Our Father Sunday

Dhikr for the 17th Sunday in the ordinary time (C): Our Father Sunday

Text: "And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Luke 11: 9-10)

Meditation: We need to hold on to our belief… they are the basis of our HOPE and do not tire in praying, asking, seeking and knocking…

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...

Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:

1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!

It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…

Loving one's enemies...

Do we really want our leaders to love our enemies?

The greatest and the summit of Jesus' commandments and the most radical of all of his teachings is, “You must love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44). How many of us love other people who kick us around or those who make it hard for us? Do we even know how to do this? Is it something we desire to do? Let’s admit that our culture sees this as weak, capitulating, soft, dangerous, and “effeminate” for men—and is even seen this way by many women. Christian countries have never been known for obeying this commandment, to my knowledge. In fact, you would never be elected or admired if you even talked this way. We have a problem here.

We do not really like or understand love as Jesus teaches it. As Fr. Zossima says in Dostoevsky’s, The Brothers Karamazov: “Love in practice is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams. It may very well kill you.”

(Richard Rohr,OFM - June 2010)