Today’s Theme for Prayer – Jesus Makes Me His Intimate Disciple
How Do I Gain Deeper Personal Knowledge of God
All the virtues co-operate with the intellect to produce this intense longing for God, pure prayer above all. For by soaring towards God through this prayer the intellect rises above the realm of created beings. St. Maximus the Confessor
Drawn into the Trinity’s Embrace
Mk 8:31-38
He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke plainly about this. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But, turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? What could one give in exchange for his life? Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes with the holy angels in the glory of his Father.”
Grace Prayed For
The grace to embrace the cross, to surrender our own will to the will of the Father, and to find our true selves in Christ.
Reflection
In the quiet of my heart, I sit with this passage, allowing its words to wash over me. Jesus, the Son of Man, speaks of suffering, rejection, and death, yet also of resurrection. His words are stark, a stark contrast to the world’s allure of power and comfort. I feel Peter’s struggle, his desire to protect Jesus, to shield him from pain. And yet, Jesus’ response is firm, “Get behind me, Satan!” a reminder that true love sometimes demands we let go of our own desires and embrace God’s will.
“Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me,” Jesus says. These words echo in my soul, a call to surrender my ego, my self-centeredness, and embrace the path of love, even when it leads to suffering. It’s a call to lose my life, to let go of my own limited existence, and find it anew in Christ. This “losing” isn’t annihilation, but rather a transformation, a movement towards the heart of the Trinity. In surrendering to the Father’s will, as Jesus did, I open myself to the flow of the Holy Spirit, the love that binds Father and Son. It’s in this surrender that I discover my true self, a self rooted in divine love, a self capable of true joy and true service.
Growing in Intimacy/Union with Jesus
This passage reveals the depth of Jesus’ love and obedience to the Father. By understanding his willingness to suffer and die for us, we are drawn closer to him. His call to take up our cross and follow him is not a burden, but an invitation to walk alongside him, to share in his journey, and to experience the transformative power of his love. It’s in this shared journey, in carrying our crosses with him, that we truly come to know him.
When Time Allows Reflect on the Posts in Library and Musings
Sharing
Jesus last words on Earth were to his disciples, can be found in Matthew Chap 28 when Jesus told his disciples, “Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Jesus calls all of us to share in his redemptive mission here on Earth. I would ask you to share this Scripture reflection with your family, your friends and your acquaintances, and then share it with a couple of individuals that you may may not be comfortable sharing with, keeping in mind always the words of Jesus, And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age
Author was assisted by AI in the drafting of this Post