Message of 8-21-09
Published: Mon, 08/17/09
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
Christians are like the several flowers in a garden that have each
of them the dew of heaven, which, being shaken with the wind, they
let fall at each other's roots, whereby they are jointly nourished,
and become nourishers of each other.
- John Bunyan
(A great image to describe the blessings of Christian community.
How have you been nourished by God through others lately?)
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SCRIPTURE READINGS
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Ru 1:1, 3-6, 14b-16, 22; Ps 146:5-6ab, 6c-7, 8-9a, 9bc-10; Mt
22:34-40
R. (1b) Praise the Lord, my soul!
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD, his God,
Who made heaven and earth,
the sea and all that is in them.
The LORD keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.
The LORD gives sight to the blind.
The LORD raises up those who were bowed down;
The LORD loves the just.
The LORD protects strangers.
The fatherless and the widow he sustains,
but the way of the wicked he thwarts.
The LORD shall reign forever;
your God, O Zion, through all generations. Alleluia.
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SCRIPTURE MEDITATION
- from
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
(On the reading from Ruth)
The family had come to Moab to escape famine, and they found a home
there among strangers. After the men died, Naomi hit bottom. No
husband. No sons. No grandson to carry on the name. Even God
seemed to abandon her. With nothing left to give, Naomi sent her
sons' wives back to their families and renamed herself misery.
But Ruth would not leave. She pledged to follow Naomi back to
Bethlehem, where they would make a new life. Ruth scrounged in the
barley fields for food. Naomi figured out the plan to secure
Boaz's protection. It was not easy. But together they found the
courage to continue living.
Despair says that nothing is left. I live as one already dead.
The care of another can drive despair back into its corner. Being
loved is the cure and the promise of God's ongoing presence. The
faithfulness of even one person can open up the world.
By the measure of the marketplace, Ruth is puzzling. What will she
get out of it? In handing over her life in love, the women are
blessed. Here is an old story that remains new.
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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
I do not pray that you may be delivered from your pains; but I pray
GOD earnestly that He would give you strength and patience to bear
them as long as He pleases. Comfort yourself with Him who holds you
fastened to the cross: He will loose you when He thinks fit. Happy
those who suffer with Him: accustom yourself to suffer in that
manner, and seek from Him the strength to endure as much, and as
long, as He shall judge to be necessary for you. The men of the
world do not comprehend these truths, nor is it to be wondered at,
since they suffer like what they are, and not like Christians: they
consider sickness as a pain to nature, and not as a favour from
GOD; and seeing it only in that light, they find nothing in it but
grief and distress. But those who consider sickness as coming from
the hand of GOD, as the effects of His mercy, and the means which
He employs for their salvation, commonly find in it great sweetness
and sensible consolation.
- 11th Letter - to one who is in great pain.
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