God is an infinite circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.
- St. Augustine
God cannot be grasped by the mind. If he could be grasped he would not be God.
- Evagrius of Pontus
(Omnipresent, mysterious God: here . . . now . . . loving!)
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ROM 3:21-30; PS 130:1B-2, 3-4, 5-6AB
LK 11:47-54
The Lord said:
"Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets
whom your fathers killed.
Consequently, you bear witness and give consent
to the deeds of your ancestors,
for they killed them and you do the building.
Therefore, the wisdom of God said,
'I will send to them prophets and Apostles;
some of them they will kill and persecute'
in order that this generation might be charged
with the blood of all the prophets
shed since the foundation of the world,
from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah
who died between the altar and the temple building.
Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood!
Woe to you, scholars of the law!
You have taken away the key of knowledge.
You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter."
When Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees
began to act with hostility toward him
and to interrogate him about many things,
for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.
Reflection on the Scriptures |
Today’s Gospel focuses more on what the scribes and pharisees forgot because they “paid no attention.” I need frequent reminders to cultivate my interior life of faith through private prayer, since I spend so much time is spent on the exterior communal practice of faith in my work. Many people I know outside of ministry circles need reminders that it is okay and even helpful to
practice faith in a tangible, communal, ritual way. Both are important. I am incarnate, bodily – exterior practices affect my spirit and my faith. Practicing faithfulness by showing up to God even when I don’t feel like it, whether privately or in communal prayer or service, keeps me engaged in my faith.
by Molly Mattingly
Revelations of Divine Love
- by Julian of Norwich
Fifteenth Revelation, Chapter 64
Thou shalt come up above
It is more blissful that we be taken from pain, than that pain be taken from us; for if pain be taken from us it may come again: therefore it is a sovereign comfort and blissful beholding in a loving soul that we shall be taken from pain. For in this behest I saw a marvellous compassion that our Lord hath in us for our woe, and a courteous promising of clear deliverance. For He willeth that we be comforted
in the overpassing; and that He shewed in these words: And thou shalt come up above, and thou shalt have me to thy meed, and thou shalt be fulfilled of joy and bliss.
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