Message of 5-1-09
Published: Tue, 04/28/09
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
Faith is not so much belief about God as it is total, personal
trust in God, rising to a personal fellowship with God that is
stronger than anxiety and guilt, loneliness and all manner of
disaster. The Christian's faith in Christ is trust in a Living
Person, once crucified, dead, and buried, and now living
forevermore. Call it, if you will, an assumption that ends as an
assurance, or an experiment that ends as an experience, Christian
faith is in fact a commitment that ends as a communion.
... Frederick Ward Kates
(How does this speak to your experience of faith?)
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SCRIPTURE READINGS
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Acts 9:1-20; Ps 117:1bc, 2; Jn 6:52-59
R. (Mark 16:15) Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
Praise the LORD, all you nations;
glorify him, all you peoples!
For steadfast is his kindness toward us,
and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.
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GOSPEL MEDITATION
- from
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.ht
ml
In today's gospel, we see the confusion of people who can only
understand it their way. There are quarrels and people wonder, "How
can this man give us his Flesh to eat?" But Jesus calmly repeats
his message: "Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink
his Blood, you do not have life within you."
How is it that we can eat his flesh and drink his blood? We can do
this because his gift to us is the sacrifice of his very body and
blood for us. He died that we might live. He is broken and given to
feed our hunger. When he gives himself to us, that gift is real
indeed.
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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
Set heartily about this work, and if you do it as you ought, be
assured that you will soon find the effects of it. I will assist you
with my prayers, poor as they are: I recommend myself earnestly to
yours, and those of your holy society.
- Fifth Letter
Prayer for a sister who is about to make a vow and profession.
* A
fresh insisting upon the necessity and virtue of practising the
Presence of God.
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