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Try pausing right before and right after undertaking a new action, even something simple like putting a key in a lock to open a door. Such pauses take a brief moment, yet they have the effect of decompressing time and centering you. - A life practice from Br. David Steindl-Rast
(These “mini-sabbaths” really are effective. Give it a
try.)
Christianity and Spirituality monthly forum
June 6: 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. CDT
Topic: Keeping the First Great Commandment
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Daily Readings
2 Pt 3:12-15a, 17-18;
PS 90:2, 3-4, 10, 14 and 16
Mk 12:13-17
Some Pharisees and Herodians were sent
to Jesus to ensnare him in his speech.
They came and said to
him,
“Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man
and that you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion.
You do not regard a person’s status
but teach the way of God in accordance
with the truth.
Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?
Should we pay or should we not pay?”
Knowing their hypocrisy he said to them,
“Why are you testing
me?
Bring me a denarius to look at.”
They brought one to him and he said to them,
“Whose image and inscription is this?”
They replied to him, “Caesar’s.”
So Jesus said to them,
“Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God.”
They were utterly amazed at
him.
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.) Mark 12:13-17 (God and Caesar) Today’s reading describes another
important confrontation between Jesus and the authorities. They try to trap him by baiting him with tax resistance and secular alternatives, either of which will damage his influence. He sees through their maliciousness, however, and distinguishes between religious and secular responsibilities. • Are you a good citizen? Do you participate in the political process at least by
voting? • Is it ever appropriate for a Christian to disobey governmental authorities? When?
Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) ____________ Chapter 2: How by complacency we are made as little infants at our saviour's breasts. Let my beloved come into his garden, said the sacred spouse, and eat the fruit of his apple-trees. [224] Now the heavenly spouse comes into his garden when he comes into the devout soul, for seeing his delight is to be with us, where can he better lodge than in the country of the spirit, which he made to his image and likeness. He himself plants in this garden the loving complacency which we have in his goodness, and which we feed on; as, likewise, his goodness takes
his pleasure and repast in our complacency; so that, again, our complacency is augmented in perceiving that God is pleased to see us pleased in him. So that these reciprocal pleasures cause the love of an incomparable complacency, by which our soul, being made the garden of her spouse, and having from his goodness the apple trees of his delights, renders him the fruit thereof, since she is pleased that he is pleased in the complacency she takes in him. Thus do we draw God's heart into ours, and
he spreads in it his precious balm, and thus is that practised which the holy bride spoke with such joy. The king hath brought me into his store-rooms: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, remembering thy breasts more than wine; the righteous love thee. [225] For I pray you, Theotimus, what are the store-rooms of this king of love but his breasts, which abound in the variety of sweetness and delights. The bosom and breasts of the mother are the storeroom of the little infant's treasures: he has
no other riches than those, which are more precious unto him than gold or the topaz, more beloved than all the rest of the world.
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