Mental Prayer for March 17, How the Mystical Christ Lives

Mental Prayer Meditation Helps

Presence of God

Grace I Ask: Lord, help me see what this life of sanctifying grace is, what it should mean for me, and what it can mean for others.

The idea: Picture a world without hope - weary, bogged down... a father laboring day and night - ­for nothing... a mother working for her family all day in the house - for nothing... a teen-ager study­ing, playing - for nothing... people growing up and dragging out their lives without a thrilling purpose to work for.

A life without hope; a life that is dead - that is a world without Christ. Without Christ, Adam's original sin would have condemned us to a life of work and trouble with­out hope, without a purpose for which to strive... and a life that would end in damnation.

But Christ came and poured new life into a dead world: the rich, healthy blood of sanctifying grace. Through sanctifying grace we live with God's own life. Because of our union with Christ we have a right to a glorious destiny: the close friendship and vision of God for all eternity. With sanctifying grace and all that it means, my life has hope, my life becomes alive.

My Personal Application: I can never realize too fully what Christ has done for me by making it possible to share in His own life. I can never thank Him enough for letting me be a member of His Mystical Body. Have I ever realized that millions of people in the world are still separated from that Mystical Body, from that supernatural life that makes the deadening round of everyday life become alive?

I Speak to Christ: Lord, help me to increase this life of sanctifying grace by becoming more closely united to you in your Mystical Body. Help me also to realize how many people there are right now for whom there is no hope because of a lack of sancti­fying grace in their lives.

Thought for Today: I am Christ to the men of my times.
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Adapted from Mental Prayer, Challenge to the Lay Apostle
by The Queen's Work,(© 1958)