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Right now, this very second, this very moment that you spend reading these words is "new". How you choose to be a steward of that "new slate" is up to you. My fervent prayer is that I never take for granted that gift of "newness" and that I do all in his power granted to me to cherish the potential of "all things new". - Katherine Walden
(Every moment, all is new — an instance of time and reality that has never before existed. Resolve to live each moment
fully.)
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Daily Readings
1 John 4:11-18; Psalm 72:1-2, 10,
12-13 Mark 6:45-52 After the five thousand had eaten and were filled, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to Bethsaida, while he himself sent the crowd away. After saying goodbye to them he went off into the hills to pray. When evening came, the boat was far out on the lake, and he was alone on the land. He could see they were worn out with rowing, for the
wind was against them; and about the fourth watch of the night he came towards them, walking on the lake. He was going to pass them by, but when they saw him walking on the lake they thought it was a ghost and cried out; for they had all seen him and were terrified. But he at once spoke to them, and said, ‘Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid.’ Then he got into the boat with them, and the wind dropped. They were utterly and completely dumbfounded, because they had not seen what the miracle of the
loaves meant; their minds were closed.
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.) Mark 6:45-52 (Jesus on the water) Because he wrote to Gentiles, Mark emphasized miraculous events surrounding the ministry of Jesus; his audience had little appreciation for Jewish prophecy and its fulfillment in Christ. In today’s passage we read about one of the more unusual traditions preserved by the Church: Jesus’ walk on the water. Rather than be overawed by the accomplishment of this feat, we should try to appreciate the symbolic meanings conveyed by Mark.
• Why did Jesus spend time alone in prayer? Do you believe he had human needs just as we do?
• Spend some time with the verse Take courage, it is I, do not he afraid!” Let these words bring peace to your soul. Call them to mind through the day.
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.
But hear an agreeable
similitude upon this subject, drawn from the name which this loving Saint gave his religious; for he called them Cicalas, by reason of the nightly praises they sang to God. Cicalas, Theotimus, as though they were nature's organs, have their breasts set with pipes; and to sing the better they live only on dew, which they take not by the mouth, for they have none, but suck it by a certain little tongue they have on the breast, by which they utter their cries with so much noise that they seem to be
nothing but voice. Now this is the state of the sacred lover; for all the faculties of her soul are as so many pipes which she has in her breast, to repeat the canticles and praises of the well-beloved. Her devotion in the midst of all these is the tongue of her heart, according to S. Bernard, by which she receives the dew of the divine perfections, sucking and drawing them to her, as her food, by the most holy complacency which she takes in them; and by the same tongue of devotion she utters
all her voices of prayer, praise, canticles, psalms, benedictions, according to the testimony of one of the most glorious spiritual cicalas that was ever heard, who sang thus: Bless the Lord, O my soul: and let all that is within me bless his holy name. [247] For is it not as though he had said, I am a mystical cicala, my soul, my spirit, my thoughts, all the faculties that are collected within me, are organ pipes. Let all these for ever bless the name and sound the praises of my God. I will
bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall be always in my mouth. In the Lord shall my soul be praised; let the meek hear and rejoice. [248]
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