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Christians are like the several flowers in a garden that have each of them the dew of heaven, which, being shaken with the wind, they let fall at each other’s roots, whereby they are jointly nourished, and become nourishers of each other. - John Bunyan
(A great image to describe the blessings of Christian community. How have you been nourished by God through others
lately?)
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Daily Readings
Jb 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-23; Ps 88:2-3, 4-5, 6,
7-8 Lk 9:51-56 When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled,
he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem,
and he sent messengers ahead of him.
On the way they entered a Samaritan village
to prepare for his
reception there,
but they would not welcome him
because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem.
When the disciples James and John saw this they asked,
“Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven
to consume them?”
Jesus turned and rebuked
them,
and they journeyed to another village.
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.) Luke 9:51 -56 (The journey to Jerusalem) Chapters 9-18 in
Luke differ from Mark and Matthew in that Jesus is shown journeying for the last time toward Jerusalem where he anticipates his decisive confrontation with the authorities. This literary organization is designed to help us appreciate the meaning of Jesus' life and ministry. In today's reading he proceeds through hostile territory, reprimanding James and John for their impulsive vindictiveness. * Jesus could probably have
escaped to foreign lands and lived to a ripe old age as a venerated teacher and healer. Why do you believe he chose, instead, to journey to Jerusalem where conflict was certain? * "Don't rock the boat" is a rule implicit in bureaucracies of all kinds. How much of this spirit has pervaded your outlook? When is it appropriate to "rock the boat"? What are the risks?
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.
OF THE LOVING CONDOLENCE BY WHICH THE COMPLACENCY
OF LOVE IS STILL BETTER DECLARED.
But, on the contrary, as soon as he knew that his son was alive, love which had so long kept the supposed death of the son in the spirit of the good father, seeing that it had been deceived, speedily rejected this imaginary death, and made enter in its place the true life of the same son. Thus then he returned to a new life, because the life of his son entered into his heart by complacency, and animated him
with an incomparable contentment: with which finding himself satisfied, and not esteeming any other pleasure in comparison of this: It is enough for me, said he, if Joseph my son be yet living. [239] But when with his own eyes he saw by experience the truth of the grandeur of this dear child in Gessen, falling upon his neck and embracing him, he wept saying: Now shall I die with joy because I have seen thy face and leave thee alive. [240] Ah! what a joy, Theotimus, and how excellently expressed
by this old man! For what would he say by these words, now shall I die with joy because I have seen thy face, but that his content was so great, that it was able to render death itself joyful and agreeable, even death, which is the most grievous and horrible thing in the world. Tell me, I pray you, Theotimus, who has more sense of Joseph's good, he who enjoys it or Jacob who rejoices in it. Certainly, if good be not good but in respect of the content which it affords us, the father has as much
as the son, yea more, for the son, together with the viceroy's dignity of which he is possessed, has consequently much care and many affairs, but the father enjoys by complacency, and purely possesses all that is good in this greatness and dignity of his son, without charge, care or trouble. Now shall I die with joy, says he. Ah! who does not see his contentment? If even death cannot trouble his joy, who can ever change it? If his content can live amidst the distresses of death, who can ever
bereave him of it? Love is strong as death, and the joys of love surmount the sorrows of death, for death cannot kill but enlivens them; so that, as there is a fire which is marvellously kept alive in a fountain near Grenoble (as we know for certain and the great S. Augustine attests), so holy charity has strength to nourish her flames and consolations in the most grievous anguishes of death, and the waters of tribulations cannot quench her
fire.
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