Series on The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups (Part 6)
Our expectations and what God is doing can be totally different, so how should we respond to that? In the raising of Lazarus, the response of the Pharisees was to have Jesus killed. This was the tragic response of the heart when they were not open and unable to receive the mysterious and unconditional love of God. We can sometimes share the same humanity as the Pharisees too. We sometimes prefer to have Jesus out of our lives completely because of the changes, experiences, and difficult things that are happening in our lives that weren’t what we expected them to be. We want it to be a certain way but then it’s not that way.
But despite all that, we are invited to stay in relationship with Jesus through any difficulty, change, or experience. In this episode we’re gonna do a recap on the raising of Lazarus and dive into its mysterious reality and our response to that.
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Rethink Growth
One might often think that growth is gonna happen in a particular way that we usually perceive as a huge experience or something flashy, but growth might actually look different. What does the Lord want to teach us and how does He teach us…
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Made for Mysticism
Life of prayer is worth going “all-in” on. In this mystical identity, there’s an invitation to let go of ourselves. Prayer is not authentic if we are stuck or focused on ourselves. Prayer changes as we let go of our own notion of what it should be. We are constantly invited for our hearts to be attentive and open to become mystics — to become men and women of prayer. It anchors us in the reality that we are made for relationship, we’re made for prayer, and we are made to live in intimacy with God every single day of our lives.
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Hot Takes 6
We have to understand that we are going through different journeys. God is doing something completely different in our lives, and we must be attentive. Let us not be so quick to judge—everything is not as simple as it may seem. As we continue our journeys through life, we will constantly encounter our own and other people’s struggles, flaws, weaknesses, and even sins. Many questions will come our way…
