|
|
Each finite creature can reflect only a fraction of the divine nature; thus, in the diversity of His creatures, God's infinity, unity and oneness appear to be broken into an effulfgence of manifold rays.
- Edith Stein
(Enjoy the beauty around you this day.)
|
1 Sm 18:6-9; 19:1-7; Psalm 56:2-3, 9-10a, 10b-11, 12-13
Mk 3:7-12
Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples.
A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea.
Hearing what he was doing,
a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem,
from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan,
and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.
He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd,
so that they would not crush him.
He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases
were pressing upon him to touch him.
And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him
and shout, “You are the Son of God.”
He warned them sternly not to make him known.
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.)
Mark 3: 7-12 (Jesus and the crowds)
Again and again Mark writes of the crowds who followed Jesus for healing, teaching, and out of curiosity. Withdrawing from areas where conflict with the authorities might bring a premature end to his ministry, Jesus takes to the countryside, pursued by the crowds. He ministers on, undaunted.
* An ancient story tells of Satan instructing evil spirits in the art of damning souls. The most successful temptation was not to deny GodÕs existence, or even the devil's existence, but "There's plenty of time." Why is this attitude so damning? Would you search for Jesus out in the countryside?
* Spend some time with the words of the psalmist: "Be still and know that I am God!" (Psalm 46: 11).
Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
____________
BOOK II: THE HISTORY OF THE GENERATION AND HEAVENLY BIRTH OF DIVINE LOVE
Chapter 17: That the love which is in hope is very good, though imperfect
Some goods there are which we use for ourselves when we employ them, as our servants, horses, clothes: and the love which we bear unto them is a love of pure cupidity, since we love them only for our own profit. Other goods there are which we possess, but with a possession which is reciprocal and equal on each side, as in the case of our friends: for the love we have unto them inasmuch as they content us is
indeed a love of cupidity, yet of an honest cupidity, by which they are ours and we similarly theirs, they belong to us and we equally to them. But there are yet other goods which we possess with a possession of dependence, participation and subjection, as we do the benevolence, or presence, or favour of our pastors, princes, father, mother: for the love which we bear unto them is then truly a love of cupidity, when we love them in that they are our pastors, our princes, our fathers, our
mothers, since it is not precisely the quality of pastor, nor of prince, nor of father, nor of mother, which is the cause of our affection towards them, but the fact that they are so to us and in our regard. Still this cupidity is a love of respect, reverence and honour; for we love our father, for example, not because he is ours but because we are his; and after the same manner it is that we love and aspire to God by hope, not to the end he may become our good, but because he is it; not to the
end he may become ours, but because we are his; not as though he existed for us, but inasmuch as we exist for him.
|
|
|
