For this reason I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of His glory, He may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through His Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the Saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3: 14 – 19
Yesterday’s reading from Joel spoke of God pouring out His Spirit upon us. Here in Ephesians, Paul is telling us that he is praying on his knees, for us all to be “strengthened in your inner being with the power through His Spirit…” All that Paul prays for on our behalf is the transformation within us through faith in Christ, by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. We are never alone on this journey of faith. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all working to help us grow in faith, hope, and love. If we meditate on the passage’s words, we can understand how deeply God loves us and desires an intimate relationship with us: “to know the love of Christ…”
Let us pray with St. Gregory:
I pray to you, unchanging and almighty Spirit:
Send the dew of your sweetness upon my soul to rule over the impulses of my senses.
Send the all-filling gifts of your merciful grace
and cultivate the reasoning fields hardened by my heart,
that they might bear the fruit of your spiritual seeds.
All gifts that flourish and grow with us, Teacher,
come from your all-encompassing wisdom.
You who laid hands on the apostles,
filled the prophets,
taught the teachers,
made the mute speak,
and open the ears of the deaf.
You, of the same family as the first
and only begotten Son of your consubstantial Father,
carry all this out through your mutual effort.
Amen
Prayer 34 B
