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This booklet covers an introduction to Holiness and deeper prayer.
1 – Holiness
Welcome to the first week of the second of the Discipleship series. This is a seven week course which covers the second half of Mark’s gospel. This course builds upon the first course ‘Discipleship 1’. You can take this course on it’s own, but it presumes you have covered the material in the first course. Some concepts will be covered again in summary form.
While we are going to cover the second half of Mark’s gospel, we will also go through the ten commandments and Beatitudes. The commandments and beatitudes will be covered when most relevant to the passages of Mark’s gospel for that week. There is also an overview sheet that will cover all the topics, daily passages and which of the ten commandments and/or beatitudes will be covered.
SETTING THE SCENE
With the first 7 weeks we journeyed with Jesus from his baptism to the point when the first human being proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah – St. Peter, and for this Jesus made him the first pope. This declaration is the middle of the gospel. Now Jesus heads for
“And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly.” (Mk 8:31-32)
Jesus then describes discipleship – ‘To take up your cross and follow him”.
““If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (Mk 8:34-38)
What Jesus is really talking about here is holiness – to give your life totally to Jesus.
WHAT IS HOLINESS?
It is the perfection of Love - "Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Mt 5:48)
WHAT IS LOVE?
Love is self-gift. God is love because within the Trinity each person of the Trinity freely gives his total self to the others. Jesus is actually begotten of the Father through the free gift of the Father. We say this in the creed, Jesus is “begotten, not made of one being with the Father”. The Holy Spirit “who proceeds from the Father and the Son” is given – is self-gift. Jesus expresses this self-gift completely upon the cross where he gives himself totally, dying for us sinners. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” (John 
15:13) “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:8)
More than this, Jesus gives himself totally in the Eucharist at every
For us to love means to give of ourselves. Not to be selfish, but to give. We are now ready to explore the first commandment and the first beatitude.
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the
To have no other gods means to put God first. This is expressed in the next chapter of Deuteronomy as “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deut 6:5) This is holiness. To love means to give all your heart, soul and might to God. This means to loose your life as you know it and seek God above all things.
How can I love?
The secret to love is expressed in the first beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” To be poor in spirit, means to empty yourself of self, and fill yourself with God. This does not mean you destroy yourself, but in fact discover your true self and self esteem through giving yourself to God.
The first way we give ourselves to God, is through prayer. To give that time to God, and during that time, to share ourselves with God.
DEEP PRAYER
Deep prayer is not just about learning about God, talking to God, but about encountering God, deep in your soul. This is the real aim of prayer. It is the difference if giving yourself, rather than just giving things. It is about receiving God, not just things from God. The following a guide to deep prayer. BTW, another name for deep prayer is contemplation.
Stage 1. Actively seeking God (meditation). You have to put work in to encounter God. There are many different ways to actively seek God. One is by reading the daily passage from Mark’s gospel, over and over again, slowly, thoughtfully. As you meditate upon it and think about it, you start to think about God. As you think about God, you may start to appreciate His goodness, love, kindness, etc. This may lead to the next stage.
Stage 2. Awareness of God’s presence. Have you ever had the experience of feeling as if someone is looking at you, then turning and seeing the person looking at you? Some do. This is a bit like that inner awareness of God’s presence, except, God always looks with eyes of love.
Stage 3. Surrender (Contemplation). Once you are aware of God’s presence, you can surrender yourself to that presence. It is just a matter of giving yourself to God and enjoying the deepening embrace of His love. St. Teresa of
You need to be aware of a couple of things when it comes to deep prayer. If you are starting to experience a higher form of prayer, give over to it. If you become distracted, start with actively seeking God again.
Consolation/Desolation
Spiritual writers use these two words to describe positive and negative spiritual experiences. When experiencing the warmth of God’s love, this is called consolation. It is like the warm embrace of a parent, or friend. That inner warmth, that you are loved as you are, that brings joy and happiness. Spiritual writers call this consolation. The opposite is desolation. This is a feeling of absence of God’s love. It is horrible, you feel blah, like you are the worst, abandoned, inner agony and pain. You feel like, “What have I done wrong?” Jesus experienced desolation in the
Have you ever experienced anything like this?
It is important to maintain regular prayer times in consolation and desolation. In fact the recommendation from the saints is to increase prayer a little in desolation, though you feel like the opposite.
