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To be connected with the church is to be associated with scoundrels, warmongers, fakes, child-molesters, murderers, adulterers, and hypocrites of every description. It also, at the same time, identifies you with saints and the finest persons of heroic soul within every time, country, race, and gender. To be a member of the church is to carry the mantle of both the worst sin and the finest heroism of soul . . .
because the church always looks exactly as it looked at the original crucifixion, God hung among thieves.
- Ronald Rolheiser
(We stand for and with Christ wherever we are and with whomever we are associating. Let this awareness form your thoughts and actions this day.)
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Fire of Love: Encountering the Holy Spirit, by Donald Goergen, OP.
Book available via Amazon.com and other sellers as paperback and digital.
Facilitated by Philip St. Romain
Dates: Thursdays October 7, 14, 21, 28 November 4 and 11
Time: 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. Central via Zoom
Fee: $25.00 - Registration
Reflects on the Spirit’s influence in our individual lives, in the Church, other world religions and the cosmos. Fr. Goergen brings a lifetime of theological study and practical ministry experience to help us become more aware of and open to the gifts of the Spirit.
Participants will need to obtain their own copy of this book in advance.
Zoom links will be sent weekly to participants.
Col 3:12-17; Psalm 150:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6
Lk 6:27-38
Jesus said to his disciples:
“To you who hear I say, love your enemies,
do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you,
pray for those who mistreat you.
To the person who strikes you on one cheek,
offer the other one as well,
and from the person who takes your cloak,
do not withhold even your tunic.
Give to everyone who asks of you,
and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
For if you love those who love you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners love those who love them.
And if you do good to those who do good to you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners do the same.
If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners lend to sinners,
and get back the same amount.
But rather, love your enemies and do good to them,
and lend expecting nothing back;
then your reward will be great
and you will be children of the Most High,
for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
Be merciful, just as also your Father is merciful.
“Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you.”
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.)
Luke 6: 20-26 (Blest are the poor)
Luke has simplified the list of beatitudes described in Matthew, eliminating material that his non-Jewish audience would not have properly appreciated. Nevertheless, we are left with blessings and curses which should deeply challenge us.
• Which of the beatitudes do you find most consoling? Why?
• Which of the ‘woes” disturb you most? Why? How does this challenge you to change?
• Pray for the grace to be willing to change for the sake of the kingdom.
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 13: Of the first sentiments of love that God causes in the soul before she has faith.
True God! Theotimus, what a consolation it is to consider the secret method by which the Holy Ghost pours into our hearts the first rays and feelings of his light and vital heat! O Jesus! how delightful a pleasure it is to see celestial love, which is the sun of virtues, as little by little with a progress which insensibly becomes sensible, it displays its light upon a soul, and stops not till it has it all
covered with the splendour of its presence, giving it at last the perfect beauty of love's day! O how cheerful, beautiful, sweet and agreeable this daybreak is! Nevertheless true it is that break of day is either not day, or if it be day, it is but a beginning day, a rising of the day, and rather the infancy of the day than the day itself. In like manner without doubt these motions of love which forerun the act of faith required for our justification are either not love properly speaking, or but
a beginning and imperfect love. They are the first verdant buds which the soul, warmed with the heavenly sun, begins, as a mystical tree, to put forth in springtime, rather presages of fruit than fruit itself.
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