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The more we are alone with God the more we are with one another, in darkness, yet a multitude. And the more we go out to one another in work and activity and communication, according to the will and charity of God, the more we are multiplied in Him and yet we are in solitude.
- Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation -
(How does your relationship with God lead you to become more deeply united with the human race? Vice versa?)
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Heb 10:32-39; Ps 37:3-4, 5-6, 23-24, 39-40
Mk 4:26-34
Jesus said to the crowds:
“This is how it is with the Kingdom of God;
it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land
and would sleep and rise night and day
and the seed would sprout and grow,
he knows not how.
Of its own accord the land yields fruit,
first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once,
for the harvest has come.”
He said,
“To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God,
or what parable can we use for it?
It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.
But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants
and puts forth large branches,
so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”
With many such parables
he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.
Without parables he did not speak to them,
but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture
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“Do not, then, surrender your confidence; it will have great reward.” —Hebrews 10:35
Satan is trying to get us to surrender our confidence, to draw back (Heb 10:38-39), to give up, to commit spiritual suicide. To keep the faith, we have to endure “a great contest of suffering” (Heb 10:32). This contest lasts a long time. Relief in our sufferings seems indefinitely delayed (see Heb 10:37). Any benefits from our sufferings seem to be invisible or negligible.
Under these circumstances, we naturally feel like giving up. Satan will even let us give up without appearing to give up everything. He’ll let us keep the trappings of Christianity as long as we’re lukewarm in our commitment to Jesus (see Rv 3:16). So it’s very easy to give up and not even look bad to other Christians.
How many church-goers are just going through the motions? We can look like a Christian while actually being quite unlike Christ. How many spouses are divorced in heart and spirit although not on paper? How many parents have long ago given up discipling their children? How many churches have given up on trying to evangelize?
If you’ve given up on life and on God, repent. The Lord will take you back. If you’re keeping the faith but wondering how long you’ll have to suffer, fix your eyes on Jesus, and you will rejoice in the measure you suffer for Him (1 Pt 4:13; cf Rm 8:17).
Prayer: Father, may my faith move mountains and not vice versa (see Mt 17:20).
Promise: “Take delight in the Lord, and He will grant you your heart’s requests.” —Ps 37:4
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 V. Nature and grace are the instruments of God.
The less capable the soul in the state of abandonment is of defending itself, the more powerfully does God defend it.
The one and infallible influence of the divine action is invariably applied to the submissive soul at an opportune moment, and this soul corresponds in everything to its interior direction. It is pleased with everything that has taken place, with everything that is happening, and with all that affects it, with the exception of sin. Sometimes the soul acts with full consciousness, sometimes unknowingly,
being led only by obscure instincts to say, to do, or to leave certain things, without being able to give a reason for its action.
Often the occasion and the determining reason are only of the natural order; the soul, perceiving no sort of mystery therein, acts by pure chance, necessity, or convenience, and its act has no other aspect either in its own eyes, or those of others; while all the time the divine action, through the intellect, the wisdom, or the counsel of friends, makes use of the simplest things in its favour. It makes
them its own, and opposes so persistently every effort prejudicial to them, that it becomes impossible that these should succeed.
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