We must understand that God does not "love" us without liking us - through gritted teeth - as "Christian" love is sometimes thought to do. Rather, out of the eternal freshness of his perpetually self-renewed being, the heavenly Father cherishes the earth and each human being upon it. The fondness, the endearment, the
unstintingly affectionate regard of God toward all his creatures is the natural outflow of what he is to the core - which we vainly try to capture with our tired but indispensable old word "love".
- Dallas Willard
(God loves, likes, and cherishes you! Hold this thought, and let it resonate within.)
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MI 7:14-15, 18-20; PS 85:2-4, 5-6, 7-8
MT 12:46-50
While Jesus was speaking to the crowds,
his mother and his brothers appeared outside,
wishing to speak with him.
Someone told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside,
asking to speak with you.”
But he said in reply to the one who told him,
“Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”
And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said,
“Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father
is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
Reflection on the Scriptures
In today’s gospel we are being called to delve into this same love and intimacy with God. We are being reminded that we are a part of a larger family that has unconditional love flowing from the center. And even though life is messy, and complicated, and difficult to grasp at times there is a place you can go and be seen and loved in all your
imperfections.
The challenge for us is to accept this membership and our other family members for their warts and flaws. Let us pray today to embrace the love and grace that comes with being a member of God’s family. Let’s practice acceptance and understanding as we work to love ourselves and others.
- by Ann Mausbach
The Existence of God
by Francois Fenelon
SECTION XIX. Of Animals, Beasts, Fowl, Birds, Fishes, Reptiles, and Insects.
But let us turn our eyes towards animals, which still are more worthy of admiration than either the skies or stars. Their species are numberless. Some have but two feet, others four, others again a great many. Some walk; others crawl, or creep; others fly; others swim; others fly, walk, or swim, by turns. The wings of birds, and the
fins of fishes, are like oars, that cut the waves either of air or water, and steer the floating body either of the bird, or fish, whose structure is like that of a ship. But the pinions of birds have feathers with a down, that swells in the air, and which would grow unwieldy in the water. And, on the contrary, the fins of fishes have sharp and dry points, which cut the water, without imbibing it, and which do not grow heavier by being wet. A sort of fowl that swim, such as
swans, keep their wings and most of their feathers above water, both lest they should wet them and that they may serve them, as it were, for sails. They have the art to turn those feathers against the wind, and, in a manner, to tack, as ships do when the wind does not serve. Water-fowls, such as ducks, have at their feet large skins that stretch, somewhat like rackets, to keep them from sinking on the oozy and miry banks of rivers.
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