So what to do? Two things, it seems to me. At least two.
- Use up each day. Fill it overflowing with good. Deliberately enjoy it.
- Two, begin now. Mend a fractured friendship, mail an overdue letter, repair a broken heart, lay aside a grievance, act on a noble impulse.
As we all know, “The night cometh.”
- Lanny Henninger
(How can you "begin now"?)
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ACTS 7:51—8:1A; PS 31:3CD-4, 6 AND 7B AND 8A, 17 AND 21AB
JN 6:30-35
The crowd
said to Jesus:
"What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?
What can you do?
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:
He gave them bread from heaven to eat."
So Jesus said to them,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world."
So they said to Jesus,
"Sir, give us this bread always."
Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst."
UCCB Lectionary
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Reflection on the Scriptures |
Believe in Jesus Christ who alone can satisfy us now and forever
Jesus spoke about the works of God and what we must do to be doing the
works of God, namely to believe in God' Son whom he has sent into the world. Jesus offers a new relationship with God which issues in a new kind of life: A life of love and service, and the forgiveness of others which corresponds to God's mercy and kindness; a life of holiness and purity which corresponds to God's holiness; and a life of submission and trust which corresponds to the wisdom of God. This is the work which Jesus directs us to and enables us to perform in the power of the Holy
Spirit. Do you hunger for the bread which comes down from heaven and thirst for the words of everlasting life?
"Lord Jesus, you alone can satisfy the deepest longing and hunger in our hearts. May I always hunger for the imperishable bread, that I may be satisfied in you alone as the True Bread of Heaven. Nourish and
strengthen me that I may serve you with great joy, generosity, and zeal all the days of my life". DailyScripture.net
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The Ascent of Mount Carmel, by St. John of the Cross E. Allison Peers Translation. Paperback, Kindle, Audio Book.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1935785982/?tag=christianspiritu
BOOK THE SECOND Wherein is described the nature of dark night and how necessary it is to pass through it to Divine union;
and in particular this book describes the dark night of sense, and desire, and the evils which these work in the soul.
Of the Ascent of Mount Carmel Wherein is treated the proximate means of ascending to union with God, which is faith; and wherein
therefore is described the second part of this night, which, as we said, belongs to the spirit, and is contained in the second stanza, which is as follows. __________________________________________________________________
Second Stanza
Chapter 1
In darkness and secure, By the secret ladder, disguised — oh, happy chance! —
In darkness and in concealment, My house being now at rest.
2. And thus the soul that journeys through this night, we may say, journeys in concealment and in
hiding from the devil, as will be more clearly seen hereafter. Wherefore the soul says that it went forth in darkness and secure’; for one that has such happiness as to be able to journey through the darkness of faith, taking faith for his guide, like to one that is blind, and leaving behind all natural imaginings and spiritual reasonings, journeys very securely, as we have said. And so the soul says furthermore that it went forth through this spiritual night, its house being now at rest’ —
that is to say, its spiritual and rational parts. When, therefore, the soul attains to union which is of God, its natural faculties are at rest, as are likewise its impulses and yearnings of the senses, in its spiritual part. For this cause the soul says not here that it went forth with yearnings, as in the first night of sense. For, in order to journey in the night of sense, and to strip itself of that which is of sense, it needed yearnings of sense-love so that it might go forth perfectly;
but, in order to put to rest the house of its spirit, it needs no more than denial of all faculties and pleasures and desires of the spirit in pure faith. This attained, the soul is united with the Beloved in a union of simplicity and purity and love and similitude.
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