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*Sacred Scripture* Abraham’s Counsel to Sarah – Tissot
This image, by nineteenth-century artist, J. Tissot, shows Abraham counseling Sarah under a tent. The couple lies on large woven rugs, laid over the desert sand. Sarah looks at her husband, chin in hand, while he explains something to her.
Gn 17:3-9
3Abram fell face down and God said to him:
4For my part, here is my covenant with you: you are to become the father of a multitude of nations.c
5No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham,* for I am making you the father of a multitude of nations.d
6I will make you exceedingly fertile; I will make nations of you; kings will stem from you.
7I will maintain my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout the ages as an everlasting covenant, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.e
8I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land in which you are now residing as aliens, the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession; and I will be their God.f
9God said to Abraham: For your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages.
Gn 17:15-22
15God further said to Abraham: As for Sarai your wife, do not call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah.*
16I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her. Her also will I bless; she will give rise to nations, and rulers of peoples will issue from her.j
17Abraham fell face down and laughed* as he said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at ninety?”k
18So Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael could live in your favor!”
19God replied: Even so, your wife Sarah is to bear you a son, and you shall call him Isaac. It is with him that I will maintain my covenant as an everlasting covenant and with his descendants after him.l
20Now as for Ishmael, I will heed you: I hereby bless him. I will make him fertile and will multiply him exceedingly. He will become the father of twelve chieftains, and I will make of him a great nation.m
21But my covenant I will maintain with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you by this time next year.n
22When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God departed from him.
Saying the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always.
1-A prayer from Raphael the Archangel:
*While you are on this earth, you must praise the Lord God and give him thanks.
2-A prayer from Tobit and Tobias:
*They began to sing hymns of praise, giving thanks for all the mighty deeds God had done while his angel Raphael had been with them.
3-A simple Jesus prayer:
*Lord, Lord, Jesus Christ…Son of God…have mercy on me…Be kind to others…Work Hard…Be joyful.
4-Another simple prayer:
*When all that God asks of us is to be quiet and keep ourselves at peace-attentive to the secret work He is beginning in our souls-Be Empty and See That I Am God.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 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.
Eph 3:14–17, NRSV