help your prayers even to move a mountain(if it is good for you)!.
B.2 How to form habits?
Everybody needs to sleep at least 5-6 hours/day, may be just to show us the eternal reason to form habits in our life. No body take medication to avoid sleep. When we cannot sleep we tend to fall sick.
Sunday mass is obligatory for catholics. It shows the importance for us to form habits in our life, in understanding God's Will. Habits can be good or bad.
What are the good habits?. Doing physical exercises + praying is daily good habits that we have to train ourself, similar to sleeping habits.
When you develop good habits, it allows you to have good sleep!.
To form a habit you should have following basic points to be achieved
(1) Be interested on that subject
(2) Allocate fixed time of a day to practice that(preferably early in the morning)
(3) Consider only that subject, during that time.
(4) Have a fixed process during that time(when you are doing stretching exercise, don't change type of exercise from yesterday to today or when you are praying
Have a continuity from yesterday today-example when you read gospel,read cyclically- yersterday one gospel passage, today immediate next passage) by this way you allow memory packing in your brain and increase your awareness!.
When you keep on doing every day, you form a habit. With physical+mental fitness.
Always remember not to lose your good habits!. OTHERWISE FIRST WILL BE LAST AND LAST WLL BE FIRST.
B.3 God's will
B. 3.(1)Our achievements!
Our achievements in our life, are nothing but a constant orientation of our will towards that direction. If we want to be successful we give our mind and heart to obtain success. People have achieved mighty things in this world just by the power of the will. Thomas Alva Edison invented the incandescent bulb after thousands of experiments. It was the shear wish of the will. The pioneers who climbed mount everest,with its dangerous conditions, depend on their will to achieve. This was not merely by Physical strength along but it was willed. People traveled up to moon have achieved due not to strength of mind alone or of body alone,but mainly force of will that made them see through challenges. Thru 'Power of Will mighty things can be achieved by Humans. This is power of will of each human. But how to surrender this will to God's will?. Can we achieve these mighty things?
B.3.2. Danger of achieving things, without surrendering your will to God?
Example
Christianity,is to follow the will of God. Ideal human who set example in following God's will was Holy Mary.(Followed by St joseph and all saints)
On sept 15 we remembered our lady of sorrows: 7great sorrows:
(1) Pro percy of aged Simon in temple
(2)2000miles(2yrs) flight into Egypt with infant Jesus
(3)loss of Jesus(12 yrs) in Jerusalem
(4)Mary's encounter with Jesus on His way to Calvary
(5)His crucifixion
(6)Taking down His body from the Cross
(7)His burial
Holy mary, never thought about human logical thinking, only thing she followed,was her pure life(following commandments+ fully aware of God's will to her). She never took credit for herself!. She avoided 7 vices.
B.3.3 Danger
When we have success only using our will, we tend to think we can do many things,(like God) and we become victim of following 7 vices
(1)Sloth(laziness or idleness).
(2)Anger(this is a strong feeling that comes when one is wronged or insulted either real or imaginary)
(3) Pride(boasting, love of publicity)
(4)Envy(why shouldn't I have with everything that others have)
(5)Lust(disoriented love for personal pleasure)
(6)Avarice(greedy,dishonesty)
(7)Gluttony(the disorderly animal appetite, obsession with food & drink to the point of living to eat, rather than eating to live
B 3 .4 Child-father relationship.
When God gave us full freedom, to use our free will, he has kept one important aspect. That is only he knows all the outcomes of our action!. Even when you eat, you don't know what is happening inside your body, with regard to your food, Only God knows. Hence you have to be like a child going after father, for all your actions.
This is very difficult task. Let's analyze the following story.
Kicking Donkey!
Prophet Balaam was on a mission to curse someone,suddenly his donkey stopped on road!.no matter,how hard prophet kicked her,she would not budge. Without donkey He couldn't carry out his deed. He start to beat donkey severely,practicing management style of ruling thru' fear. Finally donkey cried out "why are you beating me?haven't I served you faithfully all these years?" An angel spoke to Balaam & said "you fool,quit beating her.even she could see I am standing here! Your donkey just saved your life,for if you had gone you would have been killed" Balaam returned kissing donkey all way back.
If you do everything possible & you are not successful,find out Angel without kicking donkey,since you not avail with all outcomes. When you think that you are on top of world, you may be sitting in a dangerous place.
B.3.5 Perfect offering!
Mary's last recorded word in scripture is abandoned to the Will of God. "DO WHATEVER HE TELLS YOU" (JH 2:5). The last word of Jesus on the cross was the free surrender of His life to His father's Will: "Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit" Mary surrenders to Jesus, and Jesus to His Father.
To do God's Will until death, that is the inner heart of all Holiness. Here Jesus teaches us how to die, for if he would have his Mother with Him in the hour of His great surrender, then how shall we dare to miss saying daily " Pray for us sinners, now, and at the our death. Amen"?
Everyone in the world has a cross, but no two Crosses are identical. Our Will is the only thing that is absolutely our own. Hence it is a perfect offering we can make to God. By following 10 commandments+pardoning+avoiding 7 vices+convertng our talents to skill is the only way that you know that you are following God's will!
C. Today's reading:
Book of wisdom(Ws 2:12. 17-20) says"..Godless say..let..wait..virtuous man..annoys..opposes our..life..see..what.. true..observe..kind of end..will have..God.. rescue..clutches..enemies..condemn.. shameful death.
James(Jm 3:16-4:3) says"..jealous.. ambition..find disharmony..wicked things.. wisdom..comes..from above..pure.. peace.. good..nor..partiality..hypocrisy..peace makers..sow..seeds..desires fighting..own self..you want..haven't got it. You don't have what you want..b'cause..don't pray..do pray.. don't get it..not prayed properly.. indulge your own desires.
Mk(9:30-37) says"..Jesus..telling..put Him to death..3days..rise again..arguing.. which..greatest..called 12.."If anyone want to be 1st..last..servant of all"..took..child.. "Anyone welcome..Children,.my name,welcomes me.."
Reminds: How to manage earth bound things such as money,power,desires with spirituality to lead a happy life. God,the Father, indicates how much human are craving for earth bound things, ignoring the wisdom HE intended to provide, with the freedom given to human. James is very clear in explaining, why we increase, fear and sorrow, even though we pray. He indicates clearly human conditioning to their own rules, forgetting Or adjusting them selves to their own rules modified to suit for their own convenience. Jesus explain the value and characteristic of following God's will, like a child in a family. Normally children are honest and they follow their parents unconditionally. Similarly as catholics we should follow God's Will,identifying the difference with our will. For this we should be clear about what are the rules that we should follow.
CATHOLISM IS SIMILAR TO GROW A SEED. YOU TREAT THE SEED TO BECOME A BIG TREE, WHICH IS USEFUL TO THE SOCIETY,BY FORMING GOOD HABITS LIKE PRAYING, ANLYSING EVERY DAY!, YOUR LIFE CANNOT ACHIEVE ANTICPATED HAPPINESS!
GBU
