The Philistines gathered for an attack on Israel. Israel went out to engage them in battle and camped at Ebenezer, while the Philistines camped at Aphek. The Philistines then drew up in battle formation against Israel. After a fierce struggle Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who slew about four thousand men on the battlefield. When the troops retired to the camp, the elders of Israel said, "Why has the LORD permitted us to be defeated today by the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the LORD from Shiloh that it may go into battle among us and save us from the grasp of our enemies." So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the LORD of hosts, who is enthroned upon the cherubim. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were with the ark of God. When the ark of the LORD arrived in the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly that the earth resounded. The Philistines, hearing the noise of shouting, asked, "What can this loud shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?" On learning that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp, the Philistines were frightened. They said, "Gods have come to their camp." They said also, "Woe to us! This has never happened before. Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods that struck the Egyptians with various plagues and with pestilence. Take courage and be manly, Philistines; otherwise you will become slaves to the Hebrews, as they were your slaves. So fight manfully!" The Philistines fought and Israel was defeated; every man fled to his own tent. It was a disastrous defeat, in which Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. The ark of God was captured, and Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were among the dead.

Yet now you have cast us off and put us in disgrace, and you go not forth with our armies. You have let us be driven back by our foes; those who hated us plundered us at will. You made us the reproach of our neighbors, the mockery and the scorn of those around us. You made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples. Why do you hide your face, forgetting our woe and our oppression? For our souls are bowed down to the dust, our bodies are pressed to the earth.

A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said, "If you wish, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, "I do will it. Be made clean." The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once. Then he said to him, "See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them." The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere.

Every day, the Lord heals the soul of each person who begs him to, who worships him reverently and proclaims these words with faith: “Lord, if you will to do so, you can cure me,” and this no matter how many faults he has. For “faith in the heart leads to justification.” (Rom 10:10) Thus, we must address our requests to God in complete trust, without doubting his power in any way… That is why the Lord immediately answered the leper who begged him: “I do will it.” For the sinner has hardly begun to pray with faith than the hand of the Lord sets to work to heal the leprosy of his soul… This leper gives us very good advice on how to pray. He does not doubt the Lord’s will as if he were refusing to believe in his goodness. But he is aware of the seriousness of his faults, and so he does not want to presume on that will. In saying that, if the Lord wills, he can cure him, he affirms that the Lord has this power, and at the same time, he affirms his faith… If faith is weak, it must first be strengthened. Only then will it reveal all its power so as to obtain healing for the soul and the body. Without doubt, the apostle Peter was speaking of this faith when he said: “He purified their hearts by means of faith” (Acts 15:9)… Pure faith lived in love, maintained through perseverance, patient in waiting, humble in its affirmation, firm in its trust, full of respect in its prayer and of wisdom in what it asks, is certain of hearing this word of the Lord’s in every circumstance: “I do will it.”

During the time young Samuel was minister to the LORD under Eli, a revelation of the LORD was uncommon and vision infrequent. One day Eli was asleep in his usual place. His eyes had lately grown so weak that he could not see. The lamp of God was not yet extinguished, and Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the LORD where the ark of God was. The LORD called to Samuel, who answered, "Here I am." He ran to Eli and said, "Here I am. You called me." "I did not call you," Eli said. "Go back to sleep." So he went back to sleep. Again the LORD called Samuel, who rose and went to Eli. "Here I am," he said. "You called me." But he answered, "I did not call you, my son. Go back to sleep." At that time Samuel was not familiar with the LORD, because the LORD had not revealed anything to him as yet. The LORD called Samuel again, for the third time. Getting up and going to Eli, he said, "Here I am. You called me." Then Eli understood that the LORD was calling the youth. So he said to Samuel, "Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'" When Samuel went to sleep in his place, the LORD came and revealed his presence, calling out as before, "Samuel, Samuel!" Samuel answered, "Speak, for your servant is listening." Samuel grew up, and the LORD was with him, not permitting any word of his to be without effect. Thus all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba came to know that Samuel was an accredited prophet of the LORD.

I have waited, waited for the LORD, and he stooped toward me and heard my cry. Blessed the man who makes the LORD his trust; who turns not to idolatry or to those who stray after falsehood. Sacrifice or oblation you wished not, but ears open to obedience you gave me. Burnt offerings or sin-offerings you sought not; then said I, “Behold I come.” “In the written scroll it is prescribed for me, To do your will, O my God, is my delight, and your law is within my heart!” I announced your justice in the vast assembly; I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.

On leaving the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her. He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them. When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons. The whole town was gathered at the door. He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him. Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed. Simon and those who were with him pursued him and on finding him said, "Everyone is looking for you." He told them, "Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come." So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.

