Job 7:1-4, 6-7, 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23, Psalm 147:1-2, 4-6, Mark 1:29-39

Job 7:1-4, 6-7, 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23, 

Psalm 147:1-2, 4-6, Mark 1:29-39

Job 7:1-4, 6-7

My Beloved, I have experienced a time like this when anxiety, grief and overbearing sadness bore down on me and I could not escape it. Unlike Job though I had You and I clung to You in desperation. The greater my sorrow the more strongly did I cry out to You for relief and You heard and answered my cry. I am truly grateful Beloved that my overwhelming grief did not cause me to sin against You rather it brought me to You and for that I am forever in Your debt.

1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23

My Beloved, unless we share the lives of those we wish to evangelize we will not be truly authentic this is why You came to us as one like us. Who would have believed that God is love if He appeared to us in all awesome splendor, power and glorious majesty? Only because You shared our human condition with all its limitations were we able to grasp in some measure the infinite love of God.

I too am called to first identify with my brothers and sisters and be willing to serve them without hope of recompense in this life. I have received the mission and I must carry it out willingly and joyfully only then can I bear fruit for the Kingdom of God. 

Psalm 147:1-2, 4-6

My Beloved, it is when we constantly sing Your praises glorifying God for His immense goodness and kindness that we give expression to what we believe in faith. Every good and perfect gift is given to us because our God is a God of abundance, He gives lavishly and without measure. 

No one can count the number of stars but God can for He made them, gave each their place and named them. He is mighty in power, glorious in majesty and in love, more tender than a father and mother, for His wayward children. We cannot fathom the depths of His infinite wisdom but we can acknowledge that without God we are nothing. It is He who raised us up and give us a place and a name just as He did with the stars but we have far more value in His sight for He gave You up, His only Son. in order to redeem us and win us back to Himself - Thank You Father, thank You my Beloved.

Mark 1:29-39

My Beloved, You never forgot Your mission for an instant, it was always before You. You said, "I have come to cast a fire upon the earth and how I wish it were already kindled. But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!" There was a burning urgency that kept going. You hardly rested, You even forgot to eat but You always found time to steal away from the rest either before dawn or through the night to pray.

Prayer was the one means through which You were able to come into union with Your father, the Holy Spirit renewed You, refreshed You and replenished You. The crowd were insatiable and pressed around You constantly demanding, pleading, crying whimpering, shouting to be healed of all their sickness and You denied no one but poured Yourself out always to the point of complete exhaustion.

You were fully aware that You needed to be replenished by our Father and the Holy Spirit this is why You escaped often to pray and what was true for the Son of God and the Son of Man is even more true for us for without personal prayer and times of close union with You we will be absolutely useless in carrying out the mission entrusted to us.