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I’ll try to repay you, Lord, with a thankful heart, because only then do I feel safe from the dangers of pride. Many things on earth are called good that aren’t nearly as good as Your kindnesses to me.
- Mechthild of Magdeburg, The Flowing Light of the Godhead” (How does gratitude help to overcome false pride?)
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Daily Readings
1 Sm 16:1-13; Psalm
89:20, 21-22, 27-28 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.”
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.) Mark 2: 23-28 (Jesus, Lord of the Sabbath) In
Deuteronomy 23: 26, it is stated that Jews may "pluck some of the ears with your hand, but do not put a sickle to your neighbor's grain." This prevented the poor and starving from going hungry, but it was never to be done on the Sabbath. Jesus shows us that human needs are more important than a rigid interpretation of the law. * What religious/spiritual works do you do somewhat
legalistically? How might you embrace them in a more positive spirit? * How is Jesus the lord of your Sunday experience?
Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) ____________ BOOK IV: OF THE DECAY AND RUIN OF CHARITY Chapter 6: That we ought to acknowledge all the love we bear to God to be from God The heavens in spring time prepare the fresh dewdrops, and shower them down upon the face of the sea, and the mother-pearls that open their shells receive these drops, which are converted into pearls: but, on the contrary, the mother-pearls which keep their shells shut do not hinder the dews from falling upon them, yet they hinder them from falling into them. Now have not the heavens sent their dew and their influence as much upon
the one as the other mother-pearl? Why then did the one in effect produce its pearl and the others not? The heavens were as bountiful to that one which remained sterile as was requisite to empearl and impregnate it with its fair unity, [206] but it hindered the effect of the heavens' favour, by keeping itself closed and covered. And as for that which conceived the pearl on receiving the dew, it has nothing in that work which it did not receive from heaven, not even its opening whereby it
received the dew; for without the touches of the morning's rays, which did gently excite it, it had not risen up to the surface of the sea, nor yet opened its shell. Theotimus, if we have any love for God, his be the honour and glory, who did all in us, and without whom nothing were done; ours be the profit and obligation. This is the division his divine goodness makes with us; he leaves us the fruits of his benefits, and reserves to himself the honour and praise of them; and verily since we are
nothing but by his grace, we ought to be nothing but for his glory.
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