You Gotta Be Kidding !

1 THES 5:16-24

Brothers and sisters:                                             
                 
Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing.
In all circumstances give thanks,
for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.
Do not quench the Spirit.
Do not despise prophetic utterances.
Test everything; retain what is good.
Refrain from every kind of evil.
May the God of peace make you perfectly holy
and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body,
be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who calls you is faithful,
and he will also accomplish it.


I always thought of Paul as a level-headed, clear thinking, man of God.  He usually has a lot of wise things to tell us that are for our own good.  But here, he tells us to do two things that I think are kind of difficult to do.  

REJOICE ALWAYS.
Paul tells us to rejoice always.  How can he expect a person to do that when life comes at you from every direction at once sometimes?  For me, I go back to 2008.  In the space of a couple of months, I lost my father to COPD or as I call it RJ Reynolds Disease. Then my car decided to commit suicide and drop its transmission and the very next day, I was laid off from my job. I can tell you with great certainty that I was not in the mood to rejoice. There was rent to be paid, car payments to make, Uncle MasterCard and Visa wanted their money so, no, I did not say after losing my job, "Thank you, Lord Jesus, for putting me in this position!."  But if I was spiritually more mature  I would have found it in me to remember that all things will work together for my good. As it turned out, the rent got paid, as did the car payment and I found a new job in only a couple of months during a huge recession.  

Corrie Ten-Boom, a Dutch lady living in Amsterdam during World War II was sent to the notorious Ravensbruk concentration camp for hiding Jews from the Nazis.  She and her sister, who died in the camp, would hold prayer meetings in the barracks. If they were caught they would be punished, almost certainly they would have been executed.  But not one SS man ever came into the barracks.  So Corie and her sister thanked God for this but they did not know why.  They found out it was because the barrack was infested with fleas.  The SS men did not want to become a host for the fleas.  Corrie told this to her sister and she immediately thanked God for the fleas!  

PRAY WITHOUT CEASING.
Alright, is this even possible? Imagine this scenario. You are an air traffic controller and it is the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and traffic is very heavy, in fact, it is a record-breaking day!  Do you, in obedience to this call from scripture, close your eyes every so often and pray?  With fifty planes all converging at the airport all at once, each of them going almost as fast as bullet, if you close your eyes and prayed, chances are that a couple of those planes would attempt to occupy the same space and would fall from the sky, easing your burden, to be sure, but somewhat detrimental to the well-being of the people riding on those planes. So, I do not think that I would want an air traffic controller to pray without ceasing.  Or would I? It is possible to pray without ceasing and still get your work done.  You can start your day by offering all of your work to God through the recitation of the Morning Offering.  Here is an example.

O Jesus,through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,I offer You my prayers, works,joys and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart,in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world,in thanksgiving for your favors,in reparation for my sins,for the intentions of all my relatives and friends,and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father. Amen.

If you say this prayer in the morning you make the work you do, the thoughts you think, everything that comes your way a prayer so in effect you are praying without ceasing just by being you and doing what it is you do so well.  

An aside here, if you want to know more about Corrie Ten Boom, there are many articles on the internet about her.  I recommend this website.  (click here)

The Poor Souls in Purgatory Rejoice in the Lord Always and Pray Unceasingly but they need your help to shorten their time in Purgatory - please pray for the poor souls today. 

REMEMBER WHERE THEY ARE, YOU MAY SOMEDAY BE