|
- a prayer for today
O Holy Spirit, Who breathe where you will,
come into me and snatch me up to yourself.
Fortify the nature you have created, with gifts so flowing with honey
that, from intense joy in your sweetness,
it may despise and reject all which is bad in this world,
that it may accept spiritual gifts,
and through melodious
jubilation, it may entirely melt in holy love, reaching out for uncircumscribed Light.
- Richard Rolle (1290?-1349), “Concerning the Love of God”
|
|
|
1 PT 4:7-13; PS 96:10, 11-12, 13
MK 11:11-26
Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple area.
He looked around at everything and, since it was already late,
went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
The next day as they were leaving Bethany he was hungry.
Seeing from a distance a fig tree in
leaf,
he went over to see if he could find anything on it.
When he reached it he found nothing but leaves;
it was not the time for figs.
And he said to it in reply, "May no one ever eat of your fruit again!"
And his disciples heard it.
They came to Jerusalem,
and on entering the temple area
he began to drive out those selling and buying there.
He overturned the tables of the money
changers
and the seats of those who were selling doves.
He did not permit anyone to carry anything through the temple area.
Then he taught them saying, "Is it not written:
My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples?
But you have made it a den of thieves."
The chief priests and the scribes
came to hear of it
and were seeking a way to put him to death,
yet they feared him
because the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching.
When evening came, they went out of the city.
Early in the morning, as they were walking along,
they saw the fig tree withered to its roots.
Peter remembered and said to him, "Rabbi, look!
The fig tree that you cursed has withered."
Jesus said to
them in reply, "Have faith in God.
Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain,
'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,'
and does not doubt in his heart
but believes that what he says will happen,
it shall be done for him.
Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer,
believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.
When you stand to pray,
forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance,
so that your heavenly Father may in turn
forgive you
your transgressions."
USCCB Lectionary
|
|
|
Mark 11:11-26 (The withered fig tree)
Old Testament prophets sometimes compared the people of Israel to trees, branches, and vines. Today’s stories of the withered fig tree and the cleansing of the
Temple show Jesus confronting the barrenness of the Jews of his day, a barrenness stemming from their failure to receive his teaching and their failure to understand the meaning of true worship.
* How do you feel about Jesus’ actions in this passage? Is it possible for anger to serve love?
* What occurred in the temple of your soul during the past day?
3rd edition pocketbook, trade book, Kindle, eBook.
|
|
|
|
|
|
God and I: Exploring the Connections between God, Self and Ego, by Philip St. Romain, 2016 (2nd
ed.) ____________ Chapter 7: The Journey to Belonging: The Ego-God Relationship The Spirit-centered Ego The identity that deepening faith moves us to realize is what I call the Spirit-centered Ego. To call it an Ego is to recognize that it is still
reflectingly and intentionally engaged in life, and that one is aware of oneself in doing so. Such people have an identity centered moreso in God, or Spirit, however, rather than self-image or the Persona. They still have a self-image and can recite all the roles and labels and so forth, but they no longer define themselves in these terms. Who they really are is who they discover themselves to be in the mirror of God’s loving gaze upon them. What they have discovered is that the closer they draw
to God, the more surely do they know themselves. They might still say that who they really are is a “child of God” or something like that, but, in truth, they know that they cannot really say who they are, for their true identity is rooted in God, who is Mystery. Even so, they feel more alive and real and individual than ever, only they do not need to pin this down with conceptual descriptors. In the spotless mirror of divine love, they perceive that they are loved and accepted just as they are,
so there is nothing to accomplish to become lovable and acceptable. The root of false self judgmentalism is thus annihilated, and the Ego becomes what it was truly intended by God to be: the conscious, loving servant of the divine will on Earth.
Hardback, paperback, eBook and free preview versions.
|
|
|
|
|
