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Message of the Day
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Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to God and have found in God our refuge and our safety and that nothing, not even death, can take God away from us.
- Henri Nouwen (Nothing can separate you from the love of God .
. . Feel the joy that comes from this awareness.)
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Readings of the Day
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Exodus 2:1-15a
Psalm 69:3, 14, 30-31,
33-34 Matthew 11:20-24 Jesus began to reproach the towns in which most of his miracles had been worked, because they refused to repent.
‘Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. And still, I tell you
that it will not go as hard on Judgement day with Tyre and Sidon as with you. And as for you, Capernaum, did you want to be exalted as high as heaven? You shall be thrown down to hell. For if the miracles done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have been standing yet. And still, I tell you that it will not go as hard with the land of Sodom on Judgement day as with
you.’ USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture
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“She took a papyrus basket, daubed it with bitumen and pitch, and putting the child in it, placed it among the reeds on the river bank.” —Exodus 2:3
Imagine a homemade basket floating on a river. Inside this basket is a crying, three-month-old baby boy. This baby will grow up to save the Israelite nation from slavery.
Imagine a newborn Baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger (Lk 2:7). This Baby has been born in a stable and is surrounded by animals. This Baby is God and the Savior of the world. . . . There is one Baby picture we need to look at constantly. “Fix your eyes on Jesus” (Heb 3:1), the Savior and Hope of the world. Prayer: Father, make me stop staring at myself. Promise: “The Lord hears the poor, and His own who are in bonds He spurns not.” —Ps
69:34 Presentation Ministries
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Spiritual Reading
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The Practice of the Presence of God: The Best Rule of Holy Life, by Brother Lawrence (1611 - 1691). Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
https://ccel.org/ccel/lawrence/practice/practice Tenth Letter Has difficulty, but sacrifices his will, to write as requested. * The loss of a friend may lead to acquaintance with the
Friend. I HAVE had a good deal of difficulty to bring myself to write to M. -, and I do it now purely because you and Madam desire me. Pray write the directions and send it to him. I am very well pleased with the trust which you have in GOD: I wish that He may increase it in you more and more: we cannot have too much in so good and faithful a Friend, who will never fail us in this world nor in the
next. If M. - makes his advantage of the loss he has had, and puts all his confidence in GOD, He will soon give him another friend, more powerful and more inclined to serve him. He disposes of hearts as He pleases. Perhaps M. - was too much attached to him he has lost. We ought to love our friends, but without encroaching upon the love of GOD, which must be the
principal.
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