An excellent topic for a homily, Father. I think you would do well to expand on it in the future. At the risk of sounding impertinent, I would suggest reminding your flock continually of the prayer of the father in Mark 9:24: "I do believe, Lord: help my unbelief." Many fail to grasp that faith is a gift, and not something we accomplish on our own. Further, too many do not understand that God is more than ready to shower sufficient grace upon every person who turns to Him in submission and ask Him: "Lord, help my unbelief." He will readily answer such a prayer with the grace of supernatural faith - the kind of faith that, once it is experienced, fills one with a true and super-abundant joy which demands to be shared with others. Many allow their private objections to some point of doctrine or practice separate them from God and His Church, and spiritual apathy is the result. Invite them to take this private objection directly to God in a spirit of docility and submission; to pray that He may illumine their minds and soften their hearts to the truth it must certainly contain. All God asks is that we recognize His authority as a loving Father; in return, He will not give us a stone, but living bread (Matthew 7:9).
An excellent topic for a homily, Father. I think you would do well to expand on it in the future. At the risk of sounding impertinent, I would suggest reminding your flock continually of the prayer of the father in Mark 9:24: "I do believe, Lord: help my unbelief." Many fail to grasp that faith is a gift, and not something we accomplish on our own. Further, too many do not understand that God is more than ready to shower sufficient grace upon every person who turns to Him in submission and ask Him: "Lord, help my unbelief." He will readily answer such a prayer with the grace of supernatural faith - the kind of faith that, once it is experienced, fills one with a true and super-abundant joy which demands to be shared with others. Many allow their private objections to some point of doctrine or practice separate them from God and His Church, and spiritual apathy is the result. Invite them to take this private objection directly to God in a spirit of docility and submission; to pray that He may illumine their minds and soften their hearts to the truth it must certainly contain. All God asks is that we recognize His authority as a loving Father; in return, He will not give us a stone, but living bread (Matthew 7:9).
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