Message of 11-6-17

Published: Mon, 11/06/17

A Daily Spiritual Seed
Monday: November 6, 2017
Message of the Day
The poorest of the poor are those who feel that they are unloved.
- St. Teresa of Calcutta

(Might you be one? Ask the Spirit to reveal God's love in your heart.)
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Readings of the Day
ROM 11:29-36;   PS 69:30-31, 33-34, 36

LK 14:12-14

On a sabbath Jesus went to dine
at the home of one of the leading Pharisees.
He said to the host who invited him,
"When you hold a lunch or a dinner,
do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters
or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors,
in case they may invite you back and you have repayment.
Rather, when you hold a banquet,
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; 
blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.
For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

USCCB lectionary
Reflection on the Scripture
The Lord has said: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways" (Is 55:8).

That we are so different than God is initially seen as a problem. We even wish that God was more like us. However, if we joyfully accept God's transcendence and mystery, we can begin to look behind the worst situations and see the hand of God. This fills us with hope rather than discouragement.

For example, what if you invited several poor and handicapped people to dinner but never received any invitations to their homes? Here you are — lonely, eating by yourself, and feeling sorry for yourself. Yet if you have the mind of God (see 1 Cor 2:16), you begin to rejoice, for you see that you are in a wonderful situation in which "you will be repaid in the resurrection of the just" (Lk 14:14).

What if you are like St. Paul, in "great grief and constant pain" because your nation is alienated from God? (Rm 9:2) The Lord, however, can enlighten the eyes of your heart (Eph 1:18) to see that He is working together for the good even in the worst circumstances (Rm 8:28).

When we see even the worst of things in God's way, we exclaim: "How deep are the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How inscrutable His judgments, how unsearchable His ways!...For from Him and through Him and for Him all things are. To Him be glory forever. Amen" (Rm 11:33, 36).
 
Prayer: Father, fill me with joy because of Your mystery.
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Promise: "God's gifts and His call are irrevocable." —Rm 11:29

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Spiritual Reading
From Meditation to Contemplation, by James Arraj
- Reprinted from St. John of the Cross and Dr. C. G. Jung. 

Introduction

As long as consolation and sweetness remain, the beginner is satisfied that God is approving of his life of prayer. However, for those called to contemplation this state cannot last. It is here, after the soul has become accustomed to the feelings and consolations of beginners, that St. John introduces the night of sense. Consolation and sweetness begin to diminish and aridity seizes the soul. The sense of value and accomplishment in praying evaporates. The night of sense is the beginning of contemplation; St. John calls it arid, purgative contemplation or dark fire. It is the herald of the more perceptible contemplation to come, and its purpose is to detach the soul from sensible knowledge and prepare it for this higher way of knowing.
 
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