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Honesty consists of the unwillingness to lie to others; maturity, which is equally hard to attain, consists of the unwillingness
to lie to oneself.
- Sydney
J. Harris
(Honesty before God is foundational. What do you need to honestly acknowledge before God these days?)
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EPH 4:32–5:8; PS 1:1-2, 3, 4 AND 6
LK 13:10-17
Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.
And a woman was there who for eighteen years
had been crippled by a spirit;
she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.
When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said,
"Woman, you are set free of your infirmity."
He laid his hands on her,
and she at once stood up straight and glorified God.
But the leader of the synagogue,
indignant that Jesus had cured on the
sabbath,
said to the crowd in reply,
"There are six days when work should be done.
Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day."
The Lord said to him in reply, "Hypocrites!
Does not each one of you on the sabbath
untie his ox or his ass from the manger
and lead it out for watering?
This daughter of Abraham,
whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now,
ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day
from this bondage?"
When he said this, all
his adversaries were humiliated;
and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture |
"As for lewd conduct or promiscuousness or lust of any sort, let them
not even be mentioned among you; your holiness forbids this." —Ephesians 5:3
As long as they don't commit adultery or fornication, many people feel they have done all right. Yet the Bible tells us to be pure as Jesus is pure (1 Jn 3:3), not even to look lustfully (Mt 5:28) or mention sexual impurity. So much for dirty jokes and the vast majority of TV programs and commercials.
The Lord considers our bodies temples of the Holy Spirit. He's the Owner of our bodies, including our sexuality, because He paid for them with His blood (1 Cor 6:19-20). However, He generally does not exercise His right of ownership over our bodies. Rather, He calls us to freely offer our bodies to Him as living sacrifices (Rm 12:1). Jesus wants your body and calls you to purity.
He loves your body so much He will raise it from the dead, glorify it, and take it to heaven to be in touch with His Body forever.
Our bodies can be clean and fly away, or they can be dirty and earthbound. Let Jesus love your body. Give your body and sexuality to Jesus.
Prayer:
Jesus, I repent of sexual sins. Take away the guilt. May I be pure and feel clean.
Promise: "Should not this daughter of Abraham here who has been in the bondage of Satan for eighteen years have been released from her shackles on the sabbath?" —Lk 13:16
Presentation Ministries
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Abandonment to Divine Providence - by Jean-Pierre de Caussade
CHAPTER II. THE DIVINE ACTION WORKS UNCEASINGLY FOR THE SANCTIFICATION OF SOULS.
SECTION I.The Divine Action.
The divine action, although only visible to the eye of faith, is everywhere, and always present.
If we lived the life of faith without intermission
we should have an uninterrupted commerce with God and a constant familiar intercourse with Him. What the air is for the transmission of our thoughts and words, such would be our actions and sufferings for those of God. They would be as the substance of His words, and in all external events we should see nothing but what was excellent and holy. This union is effected on earth by faith, in Heaven by glory; the only difference is in the method of its working. God is interpreted by faith. Without
the light of faith creation would speak to us in vain. It is a writing in cypher in which we find nothing but confusion, and entangled mesh from which no one would expect to hear the voice of God. But as Moses saw the fire of divine charity in the burning bush, so faith gives us the clue to the cypher, and reveals to us, in this mass of confusion, marvels of divine wisdom. Faith changes the face of the earth; by it the heart is raised, entranced and becomes conversant with heavenly things. Faith
is our light in this life. By it we possess the truth without seeing it; we touch what we cannot feel, and see what is not evident to the senses. By it we view the world as though it did not exist. It is the key of the treasure house, the key of the abyss of the science of God. It is faith that teaches us the hollowness of created things; By it God reveals and manifests Himself in all things. By faith the veil is torn aside to reveal the eternal truth.
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