Holy Spirit help me stretch out my withered hand(s) to you for healing and saving Grace…

 Mark 3:1-6

Holy Spirit help me stretch out my withered hand(s) to you for healing and saving Grace…
 
It must have been amazing, even startling, and inspiring – as a memory that would instantly restore faith in those who witnessed this miracle -for every witness to Jesus’ healing of the man with the withered hand in the synagogue that day.  What we forget is that Jesus is still ‘around’ today by the power of the Holy Spirit, saying to us, “Come forward … stretch out your hand”.  But both of my hands are wholly functional, you say. But what about the ‘hands of your heart’ that are so tightly gripping griefs, fears or resentments that they are small and cramped? Or those memories shriveled by disappointments or oppressive emotional baggage? Or those wizened relationships in your life, held so tightly by your unforgiveness that that you are crippled in mind and spirit? These ‘withered hands’ are no less the object of Christ’s love as the hand of the man attending synagogue with Jesus. Do you have the courage and the will to come forward to the Master Healer and stretch out your memory, your intellect and your will so that He can restore your withered soul?  Do I have the courage and the will to go forward to the Master Healer and stretch out my memory, my intellect and my will so that He can restore my withered BE-ing? Holy Spirit, help me stretch out my withered hand(s) to you for healing and saving Grace.
 
 
Let me know again the joy of your help, and with a spirt of fervor enliven me, that I might teach transgressors your ways, and sinners might return to you.  (Psalm 51:12,13)
 
Few people understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to God, and allow God’s grace to mold (that is in-form and transform) them accordingly.
St. Ignatius of Loyola
 
Let us not be dumbstruck by the evil around us, but rather
Soli ad gloriam Dei
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