"Do not always scrupulously confine yourself to certain rules, or particular forms of devotion, but act with a general confidence in God, with love and humility."
- Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the
Presence of God ("Confidence in God" . . . where in your life do you need more of this? Pray the grace to grow in
trust.) |
Heb 3:7-14; Psalm 95:6-7c, 8-9, 10-11 Mk 1:40-45 A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me clean.”
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched the leper, and said to him,
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.
Then he said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them.”
The man went away and began to publicize the whole
matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere. Reflection on the Scriptures
A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said, “If
you wish, you can make me clean.” The leper came to him. In order to hear God’s voice, he placed himself where he could hear God; where he could be found. This encounter we read brings hope of such an encounter
for us but even then, this is not a sure thing. Many pray for things that do not come to pass. Only a fraction of those who have made a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France have received a miraculous healing. If only these expressions of faith brought about the surety we seek. But there is another part of the equation; something else the leper can teach us: If you wish… Here is the tough core of faith. Here is the surrender that defines faith – that active display of our trust in God that he knows our deepest desires and, himself, desires our greatest good. Not only this, but it is in such surrender that we come to imitate our Lord, Jesus Christ who lived out the same surrender in the Garden of
Gethsemane. So, also, did Moses, Samuel, Peter, Andrew and all those who have so trusted in God. Let us keep their company and follow their example of surrender so that, if today we hear God’s voice, our hearts may receive him. by Scott McClure
The Existence of God by Francois Fenelon SECTION XXXII
- Of the skin
Let us consider the flesh. It is covered in certain places with a soft
and tender
skin, for the ornament of the body. If that skin, that
renders the object so agreeable, and gives it so sweet a colour, were
taken off, the same object would become ghastly, and create horror. In
other places that same skin is harder and thicker, in order to resist
the fatigue of those parts. As, for instance, how harder is the skin
of the feet than that of the face? And that of the hinder part of the
head than that of the forehead? That skin is all over full of holes
like a sieve: but those holes, which are called pores, are
imperceptible. Although sweat and other transpirations exhale
through
those pores, the blood never runs out that way. That skin has all the
tenderness necessary to make it transparent, and give the face a
lively, sweet, and graceful colour. If the
skin were less close, and
less smooth, the face would look bloody, and excoriated. Now, who is
that knew how to temper and mix those colours with such nicety as to
make a carnation which
painters admire, but never can perfectly
imitate?
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