Opening Prayer: I beg of You, my Lord, to remove anything
which separates me from You, and You from me.
Remove anything that makes me unworthy of Your sight, Your control, Your
reprehension; of Your speech and conversation, of Your benevolence and
love. Cast from me every evil that
stands in the way of my seeing You, hearing, tasting, savoring, and touching
You; fearing and being mindful of You; knowing, trusting, loving, and
possessing You; being conscious of Your presence and, as far as may be,
enjoying You. This is what I ask for myself and earnestly desire from You.
~Peter Faber
Scripture: Matthew 5:8
Journal: What does it mean to be pure in heart? Why do you think the pure in heart will see
God? What is it about purity of
heart that allows someone to see God?
Could it be because when we are pure in heart there is nothing to
hinder our vision of him?
Reflection:
The Beatitudes are foundational attitudes of the
spiritual life and they give form to it as a whole. They are responses to the human aspiration to
experience the blessed life, or what St. Catherine of Genoa calls the “instinct
for beatitude.” They are invitations
from a personal God to each of us as persons, calling us to the destiny of
peace and joy. These eight attitudes
involve all that we have been, all that we are, all that we shall become. They communicate a living expression of the
divine direction of each human life.
The Beatitudes preserve the wisdom of the
formation tradition, a wisdom we can rely upon in the ebb and flow of changing
times. They provide a solid foundation
on which to build our life of faith.
When we live the Beatitudes in and with the Lord, we become liberated
persons in the fullest sense. We follow
the path of purgation until, with Jesus, we are filled with the peace of
surrender to the Father and led by his Spirit to new depths of intimacy with
the Indwelling Trinity. These ways of
going to God offer us a truly holistic pattern of formation that involves our
entire existence from birth to death and beyond. (Blessings That Make Us Be by
Susan Annette Muto)
Prayer
Closing Prayer: O Lord my God, give me a pure heart; purge me
of everything that would stand in the way of my ability to see you and to know
you. Amen.
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