My previous post spoke of building up the Kingdom of God. But that is easy to say, hard to explain, and even harder to do. How do we go about building up God’s Kingdom on earth? What practical measures might we employ to that end so high and noble and holy? The answer’s simplicity might surprise you.

We pray and work.

Prayer is building the connection to our spiritual home, Heaven, and the inhabitants there. When we pray, the rosary, or a devotion to a saint, or the Mass of Saint John, we build up in ourselves the spiritual connections to God, inside ourselves and in the universal created order outside ourselves. Remember the words of our Lord, “The Kingdom of God is within you,” and “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then all these things will be given unto you.”

So pray, and do so with presence and without willful distraction. Then your path in life will become visible to you.

The second way we build up the Kingdom is through work. This work may be of the body or the soul, in other words, corporal or spiritual. Work is an act of justice, giving to each their due, and mercy, forgiving each according to what they owe us.

For example, you move through the world without considering what you owe your neighbor, such as understanding, compassion, fellow-feeling or seeing yourself in their shoes for a moment, you are failing in justice, not mercy. We owe this to every fellow human traveler in this wild globe. Everyone we meet deserves this. That is why the saints were known for their presence when speaking to their fellow man, making eye contact and connecting with them, in other words, communion.

Mercy is moving beyond the realm of justice as light moves beyond the warmth of a hearth fire. Mercy is the the proper order of a wretched and wasted existence that has been redeemed by God’s Blood. If we are forgiven, we must forgive others. If we are served beyond our mere needs, we must serve others even in luxury. Doing one small act of mercy (read kindness here) in the street for a stranger in love, will draw down God’s love and blessing on you like a soft and fruitful spring shower for your soul. Try it. It’s fun.

Here is a prayer to help you on the road of your spiritual journey, building up God’s Kingdom. It comes from the French thinker and mystic, Ernest Hello:

O Raphael, lead us towards those we are waiting for, those who are waiting for us!

Raphael, Angel of Happy Meetings, lead us by the hand towards those we are looking for! May all our movements, all their movements, be guided by your Light and transfigured by your Joy.

Angel Guide of Tobias, lay the request we now address to you at the Feet of Him on Whose unveiled Face you are privileged to to gaze.

Lonely and tired, crushed by the separations and sorrows of earth, we feel the need of calling to you and of pleading for the protection of your wings, so that we may not be as strangers in the Province of Joy, all ignorant of the concerns of our country.

Remember the weak, you who are strong, you whose home lies beyond the region of thunder, in a land that is always peaceful, always serene, and bright with the resplendent glory of God.