In the "New Covenant" made by our Creator God with humanity, as reported in Jeremiah 31:31-34, every human being can know God from within - because the Holy Spirit is revealing our Creator to all who are willing to know the Lord and trust in Him. We can still help each other along the way; so may you be pleased to find here a variety of helps to the life of faith in God through Jesus Christ. G.S.
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WORKSHOP 💘 GOD 💘 LIFE 💘 MARRIAGE 💘
💘 FAMILY 💘 PRAYER 💘 TRINITY 💘 SEMINAR
Saturday, November 4th, 2023 👈
by Bridget Bagshaw, Coordinator
Father Gilles Surprenant in Capernaum, Galilee, Palestine
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This is a 2-Hour WORKSHOP / SEMINAR
We'll have actual prayer experiences...
... discussion, couple time, Q&A, & breaks...
Last year, afte we prayed a little with couples, they wanted more. Well, this morning we will spend 3 hours exploring prayer.
You will have opportunity to express any doubts and ask questions. Let this Workshop / Seminar be an adventure; I am your field guide.
WE LEARN BEST TOGETHER...
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This Marriage Preparation Course is designed and rests on an act of trust in God made by every Team member.
God respects our free will; so it is unthreatening to be open to God and be guided by his design for our lives.
Prayer is primarily a relationship with God, our Creator.
While prayer takes many forms, it is not primarily an activity, or a duty, or an obligation. First, it is personal. Then, it can also be communal; a shared experience.
BUT IS GOD REAL? or NOT REAL?
Despite lots of evidence, there are different views, and many people are indifferent…
“For those who believe in God, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not believe in God, no explanation is possible (or sufficient).”
Quotation at the beginning of the movie: “The Song of Bernadette” produced in 1943 about the 1858 apparitions of Mary in Lourdes, France.
Do you believe in God?Are you doing anything about this?
GOD - REAL? or NOT REAL?
Despite lots of evidence, there are different views, and many people are indifferent …
Our choices are:
1. Ignore God & his Church as irrelevant
2. Hold God & his Church in contempt
3. 💘Respect God as real, respect God as worthy of trust, and cultivate the relationship.
YOUR GOALS FOR THIS WORKSHOP SEMINAR
If I don’t know God, where and how do I start?
If I know God or have experience of prayer, how do I advance?
Every life situation and every life situation is an opportunity for prayer. I can begin to take note of opportunities in my life….
1.
2.
3.
4.
Jesus said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Mt 18:3
It really is as simple as that.
So, can we trust God? Can I trust God?
Do I want to trust in God?
No one else can really convince us.
We need to find out for ourselves.
Can we trust God? Can I trust God?
Do I want to trust in God?
Why at times can is seem so difficult to trust in God?
Genesis, in the Bible, tells how humans stopped trusting in God. Doubt and fear are our sad heritage. God’s way to fix this broken trust is one person at a time. It’s our choice to use the gift of faith.
Violence, troubles, dangers threaten humanity. Our human condition causes us to suffer insecurities, fears, doubts, and concerns for the future. We endure the faults of others and dislike admitting our own faults.
The awesome truth is that our Creator God loves us without limits. God gives us freedom because He designed us for friendship love. It is only in learning to love our Maker back that we will be perfectly happy. We can please others but we cannot “make happy” anyone; it is unfair to even expect a human, other than Jesus, to try to “make us happy”.
We're off!
💘 FAMILY 💘 PRAYER 💘 TRINITY 💘 SEMINAR
Please join me as we begin with a PRAYER
OPENING PRAYER
LED BY FR. GILLES
💘 GOD 💘 LIFE 💘 PRAYER 💘
“Lord, I can’t pray properly.
I’m weak; I’m human;
I’m fragile. I’m easily distracted,
taken into thoughts of myself and the world.
But you, Lord, lead me past that.
Help me to pray truly as I am.
Help me to focus on the Father, the Son,
and You, Holy Spirit,
so that my soul may be opened,
and I can receive the grace that is there
for everyone in prayer. Amen.”
Prayer published by C. Alan Ames inspired by St. Teresa of Avila
“The Warning: Testimonies and Prophecies of the Illumination of Conscience.” By Christine Watkins, Queen of Peace Media, 2020. Sacramento CA
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Living Prayer
By Anthony of Sourozh, Metropolitan. Living Prayer: The Pocket Library of Spiritual Wisdom. Foreword, p. 5. Darton, Longman & Todd LTD. Kindle Edition.
Worship to me means a relationship. I used not to be a believer, then one day I discovered God and immediately he appeared to me to be the supreme value and the total meaning of life, but at the same time a person. I think that worship can mean nothing at all to someone for whom there is no object of worship. You cannot teach worship to someone who has not got a sense of the living God; you can teach him to act as if he believed, but it will not be the spontaneous attitude which is real worship. Therefore, as a foreword to this book on prayer, what I would like to convey is my certitude in the personal reality of a God with whom a relationship can be established.
Then I would ask my reader to treat God as a neighbour, as someone, and value this knowledge in the same terms in which he values a relationship with a brother or a friend. This, I think, is essential. One of the reasons why communal worship or private prayer seem to be so dead or so conventional is that the act of worship, which takes place in the heart communing with God, is too often missing. Every expression, either verbal or in action, may help, but they are only expressions of what is essential, namely, a deep silence of communion.
