Weekly Prayer Guidelines: September 9-15, 2019

The More I Called, the More You Walked Away

(cf. Hos.11:2)

​September 9-15, 2019

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General Theme:
Unawareness of Life and Love

General Objective:
That we may discover why we do not live fully the plan of God for our lives
 
Objective of the week:
 To realize the consequences of  being disconnected from God

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INTRODUCTION

Unawareness of God’s life and love disconnects our primary relationship with him as a beloved child and corrupts His love within us. This places us in a state where we find it difficult to come to him in a dialogue-prayer.
 
When we begin to lose this sensitivity and connection with God,  we tend to fail to see his goodness and be convinced that the happiness we experience are brought about from different sources. Our disconnection can slowly cloud the image of God that we have known.
 
If one does not want to believe in God, he/she must believe in something. There are nations who would not go from false to true, and yet some people have gone from true to false.

Unaware of our disconnection from God, it's easy to turn back to the old ways, to rely on what we have been accustomed to in order to live, and in doing so, we gain strength from man and not from God who is the source of life.
 
The state of unawareness has an impact in our being apostles of Christ.  Our prayer and any other kind of worship is empty without our primary connection with God. We risk guiding God’s people in a state of blindness and lack of discernment.
 
God calls us to a constant conversion, discernment through prayer, sacraments, and the means that the church and the community offer us that we may grow firm and fruitful in faith and love. May we continue to discern His call, and give Him thanks for the wonders He has done for us.

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MONDAY
Without God, we are disconnected from the truth

Hos 11:2  But the more I called to him,  the more he turned away from me. My people sacrificed to Baal; they burned incense to idols.

Losing our capacity to listen to the voice of God in the depths of our heart cuts our primary relationship with Him. Thus, failing to discover how He guides us to our fulfillment. For all of the joys we experience in life, we often forget to be grateful to Hm who is the source of life and love. When we turn our backs on Him, we move away from the life and love that we truly seek and need.

What are my personal idols that blind me from being grateful to God?

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TUESDAY
Without God, we seek aimlessly for the things that can't truly satisfy

Jer 2:12-13 And so I command the sky to shake with horror, to be amazed and astonished, for my people have committed two sins: they have turned away from me, the spring of fresh water, and they have dug cisterns, cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all.

Our disconnection from the source of Life and Love who is God has consequences in our relationship with ourselves -- we tend to seek hopelessly for satisfaction in other sources. Some people carve out their own system of belief. They may trust and believe in their own belief system but it won’t sustain them. Away from God, our life-giving source, our thirst will never be quenched. 
 
What are my personal beliefs that connects or disconnects me from God? 

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​WEDNESDAY
Apart from Him, we cannot grow mature 

Jn 15: 5-6  “I am the vine, and you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me. Those who do not remain in me are thrown out like a branch and dry up; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, where they are burned.

God is glorified when we bear much fruit. Without Christ, everything that we do will not have any spiritual value. When we abide in Christ and nurture our relationship with Him, our life will be fruitful. Separated from Him, our actions would lead us into deprivation.
 
What habits keep me away from God, who is the source of life?

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THURSDAY
Without God, we become self-righteous

Mt 15:1-9 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the Law came from Jerusalem to Jesus and asked him, “Why is it that your disciples disobey the teaching handed down by our ancestors? They don't wash their hands in the proper way before they eat!”
Jesus answered, “And why do you disobey God's command and follow your own teaching? For God said, ‘Respect your father and your mother,’ and ‘If you curse your father or your mother, you are to be put to death.’ But you teach that if people have something they could use to help their father or mother, but say, ‘This belongs to God,’ they do not need to honor their father. In this way you disregard God's command, in order to follow your own teaching.You hypocrites! How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you! ‘These people, says God, honor me with their words, but their heart is really far away from me. It is no use for them to worship me, because they teach human rules as though they were my laws!’”

Some Christians today strongly advocate particular views as biblical, but cannot fully live out their faith. Sometimes we work hard to assimilate to various trends of pop culture while contributing less work to assimilate the Lord’s teachings. As His disciples, we are called to pray, discern and practice what we preach, and be living examples of His teachings.
 
Do my practices follow my beliefs? How am I living out my faith as a disciple?

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FRIDAY
Away from him, we are blinded by sin

1Jn 2:11 But if we hate others, we are in the darkness; we walk in it and do not know where we are going, because the darkness has made us blind.
 
Mt 15:10-14 Then Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand! It is not what goes into your mouth that makes you ritually unclean; rather, what comes out of it makes you unclean.”

Fellowship exists where there is trust. Where there is deceit, true fellowship cannot occur. Friendships can only go as far as there is trust, and trust must be based on truth.There is no sin in word or deed which was not first in the heart. It is in placing ourselves in God’s hands that we can see the light in the darkness within. When we allow God to connect to our lives, hate will be replaced with love.
 
As disciples accompanying others to grow in the dynamism of God's love, how are we discerning our ways? Am I aware that my disconnection from God can also affect my relationship with others? 

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SATURDAY 
In God, our life and love is made whole. Turn to Him!

Rev 2:4-5 But this is what I have against you: you do not love me now as you did at first. Think how far you have fallen! Turn from your sins and do what you did at first. If you don't turn from your sins, I will come to you and take your lampstand from its place.

God continually guides us to love. It is our own human tendencies to sin that causes us to fall away from our identity as God's children. But God constantly calls us to conversion from our sinfulness, that our light might not be extinguished. 
 
What aspect/s of my life do I need to open to God to be cleansed, healed, or renewed? 

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SUNDAY
24TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

1st Reading: Exo 32:7-14
Resp. Psalm: Ps. 51:3-19
2nd Reading: 1 Tim 1:12-17
Gospel: Lk 15:1-32