Message of 6-6-07
Published: Wed, 06/06/07
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
God has created me to do him some definite service; he has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission - I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.
- John Henry Newman
(What is your sense of your "life's work" at this time?)
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SCRIPTURE READINGS
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Tb 3:1-11a, 16-17a; Ps 25:2-3, 4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9; Mk 12:18-27
R.
(1) To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
In you I trust; let me not be put to shame,
let not my enemies exult over me.
No one who waits for you shall be put to shame;
those shall be put to shame who heedlessly break faith.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your kindness are from of old.
In your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O LORD.
Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
he teaches the humble his way.
In you I trust; let me not be put to shame,
let not my enemies exult over me.
No one who waits for you shall be put to shame;
those shall be put to shame who heedlessly break faith.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your kindness are from of old.
In your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O LORD.
Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
he teaches the humble his way.
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Praying the Daily Gospels
- by Philip St. Romain:
- http://www.liguori.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=6614
- Mark 12:18-27 (The life to come)
The Sadducees were a small but powerful group of Jewish religious leaders. They rejected all traditions except those articulated in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, which give no hint of the immortal nature of the human spirit. Today’s reading describes a trap set for Jesus by the Sadducees. Jesus tells them that their God is too small.
• What
do you believe heaven is like? Is your idea of heaven merely an image
of your own notions of Utopia?
• "Heaven begins on earth, or it does not begin at all,” Louis Evely wrote. Do you believe this?
• Pray for the grace to love God above all things.
• "Heaven begins on earth, or it does not begin at all,” Louis Evely wrote. Do you believe this?
• Pray for the grace to love God above all things.
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MYSTICISM
- by Evelyn Underhill -
“In order to overcome our desires,” says St. John of the Cross, who is the classic authority upon this portion of the mystic quest, “and to renounce all those things, our love and inclination for which are wont so to inflame the will that it delights therein, we require a more ardent fire and a nobler love—that of the Bridegroom. Finding her delight and strength in Him, the soul gains the vigour and confidence which enable her easily to abandon all other affections. It was necessary, in her struggle with the attractive force of her sensual desires, not only to have this love for the Bridegroom, but also to be filled with a burning fervour, full of anguish . . . if our spiritual nature were not on fire with other and nobler passions we should never cast off the yoke of the senses, nor be able to enter on their night, neither should we have the courage to remain in the darkness of all things, and in denial of every desire.”
-- 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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