Courage is not the absence of fear; it is the making of action in spite of fear, the moving against the resistance engendered by fear into the unknown and into the future. On some level spiritual growth, and therefore love, always requires courage and involves risk.
- M. Scott Peck, Exploring the Road Less Traveled
(Courage is also a gift of the Spirit. Where in your life do you need the Spirit to help you to act courageously? Pray for this gift.)
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1 KGS 2:1-4, 10-12; CHRONICLES 29:10, 11AB, 11D-12A, 12BCD
MK 6:7-13
Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two
and gave them authority over unclean spirits.
He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick
–no food, no sack, no money in their belts.
They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic.
He said to them,
“Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there.
Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you,
leave there and shake the dust off your feet
in testimony against them.”
So they went off and preached repentance.
The Twelve drove out many demons,
and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
Reflection on the Scriptures |
Just as the disciples where sent out two by two, we are sent to serve together. Being successful in ministry is kind of a team effort. We now live in a world that glorifies the idea of working on our own, or doing things our own way, or being independent. These are not bad ideas in and of themselves, but we are somewhat created to work together, not alone. We
are members of the body of Christ, we function splendidly together. When you feel disconnected, remember, you are not traveling through this life alone. Yes, travel light, but let’s travel together.
What are those things that weigh us down as we journey through life? What are those things that get in our way of doing God’s work? Do we have the courage to go where we are sent, to move on when it is time, to take rejection, to lead and to serve when it is difficult and inconvenient, to do work for the greater glory of God? Dear friends, do we have the courage? I
am still afraid to answer these questions for myself, but one thing I do know is that it seems our options open up when we travel light through life; leaving our baggage – physical or emotional – behind as we respond to the missioning into the world. Yes, brothers and sisters, let’s pick up our walking sticks, put on our sandals, and do ministry together.
- by Carol Zuegner
Revelations of Divine Love
- by Julian of Norwich
Sixteenth Revelation, Chapter 69
"I was delivered from the Enemy by the virtue of Christ's Passion"
And our Lord God gave me grace mightily for to trust in Him, and to comfort my soul with bodily speech as I should have done to another person that had been travailed. Methought that busy-ness might not be likened to no bodily busy-ness. My bodily eye I set in the same Cross where I had been in comfort afore that time; my tongue with speech of Christ's Passion and rehearsing the Faith of Holy
Church; and my heart to fasten on God with all the trust and the might. And I thought to myself, saying: Thou hast now great busy-ness to keep thee in the Faith for that thou shouldst not be taken of the Enemy: wouldst thou now from this time evermore be so busy to keep thee from sin, this were a good and a sovereign occupation! For I thought in sooth were I safe from sin, I were full safe from all the fiends of hell and enemies of my soul.
And thus he occupied me all that night, and on the morn till it was about prime day. And anon they were all gone, and all passed; and they left nothing but stench, and that lasted still awhile; and I scorned him.
And thus was I delivered from him by the virtue of Christ's Passion: for therewith is the Fiend overcome, as our Lord Jesus Christ said afore.
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