During summer or hot season, plants usually dry up. You can see cracks in the soil, indicating that they need water. That they need nourishment. That they are thirsty. Of course, the logical thing to do is give them nourishment. Give them water. This is what we should do as well.
Dryness happen to people as well, especially in our spiritual life. We feel we are lacking. We feel thirsty. We feel empty. And we see in the first reading what we should do. God is powerful and he can do anything. We see that he gave life to dry bones. He can give life and nourishment to us as well. He can do anything. We just need to come to Him.
Only the source of nourishment can address dryness.
When we feel dry spiritually, we should come to God. Just like plants should be watered in times of dryness. However, this is not always what we do. Sometimes we come looking for nourishment in other things, other activities, and other people. We sometimes fail to see and realize that we just need to come back to God. We just need to come to the source of life.
God uses different things, people and circumstances to fill us up. He is creative just as he is powerful. He knows how to get to us. We just have to come back to him. We just have to go to him. And do our part by praying more, reading the bible, partaking of the sacraments especially when we already can, talking about him with other people. These are some of the ways God can reach out to us.
How do I feel spiritually? Do I feel I am lacking something? What do I do about it? Do I look for nourishment in other things? Do I look for affirmation from other people? Or do I come to God? What is he telling me today?
May we always remember to come to God when we are feeling spiritual dryness and not look elsewhere. He is the ultimate restorer, we just have to come to Him.
Father God,
Thank you for today. Thank you for another day to live. Thank you for the holiday. Thank you for another chance to love and serve you. Thank you for the reminder. Lord, sorry for the times I look for nourishment elsewhere. Sorry for the times I ignore spiritual dryness. Help me humble myself and come only to you. I surrender. I go back. And i ask you to fill me, nourish me, and bring life into me so I can continue to bring you glory. And as I wait, i will continue to love and serve you. Amen.
Blessed Day!
In Christ,
-g-
Ps
See related reflection:
August 21, 2020
Friday of Week 20; St. Pius X
FIRST READING
The hand of the LORD came upon me, and led me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the center of the plain, which was now filled with bones. He made me walk among the bones in every direction so that I saw how many they were on the surface of the plain. How dry they were! He asked me: Son of man, can these bones come to life? I answered, “Lord GOD, you alone know that.” Then he said to me: Prophesy over these bones, and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: See! I will bring spirit into you, that you may come to life. I will put sinews upon you, make flesh grow over you, cover you with skin, and put spirit in you so that you may come to life and know that I am the LORD. I prophesied as I had been told, and even as I was prophesying I heard a noise; it was a rattling as the bones came together, bone joining bone. I saw the sinews and the flesh come upon them, and the skin cover them, but there was no spirit in them. Then the LORD said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord GOD: From the four winds come, O spirit, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life. I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them; they came alive and stood upright, a vast army. Then he said to me: Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They have been saying, “Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off.” Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the LORD. I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM
R. (1) Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.
Let the redeemed of the LORD say, those whom he has redeemed from the hand of the foe And gathered from the lands, from the east and the west, from the north and the south.
R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.
They went astray in the desert wilderness; the way to an inhabited city they did not find. Hungry and thirsty, their life was wasting away within them.
R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.
They cried to the LORD in their distress; from their straits he rescued them. And he led them by a direct way to reach an inhabited city.
R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.
Let them give thanks to the LORD for his mercy and his wondrous deeds to the children of men, Because he satisfied the longing soul and filled the hungry soul with good things.
R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.
Let the redeemed of the LORD say, those whom he has redeemed from the hand of the foe And gathered from the lands, from the east and the west, from the north and the south.
R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.
They went astray in the desert wilderness; the way to an inhabited city they did not find. Hungry and thirsty, their life was wasting away within them.
R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.
They cried to the LORD in their distress; from their straits he rescued them. And he led them by a direct way to reach an inhabited city.
R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.
Let them give thanks to the LORD for his mercy and his wondrous deeds to the children of men, Because he satisfied the longing soul and filled the hungry soul with good things.
R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.
ALLELUIA
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Teach me your paths, my God, guide me in your truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Teach me your paths, my God, guide me in your truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GOSPEL
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law, tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
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