Category Archives: Christianity

Sunday Devotional: The Importance of the Baptism of Our Lord

Posted on January 9, 2022 by | 4 comments

Luke 3:15-16, 21-22

The people were filled with expectation,
and all were asking in their hearts
whether John might be the Christ.
John answered them all, saying,
“I am baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I is coming.
I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

After all the people had been baptized
and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying,
heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him
in bodily form like a dove.
And a voice came from heaven,
“You are my beloved Son;
with you I am well pleased.”

The account of Jesus’ baptism is significant for at least two reasons:

(1) The Baptism of our Lord by St. John the Baptist is one of several instances in the Old and New Testaments  (see also Genesis 1:26, John 5:7, and Matthew 28) when the nature of the Triune Godhead is revealed as the confounding mystery of three Persons in one God, which our greatest theologians had sought in vain to plumb.

St. Thomas Aquinas concluded in Summa Theologica:

We cannot come to the knowledge of the Trinity by reason alone, that is, by the natural and unaided efforts of the human mind. By our natural reason, we can know that God exists; that he is the First Cause of all; that he is one, infinite, simple, immutable, etc. But that the one God subsists in three really distinct Persons is a truth that can be known only by supernatural means. That is a truth beyond the reach of human reason to know, to prove, or to disprove. We know this truth by divine revelation, and accept it by supernatural faith; we take it upon the authority of God himself.… By aid of the light of glory the soul in heaven sees God himself clearly and truly.

And so we accept our human limitation and believe, putting our trust in the words of St. Paul that we shall understand fully when we see God face to face:

1 Corinthians 13:11-12

When I was a child, I spoke like a child,
I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child;
when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
For now we see in a mirror dimly,
but then face to face.
Now I know in part;
then I shall understand fully,
even as I have been fully understood.

(2) Luke 3’s account also speaks to the importance that Jesus holds for Baptism. Though a sacrament meant for sinful humanity, the sinless Son of God chose to be baptized before He began His public ministry.

These are St. Paul’s words on Baptism:

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” -Romans 6:3-4

“But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” -1 Corinthians 6:11

“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” -Galatians 3:27

Baptism purifies and sanctifies (makes holy) the person, making him/her a dwelling of the Holy Spirit. That means that without Baptism, a person is without the Holy Spirit and rendered defenseless against the evil one.

I don’t know what other Christian denominations believe about baptism, but in the Catholic Church — notwithstanding its many flaws, including the terrible sins committed by its clergy — the sacrament of Baptism is an act of exorcism:

Since Baptism signifies liberation from sin and from its instigator the devil, one or more exorcisms are pronounced over the candidate. The celebrant then anoints him with the oil of catechumens, or lays his hands on him, and he explicitly renounces Satan. (#1237 of Catechism of the Catholic Church)

In this manner, through the exorcizing sacrament of Baptism, “all sins are forgiven, original sin and all personal sins, as well as all punishment for sin. In those who have been reborn nothing remains that would impede their entry into the Kingdom of God, neither Adam’s sin, nor personal sin, nor the consequences of sin, the gravest of which is separation from God.”

Moreover, through Baptism we receive the gift of grace from the Holy Trinity — to believe in God, to love Him, and to grow in goodness. In other words, the whole organism of the Christian’s supernatural life has its roots in Baptism.

So if you are a Christian, don’t make the mistake of postponing the baptism of your child(ren) like a friend of mine who, although he is a non-denomination Protestant and thinks of himself as quite devout, married a shallow woman with no religious beliefs. He spoke of the marriage as a mistake. They produced a daughter, now 30 years old with degrees in art and animation, and still living with her parents. My friend neither had his daughter baptized nor brought her to church services. When I asked him why, he said he wanted to leave it up to her to decide for herself when she’s an adult.

But in so doing, my friend rendered his daughter defenseless against the rampant dark forces of popular culture. Evidence of that contamination includes disturbing images she drew and posted to Instagram, including that of a goat’s head (or Baphomet) that she named “Menace of the goat king”, and a drawing for her business card of a demonic girl (herself) with two skulls.

