We Are The Parched Desert

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My friends, I am inspired today! The Holy Spirit has been working overtime in the past twenty-four hours to reveal an essential principle to me. It certainly is amazing that revelation can happen even though we are ignorant or unexpecting.

The following Scripture passage comes from yesterdays first Mass reading:

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom...it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy annd singing. ... The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water.... And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Isaiah 35: 1-10)

To what is this connected? As I read a book on prayer last evening, the author remarked that personal prayer is analogous to water that brings life to the dry, parched desert; that we need prayer to make us fruitful. Moreover, as I studied the eleventh chapter of Matthew's Gospel, I saw how Jesus fulfilled the prophecy quoted above.

It is simple! When Jesus comes to us, physically in the Eucharist and spiritually in prayer, our lives are made fruitful. When we receive the Lord, the parched deserts that are our lives gradually cease to be arid. When we become less arid and are able to bear much fruit, we can become builders of the Kingdom of Heaven, the City of God on Earth.

God Bless.

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