Message of 6-6-11
Published: Sun, 06/05/11
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
It is generally true that all that is required to make people
unmindful of what they owe God for any blessing is that they should
receive that blessing often and regularly.
- Richard Whately (1787-1863)
(What blessings have you taken for granted lately? Spend some time
giving thanks to God for these.)
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LECTIONARY READINGS FOR THE DAY
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Acts 19:1-8; Ps. 68:2-3ab, 4-5acd, 6-7ab; Jn 16:29-33
R. (33a) Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
God arises; his enemies are scattered,
and those who hate him flee before him.
As smoke is driven away, so are they driven;
as wax melts before the fire.
But the just rejoice and exult before God;
they are glad and rejoice.
Sing to God, chant praise to his name;
whose name is the LORD.
The father of orphans and the defender of widows
is God in his holy dwelling.
God gives a home to the forsaken;
he leads forth prisoners to prosperity.
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REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL
- from "Daily Bread"
http://www.preacherexchange.com/daily_bread.htm
We have never even heard that there is a holy Spirit."
Something about the disciples at Ephesus prompts Paul to ask
whether they have received the Holy Spirit. Sure enough, they
haven't even heard of the Spirit! Might an outside observer wonder
about us? Do we (in some ways, at some times) look like people who
have never heard of the Spirit? Let us open our hearts to the
Spirit in all that we do: in our personal lives, in our
interactions with others, in the attitude we bring to worship. Let
us use these final days of the Easter season to welcome the Spirit
and to prepare for a vibrant and joyful celebration of Pentecost.
"For a new outpouring of God's Spirit ... in our hearts, our church
and our world, we pray."
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SPIRITUAL READING
The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage
by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381)
Now we will speak further of the fourth manner of the coming of
Christ, uplifting and perfecting a man by inward exercise in the
lower part of his being. But having likened all the inward comings
to the splendour of the sun, and to its power, according to the
course of the year, we will speak further, according to the course
of the seasons, of another action and another work of the sun.
When the sun first begins to descend from the zenith to the nadir,
it enters the sign which is called Virgo, that is, the Virgin,
because now the season becomes unfruitful, as a virgin is. (In this
time the glorious Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ, ascended to
heaven full of joy and rich in all virtues.) At this time the heat
begins to grow less; and men begin to gather in, for use during the
rest of the year, those ripe and lasting fruits which can be kept
and consumed long afterwards, such as corn and wine and the durable
fruits, which have now come to their maturity. And a part of the
same corn is sown, so that it be multiplied for the benefit of men.
In this season all the work of the sun of the whole year is
perfected and fulfilled.
So likewise, when Christ the glorious Sun has risen to the zenith
in a man's heart, as I have taught you in the third degree; and
when He then begins to descend and to hide the shining of His
Divine rays and to forsake the man; then the heat and impatience of
love begin to grow less. Now when Christ thus hides Himself, and
withdraws the shining of His brightness and His heat, this is the
first work, and the new coming, of this degree. Then Christ speaks
in ghostly wise within this man, saying: "Go ye out in such wise as
I will now show you." So the man goes out, and finds himself poor
and miserable and forsaken. Here all the tempest and fury and
impatience of love grow less, and the hot summer passes into
autumn, and all its riches are turned to great poverty. Then the
man begins to complain because of his wretchedness: Whither has
gone the ardent love, the inwardness, the gratitude, the joyful
praise? And the inward consolation, the intimate joy, the sensible
savour, how has he lost them? How have the fierce tempest of love,
and all the other gifts which he felt before, become dead in him?
And he feels like an ignorant man who has lost all his pains and
his labour. And often his natural life is troubled by such a loss.
- Chapter 28: Of the fourth degree of coming to Christ
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