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Happy New Year!
- there will be no weekend edition of Daily Spiritual Seed this week
"Each New Year, we have before us a brand new book containing 365 blank pages. Let us fill them with all the forgotten things from last year—the words we forgot to say, the love we forgot to show, and the charity we forgot to offer.”
― Peggy Toney Horton
(Not a bad focus for New Year resolutions. What might some of these be for you?)
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NM 6:22-27; Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; GAL 4:4-7
LK 2:16-21
The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph,
and the infant lying in the manger.
When they saw this,
they made known the message
that had been told them about this child.
All who heard it were amazed
by what had been told them by the shepherds.
And Mary kept all these things,
reflecting on them in her heart.
Then the shepherds returned,
glorifying and praising God
for all they had heard and seen,
just as it had been told to them.
When eight days were completed for his circumcision,
he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel
before he was conceived in the womb.
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture
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“When the eighth day arrived for His circumcision, the name Jesus was given the Child, the name the angel had given Him before He was conceived.” —Luke 2:21
When we become Christians, we start out as babies, “infants in Christ” (1 Cor 3:1). Just as babies must be taught to talk, walk, eat, clothe themselves, etc., so also baby Christians must be taught to talk, walk, think, feel, and act like Christ. We don’t know how to live, or even to start the day or the year. We must be taught every little thing. The world has programmed us to begin the new year by staying up late,
altering our consciousness with alcohol, being preoccupied with petty pleasures, and amusing ourselves with the TV-hype of parades and bowl games.
However, the Lord begins His days and years differently. He promised the incredible sign of His birth to a virgin centuries before (Is 7:14). He made her be immaculately conceived a generation before. He began His life in the obscurity of a teenager’s womb in the country village of Nazareth (Lk 1:35). He began His public life as just one of the crowd waiting in line to be baptized by John (Mt 3:13). Then He fasted for forty
days in the desert (Mt 4:2). Jesus began His days praying very early in the morning in a deserted place (Mk 1:35).
Jesus’ beginnings were hidden, quiet, humble, and prayerful. How will you begin this year?
Prayer: Jesus, may I let Your mother Mary teach me to live as You did. May this be a day of prayer for peace and justice in our world.
Promise: “Mary treasured all these things and reflected on them in her heart.” —Lk 2:19
Presentation Ministries
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Abandonment to Divine Providence
- by Jean-Pierre de Caussade
BOOK II,
CHAPTER IV. CONCERNING THE ASSISTANCE RENDERED BY THE FATHERLY PROVIDENCE OF GOD TO THOSE SOULS WHO HAVE ABANDONED THEMSELVES TO HIM
SECTION III. The Generosity of God
The more God seems to despoil the soul that is in the state of abandonment, the more generous are His gifts.
God and the soul work in common, and the success of the work depends entirely on the divine Workman, and can only be spoilt if the soul prove unfaithful. When the soul is well, all is well, because what is from God, that is to say, His part and His action are, as it were, the counterpoise of the fidelity of the soul. It is the best part of the work, which is done something like beautiful tapestry, stitch by stitch from
the wrong side. The worker employed on it sees only the stitch he is making, and the needle with which he makes it, while all the stitches combined form magnificent figures which do not show until, every part being complete, the right side is turned outwards. All the beauty and perfection of the work remain in obscurity during its progress. It is the same with the soul that has abandoned itself to God; it has eyes only for Him and for its duty. The performance of this duty is, at each moment,
but an imperceptible stitch added to the work, and yet with these stitches God performs wonders of which He sometimes allows a glimpse to be seen, but which will not be visible in their entirety till revealed on the great day of eternity. How full of goodness and wisdom is the guidance of God! He has so entirely kept for His own grace, and His own action, all that is admirable, great, exalted and sublime; and so completely left to our souls, with the aid of grace, all that is little, light and
easy, that there is no one in the world who cannot easily reach a most eminent degree of perfection in accomplishing lovingly the most ordinary and obscure duties.
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