If we do not at least try to manifest something of Creative Charity in our dealings with life, whether by
action, thought, or prayer, and do it at our own cost - if we roll up the talent of love in the nice white napkin of piety and put it safely out of the way, sorry that the world is so hungry and thirsty, so sick and so fettered, and leave it at that: then, even that little talent may be taken from us. We may discover at the crucial moment that we are spiritually bankrupt.
- Evelyn Underhill
(This from a mystical writer! Love of neighbor is the measure of our
spirituality. How do you "measure up?") |
ROM 9:1-5; PS 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20
LK 14:1-6
On a sabbath Jesus went to dine
at the home of one of the leading Pharisees,
and the people there were observing him carefully.
In front of him there was a man suffering from dropsy.
Jesus spoke to the scholars of the law and Pharisees in reply, asking,
"Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?"
But they kept silent; so he took the man and,
after he had
healed him, dismissed him.
Then he said to them
"Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern,
would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?"
But they were unable to answer his question.
Reflection on the
Scriptures |
In the first reading Paul writes to the Romans of his anguish about his acceptance of Christ coupled with heartache about those who have not fully embraced Christianity. While I am generally a positive person, this reading helps me access the times I have been feeling anguish, despair and fear about my faith. In today’s Gospel from Luke the Pharisees question the choice Jesus makes on the Sabbath to
heal a man suffering from dropsy. This reading reminds me of the many times I have explained or defended my faith. And the times I have not had the courage to do so.
Today I pray with these questions: When do I offer the gift of
deeply listening to someone’s story? How can I best accompany others in their faith journey? What do I need when I feel anguish or fear? How can I best appreciate the gifts in my life? When do I follow and when do I lead?
- by Mary Lee Brock Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Fourteenth Revelation, Chapter 43
“Prayer uniteth the soul to God”
But when we see Him not so, then feel we need and cause to pray, because of failing, for enabling of our self, to Jesus. For when the soul is tempested, troubled, and left to itself by unrest, then it is time to pray, for to make itself pliable and obedient [140] to God. (But the soul by no manner of prayer maketh God pliant to it: for He is ever alike in
love.)
And this I saw: that what time we see needs wherefore we pray, then our good Lord followeth us, helping our desire; and when we of His special grace plainly behold Him, seeing none other needs, then we follow Him and He draweth us unto Him by love. For I saw and felt that His marvellous and plentiful Goodness fulfilleth all our powers; and therewith I saw that His continuant working in all
manner of things is done so goodly, so wisely, and so mightily, that it overpasseth all our imagining, and all that we can ween and think; and then we can do no more but behold Him, enjoying, with an high, mighty desire to be all oned unto Him,—centred to His dwelling,—and enjoy in His loving and delight in His goodness.
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