We all know in human relationships that love and friendship are deep when we can be silent with someone. As long as we need to talk in order to keep in touch, we can safely and sadly assume that the relationship is still superficial; and so, if we want to worship God, we must first of all learn to feel happy, being silent together with him. This is an easier thing to do than one might think at first; it needs a little time, some confidence and the courage to start.
Once the Curé d’Ars, a French saint of the eighteenth century, asked an old peasant what he was doing sitting for hours in the church, seemingly not even praying; the peasant replied: ‘I look at him, he looks at me and we are happy together.’ That man had learned to speak to God without breaking the silence of intimacy by words. If we can do that we can use any form of worship.
If we try to make worship itself out of the words we use, we will get desperately tired of those words, because unless they have the depth of silence, they are shallow and tiresome. But how inspiring words can be once they are backed by silence and are infused with the right spirit: ‘O Lord, open Thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise’ (Ps 51:15).
1* Adaptation of a talk given on the BBC in the ‘Ten to Eight’ programme first broadcast in 1965.
Anthony of Sourozh, Metropolitan. Living Prayer: The Pocket Library of Spiritual Wisdom (pp. 5-6). Darton, Longman & Todd LTD. Kindle Edition.
GO TO THE POWERPOINT SLIDES TO SEE TODAY'S ACTUAL WORKSHOP / SEMINAR
👇 Link to Fr. Gilles' Power Point Presentation: 👇
Suggestions for approaching God with openness, honesty, & trust
From “Beginning to Pray” by Anthony Bloom
(1) Sit with myself and face my boredom, confusion, or poverty
(2) Facing my emptiness, helplessness, or anguish cry: “Lord, have mercy!”
(3) Realizing all my life was outside, and inside, I am nothing - knock at his door.
(4) In trouble, struggle, or despair, hope in Christ, cry out: “Save me!”
(5) Instead of counting on my own efforts or other helps, rely on God alone.
(6) Realizing I am surrounded by dangers, all I need to do is cry for help.
Tips for approaching the new day with God in prayer
(1) On waking, or RIGHT NOW, thank God for the day He has made.
(2) God has made the day and I am to rejoice in it; really mean it.
(3) Now I can continue / get out of bed, get up, and wash, etc.
(4) Come to God again welcoming this day as absolutely new
(5) Ask God that everything in it should be blessed and ruled by Him.
(6) Enter into the day as God’s messenger of his love & Good News
(7) Be ready to endure resistance, humiliation, misunderstandings or persecution
(8) Decide to accept whatever may happen – prayer & life flowing together
(9) When prayer is too much, just tell God: “I need a rest from You.” Then do it.
(10) Let God be the master of my prayer and life.
PRAYER RESOURCES
👉 "Beginners' PAGE"
👉 Catholic Christian Tools page
👉 👉 HOME - https://gillessurprenant.blogspot.com/
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A few additional texts... reflections....
Man & Woman both can spend themselves to exhaustion God has a plan …
Husband & Wife praying for each other = “ Spiritual Tag Team
You daily know where each other is, what’s happening, and are
praying for those situations = You’re constantly united...
MATRIMONY = mater + monium = burden of mothering
THE BRIDE the woman God designed to give & nurture life
THE BRIDEGROOM the man God designed to “groom” or “care for” the bride in her giving and nurturing life
Constantly praying for one another…
you constantly call on God to save each other’s life…
We are created in the IMAGE and LIKENESS of GOD...
God is an infinite "fire" of life-giving love...
Our "soul" / "spirit" in our "center" is a flame of
God within us... God is infinite... so there is in us
a living, dynamic flame of the infinite....
That is why we are never content with just a taste...
something in us wants to...
eat the whole buffet... drink the whole bottle...
completely consume what we love and desire...
A man wants to love every woman in the world...
A woman wants to love every man in the world...
which is why pornography is so dangerous...
not because sex is bad... no, God made us beautiful...
in us is a flame of the infinite, life-giving love-fire of God...
To touch high tension electricity wires is to "fry" and die...
electric power goes through transformers to make it safe...
Human sexuality must also go through a transformer to be safe...
To look at human beauty from a distance is a torturing fire leading to depression and death...
Marriage is the "transformer" that makes our intimate loving safe and life-giving and it takes place in the presence of God.
For a detailed exploration of this theme, go to…
“LIVING IN THE IMAGE and LIKENESS of GOD”
by Father Ron Rolheiser
https://vimeo.com/showcase/8489527?page=3
Father Ron Rolheiser’s website: https://ronrolheiser.com/
or see his books - contact: Samia at https://theologia.ca/
PERSPECTIVE - Victor Frankl's discovery about who survived and who didn't in the Nazi concentration camps - "Man's Search for Meaning"
= the freedom we have to "choose" our interior attitude to life
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In the "New Covenant" made by our Creator God with humanity, as reported in Jeremiah 31:31-34, every human being can know God from within - because the Holy Spirit is revealing our Creator to all who are willing to know the Lord and trust in Him. We can still help each other along the way; so may you be pleased to find here a variety of helps to the life of faith in God through Jesus Christ. G.S.
© 2006-2023 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
© 2006-2023 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC
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