Skip to main content

Acts 17: 22-31



As we pondered in what direction to take our new home for spiritual growth reflections, this account from Acts of the Apostles of St. Paul preaching to the Athenians came to mind.

“You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.

The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything. He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’ as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ Since therefore we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divinity is like an image fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination.

God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere repent because he has established a day on which he will ‘judge the world with justice’ through a man he has appointed, and he has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead.” -Acts 17: 22-31

Welcome to So that People Might Seek God, a blog for spiritual growth and biblical reflections for our community, by our community.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Life of Prayer Centered on the Holy Mass

On November 15, 2017, Pope Francis addressed the crowd gathered for the weekly audience and explained that to illustrate the beauty of the Eucharistic celebration, he wanted to begin with a very simple aspect and said  Mass is prayer; rather, it is prayer  par excellence , the loftiest, the most sublime, and at the same time the most 'concrete.' In fact it is the loving encounter with God through his Word and the Body and Blood of Jesus. It is an encounter with the Lord. To understand better what Pope Francis meant, we need to consider first what prayer is. First of all, prayer is a dialogue, a personal relationship with God. Man was created as a being in a personal relationship with God who finds his complete fulfillment only in the encounter with his Creator. The path of life leads toward the definitive encounter with the Lord. Pope Francis went on to say that “praying, as every true dialogue, is also knowing how to be in silence — in dialogues there are moments
Post a Comment
Read more

Anger, Wrath, & W.W.J.D.

The Gospel message we hear in Matthew 18: 21-35 can make me feel uneasy at times. In this passage, we hear of a servant who begs his master for forgiveness for a huge debt and receives it; but when a fellow servant asks forgiveness of a much smaller debt, he refuses mercy and compassion and demands repayment immediately. When the master catches wind of this, he seizes the servant he forgave and has him tortured until he can repay his massive debt, thereby pretty much ruining his life. Ouch . Reality check! How often have I obsessed over small things and refused others forgiveness for something that's admittedly petty? Forgiveness does as much, if not more, for us as it does for the one who is forgiven. But it's not the easiest thing to do, especially when offenses are large and are tied to deep emotions. The Book of Sirach tells us that anger and wrath are hateful things -- things that sinners cling to. And while 'rising above' is definitely not easy, the sim
Post a Comment
Read more

Building Coherence and Unity of Life

Christ cannot stop being who He is as he walks around the land, sleeps in the boat, has dinner with friends, preaches to the multitudes or performs miracles. Similarly a Christian cannot stop being Christian in all aspects of life, including secular activities. I copy from St. Josemaria Escriva in  The Way , n. 353: “Nonsectarianism. Neutrality. Old myths that always try to seem new. Have you ever stopped to think how absurd it is to leave one's Catholicism aside on entering a university, a professional association, a cultural society, or Parliament, like a man leaving his hat at the door?”  Courtesy of Pinterest St. Josemaría is not inviting us to make a show of our Catholicism, or to act in a way that is not compatible with our reality as lay members of the Church. What he wants is that each of us, in our particular circumstances, consider carefully the external and clear demands of unity of life in our work and social life. It takes courage (which can be considerable, gi
Post a Comment
Read more