WHEN YOU REALLY AND URGENTLY NEED SOMETHING, PRAY THE PRAYER OF 'NO WINE'

So it is suggested to us -- and a great idea this is: The prayer of "no wine." 

For it comes from need. It comes from the heart. It's a prayer of "desperation."

God hears desperate prayers!

A key here: from the heart:

When we really want or need something, we must summon the words not from the intellect but from the spirit.

It is also a prayer of emptying self from self and filling ourselves with the "living waters" of the Holy Spirit. It's that water -- in "jugs" -- that we present to Him!

When we first pray to rid ourselves of pride and ego, when we cast out the pollution of selfishness, when we rid the impurities of ego (see too: unforgiveness), the Lord -- seeing this "emptiness," or should we say purity -- moves to fill us much more powerfully!

He does so like the jugs -- to overflowing, more than we even wanted, and of supreme quality!

To be empty of "self" means to have room to fill with the Holy Spirit.

Miracles proliferate.

"I have often suggested this prayer and when children pray it, it is especially effective," wrote Beverly Karsteter of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. "When my nephew was moved to a new town and house hunting to no avail, the family gathered in a circle and holding hands prayed, 'Jesus, we have no house.' Shortly a phone call was received about a house that had come back on the market just blocks from the Catholic elementary school! God is good. Pray 'they have no wine.'"

And make it the prayer of "no whine," also.

Complain not. Whine not. But look to the God of Miracles!

He has plenty for you if it is in His rhythm and timing (and sometimes, as at Cana, even if it's not quite in His timing -- when we have the help of the Blessed Mother!).

Clear your heart of anger, impatience, pride, lust, and lack of forgiveness -- do that and what is in you will be replaced by the "living waters" that produce the choicest wine (once He touches it). Forgive, forgive, forgive. Cast out spirits by name: spirits of "hate," spirits of "anger," spirits of "resentment" -- cast these spirits out specifically, until you feel peace (in the Name of Jesus). If you are blocked from love, cast out that which is blocking you.

Cast out and clean up! Be immaculate. Pure water. New wineskin. Each ill emotion that we keep is a weight in our baggage.

Passion rots the wineskin. So does worldliness. Those who are cleansed are not worldly; they're not materialistic; they do not view themselves as big shots; they center on the spiritual (not the stock market); they rest not on the laurels of men.

A materialistic world can not accept miracles and you have to accept miracles to get one!

This is the real root of our economic crisis: the way our culture has trained everyone to do everything they can to serve themselves -- to get the most they can -- while giving the least. How selfish. How anti-spirit! It is why our society is upside-down and cold and has been for decades now (even up to euthanasia).

Only look for how you can help others; only look for what you can  do for God; only look to use the gifts He has given you for the benefit of all and He will turn your water into wine or whatever it is you need, even if it's for an occasion of celebration.

He is the God of Joy. He is the Great Provider. Fret not.

Why is "clearing the waters of self" so important?

Because when we're selfish we lack love, and God is love. When we're selfish, the world revolves around us -- not Him. When we're self-centered, we're puffed up in a way that the Lord finds repellent. It was a prayer for others that caused the Cana miracle. Today the miracle is wine to His Blood.

And so we turn back to God; like guests as Cana, we look to Him. We look to Jesus.

And also, His Blessed Mother.

She was the intermediary there, at Cana, wasn't she?

[resources: Michael H. Brown retreat and Mass (Fr. Altier), Minnesota and Retreat in New Jersey]

[resources: The God of Miracles]

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