LOVE the Word®

“But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery which they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me . . . then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land” (Baruch 1:40-42). 

Welcome to Margaret; Linda; Valeria; Jennie; Gwen; and Virginia, Bible Study Evangelista’s newest friends of the show!

Study Audio

Action Items

As you work your way through the “thorns” of your crown with Jesus:

• Pray the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary for the thorns of your ancestors and ask that God will make them a crown for you and your descendants.
• As best you can, identify the generational wounds in your family tree.
• Confess your own sin patterns and those of your family tree.
• Take authority over your family, as is your right, your promise, and your inheritance (the “covenant” in the verses above) in Christ.
• Have a Mass said for the generational wounds in your immediate family and your family tree.
• Pray this prayer for healing by Fr. John H. Hampsch:

  Heavenly Father, I come before you as your child, in great need of your help; I have physical health needs, emotional  needs, spiritual needs, and interpersonal needs. Many of my problems have been caused by my own failures, neglect and sinfulness, for which I humbly beg your forgiveness, Lord. But I also ask you to forgive the sins of my ancestors whose failures have left their effects on me in the form of unwanted tendencies, behavior patterns and defects in body, mind, and spirit. Heal me, Lord, of all these disorders.

  With your help I sincerely forgive everyone, especially living or dead members of my family tree, who have directly offended me or my loved ones in any way, or those whose sins have resulted in our present sufferings and disorders. In the name of your divine Son, Jesus, and in the power of his Holy Spirit, I ask you, Father, to deliver me and my entire family tree from the influence of the evil one. Free all living and dead members of my family tree, including those in adoptive relationships, and those in extended family relationships, from every contaminating form of bondage. By your loving concern for us, heavenly Father, and by the shed blood of your precious Son, Jesus, I beg you to extend your blessing to me and to all my living and deceased relatives. Heal every negative effect transmitted through all past generations, and prevent such negative effects in future generations of my family tree.

  I symbolically place the cross of Jesus over the head of each person in my family tree, and between each generation; I ask you to let the cleansing blood of Jesus purify the bloodlines in my family lineage. Set your protective angels to encamp around us, and permit Archangel Raphael, the patron of healing, to administer your divine healing power to all of us, even in areas of genetic disability. Give special power to our family members’ guardian angels to heal, protect, guide and encourage each of us in all our needs. Let your healing power be released at this very moment, and let it continue as long as your sovereignty permits.

  In our family tree, Lord, replace all bondage with a holy bonding in family love. And let there be an ever-deeper bonding with you, Lord, by the Holy Spirit, to your Son, Jesus. Let the family of the Holy Trinity pervade our family with its tender, warm, loving presence, so that our family may recognize and manifest that love in all our relationships. All of our unknown needs we include with this petition that we pray in Jesus’ precious Name. Amen. +
  

LOVE the Word™ is a Bible study method based on Mary’s own practice: lectio without the Latin. This week’s LOVE the Word™ exercise is according to a Augustinian* personality approach.

Listen (Receive the Word.)

“[A] thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:7-10).

Observe (Connect the passage to recent events.)

After hearing this week’s show and working through the action items (above), what do you consider the “thorn” in your side? Have you asked God to miraculously remove it? How do Jesus’ example and this passage illustrate the way God can turn “thorns” into a crown for us? What is your responsibility in this process, according to the passage?

Verbalize (Pray about your thoughts and emotions.)

In your journal or on your journal page (get a free page to the right), write down your thoughts and feelings about these verses, as they relate to your thorn(s). What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through the mystery of Jesus’ Crowning with Thorns?

Entrust (May it be done to me according to your word!)

Abba, Father, show me how your grace is meant to be sufficient in my weakness.

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*LOVE the Word™ exercises vary weekly according to the four personalities, or “prayer forms,” explored in Prayer and Temperament, by Chester Michael and Marie Norrisey: Ignatian, Augustinian, Franciscan, and Thomistic. These prayer forms correspond to the Myers-Briggs personality types.

Episode Resources

“It is fitting that the Church should make this passage with a clear awareness of what has happened to her during the last ten centuries. She cannot cross the threshold of the new millennium without encouraging her children to purify themselves, through repentance, of past errors and instances of infidelity, inconsistency, and slowness to act. Acknowledging the weaknesses of the past is an act of honesty and courage which helps us to strengthen our faith, which alerts us to face today’s temptations and challenges and prepares us to meet them.

34. Among the sins which require a greater commitment to repentance and conversion should certainly be counted those which have been detrimental to the unity willed by God for his People. In the course of the thousand years now drawing to a close, even more than in the first millennium, ecclesial communion has been painfully wounded, a fact “for which, at times, men of both sides were to blame”.(17) Such wounds openly contradict the will of Christ and are a cause of scandal to the world.(18) These sins of the past unfortunately still burden us and remain ever present temptations. It is necessary to make amends for them, and earnestly to beseech Christ’s forgiveness” (Tertio Millenio Adveniente, JPII).

Here’s the private Facebook discussion page for the Healing the Father Wound series, if you want to join in the conversation with a little more privacy, as I do.

What is the Rosary?

JPII’s Encyclical Letter, Dives in Misericordia, on God as Father

References

Exodus 20:5-6, Thou shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Deuteronomy 7:9, His love is extended to a thousand generations.

Lamentations 5: 7, Our forefathers have sinned and are now dead, and we bear their punishment.

John 9:3, Jesus condemns the common Jewish teaching that ancestral sin is the universal explanation for suffering.

Romans 8:15, For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!”

Read the Transcript

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Courtesy of Kristie Hynniman, who does our transcriptions for you.

This Week’s Video, “Dr.” Candice

Photo Credit

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