Message of 5-25-17

Published: Thu, 05/25/17

A Daily Spiritual Seed
Thursday: May 25, 2017



Our progress in holiness depends on God and ourselves — on God’s grace and on our will to be holy. We must have a real living determination to reach holiness.
- Mother Theresa, A Gift for God

(What does holiness mean to you? How strong is your determination to become more holy?)




ACTS 1:1-11 (Ascension of Our Lord)

In the first book, Theophilus,
I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught
until the day he was taken up,
after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit
to the apostles whom he had chosen.
He presented himself alive to them
by many proofs after he had suffered,
appearing to them during forty days
and speaking about the kingdom of God.
While meeting with the them,
he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for "the promise of the Father
about which you have heard me speak;
for John baptized with water,
but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
When they had gathered together they asked him,
"Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"
He answered them, "It is not for you to know the times or seasons
that the Father has established by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
throughout Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth."
When he had said this, as they were looking on,
he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going,
suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.
They said, "Men of Galilee,
why are you standing there looking at the sky?
This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven
will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven."

PS 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9;   EPH 1:17-23

MT 28:16-20

The eleven disciples went to Galilee,
to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.
When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.
Then Jesus approached and said to them,
"All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."


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Acts of the Apostles 1: 6 - 12 (Jesus ascends into heaven)

 After spending days teaching and revealing himself in different ways to his disciples, the risen Jesus is taken into full glory and is seated at the right Hand of the Father.  With his Ascension, he did not go away: he disappeared.  Henceforth, he is available to all people in all time, but through the interior life and the realm of spirit.  All creation now unfolds "in Christ."

* Spend some time thinking about what it means to be "in Christ."  How do you experience this?

* Pray for the grace to be more aware of the risen, ascended Christ in your life and in history.

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God and I: Exploring the Connections between God, Self and Ego, by Philip St. Romain, 2016 (2nd ed.) 
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Chapter 3: Ego (excerpts)
   
   Through all the tensions and struggles of life, the subjective awareness that is immanent in the reflective operations of the Ego is undergoing a formative process. The mysterious experience of Self known in non-reflective consciousness is given a name and form through the process of Ego development. This formation radiates throughout the body/psyche/spirit, leaving its mark in non-reflecting awareness. The Self that simply “is” has been stamped, as it were, with a certain quality of presence through the process of Ego formation. An individual person looks out through the eyes, conveying the presence of both “that-ness” and “who-ness.”  This can be a lovely and wonderful thing to behold when things go well.
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