Message of 2-27-09
Published: Mon, 02/23/09
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
A basic trouble is that most Churches limit themselves
unnecessarily by addressing their message almost exclusively to
those who are open to religious impression through the intellect,
whereas ... there are at least four other gateways -- the emotions,
the imagination, the aesthetic feeling, and the will -- through
which they can be reached.
... A. J. Gossip
(How does God reach you through these different "gateways"?)
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SCRIPTURE READINGS
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Is 58:1-9a; Ps 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 18-19; Mt 9:14-15
R. (19b) A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
For I acknowledge my offense,
and my sin is before me always:
"Against you only have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight."
For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
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GOSPEL MEDITATION
- from http://www.dailyscripture.net/
What kind of fasting is pleasing to God? Fasting can be done for a
variety of reasons - to gain freedom from some bad habit,
addiction, or vice, to share in the suffering of those who go
without, or to grow in our hunger for God and for the things of
heaven. Basil the Great wrote: "Take heed that you do not make
fasting to consists only in abstinence from meats. True fasting is
to refrain from vice. Shred to pieces all your unjust contracts.
Pardon your neighbors. Forgive them their trespasses." Do you
hunger to know God more, to grow in his holiness, and to live the
abundant life of grace he has to offer you?
"Come Lord, work upon us, set us on fire and clasp us close, be
fragrant to us, draw us to your loveliness, let us love, let us run
to you." (Prayer of St. Augustine)
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PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE (Benedictine Approach)
1. Relax. Settle in. Be aware that God is here, now, loving you.
2. Read a short passage of Scripture as though God were speaking
directly to you in it.
3. Choose a phrase from the passage that strikes you and repeat it
slowly, prayerfully, non-analytically.
4. When your heart is full, express to God the needs and sentiments
awakened by your meditation. When you're done, read another passage
and repeat steps 3 and 4.
5. If, at any time, you feel moved to simply be present to God in
loving silence, put the Scripture aside and rest in God.
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NOTES FROM A CLASSICAL WORK
- "The Practice of the Presence of God," by Brother Lawrence
If sometimes he is a little too much absent from that Divine
presence, GOD presently makes Himself to be felt in his soul to
recall him; which often happens when he is most engaged in his
outward business: he answers with exact fidelity to these inward
drawings, either by an elevation of his heart towards GOD, or by a
meek and fond regard to Him, or by such words as love forms upon
these occasions; as for instance, My GOD, here I am all devoted to
Thee: LORD, make me according to Thy heart. And then it seems to
him (as in effect he feels it) that this GOD of love, satisfied
with such few words, reposes again, and rests in the depth and
centre of his soul. The experience of these things gives him such
an assurance that GOD is always in the depth or bottom of his soul,
and renders him incapable of doubting it, upon any account whatever.
- Fourth letter to a correspondent in which he refers to himself in
the third person.
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