It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect.
The more perfect we are, the more gentle and quiet
we become toward the defects of others.
- Francois Fenelon
(Be gentle with yourself and others. As the old saying goes, "Everyone is carrying a heavy burden.")
|
EST C:12, 14-16, 23-25; PS 138:1-2AB, 2CDE-3, 7C-8
MT 7:7-12
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Which one of you would hand his son a stone
when he asked for a loaf of bread,
or a snake when he asked for a fish?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your heavenly Father give good things
to those who ask him.
"Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.
This is the law and the prophets."
Reflection on the Scriptures |
Great fear flattens us. We can hardly breathe or move. Our limbs drop like bricks. Dread engulfs us. What was solid dissolves. No ground remains to stand upon. We fall into emptiness. No one is there to catch us. We are abandoned.
The Gospel tells us to fear not. Do not be afraid. That isn’t easy. Uneasiness and ambiguity creep in. Where is the firm ground to stand on? When our familiar world dissolves into fear, we plead: God, I need you. I am undone. We cry from the heart.
This is the season of Purim. On this holiday, the Jewish people celebrate “deliverance from mortal danger.” Esther did not practice detachment. She was not resigned to fate. She begged God for help. This trust was her anchor in the sea of fear. Esther acted because others depended on her. We are in this together.
Like Esther, we pray to the God of Abraham. And we sing: “When I was in trouble, Jesus lifted me.”
by Jeanne Schuler
Revelations of Divine Love
- by Julian of Norwich
Fourteenth Revelation, Chapter 56
“God is nearer to us than our own soul”
“We can never come to full knowing of God till we know first clearly our own Soul”
And I saw full surely that it behoveth needs to be that we should be in longing and in penance unto the time that we be led so deep into God that we verily and truly know our own Soul. And truly I saw that into this high deepness our good Lord Himself leadeth us in the same love that He made us, and in the same love that He bought us by Mercy and Grace through virtue of His blessed Passion. And notwithstanding all this, we may
never come to full knowing of God till we know first clearly our own Soul. For until the time that our Soul is in its full powers we cannot be all fully holy: and that is [until the time] that our Sense-soul by the virtue of Christ’s Passion be brought up to the Substance, with all the profits of our tribulation that our Lord shall make us to get by Mercy and Grace.
|
|
|
