Message of 6-20-11
Published: Sat, 06/18/11
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
Who is it that has helped you most? Has it not been those who
believed in you? Perhaps there may be few such left. The light of
expectation may have died out of the most friendly and hopeful
eyes; and you yourself may have lost heart. Ah! but there is still
One whose faith in you has never wavered. And how wonderful it is
that that one should be Jesus Christ!...
"It was a wonderful dream God dreamed," Christ says, "when He
created you; it was a stately being that was in His mind when you
were fashioned; and I can make you all He meant that you should be."
- A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), The Galilean Accent
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LECTIONARY READINGS FOR THE DAY
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Gn 12:1-9; Ps. 33:12-13, 18-19, 20 and 22; Mt 7:1-5
R. (12) Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Blessed the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he has chosen for his own inheritance.
From heaven the LORD looks down;
he sees all mankind.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
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REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL
- from "Daily Bread"
http://www.preacherexchange.com/daily_bread.htm
"The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you."
What is striking in today's readings is the difference in scope.
First we hear about the calling of Abram, who is promised to be the
father of a great nation in whom "all the communities of the earth
shall find a blessing." By contrast, Jesus tells us to mind our own
business and work on our personal holiness. Perhaps if we want to
live a grand life full of meaning and purpose, we begin with what
is ours to mind. We're called to be miserly with our judgments and
generous with our love. It seems this leads to a life of
significance.
"Lord, make us your instrument in whatever situation we find
ourselves.
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SPIRITUAL READING
The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage
by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381)
Here the man should bethink himself with a humble heart that of his
own he has nothing but misery; and he should say in resignation and
self-abandonment the words which were spoken by the holy man Job:
"The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; as it pleased the
Lord, so it hath been done; blessed be the name of the Lord. And he
should renounce himself in all things, and should say and mean in
his heart, "Lord, I am as willing to be poor in all those things of
which I have been deprived as I am ready to be rich, O Lord, if it
be Thy will and to Thy glory; not my will according to nature, O
Lord, but Thy will and my will according to spirit be done. For I
am Thine own, O Lord, and would as well be in hell as in heaven, if
it were to Thy glory. Lord, do unto me according to Thy good
pleasure." Of all this suffering and abandonment the man should
make an inward joy; and he should give himself into the hands of
God, and should be glad because he is able to suffer for the glory
of God. And if he be true to this disposition, he shall taste such
an inward joy as he never tasted before; for nothing is more joyful
to the lover of God, than to feel that he belongs wholly to his
Beloved. And if he has indeed followed the way of the virtues
straight to this degree, even though he has not passed through all
the states which have been pointed out heretofore, it is not
needful, if he feels within himself the source of the virtues:
which is in activity, humble obedience; and, in passivity, patient
resignation. In these two things this degree is established in
everlasting surety.
- Chapter 29: Showing what the forsaken person should do
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