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I will charge my soul to believe and wait for Him, and will follow His providence, and not go before it, nor stay behind it.
- Samuel
Rutherford (Following the lead of the Spirit . . . this day!)
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Daily Readings
2 Sm 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16;
Psalm 89:2-5, 27 and 29; Rom 4:13, 16-18, 22
Jn 8:21-30
21 Again he said to them, "I go away, and you will seek me and die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come." 22 Then said the Jews, "Will he kill himself, since he says, `Where I am going, you cannot come'?" 23 He said to them, "You are from
below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he." 25 They said to him, "Who are you?" Jesus said to them, "Even what I have told you from the beginning. 26 I have much to say about you and much to judge; but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him." 27 They did not understand that he spoke to them of the Father. 28 So Jesus
said, "When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority but speak thus as the Father taught me. 29 And he who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him." 30 As he spoke thus, many believed in
him.
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.) John 8: 21-30 (Jesus is one with the Father) Unlike Matthew,
Mark, and Luke, John often has Jesus involved in long, profound dialogues with unbelievers and authorities. This is a method he uses to articulate his community’s understanding of who Jesus is as they face persecution from Jews and Romans alike. In today’s reading Jesus speaks of the revelation that is to come when he is lifted up, or crucified. •
Spend some time with the passage "The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone.” Become aware of God’s nearness and love for you. • Make a resolution to let a special person in your life know that you care about him or her.
Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) ____________ BOOK IV: OF THE DECAY AND RUIN OF CHARITY Chapter 9: Of a certain remainder of love that oftentimes rests in the soul that has lost holy charity.
The life of a man who, spent out, lies dying little by little on his bed, hardly deserves to be termed life, since, though it be life, it is so mingled with death that it is hard to say whether it is a death yet living or a life dying. Alas! how pitiful a spectacle it is, Theotimus! But far more lamentable is the state of a soul ungrateful to her Saviour, who goes backward step by step, withdrawing herself from God's love by certain degrees of indevotion and
disloyalty, till at length, having quite forsaken it, she is left in the horrible obscurity of perdition. This love which is in its decline, and which is fading and perishing, is called imperfect love, because, though it be entire in the soul, yet seems it not to be there entirely; that is, it hardly stays in the soul any longer, but is upon the point of forsaking it. Now, charity being separated from the soul by sin, there frequently remains a certain resemblance of charity which may deceive us
and vainly occupy our minds, and I will tell you what it is. Charity while it is in us produces many actions of love towards God, by the frequent exercise of which our soul gets a habit and custom of loving God, which is not charity, but only a bent and inclination which the multitude of the actions has given to our hearts.
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