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If there be anything that is capable of setting the soul in a large place it is absolute abandonment to God. It diffuses in the soul a peace that flows like a river and the righteousness which is as the waves of the sea.
- Francois Fenelon
(Let go into God . . . completely . . . let go . . . )
Lenten Retreat (on-site and Zoom)
Lessons from the Passion of Christ
March 12, 2022 (Saturday)
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. CST
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Est C:12, 14-16, 23-25; Psalm 138:1-2ab, 2cde-3, 7c-8
Mt 7:7-12
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Which one of you would hand his son a stone
when he asked for a loaf of bread,
or a snake when he asked for a fish?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your heavenly Father give good things
to those who ask him.
“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.
This is the law and the prophets.”
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.)
Matthew 7:7-12 (Ask, seek, knock)
Jesus reveals a God who is generous and responsive. This does not exempt us from searching for ways to grow closer to him. It is in searching and asking that we discover our true self and God’s goodness.
* What are you seeking from God? From your family members?
* How would you like others to treat you? Make a list, then commit yourself to treating others likewise.
Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
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BOOK II: THE HISTORY OF THE GENERATION AND HEAVENLY BIRTH OF DIVINE LOVE
Chapter 19: That penitence without love is imperfect.
To conclude: the repentance which excludes the love of God is infernal like to that of the damned. The repentance which does not reject the love of God, though as yet it be without it, is a good and desirable penitence, but imperfect, and it cannot give salvation until it attain love and is mingled therewith. So that as the great Apostle said that though he should deliver his body to be burned, and all his
goods to the poor, wanting charity it would profit him nothing, so we may truly say, that though our penitence were so great that it should cause our eyes to dissolve in tears, and our hearts to break with sorrow, yet if we have not the holy love of God, all this would profit nothing for eternal life.
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