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“God loves the world. That’s plain to see as we read His Word. Today, God loves the world through us, His Children of Grace. Christ is ‘in’ us and we are ‘in’ Christ. Christ is loving people and reaching out to them through us. He is making His appeal through us. He is
reconciling people to Himself through us."
- Mark McGee That makes everything we do very significant. Be mindful of this throughout the day.
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Daily Readings
Genesis 21:5, 8-20a
Psalm
34:7-8, 10-11, 12-13 Matthew 8:28-34 When Jesus reached the country of the Gadarenes on the other side of the lake, two demoniacs came towards him out of the tombs – creatures so fierce that no one could pass that way. They stood there shouting, ‘What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before the time?’ Now some distance away there was a large herd
of pigs feeding, and the devils pleaded with Jesus, ‘If you cast us out, send us into the herd of pigs.’ And he said to them, ‘Go then’, and they came out and made for the pigs; and at that the whole herd charged down the cliff into the lake and perished in the water. The swineherds ran off and made for the town, where they told the whole story, including what had happened to the demoniacs. At this the whole town set out to meet Jesus; and as soon as they saw him they implored him to leave the
neighbourhood.
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.) Matthew 8: 28-34 (Demoniacs and
swineherd) This is another miracle that is most meaningful when interpreted symbolically. Jesus’ expulsion of the demoniacs into the swineherd does not indicate his displeasure over raising hogs (as some have written). Rather, it reveals his high esteem for human life. • If you were to suddenly inherit $1 million, how would you change your lifestyle? How important is
economics in your list of priorities? • The Gadarenes ordered Jesus out of their district because he was obviously bad for business. Do you believe Jesus is still expelled by business? How?
Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) ____________ BOOK VI: OF THE EXERCISES OF LOVE IN PRAYER
Complacency for St. Francis de Sales means contentment to simply be with God, to rest in God. Chapter 4: That love in this
life takes its origin but not its excellence from the knowledge of God. The will only perceives good by means of the understanding, but having once perceived it she has no more need of the understanding to practise love, for the force of pleasure which she feels, or expects to feel, from union with her object, draws her powerfully to the love and to the desire of enjoying it; so that the knowledge of good gives birth, but not
measure, to love; as we see the knowledge of an injury starts anger, which, if not suppressed, almost always becomes greater than the subject deserves. The passions do not follow the knowledge which moves them, but very often, leaving this quite in the rear, they make towards their object without any measure or limit. Now this happens still more strongly in holy love, inasmuch as our will is not applied to it by a natural knowledge,
but by the light of faith, which assuring us of the infinite goodness that is in God, gives us sufficient cause to love him with all our force. We dig the earth to find gold and silver, employing a present labour for a good which as yet is only hoped for; so that an uncertain knowledge sets us upon a present and certain labour, and as we more discover the vein of the mineral, we search and search more earnestly. Even a cold scent serves to move the hound to the game, so, dear Theotimus, a
knowledge obscure and involved in clouds, like that of faith, most powerfully stirs our affection to love the goodness which it makes us perceive. O how true it is, according to S. Augustine's exclamation, that the unlearned bear away heaven, while many of the wise are swallowed up in hell!
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