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Religion is nothing if it be not the vital act by which the entire mind seeks to save itself by clinging to the principle from which it draws its life. This act is prayer, by which term I understand no vain exercise of words, no mere repetition of certain sacred formulae, but the very movement itself of the soul, putting itself in a personal relation of contact with the mysterious power of which it feels the
presence-it may be before it even has a name by which to call it. Whenever this interior prayer is lacking, there is no religion; wherever, on the other hand, this prayer rises and stirs the soul, even in the absence of forms or doctrines, we have living religion.
- William James, The Varieties of Religious Experiences
(How is this "living religion" present in your life lately?)
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Acts 15:7-21; Psalm 96:1-2a, 2b-3, 10
Jn 15:9-11
Jesus said to his disciples:
“As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and remain in his love.
“I have told you this so that
my joy might be in you and
your joy might be complete.”
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.)
John 15:9-11 (Jesus completes our joy)
In today’s reading John explains the reason why Jesus came: he invites us to share in God’s own joy. There is always something a bit hollow and transient in even our most intense experiences of human pleasure and happiness. Living in love as Christ invites us to live will increase our human joys and complete them.
• Spend some time with the verse ‘As the Father loves me, so I also love you.”
• Would you describe yourself as a joyful person? Do you know any joyful people? Why are they joyful?
• Pray for the grace to be open to joy.
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
But if the inspiration, having drawn us to faith, find no resistance in us, it draws us also to penitence and charity. S. Peter, as an apode, raised by the inspiration which came from the eyes of his master, freely letting himself be moved and carried by this gentle wind of the Holy Ghost, looks upon those life-giving eyes which had excited him; he reads as in the book of life the sweet invitation to pardon
which the divine clemency offers him; he draws from it a just motive of hope; he goes out of the court, considers the horror of his sin, and detests it; he weeps, he sobs, he prostrates his miserable heart before his Saviour's mercy, craves pardon for his faults, makes a resolution of inviolable loyalty, and by this progress of movements, practised by the help of grace which continually conducts, assists, and helps him, he comes at length to the holy remission of his sins, and passes so from
grace to grace: according to what S. Prosper lays down, that without grace a man does not run to grace.
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