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As long as I am content to know that He is infinitely greater than I, and that I cannot know Him unless He shows Himself to me, I will have Peace, and He will be near me and in me, and I will rest in Him. - Thomas
Merton
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Daily Readings
Sirach 4:11-19; Psalm 119:165, 168, 171, 172, 174,
175 Mark 9:38-40 John said to Jesus,
"Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,
and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us."
Jesus replied, "Do not prevent him.
There is no one who performs a
mighty deed in my name
who can at the same time speak ill of me.
For whoever is not against us is for us."
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.) Mark 9: 38-40 (The name of
Jesus) In biblical times names were considered important because they gave identity and a claim upon a person. Using the name of Jesus to exorcise a demon meant calling on the Power whom Jesus invoked in healing. * How do you feel when other people speak about their relationship with God in a way that seems strange to you? Are you tolerant of
them? * What does it mean to be "against Jesus?" What are some manifestations of this?
Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) ____________ Chapter 11: How we practice the love of benevolence in the praises which our Savior and his mother give to
God. He who, on a morning, having heard for some good space of time in the neighbouring woods the sweet chanting of finches, linnets, goldfinches, and such like little birds, should in the end hear a master-nightingale, which in perfect melody filled the air and ear with its admirable voice, doubtless would prefer this one woodland singer before the whole flock of the others. So, having heard all the praises which so many different
sorts of creatures, in emulation of one another, render unanimously to their Creator, when at length we listen to the praise our Saviour gives, we find in it a certain infinity of merit, of worth, of sweetness, which surpasses all the hope and expectation of the heart: and the soul, as if awakened out of a deep sleep, is then instantly ravished with the extreme sweetness of such melody. Ah! I hear it: Oh! the voice, the voice of my well-beloved! the king-voice of all voices, a voice, in
comparison with which all other voices are but a dumb and gloomy silence! See how this dear love springs forward, see how he comes leaping upon the highest mountains, transcending the hills: his voice is heard above the Seraphim, and all other creatures; he has the eyes of a roe to penetrate deeper than any other into the beauty of the sacred object which he desires to praise. He loves the melody of the glory and praise of his Father more than all others do, and therefore he takes his Father's
praises and benedictions in a strain above them all. Ah! behold him, this divine love of the beloved, how he stands behind the wall of his humanity, making himself to be seen through the wounds of his body and the opening of his side, as by windows, and as by a lattice through which he looks out on us. [255]
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