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Our holiness is an effect, not a cause; so long as our eyes are on our own personal whiteness as an end in itself, the thing breaks down. God can do nothing while my interest is in my own personal character—He will take care of this if I obey His call. In learning to love
God and people as He commanded us to do, obviously your sanctification will come, but not as an end in itself.
… The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn (Look to God that you might be radiant with life, and your faces free from all shame.)
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Daily Readings
1 Cor 12:12-14, 27-31a; Ps 100:1b-2, 3, 4,
5 Lk 7:11-17 Jesus journeyed to a city called Nain,
and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him.
As he drew near to the gate of the city,
a man who had died was being carried out,
the only son of his mother, and
she was a widow.
A large crowd from the city was with her.
When the Lord saw her,
he was moved with pity for her and said to her,
"Do not weep."
He stepped forward and touched the coffin;
at this the bearers halted,
and
he said, "Young man, I tell you, arise!"
The dead man sat up and began to speak,
and Jesus gave him to his mother.
Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, exclaiming,
"A great prophet has arisen in our midst,"
and "God has visited his people."
This
report about him spread through the whole of Judea
and in all the surrounding region.
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.) Luke 7:11-17 (Jesus raises a boy in Naim.) Jesus’ actions in
today’s readings show us that God views the death of young people as a tragedy. In vain do we search for mysterious and hidden designs to help us understand how God can permit such tragedies, for it is God’s will that we eventually eliminate them. The suffering of a woman whose child has died shall forever move the heart of Jesus. • Do you believe in bad and good luck? Do you believe that everything that happens to people is
God’s will? • Picture this scene in your imagination from the viewpoint of a disciple. Hear the wailing of the mourners as you approach the town; note the agony on the face of the mother; watch Jesus as he intervenes; experience the wonder of the moment as the boy returns to life.
Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) ____________ Chapter 4: Of the loving condolence by which the complacency of love is still better declared.
FOF THE LOVING
CONDOLENCE BY WHICH THE COMPLACENCY OF LOVE IS STILL BETTER DECLARED.
Condolence is also great according to the greatness of the sorrows which we see those we love suffering; for how little soever the friendship be, if the evils which we see endured be extreme, they cause in us great pity. This made Cæsar weep over Pompey, and the daughters of Jerusalem could not refrain from weeping over our Saviour, though the greater number of them were
not greatly attached to him; as also the friends of Job, though wicked friends, made great lamentation in beholding the dreadful spectacle of his incomparable misery. And what a stroke of grief was it in the heart of Jacob to think that his dear child had died by a death so cruel as that of being devoured by a savage beast. But, besides all this, commiseration is much strengthened by the presence of the object which is in misery; this caused poor Agar to go away from her dying son, to disburden
herself in some sort of the compassionate grief which she felt, saying: I will not see the boy die; [238] as on the contrary our Saviour weeps seeing the sepulchre of his well-beloved Lazarus and regarding his dear Jerusalem; and our good Jacob is beside himself with grief when he sees the bloody coat of his poor little Joseph.
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