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"The more we love God, the more we will want to love God."
- St. Joaquina "We are born to love, we live to love, and we will die to love still more."
- St. Joseph Cafasso - (Yes, it's all about love and
loving, and the good news is that God can be loved. Open yourself to this great love today.)
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Heb 6:10-20; PS 111:1-2, 4-5, 9 and 10c Mk 2:23-28 As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath,
his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain.
At this the Pharisees said to him,
"Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?"
He said to
them,
"Have you never read what David did
when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?
How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest
and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat,
and shared it with his companions?"
Then he said to them,
"The
sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the
sabbath."
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Reflection on the Scriptures
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Why didn't the Pharisees recognize the claims of mercy over rules and regulations? Their zeal for ritual observance blinded them from the demands of charity. Jesus reminds the Pharisees that the Sabbath was given for our benefit, to refresh and renew us in living for God. It was intended for good and not for evil. Withholding mercy and kindness in response to human need
was not part of God’s intention that we rest from unnecessary labor. Jesus' reference to the bread of the Presence (Mark 2:24) alludes to the true bread from heaven which he offers to all who believe in him. Jesus, the Son of David, and the Son of Man, a title for the Messiah, declares that he is "Lord of the Sabbath." Jesus healed on the Sabbath and he showed mercy to those in need. All
who are burdened and weary can find true rest and refreshment in him. Do you honor the Lord in the way you treat your neighbor and celebrate the Lord's Day? Lord Jesus, may I give you fitting honor in the way I live my life and in the way I treat my neighbor. May I honor the Lord's Day as a day holy to you. And may I always treat others with the same mercy and kindness which you have
shown to me. Free me from a critical and intolerant spirit that I may always seek the good of my neighbor.
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The Ascent of Mount Carmel, by St. John of the Cross E. Allison Peers Translation. Paperback, Kindle, Audio Book.
Click here to purchase on Amazon.com BOOK THE SECOND Wherein is described the nature of dark night and how necessary it is to pass through it to Divine union; and in particular this book describes the dark night of sense, and desire, and the evils which these work in the soul. Of the Ascent of Mount Carmel Wherein is treated the proximate means of ascending to union with God, which is faith; and wherein therefore is described the second part of this night, which, as we said, belongs to the spirit, and is contained in the second stanza, which is as follows. __________________________________________________________________ Second Stanza Chapter 30 Which treats of the interior words that come to the spirit formally
by supernatural means. Warns the reader of the harm which they may do and of the caution that is necessary in order that the soul may not be deceived by them. 4. When, on the other hand, the words and communications are of the devil, it comes to pass that the soul responds with more ease and readiness to things that are of greater weight, and for lowlier things it
conceives repugnance. The fact is that God so greatly abhors seeing souls attracted by high position that, even when He commands and obliges them to accept such positions, He desires them not to be ready and anxious to command. It is this readiness which God commonly inspires in the soul, through these formal words, that constitutes one great difference between them and those other successive words: the latter move not the spirit so much, neither do they inspire it with such readiness, since
they are less formal, and since the understanding has more to do with them. Nevertheless successive words may sometimes produce a greater effect by reason of the close communication that there is at times between the Divine Spirit and the human. It is in the manner of their coming that there is a great difference between the two kinds of locution. With respect to formal words the soul can have no doubt as to whether or not it is pronouncing them itself, for it sees quite ready that it is not,
especially when it has not been thinking of the subject of that which has been said to it; and even when it has been so thinking it feels very clearly and distinctly that the words come from elsewhere.
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