Baptism — clothing your child “with Christ” — is the most important thing you can and will ever do for your child.

May the peace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you,

~E

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Sunday Devotional: The Magi and the Christmas Star

Posted on January 2, 2022 by | 5 comments

Matthew 2:1-2, 9-12

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,
in the days of King Herod,
behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
“Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
We saw his star at its rising
and have come to do him homage.”

And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them,
until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star,
and on entering the house
they saw the child with Mary his mother.
They prostrated themselves and did him homage.
Then they opened their treasures
and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,
they departed for their country by another way.

 

The Oxford Dictionaries defines “ephiphany” (with a small “e”) as “a moment of sudden revelation or insight” and “a manifestation of a divine or supernatural being”. The word “Epiphany” (with a capital “E”) refers to “the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi”.

Today is the great feast of the Epiphany, which celebrates the adoration of Jesus by the Magi — an event that had been foretold in Isaiah 60:1-6 some 800 years before the birth of Christ.

Isaiah 60:1-6

Your light has come,
the glory of the Lord shines upon you….
Nations shall walk by your light,
and kings by your shining radiance.
Raise your eyes and look about;
they all gather and come to you….
Then…the wealth of nations shall be brought to you.
Caravans of camels shall fill you,
dromedaries from Midian and Ephah;
all from Sheba shall come
bearing gold and frankincense,
and proclaiming the praises of the Lord.

The Magi were wise men, non-Hebrew pagans from the East. Bearing gifts fit for a king — those of gold, frankincense, and myrrh — their coming to Jerusalem to pay homage to “the king of the Jews” shows that they sought, in the messianic light of the Christmas star, the one who will be king of all nations.

It is noteworthy that the first creatures to see the newborn Jesus were his human parents, Mary and Joseph; angels on high; humble farm animals; lowly shepherds; and Gentiles — the Magi.

The Epiphany, therefore, signifies the manifestation of Jesus as Son of God and Savior of the world, not just the Old Testament‘s oft-prophesied messiah of the Jews. God is not a tribal deity, exclusive to only the so-called “chosen people”. Jesus the Christ came for Jews and Gentiles. He came for all of us, no matter our race, gender, language, country, or creed.

As St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians 3:6:

[T]he Gentiles are coheirs,
members of the same body,
and copartners in the promise
in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Noteworthy also is the fact that the Magi, as the first Gentiles to find Jesus, were also the first Gentiles to receive His salvific grace. As recounted in Matthew 2:12:

And having been warned in a dream
not to return to Herod,
they departed for their country
by another way.

By the way, astronomers, using software programs reproducing the night sky exactly as it was thousands of years ago, have determined there really was a Christmas Star or Star of Bethlehem — another empirical or scientific confirmation of biblical accounts. David Reneke, news editor of Australia’s Sky and Space Magazine, said: “We found out something startling. It looks like the ‘Christmas star’ really did exist.”

It’s generally accepted by most researchers that Christ was born between 3 BC and 1 AD. On 12 August, 3 BC, Jupiter and Venus appeared very close together just before sunrise, appearing as bright morning stars. It would have been visible in the eastern dawn sky of the Middle East from about 3:45 to 5:20 a.m.

But it didn’t stop there. The crowning touch came ten months later, on 17 June 2 BC, Venus and Jupiter joined up again in the constellation Leo. This time the two planets were so close that, without the use of our modern telescopes and other optical aids, they would have looked like one single, brilliant star.

Venus is known as the planet of love, Jupiter the planet of kings, and Leo denotes royalty and power.

How appropriate that these heavenly bodies were pointing to the birth of Jesus the Christ — the King of kings, Lord of lords, the salvific God of love who became human in order to suffer and die for our redemption.

Did you know that last year on December 21, the Christmas star reappeared when the two largest planets in our solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, seemed to almost merge in Earth’s night sky, just 0.1 degrees apart or a mere one-fifth the width of the Moon. The two planets were closer than they were in almost 800 years, since 1226 A.D., when Genghis Khan was conquering large swaths of Asia, and Europe was still generations away from the Renaissance. (Astronomy)

The next Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn will occur in 2080, 58 years from now.

