St. Michael the Archangel atop Castel Sant’ Angelo in Rome. Picture by Kathy Sheehan
Our Blog is Inspired by The Holy Spirit
Psalm 16 : 5-11
The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
I have a goodly heritage.
I keep the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;
my body also rests secure.
For you do not give me up to Sheol,
or let your faithful one see the Pit.
You show me the path of life.
In your presence there is fullness of joy;
in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.
Emphasis mine Psalm 16 : 5-11
You may be looking at the date, and remember we wrote a blog about the reading of this day last week by mistake. Not only did I goof up, but my brother Roger and son Mike didn’t pick up this mistake either. So, I asked The Holy Spirit for the reason why this happened. The answer I received was that The Holy Spirit wanted to talk about Psalm 16.
This year The Holy Spirit encouraged me to buy a new Bible and read it. The Bible we picked was the NRSV Catholic Edition Bible, which is translated by Catholics, Protestants and Jewish Rabbis.
As I read Psalm 16, I was encouraged by the Holy Spirit to highlight verses 5 – 16.
Why?
They seemed to be speaking directly to me, and I, or should I say we, decided to pray this part of Psalm 16 every day since.
Very Briefly:
5. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
At age eighty-four the Lord, as I pray you all know, IS my Chosen cup and God does hold my lot, and I won’t have it any other way. Because I am filled with Joy and Peace.
6. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
I have a goodly heritage.
The boundary lines have been set. Do the will of my Father by listening to the whisper of the Holy Spirit. An example of my not listening to the whisper of the Holy Spirit: I recently signed up to help the Board of Directors of our Condo Association. The Holy Spirit told me to back out.
I DID!
And Peace returned.
Boundary lines I have tried and now embrace:
Go to Mass every day, pray the Rosary daily, take care of the needs of Gail, our family and friends, read the Bible daily, work in the Jail, do a Communion Service at the Veterans Home, be an Alter server, write our blog and play Golf. The interesting thing about these boundary lines was I didn’t want to do any of them, now I am filled with Joy as I do them.
7. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
We wrote a recent blog about Gratitude and how important Gratitude is.
8. I keep the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
By doing the above I am keeping the Lord always before me.
9. Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;
my body also rests secure.
10. For you do not give me up to Sheol,
or let your faithful one see the Pit.
11. You show me the path of life.
In your presence there is fullness of joy;
in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.
I pray verses 9 – 11 need no explanation, as we have written about this for the past four years.
I pray now you know why we had this mistake, and maybe you will pray this powerful Psalm daily….
And keep the Lord always before you.
Prayer:
If you want to grow in Love, Joy and Peace this is a result of growth in Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.
Sidebar:
Recently I met a friend who had a very bad back, taking meds, and was slated for a two hour operation to help take away the pain.
As far as I know she doesn’t know or worship God.
I asked her if we could pray for her and she agreed. I asked because if she said “No,” why would we waste our time. We have had a few people say “No,” and I appreciate their honesty, but I also think they’re foolish.
Anyway, I met her a few weeks ago and asked her how it was going and she said “The pain is gone, and the operation is cancelled.”
Wow!!!
She was healed!
I next asked if she said a prayer of thanksgiving for the healing.
She hadn’t.
I looked her straight in the eye and we said “Nothing happened between the time I asked you if we could pray for you and your healing, God entered your life and healed you, and you can’t deny it because you also cancelled the operation. Take some time at a quiet moment and really think this over, because there is a God and God Healed you. Maybe you should consider a change in your life.”
I also believe this is true with many of you. Life pain free is a blessing and a healing in and of itself, however some of you have pain, or are sick. Say the prayer (next paragraph) we have talked about for the past four years, what do you have to lose?
Thank you Father for the Death of Your Son, the Nails that were driven into His Hands, and the Nail that was driven into His feet, and I THANK YOU FOR THE DIFFICULITIES OF …………………… YOU HAVE ALLOWED IN MY LIFE, and say the Capitalized portion again until you smile which indicates to you The Holy Spirit is back in your life.
And
If you are thinking this is a stupid prayer, Thanking God for the DIFFICULITIES God has ALLOWED in your life, I couldn’t agree more, but I have said it many, many times and have reported the healings, that have happened over the past twenty-five years when I first learned of this powerful prayer,
And this has become my go to prayer. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Stop listening to satan, say the prayer until you smile, and you may also have to say it for a period of time, (I said this prayer for ten to fifteen years before the pain of my arthritis went away) just have FAITH that God WILL take care of you.
I am so glad we made the mistake we made last week.
“Thank you Father.”
One last thought. Not everyone we have prayed for has been healed. But those who have been healed we also pray will recognize God as active in their life.
Picture:
Here’s a picture I recently took during a pilgrimage to holy sights in Italy and Rome for the 2025 Jubilee. St. Michael the Archangel atop Castel Sant’ Angelo in Rome.
Picture by Kathy Sheehan
Please keep Snapping!
And if you want the ten calling cards shown above, email me and I will send you my address, send me a STAMPED self-addressed envelope and I will send you ten cards.
Email me if you want a copy of the prayers we discussed.
fprince101@gmail.com
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, please do not include people. We have to get permission from that person to use their photograph.
