Message of 5-23-07
Published: Wed, 05/23/07
SHALOM PLACE PREMIUM GROUPS
- Life-long learning and formation in Christian spirituality.
Groups now open include the following:
A. Psychological Types and Spirituality
B. The Way of Christian Spirituality
C. Freedom from Codependency
D. Christian Spirituality Resources
E. Wonderfully Made (Christian Metaphysics)
F. Growing in Christ
G. Spiral Dynamics®
H. Discerning God's Will
I. Dark Night of the Soul
J. Silence, Solitude and Sabbath (opens June 13, 2007)
K. Alpha Group -- includes all the above and all to come.
- see http://shalomplace.org/groups.html
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
When we see we're nothing, we become humble, and this humility helps us enter the flaming, burning open heart of Jesus. The heart of Jesus is a window that is always open.
- Catherine of Siena
(Let the fresh air come in.)
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SCRIPTURE READINGS
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Acts 20:28-38; Ps 68:29-30, 33-35a, 35bc-36ab; Jn 17:11b-19
R.
(33a) Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
Show forth, O God, your power,
the power, O God, with which you took our part;
For your temple in Jerusalem
let the kings bring you gifts.
You kingdoms of the earth, sing to God,
chant praise to the Lord
who rides on the heights of the ancient heavens.
Behold, his voice resounds, the voice of power:
“Confess the power of God!”
Over Israel is his majesty;
his power is in the skies.
Awesome in his sanctuary is God, the God of Israel;
he gives power and strength to his people.
Show forth, O God, your power,
the power, O God, with which you took our part;
For your temple in Jerusalem
let the kings bring you gifts.
You kingdoms of the earth, sing to God,
chant praise to the Lord
who rides on the heights of the ancient heavens.
Behold, his voice resounds, the voice of power:
“Confess the power of God!”
Over Israel is his majesty;
his power is in the skies.
Awesome in his sanctuary is God, the God of Israel;
he gives power and strength to his people.
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Praying the Daily Gospels
- by Philip St. Romain:
- http://www.liguori.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=6614
- John 17:11-19 (Jesus consecrated for us)
The work of love is to unify people in a dynamic relationship of growth and development. In today’s reading Jesus prays that we will be united with the Father in truth, and he offers the gift of his life to make this unity possible. This is the supreme act of love.
• How does the
world hate you because of your fidelity to God’s
commandments? What do you think Jesus means by this?
• Hear the words of the psalmist describing the love of God, I have loved you with Ian everlasting love; so I have kept my mercy toward you” (Jeremiah 31:3). Bask in the mystery of this great love.
• Hear the words of the psalmist describing the love of God, I have loved you with Ian everlasting love; so I have kept my mercy toward you” (Jeremiah 31:3). Bask in the mystery of this great love.
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MYSTICISM
- by Evelyn Underhill -
It is in the torment of contrition, this acute consciousness of unworthiness, that we have the first swing back of the oscillating self from the initial state of mystic pleasure to the complementary state of pain. It is, so to speak, on its transcendental side, the reflex action which follows the first touch of God. Thus, we read that Rulman Merswin, “swept away by the transports of Divine Love,” did not surrender himself to the passive enjoyment of this first taste of Absolute Being, but was impelled by it to diligent and instant self-criticism. He was “seized with a hatred of his body, and inflicted on himself such hard mortifications that he fell ill.” It is useless for lovers of healthy-mindedness to resent this and similar examples of self-examination and penance: to label them morbid or mediaeval. The fact remains that only such bitter knowledge of wrongness of relation, seen by the light of ardent love, can spur the will of a person to the hard task of readjustment.
------ Part 2, Chapter 3
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MEDITATING ON SCRIPTURE (Method of St. Francis de Sales)
A. Settling in: call to mind God's presence; address oneself to God in vocal prayer.
B. Reading the Scripture passage slowly, prayerfully.
C. Exercise of the will and intellect in considering the message: what is this passage saying? what is it calling forth from me?
D. Conclusion: acts of thanksgiving, remorse and intercessions awakened by the meditation.
E. Application: Immediate follow-through on resolutions made.
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