Below is a picture of the 2020 Christmas star viewed from Jerusalem looking toward Bethlehem (source: Earl Tucker Dickerson):

For other passages in the Old Testament foretelling the incarnation of the Second Person of the Triune Godhead, see my post “Sunday Devotional: He shall be peace“.

May the joy of the Epiphany and the peace and love of Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, be with you!

~E

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Christmas: All things came to be through Him

Posted on December 25, 2021 by | 5 comments

John 1:1-18

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
A man named John was sent from God.
He came for testimony, to testify to the light,
so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light,
but came to testify to the light.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world,
and the world came to be through him,
but the world did not know him.
He came to what was his own,
but his own people did not accept him.

But to those who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God,
to those who believe in his name,
who were born not by natural generation
nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision
but of God.
And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth.
John testified to him and cried out, saying,
“This was he of whom I said,
‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me
because he existed before me.’”
From his fullness we have all received,
grace in place of grace,
because while the law was given through Moses,
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God.
The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side,
has revealed him.

The Parable of the Farmer and the Geese

There once was a farmer who, though a decent man, was an unbeliever because he could not understand why God would become man, only to be crucified to death, abandoned by his friends.

The farmer loved all animals, but especially loved birds.

One morning, news came of the imminent arrival of a terrible snow storm. Anxious to protect his flock of geese from the coming blizzard, the farmer put his heavy coat on and went out to get the geese into the shelter and safety of the barn.

He first tried coaxing the geese, gently shooing them into the barn. But the geese, being geese, refused to be coaxed.

He then tried luring the geese into the barn. He got a bag of grain and left a trail of seed from the outside into the barn. The geese ate the seed but stubbornly refused to enter the barn.

Meanwhile, the wind began to howl, and heavy snow began to fall . . . .

Now desperate, the farmer thought he would try scaring the geese. So he took a hammer and banged on a metal pan, so that the loud noise would frighten the geese into the barn. But the geese again refused to budge.

So the farmer gave up and retreated into his house.

In the warmth of his living room, he stood helplessly at the window, watching the blizzard descend on the geese. He knew they would surely die in the freezing storm.

In despair, a thought came to the farmer: “If only I could become a goose, then maybe the geese might listen to me and follow me into the barn.”

At that, the farmer finally understood.

Falling on his knees, sobbing and choking with tears, he said: “Forgive me, Lord. I know now why You became man.”

Today we celebrate the birth of our Savior, the Light of the world.

Rejoice!

May the joy of CHRISTmas be with you this glorious morning,

~E

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Homeless dog finds shelter next to baby Jesus

Posted on December 24, 2021 by | 6 comments

In Criciúma, Brazil, a homeless dog finds shelter in a nativity scene next to baby Jesus….

~E

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Christians are going extinct in Jerusalem, attacked by radical Jews

Posted on December 19, 2021 by | 5 comments

In an essay in The Telegraph, Dec. 18, 2021, Francesco Patton, the leader of the Franciscan Friars in the Holy Land and throughout the Middle East, dolefully writes that Christians are on the verge of extinction in Jerusalem:

[O]nce we numbered 20 per cent of the population of Jerusalem, today the Christian community counts for less than 2 per cent.

In recent years, the lives of many Christians have been made unbearable by radical local groups with extremist ideologies. It seems that their aim is to free the Old City of Jerusalem from its Christian presence, even the Christian quarter. In the last years we suffered because of the desecration of our holy sites, the vandalization of our churches, offences against our priests, monks and worshippers. The frequency of these hate crimes leaves families and communities who have lived here for generations feeling unwelcome in their own homes.

But Patton does not identify who the “radical local groups with extremist ideologies” are.

The reader immediately thinks of radical Muslims.

But Patton provides a clue when he writes that “These radical groups do not represent the government or the people of Israel.”

