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He who searches for Divine Reality with all his heart and soul and finds it, becomes aware that, before he began to seek God, God was seeking him, in order to draw him into the joy of fellowship with Him, into the peace of His Presence; even as a child who has strayed, when he is safely back in his mother’s arms, realises that she had been searching for him,
with deep maternal love, before he had begun to think about her.
- Sadhu Sundar Singh
(God is seeking you! How does that feel? What do you say to God about that?) |
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TB 6:10-11; 7:1, 9-17; 8:4-9; PS 128:1-2, 3, 4-5
MK 12:28-34
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
"Which is the first of all the commandments?"
Jesus replied, "The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these."
The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
He is One and there is no other than he.
And to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself
is worth more than all burnt offerings and
sacrifices."
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God."
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
USCCB Lectionary
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Mark 12:28-34 (The two great commandments)
The two great religious questions are: What kind of God is God? and What does God expect of human beings? Jesus answers these questions
in todayÕs reading by emphasizing the importance of love.
* Write a short statement about what it means to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Do these reflections describe your love of God?
* Augustine maintained that loving and praising God is the greatest joy a human being can experience. Do you agree?
* Pray for the grace to love God more
deeply. Paperback, Kindle
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God and I: Exploring the Connections between God, Self and Ego, by Philip St. Romain, 2016 (2nd ed.) ____________ Chapter 3: Ego (excerpts) The self-image project, then, is an essential part of coming to terms with one’s identity. As one grows older, this entails a sorting through all the various labels, adjectives and judgments one has become attached to by choice or through the influence of others. We recognize that
some of these have been implanted so deeply within us that we cannot rid ourselves of them even if we would like to. Sometimes therapy is needed to sort through the experiences that have contributed to self-image. Religious disciplines can also be of assistance. The goal and hope is to find some degree of congruency between one’s self-image and one’s innate aptitudes as to be authentic enough to speak with one’s own voice and live one’s own life. Other animals do not have to do this; they simply are themselves and do not bother with the question of identity. But we humans are not simply “whats” or “thats” but “whos,” or persons. The question of identity cannot be escaped, for,
if nothing else, other people will treat us as though we have one, and we need to be sure, at least to ourselves, that they are interacting with the person we really are and not some fiction. This is the task entrusted to us as Egos, and it is one we need to embrace. Spiritual writers who scorn Ego and view it as an impediment to the experience of Self and God seem not to realize that without an Ego, the reader of their books could not even consider their words, much less the prospect of putting
them into practice. Ego is the responsible aspect of human consciousness, so it seems rather silly to denounce the Ego while simultaneously inviting one to live a different kind of life. We might not like the way our Ego has been formed, but without an Ego, we cannot change our formation.
Hardback, paperback, eBook and free preview versions.
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