Holy Spirit, help me carefully listen to your Word in my heart…

 
Ezra 9:1-9 (-15) & Luke 8:16-18

 
Ezra was the prophet for Israel who guided the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem when the Persian Kings Cyrus & Darius sent the Israelites back home to Judea with tons of gold and silver from their exile in Babylon.  Ezra knew all too well the sufferings of the exiles – and was scandalized when the Israelites returned to their homelands and immediately turned their backs on God by marrying foreign women and worshipping their idols. Bowed down with overwhelming grief for his people’s faithlessness and “abominable sins”, Ezra shows us how to respond when we too are appalled  at how faithless, fickle, and futile society can be.  Ezra fasted and prayed and poured his heart out to God -even tearing his clothing and pulling out his hair in his anguish – and listened carefully all day to the Word of God resonating in his heart. Then he got up, taking his shame and embarrassment to the foot of the altar at the time of the evening sacrifice.  With arms outstretched, Ezra asked God to be with him as he ‘put his lamp on a lamp stand’, as Jesus would later teach us to do, and so guide the people of his day back to God. As a result he turned his people, en masse, back to God.  Will I, too, take time to carefully listen to the Word of God in my heart allowing it to guide me? Will I listen to the Word of God so well that God’s holy Grace can shine through me to draw others back to the Light of the World? Holy Spirit, help me carefully listen to your Word in my heart.
                                    
Turn to him with all our heart and soul, live in loyal obedience to him.  Then he will turn to you to help you and will no longer hide himself.  Remember what God has done for you, and give thanks with all your heart! Praise the righteous Lord; honor the eternal King!
(Tobit 13:6 )
 
God sustains every soul and dwells in it substantially, even though it may be that of the greatest sinner in the world.  This union between God and creatures always exists.
St. John of the Cross
 
Listen to to Lord, You Have my Heart
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Soli ad gloriam Dei
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