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Reflections
29th February, 2008
"Certainly"
In my last reflection I asked you to focus your attention on the word "always". Today, I want you to focus on the coming week at least on the word "certainly".
St. Alphonsus, whom the Church honoured with the title "Doctor of Prayer" tells us:
" He who prays will certainly be saved ; he who does not pray will certainly be lost. "
Jesus said: " Without me you can do nothing. " Jn 15:5
Without Jesus we can do nothing good. If we are good for nothing Christians, we will be thrown away, discarded.
Jesus said: " Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. " Jn 15:6
Do you want to be a thrown away thing, a useless thing that is fit for burning?
To "remain" in Jesus. What does that mean? We must not think of remaining in Jesus in terms of occupying the same physical space. To remain in Jesus means to be absorbed into His words and to absorb His words into our hearts.
If we are to be absorbed into Jesus so that we can be one with Him, to receive His Spirit, we must pray. We must pray the prayer of petition.
St Alphonsus wrote:
" Given on the one hand, that without the help of grace we cannot do anything and given on the other hand that such help is not given by God, ordinarily, except to him who asks for it, who will not be able to conclude consequently, that the prayer (of petition) is absolutely necessary for salvation? "
St Augustine said: " God who made us without us will not save us without us." Let us adapt his words: "God who made us without asking us, will not save us without our asking Him for the graces we need for our salvation. "
Our part in the work of salvation is to ask, ask and ask. Then we will be able to remain in Jesus (and not remain in Sin!) and bear the fruit of salvation, not only for ourselves but for others. " I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. " Jn 15:5
As fishers of men, do we think we can catch people into the kingdom of God without prayer? If we are so presumptuous, we may as well go and fly a kite!
Father Paul Pang CSSR
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