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Hard to believe another year has gone by, but here we are, mid-November, and time for the annual appeal to help fund our Internet ministry outreach.
Heartland Center for Spirituality was an early-adopter of the Internet, with A Daily Spiritual Seed and other resources made available to the whole world since 1997. For those who don’t remember, those were the days of dial-up modems, Netscape Navigator 2.0, Windows 95, and Mac OS 8. Things have really changed since then.
I will be including an appeal message at the top of A Daily Spiritual Seed this week, hoping that many of you will respond generously, as you have in the past. We depend on these donations to help fund our ministry. I will also be updating you on what’s happening with our Internet Ministry, and plans for the future.
Stay tuned.
Phil St. Romain
Internet Ministry Coordinator
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All donations are tax-deductible.
- A special gratitude gift will be sent to all donors.
Check payments:
- Heartland Center for Spirituality
Internet Ministry
3600 Broadway
Great Bend, KS 67530
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Truth and love are wings that cannot be separated,
for truth cannot fly without love,
nor can love soar without truth. - Ephraem the Syrian
(How is love calling you to be more truthful, and truth calling you to be more loving?)
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TI 1:1-9; PS 24:1B-2, 3-4AB, 5-6
LK
17:1-6
Jesus said to his disciples,
"Things that cause sin will inevitably occur,
but woe to the one through whom they occur.
It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck
and he be thrown into the sea
than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.
Be on your guard!
If your brother sins,
rebuke him;
and if he repents, forgive him.
And if he wrongs you seven times in one day
and returns to you seven times saying, 'I am sorry,'
you should forgive him."
And the Apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."
The Lord replied, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you would say to this mulberry tree,
'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey
you."
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture |
"If he sins against you seven times a day, and seven times a day turns back
to you saying, 'I am sorry,' forgive him." —Luke 17:4
We are made in the image and likeness of God (Gn 1:27). As disciples of Jesus, we try to be like Jesus in every aspect of our conduct (1 Pt 1:15). In this way, we are like God, for Jesus is God and the "exact Representation of the Father's Being" (Heb 1:3).
To be like God means to
work, suffer, give, love, and forgive as God does. This means we must forgive seven times a day (Lk 17:4) and seventy times seven times (Mt 18:22), for we and billions of others frequently offend God and He keeps forgiving us. It is a conservative estimate to say that God forgives billions of times daily. That's what "seven" means — an infinite number.
To be like God, we too must forgive repeatedly and always. We must forgive
those closest to us. Who else has the chance to wrong us seven times a day? We must forgive others repeatedly for the worst of injustices, even for scandals (Lk 17:1ff). Finally, we must forgive by God's standards. His standards are not limited to just praying for or being nice to those who have hurt us; they also require giving offenders affection, gifts, and honor (Lk 15:20ff).However, "nothing is impossible with God" (Lk 1:37). By God's grace, forgive everyone for
everything.
Prayer: Father, may I and others be shocked by my forgiving — both those who apologize and those who don't.
Promise: "The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith.' " —Lk 17:5
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.
The soul, enlightened by faith, judges of things in
a very different way to those who, having only the standard of the senses by which to measure them, ignore the inestimable treasure they contain. He who knows that a certain person in disguise is the king, behaves towards him very differently to another who, only perceiving an ordinary man, treats him accordingly. In the same way the soul that recognises the will of God in every smallest event, and also in those that are most distressing and direful, receives all with an equal joy, pleasure and
respect. It throws open all its doors to receive with honour what others fear and fly from with horror. The outward appearance may be mean and contemptible, but beneath this abject garb the heart discovers and honours the majesty of the king. The deeper the abasement of his entry in such a guise and in secret the more does the heart become filled with love. I cannot describe what the heart feels when it accepts the divine will in such humble, poor, and mean disguises. Ah! how the sight of God,
poor and humble, lodged in a stable, lying on straw, weeping and trembling, pierced the loving heart of Mary! Ask the inhabitants of Bethlehem what they thought of the Child. You know what answer they gave, and how they would have paid court to Him had He been lodged in a palace surrounded by the state due to princes.
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Paperback, Hardback, Kindle
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Please support this outreach with a tax-deductible donation.
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