"Prayer of penitence".
“Prayer of penitence”: “Have mercy on me, my God” (Psalm 50: “From the depths I cry to you, Lord” (Psalm 129). Everyone, even being innocent, may imitate Jesus in the Calvary: he suffers and prays for all that are suffering. To prolong, in my body, the passion of Christ. We unite with those who pray and sacrifice themselves for the cease of violence in the world; the end of all war; the seeking of peace.
Topic: believer
He who ACCEPTS the Word of God, the teaching of the Church. He who accepts it and lives it.
Believing is part of the human person. It involves:
- Openness towards others. :We listen: they talk to us and we believe what we heard.
- Capacity to perceive and evaluate the meaning of what is said to us.
- The possibility to either accept or reject it.
There is an age-old wisdom: “If you believe and fulfill your belief, all will be well for you”.
We bow before God: the faith A GIFT AND A TASK: God gives us his grace and also the exercise of our freedom.
With faith we grow WINGS OF FREEDOM. It is the good road.
In the Bible, after the Creation, after the flood, comes up the story of Abraham: “Leave your country, your relatives and your father’s home, and go to a land that am going to show you”. This is the essential movement of faith: a break with the comfortable past and starting out on a road towards the unknown.
Faith does not reveal the final destination of the journey: darkness and distance obscure the end. However, if one really lives in faith, there is light and a total security: that we are in the hands of God. Now.
It requires CONFIDENCE. Don’t ask for explanations (there aren’t any). When Abraham set off it must have been amusing: ¿Where are you going? He didn’t know. It doesn’t seem sensible. In every person there is a book-keeper hidden away. We want guarantees, certainties. ¡Look at how we calculate our journeys in our times! Evidently, the journey of Abraham is against all common sense for our world today. Today the power is in the hands of he who has all the information. Faith NO: it is darkness, trust, obedience. That is the mark of the believer.
The same happens with St. Paul when he is given grace on the road to Damascus. The impulse to start a new life. He wasn’t told how it was going to be: “You will later be told what you have to do” (Hechos 9,6). This is faith: stand up and so out. You will later be told. You will later be guided. START OFF ON THE ROAD, trusting only in the Word of God.
It is the commitment of the whole man/woman. The merit of faith is to set off towards the unknown. For this God commits himself to a recompense far greater than all that can be imagined: “I will make you into a great nation….”.
The promise of God is a lighthouse ray that lights up my road : “Light for my steps”: light that guides man. God give s his word” I will bless you”. Every journey is an act of faith, even though we know the destination. The great adventure of BEING BORN: leave the security of the mother’s womb. The call of faith is not just once and for all: IT IS EVERY DAY. Because faith is testing time and time again. Each morning is a surprise, every dawn is a challenge.
To begin faith again, in each moment. To renew that promise. To life like that day by day. Is to TRUST ALWAYS IN GOD, in the good and in the adverse times, as descendents of Abraham, our Father in faith.
Conclusion:
"I believe, Lord, but increase my faith”.
PRAY WITH “Ave María”.