Holy Spirit, help me hold fast to what is good and abstain from every form of evil...

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
                                                                        
My heart is aching for a young family member who has been lured into the misty flats of dependence on teenage counter culture.  Yes!  We know that evils lurk along the fringes of the path of our lives trying to devour all of us.  But how can we, how can I, respond as a loved one is slipping off the edge of the culture of life that Jesus calls us to? I can shift the situation in only one way – by clinging to what is good within him/her and abstaining from the evils of panicking, fearing and fighting, blaming, coercing or judging. When I, with Jesus clutching my other hand, simply reach out to the goodness of the one struggling on a slippery slope, not worrying about – and certainly not engaging - the evils that have already been rendered ultimately powerless by our Redeemer, it is possible to ‘rescue the perishing’, as our Lord did time after time during his ministry on earth. My loved one needs to be reminded much more of his/her heritage as a beloved child of God, with all of his/her intrinsic abilities, beauty, gifting, peace, joy, kindness and faithfulness, than he/ she needs to have the evils lurking in the shadows described and decried. Will I deliberately hold fast to what is good and abstain from all forms of evil?  Holy Spirit, help me always hold fast to what is good and abstain from every form of evil.       
                                                       
He has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners. (Isaiah 61:1)
 
Do not be overcome by evil; but overcome evil with good.
St. Paul’s letter to the Romans 12:21                                                                                                     
 
www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca  
& Gospel Mystery of the Day on Facebook
Soli ad gloriam Dei