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There exists a hidden treasure, a treasure remaining unexploited and in no ways appreciated at its true worth, which is nevertheless that which is the greatest in heaven and earth: the Holy Spirit. The world of souls itself does not know him as it should. He is the Light of intellects and the Fire that enkindles hearts. If there is indifference, coldness, weakness and so many other evils which afflict the
spiritual world and even my Church, it is because recourse is not had to the Holy Spirit.
- Concepcion Cabrera de Armida [19th-20th C.], Spiritual Diary
(Come, Holy Spirit! Help me to . . . )
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Acts 8:26-40; Psalm 66:8-9, 16-17, 20
Jn 6:44-51
Jesus said to the crowds:
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him on the last day.
It is written in the prophets:
They shall all be taught by God.
Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God;
he has seen the Father.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven
so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my Flesh for the life of the world.”
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.)
John 6: 44-51 (Jesus, the Living Bread)
The Jews had complained that Jesus could not be from God since they knew of his human origins. Jesus now replies that there is a spiritual sidle to him that is of God. If they want to know about God, they need only to look to him.
* What are some of the sources of grace in your life now? How do these gifts help to make you who you are?
* Think of some way to let the people who are grace to you know that you are thankful for the gifts they bring to your life.
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 21: How our Savior's loving attractions assist and accompany us to faith and charity
Between the first awaking from sin or infidelity to the final resolution of a perfect belief, there often runs a good deal of time in which we are able to pray, as we have seen S. Pachomius did, and as that poor lunatic's father, who, as S. Mark relates, giving assurance that he believed, that is, that he began to believe, knew at the same time that he did not believe sufficiently; whence he cried out: I do
believe, Lord help my unbelief, as though he would say: I am no longer in the obscurity of the night of infidelity, the rays of your faith already enlighten the horizon of my soul: but still I do not yet believe as I ought; it is a knowledge as yet weak and mixed with darkness; Ah! Lord, help me. And the great S. Augustine solemnly pronounces these remarkable words: "But listen, O man! and understand. Art thou not drawn? pray, in order that thou mayest be drawn." In which words his
intention is not to speak of the first movement which God works in us without us, when he excites and awakens us out of the sleep of sin: for how could we ask to be awakened seeing no man can pray before he be awakened? But he speaks of the resolution which we make to be faithful, for he considers that to believe is to be drawn, and therefore he admonishes such as have been excited to believe in God, to ask the gift of faith. And indeed no one could better know the difficulties which ordinarily
pass between the first movement God makes in us, and the perfect resolution of believing fully, than S. Augustine, who having had so great a variety of attractions by the words of the glorious S. Ambrose, by the conference he had with Politian, and a thousand other means, yet made so many delays and had so much difficulty in resolving. For more truly to him than to any other might have been applied that which he afterwards said to others: Alas! Augustine, if thou be not drawn, if thou believe
not, pray that thou mayest be drawn, and that thou mayest believe.
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