Guidelines Sheet - Series on the Means of Perseverance (Aug. 12-16, 2024)

General Theme:
Means of perseverance
 
General Objective:
To grow in our relationship with God through prayer
 
Objective of the week:
The prayer of Abraham

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INTRODUCTION

We continue our reflection about means of perseverance. For the following weeks we will focus on prayer taking as our point of reference main characters in the Bible that will help to evaluate or revise our personal way of praying. In that way they will teach us how to pray.
 
This week we will focus on the prayer of Abraham.
Pope Francis in his catechesis on “The prayer of Abraham” (June 3, 2020) highlights the figure of our “father in faith” (Rom 4:18), he says:
 
“Abraham is thus the man of the Word. When God speaks, man becomes the receptor of that Word and his life the place in which it seeks to become flesh. This is a great novelty in man’s religious journey: the life of a believer begins to be understood as a vocation, thus as a calling, as the place where a promise is fulfilled; and he moves in the world with the power of that promise, which one day will be fulfilled. And Abraham believed God’s promise. He believed and he set out without knowing where he was going — thus says the Letter to the Hebrews (cf. 11:8). But he had trust.
Reading the Book of Genesis, we discover that Abraham experienced prayer in constant faithfulness to that Word, which periodically appeared along his path. In short, we could say that in Abraham’s life faith becomes history. Faith becomes history. Indeed Abraham, with his life, with his example teaches us this path, this path in which faith becomes history. The God of Abraham becomes “my God”, the God of my personal history, who guides my steps, who does not abandon me; the God of my days, companion in my adventures; the God Providence. I ask myself and I ask you: do we have this experience with God?  Let us think about this a bit.
 
Let us learn from Abraham to pray with faith, to dialogue and to argue, but always willing to accept the Word of God and to put it into practice. With God, let us learn to speak like a child with his dad: to listen to him, to reply, to argue. But transparent like a child with his dad. This is how Abraham teaches us to pray.”

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MONDAY
Prayer builds trust and yields obedience

Genesis 12:1-7  
1 The Lord said to Abram: Go forth[a] from your land, your relatives, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. 2 [b]I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will find blessing in you.[c]
4 Abram went as the Lord directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5 [d]Abram took his wife Sarai, his brother’s son Lot, all the possessions that they had accumulated, and the persons they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 [e]Abram passed through the land as far as the sacred place at Shechem, by the oak of Moreh. The Canaanites were then in the land.
7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said: To your descendants I will give this land. So Abram built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.
 
Matthew 12:49-50
Then he pointed to his disciples and said, "Look! Here are my mother and my brother! Whoever does what my Father in heaven wants is my brother, my sister, and my mother."
 
IMVDMFa 3.30
Our mission begins from the experience of prayer, where God, also through his Word, transmits to us his same Life and Love until we become sons and daughters, brothers and sisters in Jesus. Our prayer or intimate and loving dialogue with  God nourishes our vocation and mission to live and preach the Gospel.
 
Abraham displayed a true and authentic "Obedience" to God. This is the result of Abraham's faithfulness in listening to the words of God. He puts the Word of God as the center of his prayer. How much I desire to have such kind of obedience to God. How beautiful to hear Jesus calling us, my sister, my brother, and my mother.
 

• Am I faithful in listening to the words of God as a VD disciple? How?

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TUESDAY
Freedom to express ourselves and be true before God

Genesis 15:1-7 
After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield,[a] your very great reward.[b]” 2 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit[c] my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” 4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring[d] be.” 6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. 7 He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”
 
Luke 1:34
“How can this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
 
In Genesis 15:1-7 Abraham freely expresses to God how he felt at the current situation -after being promised by God an heir, a huge descendants and a great nation- he cannot figure it out and somehow felt discouraged with his condition yet he remained righteous and God reassured him the promised He made with him.  In Luke 1:34 as Mary expresses her feeling when the angel delivered the message of blessing and great responsibility, the angel clarified to her on how it would come and she understood and believed. It’s okay to express and ask God straight of how we are feeling and on what is disturbing us and God will surely help us to gain peace. Like Abraham and Mary they were consoled by God after expressing their true feelings and perception.
 

• Do you express yourself freely to God in prayer? What hinders you from opening up to God?

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WEDNESDAY
God's covenant with Abraham

Genesis 17: 1-8
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said: I am God the Almighty. Walk in my presence and be blameless. 2 Between you and me I will establish my covenant, and I will multiply you exceedingly.
3 Abram fell face down and God said to him: 4 For my part, here is my covenant with you: you are to become the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham,[b] for I am making you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fertile; I will make nations of you; kings will stem from you. 7 I will maintain my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout the ages as an everlasting covenant, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land in which you are now residing as aliens, the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession; and I will be their God.
 