When the Son of God «raised his eyes to heaven and said: 'Father, glorify your Son'» (Jn 17,1), he taught us by this action that we should raise on high all our senses, our hands, our faculties and our soul and pray in him, with him and through him. This was the most loving and holy deed the Son of God could have done here below: to worship his beloved Father. However, this far surpasses any intellectual reasoning and we cannot in any way reach and understand it except in the Holy Spirit. Saint Augustine and Saint Anselm tell us concerning prayer that it is «a raising of the soul to God»... For my part, I tell you only this: truly detach yourself from yourself and from all created things and raise your soul wholly to God above all creatures, into the deep abyss. There, immerse your spirit in God's spirit in true abandonment..., in a real union with God..., Ask God there for everything he wants us to ask him, what you desire and what other people desire from you. And hold this as certain: what a tiny, little coin is with regard to a hundred thousand gold pieces, that is what all external prayer is with regard to this prayer, which is a real union with God, and with regard to this inflowing and fusion of the created spirit in the uncreated spirit of God... If someone asks you for a prayer, it is a good thing to do so in an external way as you were asked and as you promised to do. But, as you do so, draw your soul to the heights and into this interior desert drive your whole flock as Moses did (Ex 3,1)... «True worshippers worship the Father in spirit and in truth» (Jn 4,23). In this interior prayer every practice, every formula, and all those kinds of prayer that, from Adam until now, have been offered and will yet be offered until the last day, are fulfilled. All of them are brought to perfection in a moment in this true and essential recollection.

Hannah rose after a meal at Shiloh, and presented herself before the LORD; at the time, Eli the priest was sitting on a chair near the doorpost of the LORD's temple. In her bitterness she prayed to the LORD, weeping copiously, and she made a vow, promising: "O LORD of hosts, if you look with pity on the misery of your handmaid, if you remember me and do not forget me, if you give your handmaid a male child, I will give him to the LORD for as long as he lives; neither wine nor liquor shall he drink, and no razor shall ever touch his head." As she remained long at prayer before the LORD, Eli watched her mouth, for Hannah was praying silently; though her lips were moving, her voice could not be heard. Eli, thinking her drunk, said to her, "How long will you make a drunken show of yourself? Sober up from your wine!" "It isn't that, my lord," Hannah answered. "I am an unhappy woman. I have had neither wine nor liquor; I was only pouring out my troubles to the LORD. Do not think your handmaid a ne'er-do-well; my prayer has been prompted by my deep sorrow and misery." Eli said, "Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him." She replied, "Think kindly of your maidservant," and left. She went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and no longer appeared downcast. Early the next morning they worshiped before the LORD, and then returned to their home in Ramah. When Elkanah had relations with his wife Hannah, the LORD remembered her. She conceived, and at the end of her term bore a son whom she called Samuel, since she had asked the LORD for him.

My heart exults in the LORD, my horn is exalted in my God. I have swallowed up my enemies; I rejoice in my victory. The bows of the mighty are broken, while the tottering gird on strength. The well-fed hire themselves out for bread, while the hungry batten on spoil. The barren wife bears seven sons, while the mother of many languishes. The LORD puts to death and gives life; He casts down to the nether world; He raises up again. The LORD makes poor and makes rich, He humbles, he also exalts. He raises the needy from the dust; from the dung heap he lifts up the poor, to seat them with nobles and make a glorious throne their heritage.

Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers, and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God!" Jesus rebuked him and said, "Quiet! Come out of him!" The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. All were amazed and asked one another, "What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him." His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

There is no possibility of reaching certitude regarding revealed faith except by means of Christ's coming into the soul. He then comes into the flesh as word confirming every word of prophecy, of which it was said to the Hebrews: “In times past God spoke through the prophets in partial and various ways; in these last days he spoke to us through a Son” (Heb 1:1-2). That Christ is indeed the Father's all-powerful Word, we read: “His word is sovereign and who can say to him: What are you doing?” (Eccl 8:4). He is, too, a word full of truth – even more, he is truth itself – as Saint John says: “Consecrate them in the truth; your word is truth” (17:17)... And so, because authority belongs to the word that is powerful and trustworthy, and Christ is the Word of the Father and, therefore, both Power and Wisdom, so all the strength of authority is founded and consummated in him. That is why all true doctrine and its preachers referred to Christ's coming in the flesh as being the foundation of the entire christian faith: “According to the grace of God given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation... But no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there, namely, Jesus Christ” (1Cor 3:10-11). For he alone is all true doctrine's foundation, whether apostolic or prophetic, according to both one Law and the other, new and old. Thus it is said to the Ephesians: You have built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the capstone” (2:20). And so it is clear that Christ is the teacher of knowledge according to faith; he is the Way according to his twofold coming, in spirit and in flesh.