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Anglewannabe
Guest
Can anyone explain exactly what it means to ‘Seek first the kingdom of God’?
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D
domNoah
Guest
It means before anything else, even the preservation of life itself we must Seek First to Glorify God. We Glorify Him by knowing and loving Him; we give testimony of our love by serving Him, we serve Him by keeping his commandments and precepts.
To love and serve God should be the goal of all our ambitions and the end of all our actions and we should live entirely for God.
To love and serve God should be the goal of all our ambitions and the end of all our actions and we should live entirely for God.
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David_W_Jackson
Guest
Is the word Kingdom translated Power ?
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littlestsouls2
Guest
‘For lo, the kingdom of God is within you.’ (Lk. 17:21)
“For in the Scriptures," said Jesus to St. Gertrude, "I have commanded men to seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice, that is to say the progress of the inward man. As for those exterior things, I did not say to seek them even in the second place; rather have I promised to give them over and above.”
Rev. Martin Von Cochem: “Commentators explain this passage as alluding to hearing Mass; as if Our Lord had said: 'Be not over-solicitous about your bodily sustenance, but in the first place pay God homage by hearing Mass before beginning the day’s labors, and He will requite this service by providing what is necessary for the body.”
“For in the Scriptures," said Jesus to St. Gertrude, "I have commanded men to seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice, that is to say the progress of the inward man. As for those exterior things, I did not say to seek them even in the second place; rather have I promised to give them over and above.”
Rev. Martin Von Cochem: “Commentators explain this passage as alluding to hearing Mass; as if Our Lord had said: 'Be not over-solicitous about your bodily sustenance, but in the first place pay God homage by hearing Mass before beginning the day’s labors, and He will requite this service by providing what is necessary for the body.”
M
Mystical_Seeker
Guest
I’m convinced “the kingdom” is not necessarily for after we die, but for here and now.
It’s a way of looking at things that brings fruit of the spirit to any situation no matter how terrible the environment or how terribly evil “other people” are. It’s that “place” where the first are last, and the greatest is the one who serves. It looks and feels like the same earthly place as not being in the kingdom, except without the judgment and anger and anxiety.
Note that Jesus talks to His disciples as if they know the mysteries of the kingdom and others don’t. This implies there is something about the kingdom, beyond knowing all of Jesus’s stories and parables, that one sees once one “enters into” it via becoming born of the spirit. Kind of a fancy way IMO of saying that a person has lost his/her worldly illusions and is seeing with eyes of Truth, through having ingested and put to use, His teachings and sacrifice. :bible1:
Note the bolded lines below; they support my case that one can “know the kingdom” while still on this earth. Because some actual walking and talking human beings who were His disciples, had this knowledge. So it isn’t just for “us after we’re dead.”
The fact that many prophets and righteous people have not seen it, tells me that it is something other than Just Good Behavior that gets one to this point where Jesus can talk to us directly and not only through parables.
Matt 1310-17
The disciples approached him and said, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” He said to them in reply, “Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because ‘they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.’ 14 Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:
‘You shall indeed hear but not understand,
you shall indeed look but never see.
Gross is the heart of this people,
they will hardly hear with their ears,
they have closed their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart and be converted,
and I heal them.’
“But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."
It’s a way of looking at things that brings fruit of the spirit to any situation no matter how terrible the environment or how terribly evil “other people” are. It’s that “place” where the first are last, and the greatest is the one who serves. It looks and feels like the same earthly place as not being in the kingdom, except without the judgment and anger and anxiety.
Note that Jesus talks to His disciples as if they know the mysteries of the kingdom and others don’t. This implies there is something about the kingdom, beyond knowing all of Jesus’s stories and parables, that one sees once one “enters into” it via becoming born of the spirit. Kind of a fancy way IMO of saying that a person has lost his/her worldly illusions and is seeing with eyes of Truth, through having ingested and put to use, His teachings and sacrifice. :bible1:
Note the bolded lines below; they support my case that one can “know the kingdom” while still on this earth. Because some actual walking and talking human beings who were His disciples, had this knowledge. So it isn’t just for “us after we’re dead.”
The fact that many prophets and righteous people have not seen it, tells me that it is something other than Just Good Behavior that gets one to this point where Jesus can talk to us directly and not only through parables.
Matt 1310-17
The disciples approached him and said, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” He said to them in reply, “Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because ‘they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.’ 14 Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:
‘You shall indeed hear but not understand,
you shall indeed look but never see.
Gross is the heart of this people,
they will hardly hear with their ears,
they have closed their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart and be converted,
and I heal them.’
“But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."
M
Mystical_Seeker
Guest
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Googler
Guest
There are those who already made up their minds not to submit their free wills to the will of God. They will never make sense of their lives unless they do so. Their indifference is contagious and results in the slavery to sin.
We who promote the Kingdom of Christ, like Mary, our spiritual Mother, leave our worldly cares in the hands of God and let His will be done to us here and now as it is in Heaven, for the love of Him and our sanctification, which leads to unlimited happiness.
We seek and pray for the graces, through our Blessed Mother to use Sacred Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium, together, for the salvation of souls.
We who promote the Kingdom of Christ, like Mary, our spiritual Mother, leave our worldly cares in the hands of God and let His will be done to us here and now as it is in Heaven, for the love of Him and our sanctification, which leads to unlimited happiness.
We seek and pray for the graces, through our Blessed Mother to use Sacred Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium, together, for the salvation of souls.
C
CyrilSebastian
Guest
We are to seek the salvation that is inherent in the kingdom of God because it is of greater value than all the riches of the world.
A
animalis
Guest
Apparently, in my opinion, it seems Jesus is indicating the virtue of Hope. This virtue is a desire that seeks the kingdom of God in the condition of a pilgrim. (See the prayer entitled Act of Hope)
If our hearts are set on temporal passing pleasures or assurances we lose sight of a confident hope that heaven is enough.
If our hearts are set on temporal passing pleasures or assurances we lose sight of a confident hope that heaven is enough.
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