The apostles approached Jesus with this eager desire to ‘increase our faith.’ When was the last time you prayed, “Increase my faith, Lord.” This is a beautiful, simple prayer that expresses the desire to grow in relationship with God. This past week, we celebrated a number of saints who can speak to this desire of increasing our faith…
- Jerome: “Love the Bible and wisdom will love you; love it and it will preserve you; honor it and it will embrace you.” St. Jerome spent over 20 years translating the scriptures into Latin. For how much time are we willing to sit with the word of God so that through His wisdom, our faith can increase?
- Therese: “We have only this life to live by faith. It is true I am not always faithful, but I never lose courage. I leave myself in the Arms of Our Lord. We must abandon the future into the hands of God.” Have you surrendered your life to God? Living a life of faith is about putting faith in God—about entrusting your life, your worries, your everything to Him. What are you holding back that you can’t let go of?
- Francis of Assisi: “Let us begin again for until now we have done nothing.” Can we enter into our walk of faith anew with fresh eyes and ready hearts that are open to God’s mercy and love? Can we enter into this day anew ready to pray, ready to serve, ready to befriend our Lord and our brothers and sisters? Increasing faith must adopt this “begin again” attitude because we will fail. We must get back up, begin again, and keep trying. Every day is a new day with Jesus.
In our striving to increase our faith, remember the saints. Remember how important scripture is in lighting the path of faith. Remember how important surrender is so that we never do life alone. And remember how important it is to begin each day anew if we are to be a people of hope, who strive to increase His life in ours.
Increase our faith,
Fr. Jeremy
