My God, I pray that I may so know you and love
you that I may rejoice in you. And if I may not do so fully in this life let me go steadily on to the day when I come to that fullness . . . Let me receive That which you promised through your truth, that my joy may be full.
- St. Anselm of Canterbury (A prayer for
today.)
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EPH 3:14-21; PS 33:1-2, 4-5, 11-12, 18-19 LK 12:49-53 Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have come to set the earth on
fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.
From now
on a household of five will be divided,
three against two and two against three;
a father will be divided against his son
and a son against his father,
a mother against her daughter
and a daughter against her mother,
a mother-in-law against her
daughter-in-law
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
Reflection on the Scriptures
I think perhaps part of the mystery of Christ, a mystery in which I place much hope, is how he holds seemingly disparate elements together. That mysterious unity amidst every kind of diversity may come through
the foundation St. Paul so beautifully describes to the Ephesians in today’s epistle: if Christ dwells in our hearts through faith, if we are rooted and grounded in the immense love of Christ that surpasses knowledge and imagination, then Christ unifies us on some deeper level despite everything. Christ’s love overwhelms fears and division, even if, as Jesus alludes to in the Gospel, participating in and responding to that love leads to a cross. Let us continue to hope in “him who is able to
accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine!” by Nancy Shirley
Psychic Energy and Contemplation by James
Arraj From St. John of the Cross and Dr. C. J. Jung, Part III, Chapter 9. Inner Growth Books, 1986. The Way of Faith Acquired contemplation is mistaken, not because it delineated this process of simplification, but rather, because it misunderstood the nature of contemplation. It thought that taking up an
attitude of expectancy with the natural faculties, a loving attentiveness, would be the best disposition for receiving contemplation, but the natural working of the faculties, no matter how passively we exercise them, which, of course, tends to be a contradiction, cannot attain contemplation because contemplation does not come through the faculties. Not only will this new stage of prayer be simplified, but it will be without sensible consolation, and yet, if it is not the beginning of contemplation, it is a prayer that must be prayed. It is an active exercise of the faculties, even though in a simplified manner. There are no simple apprehensions or intuitions that can be maintained more than a few seconds as the culminating leap of the discursive process, nor are there any enduring acts that by-pass the need to
actively exercise mind and heart in order to pray.
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