Catholic Bible 101

Prayers not getting through to God?  Do you feel like you pray and pray and pray, and nothing gets resolved?  Then you may want to consider changing some elements in your life.  Certainly, receiving the sacraments as often as you can is a good way to get closer to God. But remember, the state of your heart and soul when receiving the sacraments determines how much grace you actually receive from the sacraments. For instance Paul warns in 1 Corinthians 11:25-30 that if you receive the Eucharist in an unworthy manner, you could get sick and die.  If you confess your sins to a priest in order to obtain absolution, that in itself is a sign of great humility, but if you don’t have a firm purpose of amendment to stop committing the same sins, then the grace you receive from the sacrament of confession is limited.

The following 3 sins of your life – Pride, gluttony, & greed – stifle your prayer power.  The Holy Bible gives us 3 antidotes for these deadly sins – humility, fasting, and almsgiving.  To truly energize your prayers and to receive more grace from the sacraments, it would be wise for us all to incorporate these curative measures in our life.  Below are some great words from your Creator on why they are important. 

Prayer Blockages must also be removed for your prayers to be efficacious.

BE HUMBLE 

Deuteronomy 8: 2 And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not.

1 Kings 21:29 "Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days; but in his son's days I will bring the evil upon his house."

2 Kings 22:19: because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the LORD, when you heard how I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have rent your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, says the LORD.

2 Chronicles 7:14: if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

2 Chronicles 12:12: And when he humbled himself the wrath of the LORD turned from him, so as not to make a complete destruction; moreover, conditions were good in Judah.

Psalm 149:4: For the LORD takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with victory.

Zephaniah 2:3: Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his commands; seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the wrath of the LORD.

Sirach 3:18: The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself;
so you will find favor in the sight of the Lord.

Sirach 35:17: The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds, and he will not be consoled until it reaches the Lord; he will not desist until the Most High visits him, and does justice for the righteous, and executes judgment.

Matthew 18:4: Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 23:12: whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Philippians 2:3: Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves.

James 4:6: But he gives more grace; therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." 

FASTING

Joel 2:12: Yet even now," says the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;

Jonah 3:4-10: Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he cried, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"  And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.  Then tidings reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he made proclamation and published through Nineveh, "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, or drink water,  but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry mightily to God; yea, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in his hands.  Who knows, God may yet repent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we perish not?"  When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God repented of the evil which he had said he would do to them; and he did not do it.

Daniel 1:8-17: But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's rich food, or with the wine which he drank; therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.  And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs; and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, "I fear lest my lord the king, who appointed your food and your drink, should see that you were in poorer condition than the youths who are of your own age. So you would endanger my head with the king."  Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had appointed over Daniel, Hanani'ah, Mish'a-el, and Azari'ah;  "Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink.  Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king's rich food be observed by you, and according to what you see deal with your servants."  So he hearkened to them in this matter, and tested them for ten days. At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king's rich food.  So the steward took away their rich food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.  As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all letters and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.

Tobit 12:8: Prayer is good when accompanied by fasting, almsgiving, and righteousness. A little with righteousness is better than much with wrongdoing. It is better to give alms than to treasure up gold.

Judith 4:9:  And every man of Israel cried out to God with great fervor, and they humbled themselves with much fasting.

Judith 4:13: So the Lord heard their prayers and looked upon their affliction; for the people fasted many days throughout Judea and in Jerusalem before the sanctuary of the Lord Almighty.

Matthew 9:14-15: Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"  And Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 

Luke 2:37: and as a widow till she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. 

Acts 13:2-3: While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."  Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. 

ALMSGIVING 

Tobit 4:7: Give alms from your possessions to all who live uprightly, and do not let your eye begrudge the gift when you make it. Do not turn your face away from any poor man, and the face of God will not be turned away from you. 

Tobit 12:8-9:  Prayer is good when accompanied by fasting, almsgiving, and righteousness. A little with righteousness is better than much with wrongdoing. It is better to give alms than to treasure up gold. For almsgiving delivers from death, and it will purge away every sin. Those who perform deeds of charity and of righteousness will have fullness of life; 

Sirach 3:30: Water extinguishes a blazing fire: so almsgiving atones for sin. 

Sirach 12:3: No good will come to the man who persists in evil or to him who does not give alms. 

Sirach 17:22: A man's almsgiving is like a signet with the Lord and he will keep a person's kindness like the apple of his eye. 

Sirach 29:12: Store up almsgiving in your treasury, and it will rescue you from all affliction; 

Sirach 40:24: Brothers and help are for a time of trouble, but almsgiving rescues better than both. 

Matthew 6:2-4: "Thus, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,  so that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 

Luke 12:33: Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 

Acts 10:4 & 10:31:  And he stared at him in terror, and said, "What is it, Lord?" And he said to him, "Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God: 31: saying, `Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God.