It is important to love the giver of the gift, not the gifts. Appreciate the gifts, but love the giver. Don’t seek the experience, seek God. Regardless of the experience of prayer, the focus is always the same – God. The result of prayer is always the same – to love more.
You are now ready for the big picture. God desires for you to love like him. That means to always love, no matter what. God wants you to always love. That means even in desolation, you will continue to love, continue to pray. The focus of life, is not the experience, but love. Our faith, hope and love grows more in desolation, than consolation. Desolation is very useful in helping us grow in love. We ‘prove’ our love of God and others when we love, even when we don’t feel like it. If you experience consolation, you will experience desolation. For those who don’t, no matter, it is more important to love. Ultimately the experience is secondary, love is always primary. The meaning of life is to love like God.
To experience deep prayer, we must give it more time. The daily requirement for prayer is 15 minutes a day. It is essential that you always read your daily passage prayerfully. But you may make up your time of prayer with a variety of prayer forms, including, rosary, petition/intercession, memorizing scripture passages, adoration of the blessed sacrament, veneration of icons in quiet prayer, the divine mercy chaplet, novenas. I think you get the idea and of course Eucharist itself.
Penance
If you wish to grow fast in the spiritual life, than fast – it’s the fastest way! The ideal is to fast on bread and water on Fridays. Other fasts, include, no TV on particular nights. No computer games or no violent computer games. No lollies. We might start with a particular night. We might do it for a particular period, eg 9 days in a row as part of a novena (a special prayer designed for nine days). There are several reasons for fasting. It helps strengthen our will to overcome temptation. By offering up the thing we are giving up, this generates more grace for God to use to help others – to help save souls from Hell. It brings us closer to God, and this brings greater joy. We are in fact happier as a result of fasting. What kind of fasting have you tried?
Good Works
There are many good works we can do. Helping others, being more diligent, doing our chores, sharing our belongings, giving things away, telling others about Jesus. As we go through these weeks, God may prompt you to do something – do it! If you don’t do it, that’s Ok, you may feel really bad about it – it is important to give it to God and leave any guilt in his hands, knowing he forgives you.
The Second Commandment
“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain” (Deut
In vain, means uselessly. It is easier to think of the opposite, to use God’s name to ask for things. This is actually what the commandment is about. To ask God for help. This commandment is suggesting we pray to God.
“John!” John turns to see who called him. When you call someone’s name they answer. It is the same with God. Every time someone uses God’s name, “Jesus” or “Christ”, God answers, “Yes, can I help you?” It’s not nice if his name is used amongst a set of swear words. How would you feel? The real point is to always use God’s name respectfully and expectantly. God always answers prayers, but not always the way we expect, since He wants to respond with what is best for us. Don’t use God’s name in vain, and encourage others to be mindful of who they are addressing when they do.
Most importantly ask God for help always.
The Third Commandment
“Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Deut
“The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle.68 Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes.” (CCC 2015)
ANATOMY OF THE SOUL
If we could map out the progress of our soul, we would see the various virtues (good habits) and vices (bad habits). It is these that make up our character. The Catechism explains what must be done to grow in holiness.
“Human virtues acquired by education, by deliberate acts and by a perseverance ever-renewed in repeated efforts are purified and elevated by divine grace. With God's help, they forge character and give facility in the practice of the good. The virtuous man is happy to practice them.” (CCC 1810)
There is a saying that puts this very simply.
“Sow an act, reap a habit,
sow a habit, reap a character,
sow a character reap a destiny.”
This saying has a lot of wisdom in it. Each deliberate act we make will gradually become a habit, eg the habit of prayer. If we keep working on our habits, they become part of our character, eg we become a ‘prayerful’ person. They become natural things that we do and like to do. If we keep maintaining our character, we will end up where we are meant to go – destiny will take us there. It is a bit like, if we humble ourselves, God will exalt us. The hard part is putting the work into deliberate acts and resisting bad habits. The first habit to always establish is prayer, because it increases grace in our lives and helps us develop other good habits. Once we have the habit of prayer then we can work on establishing other habits or ridding ourselves of vices.
We should never take on too much, nor too little. There is always a window of opportunity for growth. If we make a plan, eg praying 15 minutes a day, then this is enough for now. It usually takes a few weeks to establish a habit. It then takes a few months for that habit to become part of our character. Once we have a habit, we should consolidate it a bit more, before taking on working on a new habit, so I suggest 5 weeks to establish a habit. There is nothing wrong with working at other habits, doing various good works, but don’t over do it.
