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There was a day when I died to George Mueller:
- his opinions and preferences, tastes and will;
- died to the world, its approval or censure;
- died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends;
and since then I have striven only to show myself approved by God.
- George Mueller
(Interior freedom! How can you make a step in that direction today?)
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EZR 1:1-6; PS 126:1B-2AB, 2CD-3, 4-5, 6
LK 8:16-18
Jesus said to the crowd:
“No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel
or sets it under a bed;
rather, he places it on a lampstand
so that those who enter may see the light.
For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible,
and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light.
Take care, then, how you hear.
To anyone who has, more will be given,
and from the one who has not,
even what he seems to have will be taken away.”
USCCB Lectionary
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Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain,
2018 (3rd ed.)
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Luke 8: 16-18 (Parable of the lamp)
God has blessed us with innumerable graces, bringing light to our lives. With grace comes the responsibility to extend grace to others. When we do so, we discover that special dynamism alluded to by Luke in today's reading. Those who risk and who engage themselves in life will grow in grace and experience; those who do nothing will regress.
* Make a list of the ten people to whom you are closest. How does each person enrich your life? What would your life be like without these people? Thank God for the graces they bring to you.
* "If you don't use it, you lose it" is an old biological dictum. Have you been remiss in investing any of your gifts in the service of the reign of God lately? Are you willing to let yourself regress in this area?
Paperback, Kindle and eBook
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Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
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BOOK I: CONTAINING A PREPARATION FOR THE WHOLE TREATISE
Chapter 7: Description of the will, in general
Many great persons have been of opinion that love is no other thing than complacency* itself, in which they have had much appearance of reason. For not only does the movement of love take its origin from the complacency which the heart feels at the first approach of good, and find its end in a second complacency which returns to the heart by union with the thing beloved,—but further,
it depends for its preservation on this complacency, and can only subsist through it as through its mother and nurse; so that as soon as the complacency ceases love ceases. And as the bee being born in honey, feeds on honey, and only flies for honey, so love is born of complacency, maintained by complacency, and tends to complacency. It is the weight of things which stirs them, moves them, and stays them; it is the weight of the stone that stirs it and moves it to its descent as soon as the
obstacles are removed; it is the same weight that makes it continue its movement downwards; and finally it is the same weight that makes it stop and rest as soon as it has reached its place. So it is with the complacency which excites the will: this moves it, and this makes it repose in the thing beloved when it has united itself therewith. This motion of love then having its birth, preservation, and perfection dependent on complacency, and being always inseparably joined thereto, it is no
marvel that these great minds considered love and complacency to be the same, though in truth love being a true passion of the soul cannot be a simple complacency, but must needs be the motion proceeding from it.
* complacency = resignation to God's will
Hardback, paperback, eBook and free preview versions.
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