By Beth De Cristofaro
Before all things else wisdom was created; and prudent understanding, from eternity. The word of God on high is the fountain of wisdom and her ways are everlasting…It is the LORD; he created her, has seen her and taken note of her… He has lavished (wisdom) on his friends (Sir 1:4-5, 7, 10)
Piety
Lord of splendor and might, lavish me with the gift of wisdom so that being touched by you I might bring your presence a little more clearly to your broken and battered world. “Help my unbelief,” Lord, so that I might be healed and help to heal those least among your brothers and sisters.
Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/021907.shtml
The sand of the seashore, the drops of rain, the days of eternity: who can number these? (Sir 1:2) If we try to understand God, God’s mystery and God’s majesty in quantitative terms, we don’t get too far. The apostles are not able to dispel the mute demon. Jesus tells them “This kind can only come out through prayer.” (Mark 9:29) It is not through their skill or understanding but their conscious reliance on God's power when acting in Jesus' name which will give them dominion over evil.
Perhaps the disciples might themselves cry “help our unbelief” in their impotence. Peter, James and John had just accompanied Jesus to the mountaintop where he was transfigured and they heard the voice of God affirm Him. But they did not understand: So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant. (Mk 9:10)
This is first time in Mark that Jesus made clear that the disciples must pray (Mk 9:29). What keeps them (us) unbelieving, misunderstanding, doing impotent actions? We can only dispel demons – including our own which keep us from God – through prayer and submission to the power of God.
As we study we ought not to reduce God to the knowledge we possess about God. Rather, we study, we pray, we spend time with God, we cry “help our unbelief” to resolve what our response to God’s sovereignty should be in everyday life.
Action
Can we use ourselves, given to us by God, to praise God each and everyday? Can we turn over our intellect to God? Can we turn over our unbelief or doubts to God? Can we turn over our failures to God? Can we turn over our successes to God? Can we prepare to become God’s empty vessel through the opportunity of entering the
In the beautiful words of the mystic, St. Isaac the Syrian: “Blessed is God who uses corporeal objects continually to draw us close in a symbolic way to a knowledge of God's invisible nature. O name of Jesus, key to all gifts, open up for me the great door to your treasure-house, that I may enter and praise you with the praise that comes from the heart.” [1]
[1] Adapted from Hilarion Alfeyev, The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian (Cistercian Studies 175),
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