Holy Spirit, help me trust not in myself, but in you...

Luke 11:14-23

In any congregation two kinds of people will gather.  There will be those who,  like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable,  ‘trust in themselves that [they are] righteous and regard others with contempt’, and those who, like the tax collector, trust – and know, and converse with - God as their Father. In my own prayer life, I am at times a Pharisee and at times a Tax Collector.  When I trust in my own powers and regard others with a judging eye and a self-inflated heart I, like the Pharisee, become filled with my own “I am(s)...” and cannot enter into the loving presence of the “Great I Am”. Although I might go through ritual actions there seems to be no substance to my prayers, and I will leave the sanctuary unchanged, ‘unjustified’ as Jesus says. But when I, like the tax collector, open my heart and turn to God, the lover of my soul, to enter into a dialogue of forgiveness with him, then I find that I am loved and that in being loved am inwardly healed by the Creator of my being. Then, like the tax collector, I walk out of synagogue or church in a prayer-full place of right relationship with God and others.  Will I wrap myself up in my own self-righteous perceptions, or will I bare my soul to God to be embraced by his love and mercy?  God, be merciful to me, a sinner! Holy Spirit of God, help me trust, not in myself, but in You.   
  
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.    
(Psalm 51: 2)
 
Prayer is a heart to heart conversation
with Him whose love I am confident of.
St. Theresa of Avila
 
See Episode (#4), Seven Prinicples of Prayer in the series Catching Fire, Becoming Flame by Fr. Albert Hasse, OFM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf8Rzd6DqLI
 
 
Soli ad gloriam
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