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If God's incomprehensibility does not grip us in a word,
- if it does not draw us into God's superluminous darkness,
-if it does not call us out of the little house
of our homely, close-hugged truths
... we have misunderstood the words of Christianity.
(Karl Rahner, Poetry and the Christian) (God as mystery beyond all comprehension, and yet so near and loving. How do these two truths co-exist in
you?)
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Daily Readings
Is 25:6-10a; Ps 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5,
6 Mt 15:29-37 Jesus reached the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and he went up into the hills. He sat there, and large crowds came to him bringing the lame, the crippled, the blind, the dumb and many others; these they put down at his feet, and he cured them. The crowds were astonished to see the dumb speaking, the cripples whole again, the lame walking and the blind with their
sight, and they praised the God of Israel. But Jesus called his disciples to him and said, ‘I feel sorry for all these people; they have been with me for three days now and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them off hungry, they might collapse on the way.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Where could we get enough bread in this deserted place to feed such a crowd?’ Jesus said to them, ‘How many loaves have you?’ ‘Seven’ they said ‘and a
few small fish.’ Then he instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves and the fish, and he gave thanks and broke them and handed them to the disciples, who gave them to the crowds. They all ate as much as they wanted, and they collected what was left of the scraps, seven baskets
full.
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.) Matthew 15: 29-37 (Jesus feeds the crowd) In this passage
and in others where miracles are discussed, it is not as important to focus on the extraordinary deed as on what it means. Bread and fish are symbols of the Eucharist; this passage emphasizes Jesus’ power to nourish us in spirit, mind, and body. • Jesus turned a small offering into a feast. What are some of the talents God has given you that you can offer toward the building of God's kingdom? How can you better offer
these gifts to God?
Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) ____________ Chapter 8: How benevolence produces the praise of the divine well-beloved.
God being replenished with a
goodness which surpasses all praise and honour, receives no advantage nor increase by all the benedictions which we give him. He is neither richer nor greater, nor more content or happy by them, for his happiness, his content, his greatness, and his riches neither are nor can be any other thing than the divine infinity of his goodness. At the same time, since, according to our ordinary estimation, honour is held one of the greatest effects of our benevolence towards others, and since by it we
not only do not imply any indigence in those we honour, but rather protest that they abound in excellence, we therefore make use of this kind of benevolence towards God, who not only approves it, but exacts it, as suitable to our condition, and so proper to testify the respectful love we bear him, that he has ordained we should render and refer all honour and glory unto him.
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