9th Day – Our hope of real joyful life 17th January 2015 (Saturday) Novena prayers: (also available at stoninoleics/linksresources) Readings: usccb.org/bible/readings/011715.cfm Reflections: (from the Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s encyclical letter on Christian Hope, ‘SPE SALVI’) 31. Let us say once again: we need the greater and lesser hopes that keep us going day by day. But these are not enough without the great hope, which must surpass everything else. This great hope can only be God, who encompasses the whole of reality and who can bestow upon us what we, by ourselves, cannot attain. The fact that it comes to us as a gift is actually part of hope. God is the foundation of hope: not any god, but the God who has a human face and who has loved us to the end, each one of us and humanity in its entirety. His Kingdom is not an imaginary hereafter, situated in a future that will never arrive; his Kingdom is present wherever he is loved and wherever his love reaches us. His love alone gives us the possibility of soberly persevering day by day, without ceasing to be spurred on by hope, in a world which by its very nature is imperfect. His love is at the same time our guarantee of the existence of what we only vaguely sense and which nevertheless, in our deepest self, we await: a life that is “truly” life. […] (let us pause for a few moments for silent reflection) PETITION (9th Day) – Hope of Heaven Oh, merciful Jesus! You said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”; We beseech you to guide us in our way to heaven so that we may be able to surmount all the difficulties and obstacles we will encounter in this deceptive world. Grant us also the virtue of hope so that we will always thirst for the heavenly things and for your glory. This we ask you in your holy name. Amen.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 06:00:00 +0000
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