Page 148 - Prayer Book

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Prayer B o ok
end times are called the Kingdom of God, for it is where
God’s will, Love, and Freedom will reign. For now, we live
in hope for personal existence, anticipating the fulfillment
of this hope in the Kingdom of God. In the Kingdom of
God, we will exist as true persons. How? By participating,
through the grace of the Holy Spirit, in the personal rela-
tionship between God the Father and God the Son. Our
deification, our Christification, will be realized in the
Kingdom of God!
We still live within history. History is a time and space
for testing and exercising our freedom! In history, God is
generally absent! The trust of the human person in a God
who seems absent is tested. Through our actions in history,
we freely choose either to respond to God’s personal call or
to reject it. History still provides the space and opportu-
nity to express our free will, our free choice.
Baptism—Eucharist—Asceticism—Love
But God’s Love has not abandoned us in our solitude!
He has sent us the Holy Spirit, the Comforter! “Comforter”
means "the one who consoles." The Holy Spirit, the Com-
forter, is sent to comfort us in the mystery of God’s absence
in the world! How? By granting us a foretaste of the King-
dom of God, a foretaste of the personal way of existence
before God the Father.
The foretaste of the Kingdom of God is realized in the
Mystery of Baptism and the Mystery of the Divine Eucha-
rist, as well as in the ascetic life and acts of Love!
In the Mystery of Baptism, we experience a new birth,
free from the constraints of our fallen nature, from the pas-