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Here is the Truth in a little creed,
Enough for all the roads we go:
In Love is all the law we need,
In Christ is all the God we
know. - Edwin Markham (1852-1940)
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Daily Readings
Romans 13:8-10
Psalm 112:1b-2,
4-5, 9 Luke 14:25-33 Great crowds accompanied Jesus on his way and he turned and spoke to them. ‘If any man comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple. Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
‘And indeed,
which of you here, intending to build a tower, would not first sit down and work out the cost to see if he had enough to complete it? Otherwise, if he laid the foundation and then found himself unable to finish the work, the onlookers would all start making fun of him and saying, “Here is a man who started to build and was unable to finish.” Or again, what king marching to war against another king would not first sit down and consider whether with ten thousand men he could stand up to the other
who advanced against him with twenty thousand? If not, then while the other king was still a long way off, he would send envoys to sue for peace. So in the same way, none of you can be my disciple unless he gives up all his possessions.’
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.) Luke 14: 25-33 (Pick up your cross) The cross is an intensely powerful Christian symbol because it describes so well the quality of love which God expects of us. Christianity alone has been able to extract meaning from human suffering, for our God has suffered with us. Those who decide to follow Jesus can expect struggles and hardships, but perseverance will bring deeper love and new life. • What battle plan have you developed for your life? What
obstacles might frustrate these plans? Where does the cross enter? • Pray for the grace to remain faithful to Jesus when inconveniences confront you.
Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) ____________ BOOK VI: OF THE EXERCISES OF LOVE IN PRAYER Chapter 8: Of the repose of a soul recollected in her well-beloved. The well-beloved S. John is ordinarily
painted, in the Last Supper, not only lying but even sleeping in his Master's bosom, because he was seated after the fashion of the Easterns (Levantins), so that his head was towards his dear lover's breast; and as he slept no corporal sleep there,--what likelihood of that?--so I make no question but that, finding himself so near the breasts of the eternal sweetness, he took a profound mystical sleep, like a child of love which locked to its mother's breast sucks while sleeping. Oh! what a
delight it was to this Benjamin, child of his Saviour's joy, to sleep in the arms of that father, who the day after, recommended him, as the Benoni, child of pain, to his mother's sweet breasts. Nothing is more desirable to the little child, whether he wake or sleep, than his father's bosom and mother's breast. Wherefore, when you shall find yourself in this simple and pure filial confidence with our Lord, stay there, my dear
Theotimus, without moving yourself to make sensible acts, either of the understanding or of the will; for this simple love of confidence, and this love-sleep of your spirit in the arms of the Saviour, contains by excellence all that you go seeking hither and thither to satisfy your taste: it is better to sleep upon this sacred breast than to watch elsewhere, wherever it be.
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