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Christ Was Baptized!
In the Jordan river!
The teaching of the power of prayer, faith and forgiveness was again read from the Gospel. It is well written about that in the work The power of a person. Full version
at the link:
https://oleksandr-zhabenko.github.io/en/PowerOfHuman.html
I will dwell a little more on the word about forgiveness. As I wrote earlier, a real sincere and deep prayer that pleases God is accomplished very similarly to forgiveness, which is why the Lord, speaking about the power of prayer, also speaks about forgiveness.
You need to forgive with all your heart, soul and mind — and you need to pray sincerely.
Rather, forgiveness gives relief to feelings, diminishing old ones and giving way to new ones, is very often an accompaniment of a person's renewal, his / her transformation. So is prayer – no matter how hot it is, it needs relief and renewal by the action of the grace of the Holy Spirit. This is partly like the difference between falling in love and true love — the former has more visible experiences and emotions, perhaps more vivid, whereas the latter is more confident and generally more satisfying. The first is partial, often inconsistent with mind, reasoning, values, etc., instead, love fills the whole person and gives wholeness.
Forgiveness, if it is good, allows you to reduce the evil in the present and in the future. And prayer is called for the same.
Forgiveness should not hinder or stop (and the real one does not prevent or stop) the struggle with evil, with sin, with passions and obsessions, and so should true prayer. If a person can rightly stop and defeat evil, and at the same time forgive, then this is good. So is prayer. Evil often divides
a person – instead, it is necessary to oppose it – give to good feelings the strength in forgiveness, and to anger – the one in struggle and victory.
A rich passage was read from the Apostle. Due to lack of space, I will stop only on words about envy and jealousy. I wrote earlier that the 10th commandment (for Roman Catholics this is two commandments -– 9th and 10th) is meant to be the way (to some extent 'the key') to Old Testament righteousness.
James IV, 5 – the word used and translated as envy
is ambiguous, but it is clear that envy is an excess of desire (the desire for what cannot be obtained as the desired, that is, it is impossible to transfer
what the neighbour has into one's life with full preservation of all connections and properties, an impossible desire that binds and steals freedom and inner independence). The excess is like a river overflowing its banks. It must be avoided, because it does not allow one to preserve wisdom.
James IV, 4 – becomes an enemy
– the world opposes God in sin, and whoever joins (follow) it in this, also begins to oppose God (for nothing!).
Glory be to Thee, our God, glory be to Thee!
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