As the New Testament uses the word, faith is trust, acceptance, commitment, vision. It is not a belief in this or that creed, it is a quality which
lies rather in the realm of intuition than the intellect. Faith has indeed an element of true simplicity; it is one of the qualities—perhaps the fundamental quality—of the child-like spirit without which no man can enter the Kingdom of God.
- Anonymous |
SG 2:8-14; PS 33:2-3, 11-12, 20-21
LK 1:39-45
Mary set out in those days
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with
the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
"Most blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled."
Reflection on the
Scriptures |
Theoretically we are still in the austere season of Advent but church is practically the only place where we can get relief from the unrelenting pressure to consume, consume, consume past the point that we even enjoy it.
Just how many goods do we need before we become so full that God sends us away “empty” like the biblical rich? If we leave no empty room in our lives for God to fill, aren’t we like my overloaded tummy on Thanksgiving?
The amount of goods per se that each of us has isn’t the issue. It’s our understanding that consuming alone will leave us feeling empty.
Ask yourself what DOES make you happy. Is it buying
three more sweaters that your daughter doesn’t need even if they were on sale? Is it feeling guilty because a grade school friend just sent you a card and she wasn’t on your list?
If we are feeling “empty” because we are over-filled with too
much shopping or too many parties or simply “TOO MUCH, “ we can set aside time to open ourselves to God. We can visit our church which is quiet and still not decorated for Christmas. We can meditate on the coming of our Savior who teaches us to die to ourselves in order that we might live with him. How will this change our lives and our priorities going forward?
- by Eileen Wirth Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Fourteenth Revelation, Chapter 46
“It is needful to see and to know that we are sinners: wherefore we deserve pain and
wrath.” “He is God: Good, Life, Truth, Love, Peace: His Clarity and His Unity suffereth Him not to be wroth”
BUT our passing life that we have here in our sense-soul knoweth not what our Self is. And when we verily and clearly see and know what our Self is] then shall we verily and clearly see and know our Lord God in fulness of joy. And therefore it behoveth needs to be that the nearer we be to our bliss, the more we shall long [after it]: and that both by nature and by
grace. We may have knowing of our Self in this life by continuant help and virtue of our high Nature. In which knowing we may exercise and grow, by forwarding and speeding of mercy and grace; but we may never fully know our Self until the last point: in which point this passing life and manner of pain and woe shall have an end. And therefore it belongeth properly to us, both by nature and by grace, to long and desire with all our mights to know our Self in fulness of endless
joy.
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