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"I advise you to remain simply either in God or close to God, without trying to do anything there, and without asking anything of Him, unless He urges it."
- St. Francois de Sales - (Take some time today to simply "be" with God.)
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Daily Readings
ACTS 11:21B-26; 13:1-3;
PS 98:1-6
MT 5:13-16
Jesus said to his disciples:
“You are the salt of the earth.
But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?
It is no longer good for anything
but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
You are the light of the world.
A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.
Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket;
it is set on a lampstand,
where it gives light to all in the house.
Just so, your light must shine before others,
that they may see your good deeds
and glorify your heavenly Father.”
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.) Matthew 5:13-16 (Shining lights.) Jesus is the new Moses.
In depicting Jesus as the one who fulfilled the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament, Matthew gathers the teachings of Jesus and presents them in what is now called the Sermon on the Mount. Just as Moses ascended the mountain and returned with life-giving teachings, so Jesus does. • If you don’t love yourself, it will be difficult for you to love others” is an old saying. Do
you agree? • What do you like most about yourself? What do you like least? How do these dislikes keep your light under a bushel basket? • Pray for the grace to love yourself as God loves you.
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. The soul then which contemplates the infinite treasures of divine perfections in her well-beloved, holds herself too happy and rich in this that love makes her mistress by complacency of all the perfections and contentments of this dear spouse. And even as a baby makes little movements towards his mother's breasts, and dances with joy to see them discovered, and as the mother again on her part presents them unto him with a love always a little forward, even so the
devout soul feels the thrillings and movements of an incomparable joy, through the content which she has in beholding the treasures of the perfections of the king of her holy love; but especially when she sees that he himself discovers them by love, and that amongst them that perfection of his infinite love excellently shines. Has not this fair soul reason to cry: O my king how lovable are thy riches and how rich thy loves! Oh! which of us has more joy, thou that enjoyest it, or I who rejoice
thereat! We will be glad and rejoice in thee remembering thy breasts [226] so abounding in all excellence of sweetness! I because my well-beloved enjoys it, thou because thy well-beloved rejoices in it; we both enjoy it, since thy goodness makes thee enjoy my rejoicing, and my love makes me rejoice in thy enjoying. Ah! the righteous and the good love thee, and how can one be good and not love so great a goodness! Worldly princes keep their treasures in the cabinets of their palaces, their arms
in their arsenals, but the heavenly Prince keeps his treasures in his bosom, his weapons within his breast, and because his treasure is his goodness, as his weapons are his loves, his breast and bosom resemble those of a tender mother, who has her breasts like two cabinets rich in the treasures of sweet milk, armed with as many weapons to conquer the dear little baby as it makes its attacks in sucking.
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