WEEK NINETEEN: FROM DISBELIEF TO BELIEF - DAY 5
What is God saying to you?
Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. 1 John 4:4b
MORNING FACE TO FACE WITH GOD:
Begin with Prayer to the Holy Spirit
REPETITION OF DAYS FOUR AND FIVE:
Ask for the grace to be glad and rejoice intensely because of the great joy and the glory of Christ our Lord (#221)
Today, you are doing a repetition of Days Four and Five of this week. In a repetition St. Ignatius says that "we should pay attention to and dwell upon those points in which we have experienced greater consolation or desolation or greater spiritual appreciation." (# 62) If you wish, you can do a triple colloquy: refer to #63 of the Third Exercise of the First Week.
Day 4 - Mark 16: 9-11: The Appearance to Mary Magdalene:"When he had risen, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told his companions who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe."
Begin with Prayer to the Holy Spirit
REPETITION OF DAYS FOUR AND FIVE:
Ask for the grace to be glad and rejoice intensely because of the great joy and the glory of Christ our Lord (#221)
Today, you are doing a repetition of Days Four and Five of this week. In a repetition St. Ignatius says that "we should pay attention to and dwell upon those points in which we have experienced greater consolation or desolation or greater spiritual appreciation." (# 62) If you wish, you can do a triple colloquy: refer to #63 of the Third Exercise of the First Week.
Day 4 - Mark 16: 9-11: The Appearance to Mary Magdalene:"When he had risen, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told his companions who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe."
Day 5 - Prayer on John 20: 19-23: Appearance to the Disciples: "Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. [Jesus] said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whole sins you retain are retained."
From disbelief to belief, it is a journey even the disciples had to take so they could better understand the journey we each must go through. Mary Magadalene full of zeal and enthusiasm has met the risen Christ and no one believes her even the Apostles whom Jesus told them he would rise from the dead. How many times have we told someone of the joys of Christ only to be met with unbelief, happens all the time. We want to see for ourselves before we believe, the Apostles were no different. But once they did encounter the risen Christ they were also transformed into ardent disciples. In following Jesus there is both joy and suffering for what you know others will not always believe. They will have to experience it for themselves so like Mary Magadalene, Pray for their conversion, Pray they also encounter Jesus, the Risen Lord.
Dear Father, I thank You for the unbelief that engages us to seek You out, to verify what another tells us is true. I thank You for the first disciples experiencing both the joy and the suffering of unbelief. I pray for all those that do not take another's encounter with Christ at face value but I also know it is part of the journey. Watch over us this day, transforms our lives so we each may become ardent disciples spreading the good news as only each of us can. I ask this in the name of Jesus, my Risen Lord, Amen.
Mary, Mother of Hope, Pray for us.
St Joesph, Most Strong, Pray for us.
Viva Cristo Rey
What is God saying to you?
Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. 1 John 4:4b
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