|
Message of the Day
|
|
We need to fall, and we need to be aware of it; for if we did not fall, we should not know how weak and wretched we are of ourselves, nor should we know our Maker's marvelous love so fully.
- Julian of Norwich
What have you learned about God through your times of failure?
|
|
Readings of the Day
|
Exodus 33:7-11; 34:5b-9, 28
Psalm 103:6-7, 8-9, 10-11, 12-13 John 11:19-27 Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to sympathise with them over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he
will grant you.’ ‘Your brother’ said Jesus to her ‘will rise again.’ Martha said, ‘I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said: ‘I am the resurrection and the life.
If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live,
and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe
this?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this
world.’ USCCB lectionary
|
|
Reflection on the Scripture
|
“One thing only is required. Mary has chosen the better portion and she shall not be deprived of it.” —Luke 10:42
Realistically, making the
decision to stop and pray is the most practical thing we can do. The world is on a runaway, collision course with death, and our only hope is prayer. “Let My eyes stream with tears day and night, without rest, over the great destruction which overwhelms the virgin daughter of My people, over her incurable wound” (Jer 14:17). No amount of activity will fix this world. We need a miracle. It’s just a prayer away. The prayer of faith is our
only hope, and the only hope we need. Our world is dead. It’s been in the tomb long enough to smell of corruption (Jn 11:39). There’s nothing we can do but believe in Jesus, “the Resurrection and the Life” (Jn 11:25). Prayer: Father, I realize I may be busily cleaning a sinking ship. I pray for a miracle and accept Your divine will. Promise: “As the heavens are high above
the earth, so surpassing is His kindness toward those who fear Him.” —Ps 103:11 Presentation Ministries
|
|
Spiritual Reading
|
|
|
|
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 Eleventh Letter To one who is in great pain. I do not pray that you may be delivered from
your pains; but I pray GOD earnestly that He would give you strength and patience to bear them as long as He pleases. Comfort yourself with Him who holds you fastened to the cross: He will loose you when He thinks fit. Happy those who suffer with Him: accustom yourself to suffer in that manner, and seek from Him the strength to endure as much, and as long, as He shall judge to be necessary for you. The people of the world do not comprehend these truths, nor is it to be wondered at, since they
suffer like what they are, and not like Christians: they consider sickness as a pain to nature, and not as a favour from GOD; and seeing it only in that light, they find nothing in it but grief and distress. But those who consider sickness as coming from the hand of GOD, as the effects of His mercy, and the means which He employs for their salvation, commonly find in it great sweetness and sensible consolation. I wish you could convince yourself that GOD is often (in some
sense) nearer to us and more effectually present with us, in sickness than in health. Rely upon no other Physician, for, according to my apprehension, He reserves your cure to Himself. Put then all your trust in Him, and you will soon find the effects of it in your recovery, which we often retard, by putting greater confidence in physic than in
GOD.
Paperback and eBook versions
|
Please support this outreach with a tax-deductible donation. |
|
|
