Message of 7-18-11
Published: Sat, 07/16/11
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
One can believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ and feel no
personal loyalty to Him at all--indeed, pay no attention whatever to
His commandments and His will for one's life. One can believe
intellectually in the efficacy of prayer and never do any praying.
- Catherine Marshall (1914-1983), "Beyond Our Selves"
(So a living faith is more than such intellectual belief. What
helps your faith come alive?)
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LECTIONARY READINGS FOR THE DAY
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Ex 14:5-18; Exodus 15:1bc-2, 3-4, 5-6; Mt 12:38-42
R. (1b) Let us sing to the Lord; he has covered himself in glory.
I will sing to the LORD, for he is gloriously triumphant;
horse and chariot he has cast into the sea.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
He is my God, I praise him;
the God of my father, I extol him.
The LORD is a warrior,
LORD is his name!
Pharaoh's chariots and army he hurled into the sea;
the elite of his officers were submerged in the Red Sea.
The flood waters covered them,
they sank into the depths like a stone.
Your right hand, O LORD, magnificent in power,
your right hand, O LORD, has shattered the enemy.
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REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL
- from "Daily Bread"
http://www.preacherexchange.com/daily_bread.htm
"Why did you do this to us?"
The Israelites, afraid for their lives, reproach Moses for bringing
them out of slavery in the first place. Even after the miracle of
the plagues and all that it demanded of Moses to mobilize the
Israelites, still they challenge him in the face of every hardship.
Like Moses, Jesus was also challenged. After all those inspired
teachings and miracle healings, still the people wanted signs.
Leaders would do well to remember this; people's memories are short
and gratitude is far rarer than it should be. And when we find
ourselves in the belly of the whale, challenging God and the
promise of everlasting love, perhaps we will remember that, however
fickle God's people, God is faithful and sees the whole story.
"O God, give us the grace of trust in you and patience with the
people you have given us to love."
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SPIRITUAL READING
The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage
by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381)
Those people who are full of noxious humors, that is to say, full
of inordinate inclination towards bodily comfort and towards
foreign and creaturely consolations, can fall into four kinds of
fever.
The first kind is called the quotidian fever. It is a multiplicity
of the heart; for these people wish to know all things, and to
speak of all things, and to criticize and to judge all things, and
meanwhile they often fail to observe themselves. They are weighed
down by many strange cares; they must often hear what they do not
like; and the least thing troubles them. Their thoughts are
restless; first this, then that, first here, then there; they are
like to the winds. This is a daily fever; for they are troubled,
and busied, and in multiplicity, from morning until evening, and
sometimes in the night also, whether they sleep or wake. Though
this may exist in a state of grace and without mortal sin, yet it
hinders inwardness and inward practices and takes away the taste of
God and of all virtues. And this is an eternal loss.
- Chapter 32: Of four kinds of fevers wherewith a person can be
tormented.
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