Compassionate action starts with seeing yourself when you start to make yourself right and when you start to make yourself wrong. At that
point you could just contemplate the fact that there is a larger alternative to either of those, a more tender, shaky kind of place where you could live.
- Pema Chodron
(Notice when you come upon that inner space of authenticity, and invite the Spirit to lead you in your deliberations.) |
1 TM 6:2C-12; PS 49:6-7, 8-10, 17-18, 19-20
LK 8:1-3
Jesus journeyed from one town and village to
another,
preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God.
Accompanying him were the Twelve
and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities,
Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,
Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza,
Susanna, and many others
who provided for them out of their resources.
Reflection on the
Scriptures |
I was motivated by today’s Gospel reading to enter into the Ignatian Spiritual Exercise of
imagination. In doing so, I tried to apply my senses (such as sight, hearing, smelling and touch) to visualize myself in the shoes (or sandals) of those journeying from one town and village to another accompanying Jesus. I was drawn to reflecting on what my life had been like prior to joining up on this journey. I knew that Jesus had to have become the center of my life. How did that happen? How did I act when Jesus was only a part of my
life?
Sadly, when Jesus is only a part of our lives, not the center, oftentimes we spend a lot of time trying to achieve what we think we are thirsting for such as worldly goods and riches. Many of us live our lives bombarded with these false forms of happiness. Oftentimes, we don’t realize that these false thirsts distract us from the deepest thirst of our human hearts - God.
- by Jan Schnack Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Fourteenth Revelation, Chapter 42
“Prayer is a right understanding of
that fulness of joy that is to come, with accordant longing and sure trust”
But sometimes it cometh to our mind that we have prayed long time, and yet we think to ourselves that we have not our asking. But herefor should we not be in heaviness. For I am sure, by our Lord’s signifying, that either we abide a better time, or more grace, or a better gift. He willeth that we have true knowing
in Himself that He is Being; and in this knowing He willeth that our understanding be grounded, with all our mights and all our intent and all our meaning; and in this ground He willeth that we take our place and our dwelling, and by the gracious light of Himself He willeth that we have understanding of the things that follow. The first is our noble and excellent making; the second, our precious and dearworthy again-buying; the third, all-thing that He hath made beneath us, [He hath made] to
serve us, and for our love keepeth it. Then signifieth He thus, as if He said: Behold and see that I have done all this before thy prayers; and now thou art, and prayest me. And thus He signifieth that it belongeth to us to learn that the greatest deeds be [already] done, as Holy Church teacheth; and in the beholding of this, with thanking, we ought to pray for the deed that is now in doing: and that is, that He rule and guide us, to His worship, in this life, and bring us to His bliss. And
therefor He hath done all. |
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