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"The many contradictions in our lives - such as being home while feeling homeless, being busy while feeling bored, being popular while feeling lonely, being believers while feeling many doubts - can frustrate, irritate, and even discourage us. They make us feel that we are never fully present. Every door that opens for us makes us see how many more doors are closed.
"But there is another response. These same contradictions can bring us into touch with a deeper longing for the fulfillment of a desire that lives beneath all desires and that only God can satisfy. Contradictions, thus understood, create the friction that can help us move toward God."
- from Bread for the Journey by Henri Nouwen -
(What "contradictions" in your life create inner tensions? How can these present opportunities for movement toward God?)
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2 Cor 11:18, 21-30; Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
Mt 6:19-23
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal.
But store up treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.
“The lamp of the body is the eye.
If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light;
but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness.
And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.”
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture
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“If your eyes are good, your body will be filled with light.” —Matthew 6:22
Are your eyes good? Good eyes see only what God wants them to see. Good eyes do not look around carelessly (see Prv 4:25-27). That’s too dangerous. Good eyes are selective. We close our eyes lest we look on evil (Is 33:15). It’s important to protect them from the evil one. We must hold faith up as a shield (Eph 6:16) or be hit in the eye and be wounded.
Our eyes and thoughts “should be wholly directed to all that is true, all that deserves respect, all that is honest, pure, admirable, decent, virtuous, or worthy of praise” (Phil 4:8). Otherwise, we will carelessly expose ourselves to temptation. The forbidden fruit of sin is “pleasing to the eyes” (Gn 3:6). We will be tempted to treasure it and fall into sin. “Remember, where your treasure is, there your heart is also” (Mt
6:21).
Jesus emphasized controlling our eyes to the point of saying, “If your right eye is your trouble, gouge it out and throw it away! Better to lose part of your body than to have it all cast into Gehenna” (Mt 5:29). Girl-watching or boy-watching are not summer sports; rather, they are gambling with eternal salvation and damnation. Immodest dress is extremely serious. An afternoon “sight-seeing” at the pool could lead to an eternity
in the fires of Gehenna. Indiscriminate TV viewing is Russian roulette. Handheld electronic devices open wide the path to destruction. Jesus is not over-reacting. He is the Truth (Jn 14:6); we must repent and change.
Prayer: Jesus, I accept You as Lord and Savior of my eyes.
Promise: “Do not lay up for yourselves an earthly treasure.” —Mt 6:19
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 10. We must see God in all creatures!
In the state of abandonment the soul finds more light and strength, through submission to the divine action, than all those possess who resist it through pride.
The proud soul cannot comprehend itself, but the simple soul, with the light of faith, can very clearly see through it.
The finding of the divine action in all that occurs at each moment, in and around us, is true science, a continuous revelation of truth, and an unceasingly renewed intercourse with God. It is a rejoicing with the Spouse, not in secret, nor by stealth, in the cellar, or the vineyard, but openly, and in public, without any human respect. It is a fund of peace, of joy, of love, and of satisfaction with God
who is seen, known, or rather, believed in, living and operating in the most perfect manner in everything that happens. It is the beginning of eternal happiness not yet perfectly realised and tasted, except in an incomplete and hidden manner.
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