From the Hermitage
Please note that yesterday's message was prepared but not entered until early this AM and it is located following today's message from the Hermitage. Lill C. and Mary D. thanks for your concern.
"Walk in all the ways that I command you,
so that you may prosper." Jeremiah 7:23
so that you may prosper." Jeremiah 7:23
or another translation of the same verse
"Walk exactly in the way I command you,
so that you may prosper." Jeremiah 7:23
Dear Friends,
The God of Israel spoke these words to Jeremiah to speak to the people of Israel. The purpose is to remind the people that while burnt offerings may have been a practice of religions to give thanks to Yahweh, the God of Israel, Jeremiah reminds the people that on the day the people were brought out of the land of Egypt on their return homeward "I gave them no command concerning burnt offering or sacrifice." He wanted to remind the people of Jeremiah's time and subsequent times that following the Law, the Commandments, was the way that God's people were and are to praise God. Live the life of the Commandments.
"If today you hear his voice ........" can you you almost automatically complete this verse used as the response we recite in today Responsorial Psalm? If you said "harden not your hearts," you would be on target!
What does this mean for us today as we seek to live the life of the Commandments? For me that word "harden" has always meant don't build a wall around your heart, a wall that blocks where I know that God wants me to be or what God wants me to do. Always it is to follow the Commandments which means, at least for me, really knowing exactly the direction each of the Commandments is meant to give me in my life.
So for us today in our moments of quiet, there is the same old question, the same repeated theme from the season of Lent, "Where is God leading me now?" Can you write in one or two sentences where God is leading you, what he expects of you today? Perhaps this might be a worthwhile exercise for the next few days so that by Sunday all of us together might be able to say "I have a good idea of where it is and what it is that God is asking of me in this moment of my life."
Oremus pro invicem!
(Recall the translation: Let us pray for one another!)
Fr. Milt
