EVERY DAY IS A Gift
Minute Meditations for every day taken
from the Holy Bible and the writings of the Saints.
A Faith Formation Resource
for Faith Formation For Children of St Peter’s Church,
Padungan.
[ SERAPHIM
HOME ] . . [ FFC ] . [ YOUTH ] . [ BIBLE ]
“Now we watch for the DAY hoping that the salvation
promised us will be ours when Christ will come again in his glory” (Advent
Preface 1)
Every day is a
gift of God for every person. For the Christian, especially for one who prays,
every day is special. What makes this so is that Christian faith sustained by
prayer reveals a whole new dimension to any and every day. If one believes that
and acts on it, as a praying Christian does, it is prayer that puts that person
in touch with the spiritual world. This is the invisible world of union with
God with the Risen Jesus Christ, one also with our brothers and sisters, one
even with Saints already living in the eternal day (heaven).
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What makes a day
more fruitful, more meaningful, and so much happier for the person who prays?
The answer is Jesus. It is He who brings joy and peace to the life of the
person who prays.
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A short look at
each of the traditional sources of these “Minute Meditations” points out how
rich our prayer life becomes if we anchor it not only
in our own words but in the words of God. The word of God is presented to us to
make God Himself present to us. God’s word comes to us in the sayings of Jesus, in the words of people like Paul, Peter,
Solomon, Isaiah, and other Prophets, Psalm writers and Wisdom books. This in
itself points to a time span that began from the first day, one might say, when
God spoke to human beings or when they became aware of God’s speaking to them,
and that will not end until the last day. Indeed, it will not really end even
then because God’s word is eternal (“Heaven and earth will pass away but my
words will never pass away”).
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This awareness of
the power of prayer – each day prayed and lived in the way God wants it –
begins the eternal day, or in a sense anticipates and makes present herein the
eternal day. This is so for a number of reasons. Praying these prayers joins us
with the Saints who prayed some of these prayers while they were on earth.
Praying and meditating on some of these same Scriptures, Psalm prayers, and
sayings of the great ones joins us with those who went before us and who are
singing God’s praises in heaven now.
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This points up a
very special feature of the present book, namely, in addition to all the
wonderful words of the Bible we have the words and sayings of the Saints now in
heaven who prayed and struggled as we do today, and if we dare say so, the
Saints still living in the world today.
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Each day’s
meditation and prayer are made up of a Scripture text, a saying from a Saint,
and a prayer for some grace, together with illustrations as an inspirational
touch.
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This book then is
presented to you in the hope of making Christ, the great ones in the Bible, and
fellow citizens – the Saints in heaven as well as those praying here on this earth – present to
us in each day so that we may be one with them now and with God forever.
Rev. Frederick Schroeder
(Transcribed from a book bearing the same name,
published by Catholic Book Publishing Corp.
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