Message of 3-12-10
Published: Sat, 03/06/10
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
God's mercy is kind. God gives divine, abundant grace to those who
love Him. God's limitless goodness has conforted me, his servant,
and--look!--the Lord's hands are still reaching out to comfort me.
- Elisabeth of Schonau, "Second Book of Visions"
[God's hands reaching out to comfort you . . . What is your
response?]
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SCRIPTURE READINGS
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Hos 14:2-10; Ps. 81:6c-8a, 8bc-9, 10-11ab, 14 and 17; Mk
12:28-34
R. I am the Lord your God: hear my voice.
An unfamiliar speech I hear:
"I relieved his shoulder of the burden;
his hands were freed from the basket.
In distress you called, and I rescued you."
"Unseen, I answered you in thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
Hear, my people, and I will admonish you;
O Israel, will you not hear me?"
"There shall be no strange god among you
nor shall you worship any alien god.
I, the LORD, am your God
who led you forth from the land of Egypt."
.
"If only my people would hear me,
and Israel walk in my ways,
I would feed them with the best of wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would fill them."
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SCRIPTURE MEDITATION
- from
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
Mark's gospel reminds that there are no other commandments greater
than these two: loving God and loving our neighbor. Usually this
means leaving behind our attachments to the work of our hands and
embracing the work of God's hands. Like the scribe in Mark's
gospel, we may agree that these two commandments deserve our
attention. That is a good start - a transformation that is really
necessary if we are to be a part of God's Kingdom. But living them
out is another thing. The paths of the Lord may be straight, but
sinners also stumble on the way. (Hos. 14:10) I need to hear the
comforting words of Hosea when I stumble. Thanks be to God, whose
grace and compassion make it possible for fruitfulness to come from
our dust. (Hos. 14:9)
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SPIRITUAL READING
- Fenelon's "Maxims of the Saints"
III. Pure love is not inconsistent with mixed love, but is mixed
love carried to its true result. When this result is attained, the
motive of God's glory so expands itself, and so fills the mind,
that the other motive, that of our own happiness, becomes so small,
and so recedes from our inward notice, as to be practically
annihilated. It is then that God becomes what He ever ought to be
- the center of the soul, to which all its affections tend; the
great moral sun of the soul, from which all its light and all its
warmth proceed. It is then that a man thinks no more of himself.
He has become the man of a "single eye." His own happiness, and
all that regards himself, is entirely lost sight of in his simple
and fixed look to God's will and God's glory.
- Second Article
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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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