7–Perfect!

Summer Fun with the biblical meaning of numbers continues.

Steps 1 & 2: Relax. Ask Jesus to visit with you. Mention any concerns on your mind. Read the prompt:

SEVEN symbolizes Divine perfection and completeness. It clearly refers to God, His work and His mission. There are seven days of creation and seven days in the week. On the seventh day, God, seeing that all is good, rested. Sabbath is the seventh day. There are seven “eternals”: priests (according to the order of Melchizedek, are forever), salvation, judgment, redemption, spirit, inheritance, and the everlasting covenant. Hebrew slaves worked for six years and were freed in the seventh.

Jesus expelled seven demons from Mary Magdalene. There are seven petitions in the Lord’s prayer. Jesus said to forgive “seventy times seven” (meaning “always”). There are seven penitential psalms, seven sacraments, and seven O’ Antiphons (composed in the 700s) leading up to Christmas Eve. There are seven sorrows and seven joys of Mary. There are seven sorrows and seven joys of St. Joseph. There are seven deadly sins and seven counter virtues. And we haven’t even gotten to Jesus’ last words, the Book of Revelation (packed with sevens), or the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (but you can find the latter in my earlier blogs).

We’ll return to seven later this year because it lends itself to so many prayer prompts for meditation and contemplation.

Step 3: Talk to Jesus about the prompt. What stands out to you? How does it make you feel? Does it have anything to do with the concern you voiced at the beginning of your prayer? I’ve included the start of my responses below to show how this step is like talking to a friend. Feel free to read it–or skip it entirely.

[Jesus, what I like about the number seven is that it starts in Genesis with creation and goes through the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible. It’s easy to remember it’s your number because it rhymes with “heaven”. In the last blog we talked about “sixes and sevens” and that phrase sort of describes me. I’m my parents’ seventh child but since there were twins before me I was their sixth pregnancy. I guess I am a mix of blessings and challenges.

I’m thinking about St. Joseph and his sorrows and joys. I relate to him because …. that situation is much better, but still …. ]

Step 4: Now let Jesus respond to you. Relax and listen in silent contemplation. What do you “hear”, taste, smell, feel, remember….

[Jesus talking: I forgive you. It’s over. Let it go.]

Step 5: Compose a prayer to wrap up your feelings in a final response to Jesus.

[Oh, Jesus, thank you! As soon as the timer went off, I got my special “message from heaven”. How great to get confirmation that we are all connected in the Communion of Saints even though I don’t get many “do this” messages clearly. But I sure feel you listened, Jesus, and that You spoke to me.

[Thank you for all you have given me, not just my daily bread, but all the extras, especially the people. Thank you for St. Joseph (and St. Joseph, thank you for helping me), and for my sisters. I’m so grateful I have them, not just for fun things but because I learn from them and their different personalities and thoughts. Thank you for my brothers for I learn from them as well. Thanks for my precious Meghan and Molly, and for Westley, already with You. Jesus, you know my heart. You know I’m working on my faults. Please be patient with me in my slow learning–or is it slow accepting? I promise to show patience with others as well. I love You!]

Step 6: Choose a word, sentence, image or feeling to keep in your heart until your prayer session. Keeping a written record of your choices helps you “see” how your relationship with God is alive, loving and nurturing.

[I promise you.]