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discipline won’t bring you closer to God. Only God can bring you closer to Himself. What the discipline is meant to do is to help you get yourself, your ego, out of the way so you are open to God's grace.
- James Kushner (What
disciplines do you need to practice at this time to diminish your resistance to God's love?) _____ Christianity and Spirituality monthly forum March 7, 2024, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. CST Topic: "The Four Biases," by Sr. Carla Mae Streeter, OP More info via the link below
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1 Kgs 11:4-13; PS 106:3-4, 35-36, 37 and 40 Mk 7:24-30 Jesus went to the district of Tyre.
He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it,
but he could not escape notice.
Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him.
She came and fell at his feet.
The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth,
and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.
He said to her, “Let the children be fed
first.
For it is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs.”
She replied and said to him,
“Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s
scraps.”
Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go.
The demon has gone out of your daughter.”
When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed
and the demon
gone.
Reflection on the Scriptures
Today’s gospel presents another perspective on someone getting what they want, where only goodness and mercy are being dispensed. The Syrophoenician woman sought out
Jesus on behalf of her daughter. She knew that her daughter needed what only Jesus could offer. Jesus tested her and found faith. He honored her request. We don’t know what ultimately happened to this woman or her family. Hopefully relief from demonic oppression allowed her to flourish and to
continue to live a faith-filled life. But Solomon’s example shows us that the life of faith to which we are called is continuous, not episodic. God is patient with us, showing mercy toward our infidelity and errors, but we should not mistake his patient endurance as confirmation that we can live as we please. We cannot live unfaithfully with impunity. Sadly, the unfaithful choices we profess to value so much do not bring the satisfaction and joy we desire. Only a faithful
choice, as shown by the Syrophoenician woman, leads to true joy and fulfillment. Lord, help us grow in our faith. Let us learn from both of these examples. Awaken us from complacency and allow us to encourage one another to follow you closely. Thanks be to God. -by Edward Morse
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 4. Inner Growth Books, 1986.
Perceptibility
The question of perceptible experience is at the heart of the problem of acquired contemplation. The later proponents of this doctrine would agree that St. John was talking about infused
contemplation, but they would assert that this contemplation remained hidden, even for months or years. St. John does say, "It is true, however, that, when this condition first begins, the soul is hardly aware of this loving knowledge". (34) And this is because it is turned towards meditation and sense, and particular perceptions, and therefore not disposed to this new kind of experience. Thus, John calls the new experience imperceptible in relationship to the soul which is bound up in sense
perceptions, but it is not imperceptible in itself, so he concludes the passage by saying, "But the more accustomed the soul grows to this, by allowing itself to rest, the more it will grow therein and the more conscious it will become of that loving general knowledge of God, in which it has greater enjoyment than in ought else, since this knowledge causes it peace, rest, pleasure and delight without labor." (35) And when St. John says, "When the spiritual person cannot meditate, let him learn to be still in God, fixing his loving attention upon Him in the calm of his understanding, although he may think himself to be doing nothing" (36), it is foreign to his mind to be thinking that this loving attention is some kind of activity of the soul by which it gazes at God, even though it has no
experience of Him, but simply is believing Him present. St. John in the next sentence states, "For thus, little by little and very quickly, Divine calm and peace will be infused into his soul, together with a wondrous and sublime knowledge of God, unfolded in Divine love."(37) This is a beautiful definition of infused contemplation, but it also clearly shows the experimental character of the knowledge that St. John expects to quickly become apparent once the soul ceases working with the
faculties.
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