Category: Prayers

“Moses decided, ‘I must go over to look at this remarkable sight.’ ” —Exodus 3:3 To become better, live better, pray better, and work better, we must know God better. To become better husbands, wives, parents, religious, or people, we must know God better. For example, Moses, to do better than be a shepherd, had to know God better in the burning bush (Ex 3:2ff). Isaiah (Is 6:1ff), Jeremiah (Jer 1:5ff), and Ezekiel (Ez 1:4ff) all had to know God better before they could fulfill their prophetic ministry. Paul had to know God better before he could become the great...

“Pharoah’s daughter…adopted [Moses] as her son.” —Exodus 2:10 Pharoah, out of fear of the prospering Hebrew people, issued the command to kill every baby boy born to the Hebrews. In a wonderful reversal of this brutally unjust law, God, in His mercy and justice, led Pharoah’s very daughter to break her father’s law and thus begin the deliverance of the Hebrew people. Last week we read about God bringing about a similar reversal in the case of Joseph. His brothers meant evil in trying to kill him, but God reversed Joseph’s fortunes for the good (Rm 8:28; Gn 37-50). The...

“Throw into the river every boy that is born to the Hebrews.” —Exodus 1:22 Pharaoh, afraid that the enslaved Israelites would grow more numerous and powerful than his Egyptian people, ordered his subjects to throw all Israelite baby boys into the Nile River (Ex 1:22). This would prevent the Israelites from ever having enough soldiers to rebel against Egypt in the future. What the culture didn’t value was to be thrown away, even if it was human life. Pope Francis has repeatedly spoken against the “throw-away culture” of secular humanism. This cultural mindset to dispose of whatever is not valued...

“It is something very near to you.” —Deuteronomy 30:14 The priest and Levite both “saw” the wounded victim, but didn’t want to get near him (Lk 10:31, 32). The Samaritan, though, had no hesitation about getting near the hurting man. The Samaritan “approached him” (Lk 10:34) and “treated him with compassion” (Lk 10:37). Love has to get near and get involved. Love by its very nature can’t keep its distance. Jesus, Who is Love, could have remained in heaven in eternal bliss with His Father. However, His love impelled Him (see 2 Cor 5:14) to seek us out (Lk 19:10),...

“Since I am about to be taken to my kindred, bury me with my fathers in the cave that lies in the field…Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burial ground. There Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried, and so are Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and there, too, I buried Leah.” —Genesis 49:29-31 Abraham waited about fifty years to enter the promised land. He got there “over the dead body” of his wife, as he bought a field in the promised land for her burial (see Gn 23:4ff). He was buried there too. At his death, he...