Blog - Bear the Fruit of the Kingdom: Mark 4

​If you’re able to gather with another person while diving into Mark’s Gospel, try starting your next meetup over Mark 4 with this prayer model:

• 1.)   Decision: Decide who will receive prayer first and who will pray first.
• 2 ) Ask: For what does the receiver desire prayers? 
  • If you have a lot of time, feel free to share more, but do so prayerfully. This is not about “catching up” so much as giving someone a target for their intercessory prayer.
  • As the pray-er, make sure to listen with both ears: (1) listen to their needs and (2) try and listen for a nudge from God, too.
• 3.) Silence: Before praying, make the Sign of the Cross together and silently invite the Holy Spirit to be present. You don’t need to make anything happen. You, as the receiver, only need to receive; let the other person pray with and for you. As the pray-er/intercessor, ask God the Father to give you His Heart for the receiver. 
  
  • Silence is a crucial aspect of praying with another person. We can become nervous about silence, but the silence of prayer is more about a fullness rather than an emptiness. God is already present and ahead of you in that time of prayer.
• 4. ) Pray aloud: spontaneous prayers can seem so “simple” when we pray them. But simple prayer that another hears can move hearts. A parishioner of St. Edward’s and Lucy’s told me that someone prayed spontaneously for them and started saying things that were prophetic, spot on, and the intercessor didn’t even know the full impact of their prayer. Do not discount your simple prayers; God will use you.
  • Some examples of prayers to help:
    • “Heavenly Father, send forth your Holy Spirit into [name the situation, e.g. this wounded relationship, this need for employment, the lower back where there’s pain]. Thank you for your presence, Holy Spirit.”
    • “In the name of Jesus, I ask you Father to send the Holy Spirit into the…”
    • “I thank you Father for your love for [insert the person’s name]. Thank you for [name something you’re sincerely thankful for about the person] that you’ve given to [name]. Bless that gift in their life. Send forth your holy angels and Saint [name one of their favorite saints] to assist them in [insert the need that was brought up].”
    • “Loving Father, we lift up [name the person they asked you to pray for] to you in their need. Send them grace to help with [insert need].”
  • After saying a few short, simple prayers take another moment of silence.
• 5.) Prayer in the Heart: In that second moment of silence, interiorly ask God the Father if there is anything He wants to say to the receiver. Don’t try to force anything. If “nothing” comes to mind, no worries. But, sometimes people get an image, remember a story, people think of a Scripture passage, a scene from a movie, a line from a Garth Brooks song from the 90's, you name it.
  • If you do not get a word or image, think of a verse from the Bible that is consoling and encouraging and say something like “Father, in the Word you say ‘God works out all things for the good of those who love you,’ and I claim that for [insert name] and over [his/her] life. Jesus, bless [name] and bring [him/her] peace and your presence.” 
    
  • If a word or image does come to mind:
    • First, ask a new question: “Father, what do you want to say about that word/image” and see if something comes to mind or not. This might sound crazy reading this, but, believe, God does work in these ways. If you don’t get anything else after the initial image or words, that’s okay.
    • Second, simply share the image or word that came to mind. “I have a sense that this word/image is something God the Father possibly wants to share right now: [say it].” If you have a sense of what the Father wanted to say about the words/image, tell them. “I sense that He possibly meant it this way: [give the explanation].”
  • TIP FOR THIS PORTION OF THE PRAYER: Keep what you say tentative. You don’t want to straightjacket someone by saying “this is what Jesus says and you better believe it or else you're doubting JESUS;” that wouldn't help anything. Use language that honestly expresses the discernment process of prayer: “I have a sense that…” or “I think, possibly, this image/word is something the Father wanted you to hear right now…” Say what you have to say with compassion, and it’ll be fine. Give each other permission to try this new way of prayer (if it’s a new way of praying). It does seem to work better if you try this prayer by having the mindset of being a child of the Father in His playground. You’re not being graded on anything. Have fun!
• 6.) Conclude: A good way to conclude the prayer is with an Our Father or Hail Mary or Glory Be. Something that lets you both know that the prayer time is finished. 
  • Then, switch roles. 
• 7.) NOTE: This took time to read, but once you get used to this type of prayer, it doesn’t necessarily take long to pray these steps. But, it takes a few people willing to try. 
• 8.) ON TO THE BIBLE: When you’ve finished praying for one another, get your Bibles out and have someone invite the Holy Spirit to be present in your reading and conversation. Then…start talking about the Gospel of Mark.

Reflection Questions:

1. Jesus states that the parable of the Sower (Mk. 4:3-9) is a key to the other parables: “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables” (v. 13)? There’s no one simple answer to this question, but it’s one worth reflecting upon: What is it about this parable that would make it necessary for one to grasp the other parables?
2. The Lamp (vv. 21-23), Measurement (vv. 24-25), Ignorant Farmer (vv. 26-29), Mustard Seed (vv. 30-32). What are some overarching themes of these parables? What do they share about the heart of God’s kingdom? What is the attitude reflected in these parables? 
3. Jesus calms the stormy sea in vv. 35-41. During that, Jesus does not pray for the storm to cease. A prayer or petition involves a petition; but, Jesus doesn’t ask for anything. What does Jesus actually do to calm the storm? How does that “sit” with you?

     Food for Thought:

     Have you ever had questions about what you read in the Bible, but you didn’t know who to turn to for an answer? Using valuable resources can be a great help. When you find a good commentary, it can make a big difference in accepting God’s word (which is a big part of bearing the fruit of God’s word, Mk. 4:20). A commentary that I use for the parish’s Wednesday evening Bible Study is from a book series titled “Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture.” The commentary that I have used to help me with this blog series was written by Mary Healy. The insights of a trusted scholar can unpack the word, but, sometimes there’s a deeper question at play. What do we do when we “get” what is being said, but we “don’t really get” what’s being said? For example, in John 14:12 Jesus says that when we believe in him we will do the works that he did and even greater ones. Now, I “get” what that communicates. It’s jaw dropping. But, something in my heart needs to let that word land in the rich soil of faith and accept that word. I get it, but need Jesus’ help to really get it. (I hope that makes some sense…hopefully you get what I’m trying to say, even if you don’t fully get it). 

     When I get that I don’t get what’s being said - even if I understand - then it’s time to do what the disciples do in Mark 4:10. In 4:10 we see that the Twelve were alone with Jesus and began to ask him questions about his parables. When we get closer to the end of this chapter we catch these verses: “With many such parables [Jesus] spoke the word to them…but privately to his own disciples he explained everything” (v. 33-34). In these two moments of v. 10 and vv. 33-34 we begin to see a pattern that might help us in our Bible study. That is: We need to talk to Jesus about what we’re reading in the Bible, i.e. we need to pray with the Scriptures and ask the Holy Spirit’s help. The Bible is meant to draw us into a deeper and fuller relationship with the Holy Trinity and equip us to help build God’s Kingdom. Plenty of passages of Scripture will befuddle us and a commentary can help clear up doubts or offer broader, learned perspectives. But the deeper stuff, the place where the Word is sown into that rich soil that the Father is tending and keeping, that will be the place wherein we talk to Jesus, leave questions open with chasing after an easy answer, and invite Jesus to grace our hearts with a lavish obedience to his word.