|
|
My images of God have moved from Remote Being in the Sky, to Loving Parent, to Friend, to Lover, to Mystery, to Absent One. It is a dark time, when the old rituals, traditions, customs no longer fit or reflect my experience. I have hopes for new beginnings, but I do not yet know what they may be.
- Sarah Maney, Transition: Loving in the Spaces Between
(God beyond all names and images: How have your images of God changed through the years? How would you describe your image of God at this time?)
|
Dn 5:1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28; Daniel 3:62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67
Lk 21:12-19
Jesus said to the crowd:
“They will seize and persecute you,
they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons,
and they will have you led before kings and governors
because of my name.
It will lead to your giving testimony.
Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand,
for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking
that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.
You will even be handed over by parents,
brothers, relatives, and friends,
and they will put some of you to death.
You will be hated by all because of my name,
but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.
By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.)
Luke 21: 12-19 (Persevere through persecutions)
Because Christians recognize that the status quo is never a full manifestation of the kingdom of God, we shall be persecuted by the idolaters of the status quo. Perseverance in love and truth shall win us a place in eternity, however, for our Lord has gone before us.
• Do you believe that heroism is dead? What are some “ordinary” examples of heroism with which you are familiar? Why have these people persevered in such noble ways?
• What are examples of heroic perseverance from your own life? How did you grow because of these experiences?
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 16: How love is practices in hope
Man's understanding then, being property applied to the consideration of that which faith represents to it touching its sovereign good, the will instantly conceives an extreme complacency in this divine object, which, as yet absent, begets an ardent desire of its presence, whence the soul holily cries out: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. My soul panteth after thee, O
God.
And as the unhooded falcon having her prey in view suddenly launches herself upon the wing, and if held in her leash struggles upon the hand with extreme ardour; so faith, having drawn the veil of ignorance, and made us see our sovereign good, whom nevertheless we cannot yet possess, detained by the condition of this mortal life,--Ah! Theotimus, we then desire it in such sort that, as the hart panteth
after the fountains of waters; so my soul panteth after thee, O God! My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God?
|
|
|
