|
|
. . . unless you put yourself in the way of being encountered by the living God, rather than just thinking about God, or talking about God, or stating God's position with respect to various moral issues, your work will be in vain.
- Roberta Bondi, Back to School with Julian of Norwich
(How would you "put yourself in the way of being encountered by the living God?" How can you do this today?)
|
2 Sm 7:18-19, 24-29; Psalm 132:1-2, 3-5, 11, 12, 13-14
Mk 4:21-25
Jesus said to his disciples,
“Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket
or under a bed,
and not to be placed on a lampstand?
For there is nothing hidden except to be made visible;
nothing is secret except to come to light.
Anyone who has ears to hear ought to hear.”
He also told them, “Take care what you hear.
The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you,
and still more will be given to you.
To the one who has, more will be given;
from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.)
Mark 4: 21-25 (Nothing is hidden from God)
Truth and love cannot be forever suppressed, Jesus tells us. Like light shining in darkness, the works of a disciple of Jesus will not remain hidden. It is precisely these works which will prevent the darkness of sin from completely overtaking the world.
* Emerson wrote, "Be careful of what you want, for you will get it." What are you really seeking in your everyday involvements? Why?
* Pray for the grace of purity of intention.
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
And note, Theotimus, that in this love, the reason why we love (that is, why we apply our heart to the love of the good which we desire) is because it is our good; but the measure and quantity of this love depend on the excellence and dignity of the good which we love. We love our benefactors because they are such to us, but we love them more or less as they are more or less our benefactors. Why then do we love
God, Theotimus, with this love of cupidity? Because he is our good. But why do we sovereignly love him? Because he is our sovereign good.
But when I say we love God sovereignly, I do not therefore say that we love him with sovereign love. Sovereign love is only in charity, whereas in hope love is imperfect, because it does not tend to his infinite goodness as being such in itself, but only because it is such to us. Still, because in this kind of love there is no motive more excellent than that which proceeds from the consideration of the sovereign good, we say that by it we love sovereignly, though in real truth no one is
able by virtue of this love either to keep God's commandments, or obtain life everlasting, because it is a love that yields more affection than effect, when it is not accompanied with charity.
|
|
|