A couple of alert Telegraph readers point us to these little-known and -publicized news reports:

  • In 2015, National Geographic reported on increasing “tension between Christians in Israel and a growing movement of Jewish extremists who seek to cleanse their nation of religious minorities.” Attacks against Christians “have become more brutal and more aggressive,” including an arson attack six months ago that left one Catholic monk hospitalized and caused nearly $1.8 million in damage.” The response from the Israeli government had been less than vigorous.
  • More recently, on Dec. 17, 2021, LifeSiteNews reports that “Throughout recent years…, there have been reports of radical Jewish individuals and groups in Jerusalem spitting on Christians, disrupting their prayer and likely firebombing their property, which Church authorities have routinely condemned…. According to a 2017 report, within an eight-year timeframe, 53 churches and mosques were vandalized in Israel and Palestinian territories under Israeli military occupation. Of those incidents there were only nine indictments and seven convictions, with 45 of those cases being closed.”

The Israeli government is not just limpid in its response to the attacks by radical Jewish groups against Christians, the government indirectly encourages the attacks via the 2018 Nation State Law.

The Nation State Law states that although non-Jews (including Christians and Arabs) “are no less citizens of this country than our Jewish brothers and sisters,” “According to this law, the State of Israel has legislated that the people whose ‘welfare and safety’ it is most concerned to promote and protect are limited to the Jewish citizens of the State of Israel.”

Doesn’t this send a message to Jewish extremists that the Israeli government will not promote and protect the welfare and safety of Christians?

Meanwhile, the response from Pope Francis is the sound of crickets.

Pope Francis hides the Crucifix in his waist sash so as not to offend Israeli rabbis.

~E

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Sunday Devotional: He shall be peace

Posted on December 19, 2021 by | 2 comments

Micah 5:1-4a

Thus says the LORD:
You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah
too small to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel;
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient times.
Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time
when she who is to give birth has borne,
and the rest of his kindred shall return
to the children of Israel.
He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock
by the strength of the LORD,
in the majestic name of the LORD, his God;
and they shall remain, for now his greatness
shall reach to the ends of the earth;
he shall be peace.

Today is the last Sunday of Advent before Christmas.

How fitting it is that our reading is the passage from the the Old Testament’s “Book of Micah” — one of many passages in the Old Testament foretelling the incarnation of the Second Person of the Triune Godhead.

Those prophetic passages include the following:

  • Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
  • Jeremiah 23:5: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.”
  • Numbers 24:17: “there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.”
  • Psalm 22:1: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?”
  • Psalm 22:16: “they pierced my hands and my feet.”
  • Psalm 22:18: “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.”
  • Wisdom 2:12, 17-20: “The wicked say: Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training. Let us see whether his words be true; let us find out what will happen to him. For if the just one be the son of God, God will defend him and deliver him from the hand of his foes. With revilement and torture let us put the just one to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience. Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him.”
  • Zechariah 9:9: “behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.”
  • Zechariah 11:12: “So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.”

And yet so many Jews at the time and after simply refuse to believe that Jesus Christ indeed is the foretold Messiah, such is the obdurate hardness of the human heart.

May the peace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior be with you,

~E

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Sunday Devotional: Be joyful!

Posted on December 12, 2021 by | 4 comments

Isaiah 12:3

With joy you will draw water
from the fountains of salvation

Zephaniah 3:14, 17

Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!
Sing joyfully, O Israel!
Be glad and exult with all your heart,
O daughter Jerusalem! […]
The LORD, your God, is in your midst,
a mighty savior,
Who will rejoice over you with gladness,
and renew you in his love,
Who will sing joyfully because of you,
as one sings at festivals.

Philippians 4:4-7

Rejoice in the Lord always.
I shall say it again: rejoice!
Your kindness should be known to all.
The Lord is near.
Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

The Bible is replete with injunctions that we be joyful; the above three passages are examples.

What is joy?

The dictionary defines “joy” as “a state of happiness or felicity.”

Joy is different from happiness in that happiness is a fleeting emotion, but joy is a”state” — the condition of a person — of happiness. As someone once said, “Joy is not a season, it’s a way of living.”

Joy is not based upon whether things are going well or not. Joy is an emotion that comes from the anticipation, acquisition or expectation of something great or wonderful.

