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I insist especially that you think of God as loving you, as I have no doubt He does, and that you correspond with this love and pay no attention whatever to the evil thoughts, even if they are obscene or sensual (when they are not deliberate), nor of your cowardice or tepidity. For even St. Peter and St. Paul did not succeed in escaping all or some of these thoughts.
- Letter from St. Ignatius of Loyola to Teresa Rejadell
(It's one thing to have tempting thoughts, and another to encourage and get involved with them. The more we surrender these to God's care and re-focus our lives in love, the stronger we become.)
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ROM 11:29-36; PS 69:30-31, 33-34, 36
LK 14:12-14
On a sabbath Jesus went to dine
at the home of one of the leading Pharisees.
He said to the host who invited him,
"When you hold a lunch or a dinner,
do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters
or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors,
in case they may invite you back and you have repayment.
Rather, when you hold a banquet,
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;
blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.
For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
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 14: 12-14 (Agape love)
To help the Pharisees work through their preoccupation over status and discover agape, the love which God shows for us, Jesus suggests they reach out to those who cannot possibly repay them. If we, too, were to heed Jesus’ advice, we would discover an opportunity to love as God loves.
• Have you ever loved or given with no expectation of return? If so, get in touch with the feelings you experienced. If not, think of a way to give today without expecting something in return.
• Why do you believe God loves you? Pray for the grace to view other people likewise.
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 9: That love tends to union
A kiss from all ages as by natural instinct has been employed to represent perfect love, that is, the union of hearts, and not without cause: we express and make known our passions and the movements which our souls have in common with the animals, by our eyes, eyebrows, forehead and the rest of our countenance. Man is known by his look, says the Scripture, and Aristotle giving a reason
why ordinarily it is only the faces of great men that are portrayed,—it is, says he, because the face shows what we are.
Hardback, paperback, eBook and free preview versions.
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