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Exercise pleasantness toward all, taking great care what you have commanded may never be done by reason of force. For God has given free will to everyone, and therefore never forces anyone - but only indicates, call and persuades.
- Angela Merici -
(What kinds of indications, calls and persuasions at this time in your life provide a sense of direction for God? Pray the grace of wisdom and discernment to read these "signs of the times" in your life.)
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1 Jn 5:5-13; Psalm 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20
Lk 5:12-16
It happened that there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where Jesus was; and when he saw Jesus,
he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said,
“Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”
Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
And the leprosy left him immediately.
Then he ordered him not to tell anyone, but
“Go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing
what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.”
The report about him spread all the more,
and great crowds assembled to listen to him
and to be cured of their ailments,
but he would withdraw to deserted places to pray.
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture
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“It is the Spirit Who testifies to this, and the Spirit is Truth.” —1 John 5:6
On this fourteenth day of Christmas, our true Love, Jesus, gives us victory. We defeat the evil one “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of (our) testimony” (Rv 12:11), that is, our witness.
The water of Jesus’ baptism and the blood of His death witness that He is the Son of God (1 Jn 5:6-8). However, these witnesses are not always understood or accepted. So the Spirit witnesses for these witnesses (1 Jn 5:6). He bears witness on behalf of Jesus (Jn 15:26). “The Spirit Himself gives witness with our” spirits (Rm 8:16). Therefore, by the Holy Spirit, we believe that Jesus is God, for “no one can say:
‘Jesus is Lord,’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3). By the power of the Holy Spirit, we become witnesses for the risen Christ (Acts 1:8) and thereby conquer the world.
The Holy Spirit wants to rest on us (Lk 4:18) and make us witnesses for Jesus and more than conquerors (Rm 8:37). Listen “to the voice of the Spirit” (Toward the Third Millennium, Pope St. John Paul II, 48), and renew the face of the earth (Ps 104:30).
Prayer: Holy Spirit, cry out in my heart “Abba” (Gal 4:6).
Promise: “Great crowds gathered to hear Him and to be cured of their maladies.” —Lk 5:15
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 IV. The Most Ordinary Things are Channels of Grace.
In the state of abandonment God guides the soul more safely the more completely He seems to blind it.
It is most especially with regard to souls that abandon themselves entirely to God that the words of St. John are applicable: "You have no need that any man teach you, as His unction teacheth you of all things‚" (I Eph., St. John, ii, 20). To know what God demands of them they need only probe their own hearts, and listen to the inspirations of this unction, which interpret the will of God according to
circumstances.
The divine action, concealed though it is, reveals its designs, not through ideas, but intuitively. It shows them to the soul either necessarily, by not permitting any other thing to be chosen but what is actually present, or else by a sudden impulse, a sort of supernatural feeling that impels the soul to act without premeditation; or, in fine, by some kind of inclination or aversion which, while leaving it complete
liberty, yet none the less leads it to take or refuse what is presented to it. If one were to judge by appearances, it seems as if it would be a great want of virtue to be swayed and influenced in this manner; and if one were to judge by ordinary rules, there appears a want of regulation and method in such conduct; but in reality it is the highest degree of virtue, and only after having practised it for a long time does one succeed. The virtue in this state is pure virtue; it is, in fact,
perfection itself. One is like a musician, who combines a perfect knowledge of music with technical skill: he would be so full of his art that, without thinking, all that he performed within its compass would be perfect; and if his compositions were examined afterwards, they would be found in perfect conformity with prescribed rules. One would then become convinced that he would never succeed better than when, free from the rules that keep genius in fetters when too scrupulously followed, he
acted without constraint; and that his impromptus would be admired as chef dìuvres by all connoisseurs. Thus the soul, trained for a long time in the science and practice of perfection under the influence of reasonings and methods of which it made use to assist grace, forms for itself a habit of acting in all things by the instincts implanted by God. It then knows that it can do nothing better than what first presents itself, without all those arguments of which it had need formerly. The only
thing to be done is to act at random when unable to trust in anything but the workings of grace which cannot mislead it. The effects of grace, visible to watchful eyes, and intelligent minds, are nothing short of marvellous.
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