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The most dangerous person in the world is the contemplative who is guided by nobody. He trusts his own visions. He obeys the attractions of an interior voice but will not listen to other men. He identifies the will of God with anything that makes him feel, within his own heart, a big, warm, sweet interior glow. The sweeter and the warmer the feeling is, the more he is convinced of his own
infallibility.
- Thomas Merton
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ACTS 1:15-17, 20-26; PS 113:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
JN 15:9-17
Jesus said to his disciples:
"As the Father loves me, so
I also love you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father's commandments
and remain in his love.
"I have told you this so that my joy might be in you
and your joy might be complete.
This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than
this,
to lay down one's life for one's friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you
and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,
so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.
This I command you: love
one another." USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture |
"The saying in Scripture uttered long ago by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of David was destined to be fulfilled in Judas." —Acts 1:16
Before the Holy Spirit came at the first Christian Pentecost, Jesus' disciples needed to resolve several problems related to leadership. They: - recognized Peter as the leader of the apostles despite his three denials of Christ,
- accepted the apostles as leaders despite their abandonment of Christ before His death,
- discerned that they should replace Judas, who betrayed Christ and committed suicide,
- discerned that Judas' replacement should be someone who was with Jesus throughout His public ministry (Acts 1:21-22), and
- nominated two men, prayed, and drew lots (Acts 1:23-26).
"The choice fell to Matthias, who was added to the eleven apostles" (Acts 1:26).
Is there a leader that you should be following, but you're not? Have you forgiven leaders who have sinned? Have you fully accepted your responsibility to lead? Have you lost leaders who should be replaced? Are you running from leadership because of bad experiences? Do you need a Matthias to heal the
wounds inflicted by a Judas?
Prayer: Father, thank You for the gift of leadership. May I not let Satan rob me of it.
Promise: "As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you." —Jn 15:9
Praise: St. Matthias stayed faithful to Jesus' disciples even before he was elected to replace Judas.
Presentation Ministries
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Abandonment to Divine Providence - by Jean-Pierre de Caussade Section
III: The Work of Our Sanctification
If the work of our sanctification presents, apparently, the most insurmountable difficulties, it is because we do not know how to form a just idea of it. In reality sanctity can be reduced to one single practice, fidelity to the duties appointed by God. Now this fidelity is
equally within each one's power whether in its active practice, or passive exercise.
The active practice of fidelity consists in accomplishing the duties which devolve upon us whether imposed by the general laws of God and of the Church, or by the particular state that we may have embraced. Its passive exercise consists in the loving acceptance of all that God sends us at each
moment.
Are either of these practices of sanctity above our strength? Certainly not the active fidelity, since the duties it imposes cease to be duties when we have no longer the power to fulfill them. If the state of your health does not permit you to go to Mass you are not obliged to go. The same rule holds good for all the precepts laid down; that is to say for all those which prescribe certain duties.
Only those which forbid things evil in themselves are absolute, because it is never allowable to commit sin. Can there, then, be anything more reasonable? What excuse can be made? Yet this is all that God requires of the soul for the work of its sanctification. He exacts it from both high and low, from the strong and the weak, in a word from all, always and everywhere.
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