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Without expectation, do something for love itself, not for what you may receive. Love in action is what gives us grace. We have been created for greater things - - to love and to be loved. Love is love - - to love a person without any conditions, without any expectations.
Small things, done in great love, bring joy and peace. To love, it is necessary to give. To give, it is necessary to be free from selfishness.
- St. Teresa of Calcutta (Call to mind the word, “love,” all through this day and see what difference it
makes.)
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Daily Readings
Hebrews 12:4-7, 11-15; Psalm 103:1-2, 13-14,
17-18a Mark 6:1-6 Jesus went to his home town and his disciples accompanied him. With the coming of the sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue and most of them were astonished when they heard him. They said, ‘Where did the man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been granted him, and these miracles that are worked through him? This is the carpenter, surely, the son of
Mary, the brother of James and Joset and Jude and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here with us?’ And they would not accept him. And Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is only despised in his own country, among his own relations and in his own house’; and he could work no miracle there, though he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of
faith.
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.) Mark 6:1-6 (Jesus rejected by his
own) The response of the people of Nazareth to Jesus teaches us an important lesson. They think they know him and they try to make him conform to their own ideas. Consequently, they fail to recognize him for who he is, and he is unable to touch them. We, too, need to be cautious about thinking we know and understand Jesus completely. • Louis
Evely once wrote, "As soon as we think we know someone, we have ceased to love them.” How does this relate to the people of Nazareth? How does it relate to your relationship with Jesus? With your family and friends? • Pray for the grace to discover newness in God, in yourself, and in others.
Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) ____________ Chapter 10: How the desire to praise God makes us aspire to heaven.
Voices
which for their loudness are compared to thunders, to trumpets, to the noise of the waves of a troubled sea; yet voices which, for their incomparable softness and sweetness, are compared to the melody of harps, delicately and delightfully touched by hands of the most skilful players; and voices all of which unite to sing the joyous Paschal canticle: Alleluia, praise God, Amen, praise God. For know, Theotimus, that a voice goes out from the divine throne which ceases not to cry to the happy
inhabitants of the glorious heavenly Jerusalem: Praise God, O you that are his servants, and you that fear him great and little: [251] at which all the innumerable multitude of saints,--the choirs of angels and the choirs of assembled men,--answer, singing with all their force: Alleluia, praise God. But what is this admirable voice, which issuing out from the divine throne entones the Alleluias of the elect, except most holy complacency, which being received into the heart, makes them feel the
sweetness of the divine perfections, whereupon a loving benevolence, the source of heavenly praises, is bred in them? So that complacency coming from the throne, declares to the blessed the grandeurs of God, and benevolence excites them to pour out in their turn the perfumes of praise before the throne. Wherefore by way of answer they eternally sing: Alleluia, that is, praise God. The complacency comes from the throne into the heart, and benevolence goes from the heart to the
throne.
O how worthy of love is this temple, wholly resounding with praise! O what content have such as live in this sacred dwelling, where so many heavenly philomels and nightingales sing with this holy strife of love, the canticles of eternal delight!
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