Joy consists of at least two components, gratitude and optimism, both of which are beneficial to our health (see my post of October 24, 2021, here).

Have you noticed how what God instructs us to do always turns out to be good for us?

St. Paul tells us joy is one of the fruits or results of having the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 1:6; Romans 14:17), which is why we can be joyful even in the midst of great trials and suffering.

I recently was subjected to malicious rumor-mongering from three nieces-in-law, which reminded me of two aphorisms: (1) No good deed goes unpunished; and (2) Never underestimate the human potential for evil.

Instead of getting angry, I thought of what our Lord Jesus had endured — betrayal by a beloved disciple, abandonment by His friends when He needed them the most, followed by torture and death by crucifixion, the most extreme form of execution that the Romans reserved for the worst criminals.

How can any of our trials and tribulations ever compare to His?

At that thought, I became joyful.

Joy even helped our Lord Jesus Christ endure the cross: “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

So be joyful!

Praise the Lord, and let your heart burst with joy!

May the joy and peace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!

~E

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Newsmax White House correspondent: Pope Francis is dying

Posted on December 8, 2021 by | 4 comments

John Gizzi, formerly a writer for Human Events, is currently the chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax.

Yesterday, Dec. 7, Gizzi reported for Newsmax, “Vatican Preps for Conclave as ‘Pope Is Dying“.

The brief article is behind a paywall, which you can access for $1.

According to Novus Ordo Watch:

Gizzi writes that a “secretary of one of the most powerful Vatican Cardinals” told him straightfowardly: “Pope Francis is dying.” Furthermore, Gizzi asserts that sources inside the Vatican do not expect Francis (Jorge Bergoglio) to see the end of next year, 2022, and are in “pre-Conclave mode”.

Without more details, one can only speculate as to what exactly the situation is, but apparently Francis is said to be terminally ill and not expected to live another 13 months for that reason. A diagnosis has not been revealed or rumored, but colon cancer would be a possibility, considering Bergoglio’s colon surgery back in early July. At the time, some Vaticanists expressed concern that this surgery had not been announced days or weeks in advance, as would have been customary….

The question at issue, then, is whether it is Francis and the Vatican public relations machine that are downplaying the reality, or whether certain officials in the Vatican are exaggerating it, perhaps due to wishful thinking. Time will surely tell.

Last July 7, Luis Badilla Morales of the Francis-friendly and well-connected Italian Novus Ordo blog Il Sismografo reported that Francis’ condition was more serious than the Vatican was letting on: “the disease that has struck Pope Francis is severe and degenerative. It could also be chronic.”

~E

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Sunday Devotional: Advance secure in the glory of God!

Posted on December 5, 2021 by | 2 comments

Baruch 5:1-2, 7-9

Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery;
put on the splendor of glory from God forever:
wrapped in the cloak of justice from God,
bear on your head the mitre
that displays the glory of the eternal name….
For God has commanded
that every lofty mountain be made low,
and that the age-old depths and gorges
be filled to level ground,
that Israel may advance secure in the glory of God.
The forests and every fragrant kind of tree
have overshadowed Israel at God’s command;
for God is leading Israel in joy
by the light of his glory,
with his mercy and justice for company.

The above passage from the Book of Baruch in the Old Testament applies not just to the biblical Jerusalem and the Israelites, but also to the new Jerusalem of the new Chosen People of Christians.

That is because the Second Person of the Triune Godhead incarnated Himself as man to make a new Covenant with not just Jews, but with all who believe in Him — Jews and Gentiles.

As St. Paul put it in Hebrews 9:15, “He is mediator of a new covenant,” and explained further in another letter:

Ephesians 1:3-5, 7

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavens,
as he chose us in him,
before the foundation of the world,
to be holy and without blemish before him.
In love he destined us
for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ….
In him we have redemption by his blood….

So, by exercising our God-given free will to follow Jesus, we are the new Chosen People.

We are chosen! We are selected as a favorite out of “many [who] are called” (Matthew 22:14) “out of the world” (John 15:19). What a privilege! We are God’s choice to bear His name, represent His cause, and share His glory throughout eternity.