Also, if we forget to do it one day, don’t try to make it up on another day, just start afresh. What virtues are you working on at the moment?
THIS WEEK’S PASSAGES
We cover the first cycle this week. There are three cycles after Peter’s Messianic declaration. Each starts with a passion prediction, then some misunderstanding of the disciples, some explanation of discipleship by Jesus, then some catechesis.
The focus of this cycle is on faith.
Day 1 First passion prediction Mk 8:31
Peter had just declared Jesus to be the Messiah. He thought he was going to be some kind of victorious king. Jesus was not this kind of Messiah, but the suffering servant, who takes the sin of the world upon his shoulders. It appears Jesus was going to loose if he was killed. But Jesus sees beyond his death to the resurrection. This is faith. We know God is ultimately going to be victorious upon this earth. Ask Jesus for this same fire of love that is prepared to die to self, to be born anew.
Day 2 Misunderstanding of disciples Mk 8:32-33
Do you set your mind on the things of man and not the things of God?
Being called Satan is pretty harsh of Jesus, particularly after he just made Peter the first pope. This does not deny his papacy, since Peter is not proclaiming faith and morals with the special grace of infallibility, but a practical direction, which in theological language is called a disciplinary action. The popes are given divine help to guide their practical decisions, but this is not part of their magisterium, and thus subject to giftedness of each pope. The popes have made some horrible decisions in the past, but they have also made many brilliant ones as well. From this, we can realise that God also forgives our bad decisions and always wishes to maintain friendship with us, no matter how much we stuff up.
Day 3 Discipleship Mk
Are you ready to loose your life for Jesus?
Just tell your friends you have decided to follow Jesus for the rest of your life and see what happens. Life will change. Generally, the experience of most is a positive one in this situation. Following Jesus means gaining many new Christian friends as well as maintaining old friends. True friendship is based on Truth. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. True friendship is based on Jesus. Your true self is based on Jesus. In following Jesus, you become your true self, and experience true friendships, eternal friendships. Ask God for the courage to share your faith in Jesus with your friends.
Day 4 Discipleship Mk
This time take some time to just reflect upon the passage. What is Jesus teaching you through this passage?
Day 5 The Transfiguration Mk 9:2-8
Wow! Jesus revealed his true self to his best friends, Peter, James and John. Jesus asks you to do the same.
God is the father of Jesus and asks us to listen to him. In deep prayer, we take the time to listen to Jesus.
Jesus was talking to Moses and Elijah, which represents the Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets. But this was a personal conversation. I wonder what they were saying? They needed this experience to strengthen their faith in the coming days, just like we need prayer to strengthen our faith.
Day 6 The Descent from the
Why did Jesus ask them to keep this a secret?
Some believe this story was made up after the resurrection. The Church teaches us the gospels tell us the historical truth about Jesus. This passage is repeated in Matthew, Mark and Luke. Rather than taking a sceptical reflection, we should take a deepening reflection. The Catechism makes some profound reflections upon this passage. “Christ's Transfiguration aims at strengthening the apostles' faith in anticipation of his Passion: the ascent on to the "high mountain" prepares for the ascent to
Day 7 The Demoniac Boy Mk
“help my unbelief!” This dramatic story highlights the need for prayer. Some of the early manuscripts don’t have “ and fasting”. The power of fasting has been attested by many saints. As has been said, fasting is a good thing and should be encouraged. You may like to give it a try sometime.
The disciples and Jesus had just experienced the Transfiguration, then Jesus has to deal with this messy situation. He has come down from the mountain. Sometimes (often?) after some great, glorious experience we can be on cloud nine. Then ‘reality’ hits and it seems like the glorious experience was like a dream. Have you had an experience like this?
This can be pattern of consolation, and then desolation. It is all part of a cycle, a deepening cycle which takes us closer to Jesus. The focus is faith. Will he keep our focus on Jesus and grow in faith, or will we be tossed about, and lack the roots of true discipleship.
Take up your cross and follow Jesus! It leads to the resurrection!
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Content by Robert Zaar, Cartoons by Angus Moloney. 2007
Sharebook resource from: http://opencatechesis.org/courses/mark2/1holiness
