[media presentation below] GospelThink Wednesday, October 11 LUKE 11:1-4 I teach you a very important prayer. Prayerthoughts a. Jesus once again is in prayer as he is so often in the Gospels. In my prayer life, am I spending enough time thinking directly of the Lord and what he has done for me? b. We want to know “how to pray” as the Apostles asked Jesus. Jesus gives an “informal prayer,” that is one un-memorized, a prayer from the heart. Studying prayer might be helpful.. perhaps the Catechism’s presentation, numbers 2558 ff. c. The first part of Jesus’ prayer is praise of God. Do I praise the Lord enough for all the good things of the world and my life? d. The second part is a prayer of petition. In my prayer of petition, do I spend too much time on myself rather than others? e. The Lord calls us to pray for ourselves, in which we should ask for our “daily bread,” that is, the Lord’s help as we live our day today. As I look at my day today or tomorrow, when can I seek the Lord’s presence more? f. In the prayer for ourselves, the Lord tells us to forgive. First of all, we must ask for forgiveness, that is, we must recognize our sinfulness. What especially should I show sorrow for in my life? g. Part of the forgiveness is forgiving others. Do I criticize other’s imperfections too much in my thoughts or words? h. Finally, the Lord says that we should pray for protection from the evil around us. Have I allowed the love of material things take over too much of my thinking? i. My prayerthoughts… Today I will write down each phrase of Luke’s rendition of the Our Father, and write my own reflection. Some Thoughts on the Liturgy  THE ATTITUDE OF FORGIVENESS  + Today’s and tomorrow’s Gospel deal with prayer             – here, Luke’s version of the Our Father, which version is probably the closest to what Jesus actually said,                         – with the obvious stress on forgiveness                                     – both asking God to forgive us, and we forgiving others                                                 – it carries with it an attitude of respect and love of others  + An attitude that Jonah did not have, as one studies the conclusion to the book of Jonah in the Hebrew Scriptures             – Jonah seems to have had a good prayer life—he was talking to God directly anyway                         – but he didn’t get what he prayed for                                     – he thought that the people of Nineveh should be punished more than God was going to punish them, and became angry at God                                     – then he thought that God should protect him more than God was doing, and again he became angry at God                                     – God said basically, “grow up”                                                 – and you’re led to question whether he did or not because the book ends with no conclusion except that God was merciful toward the people of Nineveh  + Jonah is a picture of us in many ways: we want our way,             – that is, we want what we want—the basic problem from which all other problems come, I believe             – we want what we think should be done                         – and when we don’t get it, we complain, we sulk, we become self-righteous                         – and it becomes an attitude, that is more or less unconscious—we don’t even know it is there                                     – it forms a mind-set that is closed to the possibility that God really could have other plans             – and more often than not, much of what we want has to do with other people—we want what they have, or we think that they have too much, or we judge how they are acting or the like                         – we don’t have the attitude of forgiveness that Jesus teaches in his prayer  + We should study carefully our own attitude of forgiveness             – are we looking at others from the prism of forgiveness or from the prism of judgment             – Jesus teaches a prayer in which forgiveness is of primary importance                         – that must be a guide for us who follow him. MEDIA PRESENTATION Movie: “Black Widow” — final session PAIN MAKES US STRONGER The Gospel LUKE 24:1-11 At daybreak on the first day of the week they took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb; but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were puzzling over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them.  They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, “Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day.” And they remembered his words. Then they returned from the tomb and announced all these things to the eleven and to all the others. The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James; the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles, but their story seemed like nonsense, and they did not believe them.

Gospelthink: Jesus rose from the dead proving His divinity. Have I completely accepted the Lord if everything that I do?

Eventually, the whole initial “family” end up at the Red Room pursuing the evil General Dreykov. Dreykov and his practically undefeatable Taskmaster who was actually Anotonia, Dreykov’s daughter whom Romanoff thought that she had killed were set on killing them all. Dreykov had control of literally the whole world through Black Widows who were placed all over the world. Romanoff and Yelena led the fight against Dreykov who eventually tries to escape. Yelena thought that she would die as a result of trying to overcome Dreykov, but Romanoff saved her. Eventually with the Red Dust that frees the hold Dreylov has over people, Romanoff is able to free all the Black Widows throughout the world. In the end Romanoff heads off to help the Avengers while Yelena and “parents” Shostakov and Vostokoff move on to presumably a happy life. The pain in their lives had made them all stronger.

Ever since the Scriptures have been read, Mary Magdalene has been a fascinating figure for writers. She has been portrayed in a fictitious way to have been romantically involved with Jesus, even to the point of being married to him. But the Scriptures only present her as one of the many that Jesus inspired to be better. In Mark’s Gospel, she was a person who was overcome with evil, and Jesus freed her from those demons. Further, in Mark’s and John’s Gospels, she was the first person that Jesus appeared to after his resurrection. In Matthew and Luke’s Gospel, she is one of the important people in the new way of Christianity. Studying Mary Magdalene’s life, one can conclude that somehow all of the negatives that happened in her life became a means by which she could grow. One can see that Jesus gave her the incentive to accomplish it, but Mary herself no doubt had made the decision at some time in her life that she had to change her behavior. With Jesus’ help she was finally able to do it, albeit with pain, becoming a stronger person in the process. Ultimately, if we want to grow well, every one of us must conclude at some time in our lives that we want things to be better. We know that pain has been part of our lives, even to the point of completely overpowering us, and taking complete control. There are indeed such negatives, but the psychology behind those negatives is that they can actually be aids to help us grow. They can make us stronger. We will realize that we have been hurt, and how we have been hurt, and be able to learn from the experiences. And so, as the “family” of  Shostakov, Vostokoff,  Romanoff and Yelena in the movie “Black Widow” discovered in their lives, “Pain makes us stronger.” The Christian addition to such a psychological fact is that God will always give us the help that we need in order to bring it about. Mary Magdalene became one of the stronger promoters of the Christian religion because Jesus gave her the power to overcome the demons that were part of her life. The Christian believer knows that God always gives us the strength that we need in order to accomplish the good things that will help us be better people.

PRAYER Good and gracious God, your Son always had power over evil. Evil never got the better of anyone who asked for his help. Give us the grace to understand that we can overcome the pain in our lives, and with your help, actually allow those negatives to teach us the good that we can become. Be with us, we pray.

+++++ GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT Theme: When fighting evil, one must always remember that pain makes us stronger.   DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: (session: approximately 62 minutes) 1. What scene during this session of the movie is most striking? Why? 2. Why did the disciples not believe that Jesus rose from the dead even though he had foretold it several times? 3. In your opinion, why is Mary Magdalene so important as we consider our Christian way of life? 4. In your opinion, is it a true statement that negatives can make us stronger people? 5. In general, why do some people not want to be better in their lives? 6. Are there some situations that you know of in which negatives helped people be better than they were? 7. What does the movie “Black Widow” teach young people?