Heeding the words of Baruch 5:7, let us not be intimidated by our enemies —  political, cultural, spiritual — but instead “advance secure in the glory of God“!

And may the peace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you,

~E

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Sunday Devotional: The power of prayer

Posted on November 28, 2021 by | 6 comments

Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

Jesus said to his disciples:
“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars,
and on earth nations will be in dismay,
perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves.
People will die of fright
in anticipation of what is coming upon the world,
for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
And then they will see the Son of Man
coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
But when these signs begin to happen,
stand erect and raise your heads
because your redemption is at hand.

“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy
from carousing and drunkenness
and the anxieties of daily life,
and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.
For that day will assault everyone
who lives on the face of the earth.
Be vigilant at all times
and pray that you have the strength
to escape the tribulations that are imminent
and to stand before the Son of Man.”

The word advent is an anglicized version of the Latin word adventus, which means “coming”.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, a season observed by Christians as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the incarnation and birth of the Second Person of the Triune Godhead, and of His return — His coming — at the end of all things.

In today’s reading from Luke 21, Jesus, once again, warned about the end times, the timing of which, He stated in Mark 13:32, “no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

Since no one knows the precise day or hour of the last days, our Lord instructs us to “Be vigilant at all times and pray“. For that matter, in Luke 18:1, Jesus emphasized “the necessity” for us “to pray always without becoming weary.“

Being a loving God, what He counsels us to do turns out to be good for us (see “Neuroscience explains why gratitude is good for our health“).

Did you know these benefits of praying? —

  • Regular prayer and meditation has been shown in numerous scientific studies to be an important factor in living longer, reducing stress, coping better with sickness, and staying healthy. (allnurses)
  • When we pray, our heart rate slows down, blood pressure goes down, and our breath becomes calmer and more regular.
  • A study funded by the National Institutes of Health found that those who attended religious services at least once a week and prayed at least once a day or studied the Bible frequently were 40% less likely to have high blood pressure. (NCBI)
  • Praying helps patients heal, according to a study by Dr. Andrew Newberg of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia. (NBC News)
  • Praying helps people have fewer migraine headaches and an increase in pain tolerance, according to a study by Ken Pargement of Bowling Green State University. (US News and World Report)
  • Praying reduces levels of infidelity and alcohol consumption by helping us maintain self-control, resist temptation and enhance emotional stability, according to a 2013 study by German psychologists at Saarland University and the University of Mannheim. (Daily Mail)

Not only are we told to pray for ourselves, we should also pray for others.

Here are the reasons for intercessory prayer — petitioning God on behalf of and for the benefit of another, even those who have hurt us (“Pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” – Matthew 5:44):

  1. Jesus, the Second Person of the Triune Godhead, is the foremost intercessor:
    1. On the cross, “he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12).
    2. Since His return to heaven, He has been continually occupied with His ministry of intercession: “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25); “It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Romans 8:34).
  2. When we are baptized, we are gifted with the infusion of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Triune Godhead, who also intercedes for us! “For we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit [Himself] maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” (Romans 8:26).
  3. Studies found that intercessory prayer really works:
    1. In 1988 and 1999, randomized controlled trials of remote intercessory prayer (praying for persons unknown) showed a beneficial effect in patients in intensive coronary care units (Southern Medical Journal, July 1988,81(7):826-9; Archives of  Internal Medicine, Oct. 25, 1999; 159(19):2273-8).
    2. In 2000, a systematic review of randomized, placebo controlled trials of distant healing found that 57% of the randomized, placebo controlled trials of distant healing showed a positive treatment effect (Annals of Internal Medicine, June 6, 2000; 32(11):903-10).
    3. In 2001, a double-blind study of 3393 adults hospitalized with a bloodstream infection found that remote intercessory prayer is associated with a shorter hospital stay and shorter duration of fever in those patients even when the intervention is performed 4-10 years after the infection ( Dec. 22, 2001; 323(7327): 1450–1451).

And remember, always, to tell God you love Him with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole mind, and with all your strength.

May the peace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!

~E

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