Because the Holy Spirit is given to us, God transforms the human spirit, making it receptive to God's Love, the Holy Spirit. Then, possessing God's own Love and so loving with divine Love, the human advances in authenticity and so in holiness. But since within the Christian viewpoint these advances are not mere human progress
but increasing participation in divinity, one is actually growing in divinization as one grows in holiness.
- Daniel Helmeniak, Spiritual Development
(Transformation by the Holy Spirit! Invite the Spirit to show you how to be more open to this glorious possibility.)
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Acts 14:19-28; Psalm 145:10-11, 12-13ab, 21
Jn 14:27-31a
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
Not as the world gives do I give it to you.
Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.
You heard me tell you,
‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’
If you loved me,
you would rejoice that I am going to the Father;
for the Father is greater than I.
And now I have told you this before it happens,
so that when it happens you may believe.
I will no longer speak much with you,
for the ruler of the world is coming.
He has no power over me,
but the world must know that I love the Father
and that I do just as the Father has commanded me.”
Reflection on the Scriptures
History is full of great farewell addresses; from George Washington’s printed farewell address announcing he would not seek a third term to Lou Gehrig’s “I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth” speech, to name but a few. Farewell speeches often crystalize the moment and put a focus on the here and now as well as a
glimpse into the future. But the greatest farewell address of all time was given almost two millenia ago by Jesus. In his farewell address at the Last Supper before his upcoming betrayal by Judas, Jesus provides us with two of the most comforting thoughts about the here and now and about our future that are found in the Bible.
The first is in his the phrase, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you,” is rich with meaning. To me, the peace that Christ left his disciples was not peace of mind, peace and quiet, to rest in peace or keeps the peace. No, it was much deeper. For the peace Jesus gave his disciples and likewise to each of us was the peace that passes all
understanding. A peace that allows us to conquer all of our fears worries and anguish because we know that God’s love is with us always. Peace, knowing that the hand of God is constantly on our shoulder; helping us, guiding us and supporting us whenever we feel the need to call upon him. So in times of stress, tension and turmoil remember the great inheritance Christ left us through these powerful words, Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
- by Steve Scholar
The Existence of God
by Francois Fenelon
SECTION IX. Of the Air
After having considered the waters, let us now contemplate another mass yet of far greater extent. Do you see what is called air? It is a body so pure, so subtle, and so transparent, that the rays of the stars, seated at a distance almost infinite from us, pierce quite through it, without difficulty, and in an instant, to light our eyes. Had
this fluid body been a little less subtle, it would either have intercepted the day from us, or at most would have left us but a duskish and confused light, just as when the air is filled with thick fogs. We live plunged in abysses of air, as fishes do in abysses of water. As the water, if it were subtilised, would become a kind of air, which would occasion the death of fishes, so the air would deprive us of breath if it should become more humid and thicker. In such a case we
should drown in the waves of that thickened air, just as a terrestrial animal drowns in the sea. Who is it that has so nicely purified that air we breathe? If it were thicker it would stifle us; and if it were too subtle it would want that softness which continually feeds the vitals of man. We should be sensible everywhere of what we experience on the top of the highest mountains, where the air is so thin that it yields no sufficient moisture and nourishment for the lungs.
But what invisible power raises and lays so suddenly the storms of that great fluid body, of which those of the sea are only consequences? From what treasury come forth the winds that purify the air, cool scorching heats, temper the sharpness of winter, and in an instant change the whole face of heaven? On the wings of those winds the clouds fly from one end of the horizon to the other. It is known that certain winds blow in certain seas, at some stated seasons.
They continue a fixed time, and others succeed them, as it were on purpose, to render navigation both commodious and regular: so that if men are but as patient, and as punctual as the winds, they may, with ease, perform the longest voyages.
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