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This is our Lord’s will, ... that our prayer and our trust be, alike, large. For if we do not trust as much as we pray, we fail in full worship to our Lord in our prayer; and also we hinder and hurt ourselves. The reason is that we do not know truly that our Lord is the ground from which our prayer springeth; nor do we know that it is given us by his grace and his love. If we knew this, it would make us trust
to have of our Lord’s gifts all that we desire. For I am sure that no one asketh mercy and grace with sincerity, without mercy and grace being given to him first.
... Juliana of Norwich (1342?-1417), Revelations of Divine Love
(Deep prayer as the Spirit praying in us. What are you hearing? Feeling?)
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Ex 3:1-6, 9-12; Psalm 103:1b-2, 3-4, 6-7
Mt 11:25-27
At that time Jesus exclaimed:
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.)
Matthew 11:25-27 (Good News for the simple)
Accepting the Good News of Jesus Christ is less a matter of intellectual sophistication and more a matter of faith. In today’s reading, Jesus warns us of the danger of intellectual snobbery.
• How do you respond to people who say, "How can you believe all that religious stuff? There’s no proof for any of it!"
• Pray for the grace to accept Jesus in simplicity of heart.
Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
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BOOK II: THE HISTORY OF THE GENERATION AND HEAVENLY BIRTH OF DIVINE LOVE
Chapter 11: That it is no fault of the divine goodness if we have not a most excellent love
The devout Brother Rufinus upon a certain vision which he had of the glory which the great S. Francis would attain unto by his humility, asked him this question: My dear father, I beseech you, tell me truly what opinion you have of yourself? The Saint answered: Verily I hold myself to be the greatest sinner in the world, and the one who serves Our Lord least. But, Brother Rufinus replied, how can you say this
in truth and conscience, seeing that many others, as we manifestly see, commit many great sins from which, God be thanked, you are exempt. To which S. Francis answered: If God had favoured those others of whom you speak with as great mercy as he has favoured me, I am certain, be they ever so bad now, they would have acknowledged God's gifts far better than I do, and would serve him much better than I do, and if my God abandoned me I should commit more wickedness than any one
else.
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