Post edited 5:05 pm – October 11, 2009 by saintstephen
Post edited 5:08 pm – October 11, 2009 by saintstephen

Dear Christ, Bind me in unbreakable chains of slavery. Clamp my hands and my feet and my neck with a mandible of solid steel and lock it with your key. Place the key in Heaven next to the throne of you Father so that no one can approach to take the key to unlock my chains.

Make the chains be the links to your Word made Flesh and the key which locks my chains be the key you handed to Saint Peter by Christ. Make me a slave to Your Word as you made your Holy Apostles slaves also to Your Word for you bought us all with the price of Your Blood and gave Your Flesh as an offering for our souls.

Make me a slave to your will Oh Christ and bind me in unbreakable chains as a slave to your will Oh Lord!

Read here how Christ Our Lord freed this man who could not be bound with even unbreakable chains:

* The Gospels of Mark Chapter 5

They came to the other side of the sea, to the territory of the Gerasenes.When he got out of the boat, at once a man from the tombs who had an unclean spirit met him.The man had been dwelling among the tombs, and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain.In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains, but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed, and no one was strong enough to subdue him.

Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones.Catching sight of Jesus from a distance, he ran up and prostrated himself before him,crying out in a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me!”(He had been saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of the man!”) He asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “Legion is my name. There are many of us.”
And he pleaded earnestly with him not to drive them away from that territory.

Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside.
And they pleaded with him, “Send us into the swine. Let us enter them.”And he let them, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine. The herd of about two thousand rushed down a steep bank into the sea, where they were drowned.

The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town and throughout the countryside. And people came out to see what had happened.As they approached Jesus, they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion, sitting there clothed and in his right mind. And they were seized with fear.

Post edited 9:51 pm – October 11, 2009 by saintstephen

Warren Jewell said:

We will be enslaved by one thing or another, or to Whom we can depend for eternal freedom.

All too often, we are enslaved to Caesar’s trash as our portion.

Better to be enslaved even to just nominal Catholicism given some room in us, that we develop into bound children, and forever. Better that the Eucharist comes to seem an old thing like a slave’s lumpy hot cereal, that in the heat of it God can let each of us know that He wants to nourish each of us unto salvation. For can Solomon’s glory or Caesar’s pile of booty fill us at all in our hunger?

And, to God, my Master and our King, I am my own and princely royal child of His, not some tributary cog in a vast earthly estate. How many slaves as this world knows slaves can attain a crown?

Warren, Some use the expression, ” a tough act to follow” although I say of you, “a tough act to precede”. If only I had you at my back when I was being attacked on all sides from my youth until now. Alas as per usual, God has with-held the best for last in your newly found friendship with me. When I come on stage before you I feel like the "warm up band" for the STAR attraction. Your song of love is so charming that I could not bring myself to edit one part of it before posting my response.

I was reading Saint Bernard of the 11th Century of whom was said, “his word was like the sting of a bee although each sting was dealt out of his love for mankind.

I see in you a biting sting as you reveal the folly of worldly ways and define “honey” as those Spiritual promptings which bring us all to joy.

Post edited 3:30 pm – October 12, 2009 by saintstephen

Warren Jewell said:

I take myself as only an unworthy vehicle for the Lord’s Spirit. It is to Him, Lord and Master of Life itself, that we owe any ’sting and honey’ – a contrast that so reflects the results of lively faith – and I am but one of His channels. If any turns to Him, as I find I frequently do in my prayers unto meditation and contemplation, He can make you His channel, too.

For, He so loves every one of us so as to burn to let us know of His love. So, does He love YOU.

Warren, Like all of God’s chillin, I fully believe God loves me although I also fully believe that God does not love some of the things I have done, that is why the Confessional is one of my favorite places to be. Without confessing my sins, it would be impossible for God to fully love me for his justice demands that I be expelled on the grounds of infidelity.

This is why I have prayed to be bound by Christ with the ball and chain of fidelity to His word and place the key next to God's Throne so no one can unlock my chains. I do not want to become like that lunatic in the cemetery who was possessed by Legion