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We are half-hearted creatures like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
- C. S. Lewis, Into the Wardrobe
(As someone once put it, “the enemy of the best is the good.” What would this mean for you at this time?)
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Daily Readings
Acts 16:22-34; Ps
138:1-2ab, 2cde-3, 7c-8
Jn 16:5-11
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Now I am going to the one who sent me,
and not one of you asks me, 'Where are you
going?'
But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts.
But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go.
For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you.
But if I go, I will send him to you.
And when he comes he will convict the world
in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation:
sin, because they do not believe in me;
righteousness, because I am going to the Father
and you will no longer see me;
condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been
condemned."
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.) John 16: 5-11 (The promise of the Spirit) In some wonderful and
mysterious way, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection enable us to enjoy a fuller relationship with God than was possible prior to his coming. John emphasizes this point today when Jesus tells his disciples that his going will be for their own good. • Eugene Kennedy wrote that we do not become truly human until we grow close enough to others to be missed. This is what the disciples of Jesus felt
when he bade them farewell. Do you enjoy this kind of closeness with anyone? Would anyone miss you if you were to die? • Pray for the well-being of those special people in your life.
Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) ____________ BOOK V: OF THE TWO PRINCIPAL EXERCISES OF HOLY LOVE WHICH CONSIST IN COMPLACENCY AND BENEVOLENCE Chapter 1: Of the sacred complacency of love; and first of what it
consists.
Love, as we have said, is no other thing than the movement and outflowing of the heart towards good by means of the complacency which we take in it; so that complacency is the great motive of love, as love is the great movement of complacency.
Now this movement is practised towards God in this
manner. We know by faith that the Divinity is an incomprehensible abyss of all perfection, sovereignly infinite in excellence and infinitely sovereign in goodness. This truth which faith teaches us we attentively consider by meditation, beholding that immensity of goods which are in God, either all together by assembling all the perfections, or in particular by considering his excellences one after another; for example, his all-power, his all-wisdom his all-goodness, his eternity, his infinity.
Now when we have brought our understanding to be very attentive to the greatness of the goods that are in this Divine object, it is impossible that our will should not be touched with complacency in this good, and then we use the liberty and power which we have over ourselves, provoking our own heart to redouble and strengthen its first complacency by acts of approbation and rejoicing. "Oh!" says the devout soul then, "how beautiful art thou, my beloved, how beautiful art thou! Thou art all
desirable, yea, thou art desire itself! Such is my beloved and he is my friend, O ye daughters of Jerusalem. O blessed be my God for ever because he is so good! Ah! whether I die or whether I live, too happy am I in knowing that my God is so rich in all goodness, his goodness so infinite, and his infinity so good!"
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