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"For it is the nature of love, to love when it feels itself loved, and to love all things loved of its beloved. So when the soul has by degrees known the love of its Creator towards it, it loves Him, and, loving Him, loves all things whatsoever that God loves."
- St. Catherine of Siena
(Hence, the primacy of the first great commandment. Take time to love and be loved by God this day.)
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Sir 48:1-14; Psalm 97:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7
Mt 6:7-15
Jesus said to his disciples:
“In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“This is how you are to pray:
‘Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.’
“If you forgive others their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.)
Matthew 6:7-15 (The Lord’s Prayer)
Today’s reading emphasizes the importance of being sincere and honest with God. Because God is not impressed by the length of time that we pray, or how many words we say, or how much we promise to give him, Jesus shares with us a formula for prayer that plugs us into grace and forgiveness.
• With each verse of the Lord’s Prayer, spend some time reflecting on how your own life is influenced by these words. Add your own reflections.
• What faults in other people bother you most? How are these faults evident in your own life? Ask God for forgiveness.
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 22: A short description of charity
Now this friendship is not a simple friendship, but a friendship of dilection, by which we make election of God, to love him with a special love. He is chosen, says the sacred spouse, out of thousands --she says out of thousands, but she means out of all, whence this love is not a love of simple excellence, but an incomparable love; for charity loves God by a certain esteem and preference of his goodness so
high and elevated above all other esteems, that other loves either are not true loves in comparison of this, or if they be true loves, this love is infinitely more than love; and therefore, Theotimus, it is not a love which the force of nature either angelic or human can produce, but the Holy Ghost gives it and pours it abroad in our hearts. And as our souls which give life to our bodies, have not their origin from the body but are put in them by the natural providence of God, so charity which
gives life to our hearts has not her origin from our hearts, but is poured into them as a heavenly liquor by the supernatural providence of his divine Majesty.
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