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What is this new mystery which concerns me? I am small and great, lowly and exalted, mortal and immortal, earthly and heavenly. I share one condition
with the lower world, the other with God; one with the flesh, the other with the spirit. I must be buried with Christ, arise with Christ, be joint heir with Christ, become the son of God, yea, God Himself. - Gregory the Theologian: Oration 7, 23. (Our situation in
Christ.)
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Dn 1:1-6, 8-20; Dn 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56
Lk 21:1-4
When Jesus looked up he saw some wealthy people
putting their offerings into the treasury
and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins.
He said, "I tell you truly,
this poor widow put in more than all the rest;
for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth,
but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole
livelihood."
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.) Luke 21:1-4 (True giving) During this last week of the Church’s liturgical year, we will consider some of the most important of all Christian truths. Today’s short reading teaches us that when we give of our excess we have given very little of ourselves. Real giving involves risk— not only of financial resources, but of mental and spiritual resources also. • "The door into the kingdom of God opens from the inside out” is a popular saying. “You may have an abundance for every good work,” Paul added (2 Corinthians 9:7). How do you understand these adages? Have you experienced these truths working in your life recently? How can you work them today? • Pray for the grace to recognize opportunities to
give of yourself.
Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) ____________ BOOK IV: OF THE DECAY AND RUIN OF CHARITY Chapter 5: That the sole cause of the decay and cooling of charity is in the creature's will.
-As it would be an impious effrontery to attribute the works of holy-love done by the Holy Ghost in and with us to the strength of our will,-it would be a shameless impiety to lay the defect of love in ungrateful-men, on the failure of heavenly assistance and grace. For the Holy-Ghost cries everywhere, on the contrary, that our ruin is from ourselves: Destruction is thine own, O Israel! thy help is only in me: that Our Saviour
brought the fire of love, and desires nothing-but that it should be enkindled in our hearts: that salvation is-prepared before the face of all peoples: a light to the revelation of-the Gentiles and the glory of Israel: that the divine goodness is-not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to-the knowledge of the truth: and will have all men to be saved, their Saviour being come into the world, that he might redeem them who-were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. And the wise man clearly warns us, Say not: it is through God that she-(wisdom) is not with me. And the sacred Council of Trent divinely-inculcates upon all the children of holy Church, that the Grace of God-is never wanting to such as do what they can, invoking the divine-assistance; that God never abandons such as he has once justified-unless they abandon him first; so that, if they be not wanting to grace-they shall obtain
glory.
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