Shout to God with Cries of Gladness

Shout to God with Cries ofGladness

May 10, 2013

Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter

By Melanie Rigney

One night while Paul was in Corinth, the Lord said to him in a vision, “Do not be afraid. Go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you. No one will attack and harm you, for I have many people in this city.” (Acts 18:9-10)

All you peoples, clap your hands, shout to God with cries of gladness, for the Lord, the Most High, the awesome, is the great king over all the earth.  (Psalms 47: 2-3)

“When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. On that day you will not question me about anything.” (John 16:21-23)

Piety

Lord, I ask for the faith to stop asking “Why” and “When” and “How” and to trust in your timing.

 Study

What do you think heaven will be like? Wings and harps and music? Joyous reunions with those we love… and a certain satisfaction that those people, the ones who made our time on earth difficult, are nowhere to be found?

Or how about a time of reckoning—not for us, but for God? Have you already started a list of questions for him: “What was the deal with my mother being bedridden for ten years?” “Did you really have to send me to the brink and back with my son?” “That was a pretty cold, the way you never gave me a break in all my working days. Why?”

Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel reading that we’ll forget all that anguish when we see him. He promises us that, that we will be so busy being joyful that we won’t bother with questions. So maybe we can get a head start on that today. Maybe we can stop asking the whys and whens and hows here on earth… and work on doing what we can to prepare for the joyful times ahead.

Action

Just for today, don’t ask God to explain anything. Accept it all, good and bad, with a happy, trusting heart. See how you feel when you say your bedtime prayers.