Reawaken my soul by the grace of Your love, since it is Your commandment that we love You with all our heart and strength--and no one can fulfill that commandment without Your help.
- John of Alverna - (We need the help of God to do the things of God -- even to love God! What help do you need from God this day?) _____ Christianity and Spirituality monthly forum
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Rom 6:19-23; Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6 Lk 12:49-53 Jesus said to his disciples:
"I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather
division.
From now on a household of five will be divided,
three against two and two against three;
a father will be divided against his son
and a son against his
father,
a mother against her daughter
and a daughter against her mother,
a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and a daughter-in-law against her
mother-in-law."
Reflection on the Scriptures
Today we can really feel the passion of Jesus. He is restless in his desire to ignite a fire.
He's on a mission. It is deep inside of him, coming out of the fire within him. His desire is to draw us in, to enflame our hearts, to have us ablaze with his mission, with our passion. He knows there are so many
arguments against passion - at least this kind of passion. Oh, it will be "divisive." Some people will "be upset." Being "controversial" will turn some people off, and anger others. Isn't it better to "keep the peace." Jesus knows that Evil can reign under this kind of cover. And he knows that his "baptism" is ours. Baptized into him, we await, with some anticipation, our hearts being ablaze with the fullness of the living out of that baptism. So today we can ask ourselves how we might catch the passion of Jesus, and let it ignite our hearts, so that we might set our world ablaze.
-by Andy Alexander, S.J.
St. John of the Cross and the Beginning of Contemplation by James Arraj From St. John of the Cross and Dr. C. J. Jung, Part II, Chapter 3. Inner Growth Books, 1986. It is love in informing and vivifying faith that allows faith to attain to this sort of knowledge (contemplation). Love of its nature is geared to the subject, and divine love lifts the person to a subject-to-subject relationship to God. Contemplation "which is knowledge and love together, that is, loving knowledge"(12) is the beginning of the experience of this new relationship. In it love is strong enough
that it draws knowledge with it, so there results an experience of the within, God present as a self in the heart of the limited human self.
In sharp contrast to ordinary prayer where God is thought and felt about, the chief note of contemplation is that God's presence is experienced; this presence is initially felt within as some sort of interior touch. This experiential knowledge of God brings with
itself other characteristics. It is felt to be independent of the will of the person receiving it, varying in intensity, demanding less effort than meditation and impeding in some fashion the natural workings of the soul. This knowledge of God remains obscure, and the mode of its communication not comprehended.
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