Point for prayerful consideration: The God who calls us is ever faithful. God has known and has loved us for all eternity.

Brief Notes on the Theme:
God created us because of love and this love is manifested in God's faithfulness to us. This is the underlying story behind every book of the bible.

The scriptures provide us with stories depicting the ways by which various persons responded to God's love. There are those who truly mirror God's heart of love in the way they lived their lives, while there are many others who resist God's call and allow their stubbornness and hardness of heart to predominate in their lives. But God never loved these people less than the faithful ones.

But, like the people of the Old Testament, we are not always able to respond to God's love.We are often stiff-necked people. We are prone to forget God and turn to other gods instead. Our sufferings which we wrongfully interpret as God's punishment often come from our own hardness of heart and our stubborn insistence to follow our egotistic ways.

Yet, in spite of our sinfulness, God continues to love us and show us mercy. God is ever faithful. Every word that comes from God is always fulfilled.

Scripture Meditation #1

Ruth 1:6-18..."Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."
(If you have time to spare, read and reread the entire Book of Ruth first before beginning your prayer to get a fuller sense of the story. Then meditate on the above verses.)
Guiding Notes
In this story, Ruth's total commitment to Naomi, her poor and miserable mother-in-law, symbolizes God's love and faithfulness for us no matter who we are and what our condition might be. God's love is unconditional. There is no room for "ifs" and "buts" in the divine love.
The image of God that is presented to us in this story is that of a God who journeys with us throughout life, a pilgrim God who accompanies us in all the experiences, events and happenings of our life, even if we might not recognize the divine presence during those moments. God is with us through "thick and thin" for nothing separates us from the divine love.
Reflection Questions
a) In what ways does the story of Ruth and Naomi speak to me where I am now in my life's journey?
b) How have I experienced God's faithfulness and love for me through "thick and thin?"
c) In what ways am I called through the circumstances of my life to respond to God?
d) What feelings, insights, images, realizations are evoked in me at this time after praying over the above passages?

Scripture Meditation #2

Psalm 139..."O Lord, you know me; you have scrutinized me."
Guiding Notes
This poem expresses the psalmist's prayer of awe and wonder at God's thorough knowledge of us. Every thing and every creature are exposed and open to God's sight.
God's love and faithfulness are manifested in being near to us - shielding and protecting us from harm, guiding us wherever we might go, forming our inmost being, creating us in our mother's womb, and being present to us in our joys, hopes, confusions, sorrows and depressions.
Though God's thoughts are beyond our grasp, God knows us and are closer to us than we are to ourselves.
Reflection Questions
a) In what ways does this psalm speak to me?
b) How do I experience God's nearness? God's faithfulness?
c) What are my feelings and realizations?

Scripture Meditation #3

Romans 8:28-39..."Who can separate us from the love of God?..."
Guiding Notes
God is present in all the events and happenings of our life. God is the One who chooses us and calls us, but we only discover this call as we try to live our life more fully everyday.
This passage emphasizes God's all-encompassing knowledge of us. From the beginning of the world God has known us in Christ. God has known and loved us from the very moment of our creation.
However, human suffering and evil can sometimes make us feel alienated from God and from our true selves. Yet, Paul reminds us that nothing can really separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Reflection Questions
a) In what ways does this text speak to me?
b) What particular circumstances and experiences tend to alienate me from God and from my true self?
c) What draws me closer to God?
d) What are my feelings and realizations?

Scripture Meditation #4

2 Thessalonians 2:13-17..."For God chose you from the beginning that you be saved through true faith and be made holy by the Spirit..."
Guiding Notes
It is important for us to keep in mind that it is God who has chosen us and not the other way around. God calls us through the Gospel for the following purposes:
- to save us through true faith
- to make us whole and holy by the Spirit, and
- to share the glory of Christ Jesus, our Lord.
St. Paul, in this passage, recommends the kind of response one must give to God's call - to stand firm and hold on to the traditions or teachings of the church which the apostles had learned from Jesus himself.
Jesus taught his apostles a certain way of praying, of doing and of living in fellowship with one another. These are the traditions and teachings which the apostles preserved in the church.
Reflection Questions
a) In what ways does this scripture text speak to me?
b) How can I experience God's call through the Gospel?
c) What does "holding on to the tradition" mean to me in my present situation?
d) What are my feelings and realizations?

Other Scripture Suggestions

oPsalm 103..."God redeems my life from destruction… crowns me with love and compassion."
As I reflect on my life, how have I experienced God's love and compassion?
o Isaiah 49:13-15..."Can a woman forget the baby at her breast? Though she may forget, I will never forget you."
How have I experienced God's faithfulness to me even when significant persons in my life have failed me?
o Ephesians 2:7-10..."What we are is God's work..."
How have I experienced divine kindness through the outpouring of the extraordinary riches of God's grace?
o 2 Corinthians 5:14-19..."Indeed the love of Christ holds us and we realize that if he died for all, all have died..."
In what ways have I experienced God's loving work of reconciliation which brought about a renewal of my faith in Christ?
o 2 Timothy 2:11-13..."If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself."
In what ways have I experienced God's faithfulness to me in spite of my tendency to be unfaithful?
o Ezekiel 34:11-16..."I myself will care for my sheep and watch over them..."
In what ways have I experienced God's care the way a shepherd would for his sheep?
o 1 Corinthians 1:2-9..."The faithful God will not fail you after calling you to this fellowship with...Christ Jesus, our Lord..."
What are my feelings and realizations as I reflect on God's promise never to fail me after calling me to a fellowship with Christ?