Acts 26: 12-18   
'“It was for this purpose that I went to Damascus with authority and orders from the chief priests. It was on the road at midday, Your Majesty, that I saw a light much brighter than the sun, coming from the sky and shining round me and the men travelling with me. All of us fell to the ground, and I heard a voice say to me in Hebrew, ‘Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting me? You are hurting yourself by hitting back, like an ox kicking against its owner's stick.’ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked. And the Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus, whom you persecute. But get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant. You are to tell others what you have seen of me today and what I will show you in the future. I will rescue you from the people of Israel and from the Gentiles to whom I will send you. You are to open their eyes and turn them from the darkness to the light and from the power of Satan to God, so that through their faith in me they will have their sins forgiven and receive their place among God's chosen people.’ '
 
Mission is associated with responsibility to fulfill. It is accompanied by obedience and goal. But a goal is impossible to achieve without persevering obedience. Abram was called by God to make Himself be known to everyone. Abram as His servant must change his old life worthy to proclaim about his God. (Gen. 17: 1-8) Abraham was able to succeed his mission because he was faithful to God who appeared and made a covenant with him.
This can also be associated with Paul who was called by the Lord to proclaim His kingdom to all men to open their eyes from darkness. (Acts 26: 12-18). Abraham and Paul have something in common because of their deep encounter with the Lord, they both accomplished the mission.
How privileged we are to know our God who has been introduced to us by our parents and significant others. Everything has already been revealed and simplified for us to grasp at our God who is our Father, Creator, Redeemer, and Guide.
Prayer is an act of believing in God. It is an essential tool to persevere the mission. It invokes the Holy Spirit to empower us to face our difficulties and confusions with faith and trust in God. A man who prays never walks alone, but God walks with him hand in hand.
 

• How do I trust God when I am troubled and confused?
• Do I believe that listening to the Word of God is also my personal encounter with Him?

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THURSDAY
God's promise will come true

Genesis 17:15-20
17 Abraham fell face down and laughed as he said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at ninety?” 18 So Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael could live in your favor!” 19 God replied: Even so, your wife Sarah is to bear you a son, and you shall call him Isaac. It is with him that I will maintain my covenant as an everlasting covenant and with his descendants after him. 20 Now as for Ishmael, I will heed you: I hereby bless him. I will make him fertile and will multiply him exceedingly. He will become the father of twelve chieftains, and I will make of him a great nation.
 
Hebrews 11:1
Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.
 
Indeed the way we think is not how God thinks. Yet in prayer, we can listen to the Word of God, we can speak to Him of what’s in our mind and hearts. To persevere through prayer, brings us to a closer encounter with God and a deeper understanding of His Word. What God promises will come true, we may not see now but we can believe without seeing. This is faith.
 

• How is my faith in God's Word to believe in Him day by day?

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FRIDAY
Intercede for others as Abraham did

Genesis 18:20-32
'Then the LORD said to Abraham, “There are terrible accusations against Sodom and Gomorrah, and their sin is very great. I must go down to find out whether or not the accusations which I have heard are true.” Then the two men left and went on towards Sodom, but the LORD remained with Abraham. Abraham approached the LORD and asked, “Are you really going to destroy the innocent with the guilty? If there are fifty innocent people in the city, will you destroy the whole city? Won't you spare it in order to save the fifty? Surely you won't kill the innocent with the guilty. That's impossible! You can't do that. If you did, the innocent would be punished along with the guilty. That is impossible. The judge of all the earth has to act justly.” The LORD answered, “If I find fifty innocent people in Sodom, I will spare the whole city for their sake.” Abraham spoke again: “Please forgive my boldness in continuing to speak to you, Lord. I am only a man and have no right to say anything. But perhaps there will be only 45 innocent people instead of fifty. Will you destroy the whole city because there are five too few?” The LORD answered, “I will not destroy the city if I find 45 innocent people.” Abraham spoke again: “Perhaps there will be only forty.” He replied, “I will not destroy it if there are forty.” Abraham said, “Please don't be angry, Lord, but I must speak again. What if there are only thirty?” He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty.” Abraham said, “Please forgive my boldness in continuing to speak to you, Lord. Suppose that only twenty are found?” He said, “I will not destroy the city if I find twenty.” Abraham said, “Please don't be angry, Lord, and I will speak just once more. What if only ten are found?” He said, “I will not destroy it if there are ten.” '
 
Luke 11:5-10
5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
 
There are many people, concrete situations… we can pray for it. God was listening to Abraham when he was pleading for Sodom. Others need our prayers. It's important to pray for each other. In that way we can be missionary disciples because in our prayer we think of many people who are far from God, searching for him or in need of him.
 

• Do I pray for people believing that God listens to my sincere prayer for them?

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PRAYER FOR THE CONGRESS
To be held in Loeches, Spain from August 30 – September 27, 2024

“Communion, Consecration and Participation in the Mission"

Father, you who create and sustain all things with your love, we ask you to make us artisans of communion, so that as we journey towards the Congress we may know how to welcome the diversity that characterises us as the Verbum Dei Missionary Family.
 
Jesus, human face of God, consecrate us to your Word so that the Congress may be prepared and carried out in profound fidelity to your voice, listening to each one of us and to the signs of the times.
 
Holy Spirit, you who open rivers in the desert, guide us in this time of discernment and decision, so that we may live, embody and offer our charism ever more fully, so that all the baptised may participate in the mission of Jesus entrusted to the Church.
 
Accompany us, Mary, with your loving motherly presence and intercession, so that this Congress may be a channel of hope in which God transforms us and makes all things new. Amen.