Lord Jesus Christ Have Mercy on Me a Sinner

Reflecting on John Michael Talbot's book, Nothing is Impossible with God, I have found a profound connection with this past week's readings.  Talbot dedicates multiple chapters on the rosary as well as the Jesus Prayer.  This prayer I uttered many times without contemplating its deeper meaning.  As a teenager my mother gave me a book of prayers for college students.  The one prayer that stood out was the Jesus Prayer and I would revisit it in some of my difficult times.

From Tuesday's readings I find Azariah pleading, "Do not take away your mercy from us," as he endured the fire and then again Peter asking the Lord about a brother who sins against him. Jesus reply was we know "seventy-seven times." Putting that in perspective for myself who in my human sinful condition can replay harms or what I might perceive as harms over and over again, can easily forget the term mercy.

Thursday we are taken to the Gospel of Luke where Jesus instructs the hardened hearts of those who were looking to test him by stating the house divided against itself will fall." As a teacher and student of history this passage has always appealed to me as it is the very message Lincoln used in his speech to the Illinois Republican Convention in 1858 as the United States inched closer to war over the slavery issue.  But from a very personal perspective I find that this house is myself in my duplicitous nature. Trying to carry out the will of God is challenging at times and I am quite quick to impose my will on situations.  I am part of the group  Jeremiah says are those stiff necked people. However, there seems to that inner voice that brings me back to the Jesus Prayer. "Harden not your hearts,"  the psalmist cries.

Talbot's dissection of the Jesus Prayer has brought a clearer understanding of the mercy of God. understanding the deeper context of the meaning of each of the words in the prayer and the Greek translation has opened my eyes to the need of not only for  God's  mercy on me, but for me not rely on my own abilities to be merciful.  My prayer is "Grant that I have mercy on those around me as you have had mercy on me.