Lift up your Eyes

Scripture/Bible:  When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify thy Son that the Son may glorify thee, 2 since thou hast given him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom thou hast given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. 4 I glorified thee on earth, having accomplished the work which thou gavest me to do; 5 and now, Father, glorify thou me in thy own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made. John 17:1-5

Reflection:  Where is heaven? Who knows whether heaven is upwards questioned the seemingly wise theologian?

Our modern day experts take great pleasure in questioning everything; whether it is the hour of prayer or the hour of glory or the location of heaven.

What does it matter to us who have found the truth; Christ Jesus: “the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.” John 14:6

When the scripture tell us that Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven, then it is. The divine revealed Son, who was always in the bosom of the Father has revealed to us that which is objectively true and safe to practice.

So when Jesus looks heaven wards it could be a dwelling of God in the heavenly or higher above the heavens. 

Heaven is and was always considered a place up above, therefore the Psalmist would pray: “Thou whose glory above the heavens is chanted.”  Ps 8:1

With Jesus with us, it would be good sometimes to pray like him lifting up our eyes to the heavens. In doing so we will be acknowledging at least one thing necessary for his ongoing work of salvation in us: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isa 55:9

Prayer: “To thee I lift up my eyes, O thou who art enthroned in the heavens!” Ps 123:1

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Pray with Fervour

Today’s Scripture:  And a leper came to him beseeching him, and kneeling said to him, "If you will, you can make me clean." 41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I will; be clean." 42 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 And he sternly charged him, and sent him away at once, 44 and said to him, "See that you say nothing to any one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to the people." 45 But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter. Mark 1:40-45

Reflection:  There are so many who approach the Lord in prayer, some invoke, some praise, some thank, some plead and demand.  The other extreme we see is that of avoidance and shunning the divine, some ignore, or care less or make a cold hearted prayer or follow a routine readymade prayer or pray the prayer for every occasion or recite the novena for favours.

The intensity of prayer depends on the need of a person or the passion in ones soul or the love of a simple heart. In the gospel reading of today we see one such instance of a prayer of great intensity.

A good prayer often expresses the true desire and feeing of the heart to a God who is with us at that very level of emotions and feelings and waits on him to correct what is inappropriate in these expressions of the human heart.  He created them and he understands them as the sincere expressions of the human heart and corrects what is not appropriate.

Prayer: Lord, let me not suppress what you have created when in your presence and seek your corrections where required.

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