Message of 8-9-11
Published: Sat, 08/06/11
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
We might well pray for God to invade and conquer us, for until He
does, we remain in peril from a thousand foes. We bear within us
the seeds of our own disintegration...The strength of our flesh is
an ever present danger to our souls. Deliverance can come to us
only by the defeat of our old life. Safety and peace come only
after we have been forced to our knees...So He conquers us and by
that benign conquest saves us for Himself.
- A. W. Tozer
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LECTIONARY READINGS FOR THE DAY
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Dt 31:1-8; Dt 32:3-4ab, 7, 8, 9 and 12; Mt 18:1-5, 10, 12-14
R. (9a) The portion of the Lord is his people.
For I will sing the LORD's renown.
Oh, proclaim the greatness of our God!
The Rock-how faultless are his deeds,
how right all his ways!
Think back on the days of old,
reflect on the years of age upon age.
Ask your father and he will inform you,
ask your elders and they will tell you.
When the Most High assigned the nations their heritage,
when he parceled out the descendants of Adam,
He set up the boundaries of the peoples
after the number of the sons of Israel.
While the LORD's own portion was Jacob,
his hereditary share was Israel.
The LORD alone was their leader,
no strange god was with him.
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REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL
- from http://www.dailyscripture.net/
What does Jesus' story about a lost sheep tell us about God and his
kingdom? Shepherds normally counted their sheep at the end of the
day to make sure all were accounted for. Since sheep by their very
nature are very social, an isolated sheep can quickly become
bewildered and even neurotic. The shepherd's grief and anxiety is
turned to joy when he finds the lost sheep and restores it to the
fold. What was new in Jesus' teaching was the insistence that
sinners must be sought out and not merely mourned for. God does not
rejoice in the loss of anyone, but desires that all be saved and
restored to fellowship with him. That is why the whole community of
heaven rejoices when one sinner is found and restored to fellowship
with God (Luke 15:7). Seekers of the lost are much needed today. Do
you pray and seek after those you know who have lost their way to
God?
"Lord Jesus, teach me your way of humility and simplicity of heart
that I may find perfect joy in you. May your light shine through me
that others may see your truth and love and find hope and peace in
you."
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SPIRITUAL READING
"The Way of Perfection"
- by Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
(Treats of the same subject of spiritual love and gives certain
counsels for gaining it.)
I repeat once more that this love is a similitude and copy of that
which was borne for us by the good Lover, Jesus. It is for that
reason that it brings us such immense benefits, for it makes us
embrace every kind of suffering, so that others, without having to
endure the suffering, may gain its advantages. The recipients of
this friendship, then, profit greatly, but their friends should
realize that either this intercourse -- I mean, this exclusive
friendship -- must come to an end or that they must prevail upon
Our Lord that their friend may walk in the same way as themselves,
as Saint Monica prevailed with Him for Saint Augustine. Their heart
does not allow them to practise duplicity: if they see their friend
straying from the road, or committing any faults, they will speak
to her about it; they cannot allow themselves to do anything else.
And if after this the loved one does not amend, they will not
flatter her or hide anything from her. Either, then, she will amend
or their friendship will cease; for otherwise they would be unable
to endure it, nor is it in fact endurable. It would mean continual
war for both parties. A person may be indifferent to all other
people in the world and not worry whether they are serving God or
not, since the person she has to worry about is herself. But she
cannot take this attitude with her friends: nothing they do can be
hidden from her; she sees the smallest mote in them. This, I
repeat, is a very heavy cross for her to bear.
Happy the souls that are loved by such as these! Happy the day on
which they came to know them! O my Lord, wilt Thou not grant me the
favour of giving me many who have such love for me? Truly, Lord, I
would rather have this than be loved by all the kings and lords of
the world -- and rightly so, for such friends use every means in
their power to make us lords of the whole world and to have all
that is in it subject to us. When you make the acquaintance of any
such persons, sisters, the Mother Prioress should employ every
possible effort to keep you in touch with them. Love such persons
as much as you like. There can be very few of them, but none the
less it is the Lord's will that their goodness should be known.
When one of you is striving after perfection, she will at once be
told that she has no need to know such people -- that it is enough
for her to have God. But to get to know God's friends is a very
good way of "having" Him; as I have discovered by experience, it is
most helpful. For, under the Lord, I owe it to such persons that I
am not in hell; I was always very fond of asking them to commend me
to God, and so I prevailed upon them to do so.
- Chapter 7
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