Thoughtfulness is the beginning of great sanctity. If you learn this art of being thoughtful, you will become more and more Christlike, for His
heart was meek and always thought of others.
- Mother Theresa
(Thoughtfulness as an expression of mindfulness . . . deliberately and intentionally choosing the good. How will you be more thoughtful this day?) |
JOS 24:1-13; PS 136:1-3, 16-18, 21-22 AND 24
MT 19:3-12
Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and tested him,
saying,
"Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?"
He said in reply, "Have you not read that from the beginning
the Creator made them male and female and said,
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?
So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
Therefore, what God has joined together, man must not separate."
They said to him, "Then why did Moses command
that the
man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss her?"
He said to them, "Because of the hardness of your hearts
Moses allowed you to divorce your wives,
but from the beginning it was not so.
I say to you, whoever divorces his wife
(unless the marriage is unlawful)
and marries another commits adultery."
His disciples said to him,
"If that is the case of a man with his wife,
it is better not to marry."
He answered, "Not all can accept this word,
but only those to
whom that is granted.
Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so;
some, because they were made so by others;
some, because they have renounced marriage
for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven.
Whoever can accept this ought to accept it."
Reflection on the
Scriptures |
In praying with these texts I was moved by the fidelity of God that emerges in
the assertions of each. The passage from Exodus is very like a litany of faithfulness. Down through the centuries God has continually brought His people to a better place or situation. God has fulfilled our deepest needs. The call to us, is for an answering fidelity to the people and to God. We are called to live and work and love within community, not alone.
Joshua calls
the people together at God’s command and calls out this litany to inspire a response of gratitude within the people. Gratitude is the first and most important step in really loving someone. When we are confident that we don’t need anyone else then we do not give ourselves away in love. One of the great blessings of modernity has been the recognition of the rights and dignity of each and every human person, but at the same time one of the great curses of modernity has been to so
highlight the individuality of each person that we forget we are communal creatures. We are conceived by a community of two; we survive, and more importantly thrive, when we dwell in a community of care and support. Without community connections, we cease to be human.
- by Eileen Burke-Sullivan Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Fourteenth Revelation, Chapter 41
I am the Ground of thy
beseeching. Beseeching is a true, gracious, lasting will of the soul, oned and fastened into the will of our Lord by the sweet inward work of the Holy Ghost. Our Lord Himself, He is the first receiver of our prayer, as to my sight, and taketh it full thankfully and highly enjoying; and He sendeth it up
above and setteth it in the Treasure, where it shall never perish. It is there afore God with all His Holy continually received, ever speeding [the help of] our needs; and when we shall receive our bliss it shall be given us for a degree of joy, with endless worshipful thanking from Him. |
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