Message of 2-6-17

Published: Mon, 02/06/17

A Daily Spiritual Seed
Monday: February 6, 2017
LENTEN WEBINAR SERIES
Consciousness, Conversion and Grace
A 5-week webinar series presented by Carla Mae Streeter, OP

- Feb. 21, 28; March 7, 14, 21.  6:30 - 8:00 p.m. Central
- Free-will donation


See http://shalomplace.com/inetmin/lent2017.html for more information and registration links.
Message of the Day
While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.
   - St. Francis of Assisi
Readings of the Day
GN1:1-19;   PS 104:1-2A, 5-6, 10, 12, 24 AND 35C

MK 6:53-56

After making the crossing to the other side of the sea,
Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret
and tied up there.
As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him.
They scurried about the surrounding country
and began to bring in the sick on mats
to wherever they heard he was.
Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered,
they laid the sick in the marketplaces
and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak;
and as many as touched it were healed.

Reflection on the Scripture
"Evening came, and morning followed." –Genesis 1:5

God can do new and amazing things each day. In the beginning, God created light, heaven, and earth in one day (Gn 1:1-3). The next day He created the sky (Gn 1:8). The day after that He created plant life (Gn 1:12). Since God is the same today as He was when He created the earth (Heb 13:8), it follows that He is creating something new and exciting this very day.

When we come to know God as the Creator, this realization leads us to new hope. God's very nature is to create; thus, God creates new things each day, just as He did "in the beginning" (Gn 1:1). Each day God can make a new creation out of nothing, and can create good from bad (Rm 8:28), making each day a new creation in Him.

Therefore, if we've had one bad day (or many bad days), it doesn't mean tomorrow will also be bad. The book of James tells us: "You have no idea what kind of life will be yours tomorrow" (Jas 4:14). We can never lose hope, because God's love and mercy come anew every morning (Lam 3:22-23).
This is why Jesus teaches us to pray only for the needs of this day (Mt 6:11), to not worry about tomorrow, and to deal with each day as it comes (Mt 6:33-34). Therefore, "today, if you should hear His voice, harden not your hearts" (Heb 3:7-8).

Never lose hope, for God can create a future full of hope for you on any given day (Jer 29:11). "This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it" (Ps 118:24).

PRAYER: Jesus, in You my "inner being is renewed each day" (2 Cor 4:16). May I desire to go to Mass and read Scripture every day.

PROMISE: "All who touched [Jesus] got well." –Mk 6:56

PRAISE: St. Paul Miki and his twenty-five companions were pierced by a lance, as was Jesus. They gave every day, even their last day, to their Lord.

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Spiritual Reading
Theological Gems from Emile Merch's Theology of the Mystical Body
- selected by Jim and Tyra Arraj

Book III: Christ
 
Chapter 13: Revelation and the Trinity

399. -- Our lack of understanding hides our humanity from us.

-- Christ's human consciousness must be conceived as the first principle in the order of human consciousness.