Weekend Edition - A Daily Spiritual Seed

Published: Fri, 09/02/11

A Daily Spiritual Seed
Weekend Edition: September 2-4, 2011

Contents:
 - Weekend Scripture Readings
- Spiritual Guidance
- Discussion Board highlights
- Affiliate Web Sites
- Theology Note of the Week
- Web Site of the Week
- Spiritual Growth Resources.
- Book of the Week
- Saint of the Week
- Joke of the Week

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Weekend Readings
http://new.usccb.org/calendar/index.cfm?showLit=1&action=month

Saturday:  Col 1:21-23;    Ps 54:3-4, 6 and 8;    Lk 6:1-5
Sunday:   Ez 33:7-9;    Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9;    Rom 13:8-10;    Mt 18:15-20

R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.

Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.

Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
"Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works."

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Amazon.com gift cards: the perfect gift for any occasion.

- - -

Spiritual Guidance
Need a companion for the spiritual journey? We have several wonderful people ready to help, using email and telephone conferences to bridge the miles.

- Now providing -

Consultations: this option is best for short-term guidance pertaining to a specific issue.

Spiritual Direction: ongoing relationship with a spiritual director to become more attuned to God's presence in all of life.

See http://shalomplace.com/direction/

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Shalom Place Discussion Board

A variety of topics are under discussion.

Christian Enlightenment: a possibility worth exploring - Christian Spirituality Issues forum.
Christianity and Postmodernism - Christian Morality and Theology forum.

- see http://shalomplace.org/eve/forums for these and hundreds of other discussions.

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Affliliate Web Sites
- please give them a visit

Temenos Catholic Worker: support for homeless youth in Polk Street neighborhood, San Francisco.
Institute for Women's Spiritual Dynamics: holistic, flexible, sensible Christian spirituality for women.
The Sanctuary Foundation for Prayer: resources for spiritual growth.
Serenity of the Mind: supporting those who served and who suffer from PTSD.
Hearts on Fire:a blog to spark inspiration, thought, wonder, laughter and prayer.
Stillpoint: Programs in spiritual direction, contemplative prayer.
Solitude and Streets: an emerging faith community.
Family Life Training and Counseling Center: an online Bible college/seminary
The Ark: Providing a variety of scripture and lectionary study resources.
Contemplative Ministries of the Pacific Northwest: Teaching and support on contemplative practice
Inner Explorations: a vast array of spirituality resources for the mature Christian.
SeeScapes. Picturing the deeper dimensions of our spirituality.
Heartland Center for Spirituality (sponsoring Internet workshops year-round).
Emanuella House of Prayer: a place for prayer and silence in British Columbia
Kyrie Places of Pilgrimmage and Renewal.
Contemplative Rudder: "In the midst of Consecrated Silence' atmospherics ... a Rudder!
   
Reach hundreds of people who have a similar interest in Christian spirituality.  Simply publish a link to Daily Spiritual Seed-- http://shalomplace.com/seed --on a prominent place on your web site and we will reciprocate with a weekly link to your site in the newsletter.  Contact the Editor when you're ready to begin.

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Theology Note of the Week
- http://www.carm.org/m

Materialism

The position that only material things exist and that all other things can be explained in terms of matter and the physical properties of matter.

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Web Resource of the Week

A Good Day: Meditation by Br. David Steindl-Rast
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zl9puhwiyw

This is a youtube video, only 5 min. 33 sec. long, but so very well done that you will likely feel as though you have had a lengthy meditation after watching it.

Suggestion: take a few minutes for prayer and quieting yourself before doing so.  Afterwards, journal or reflect on what was stirred up in you, and resolutions that suggest themselves.
Featured Spiritual Growth Resources

Summer 2012: Renewal of Mind and Spirit
- http://heartlandspirituality.org/programs.html

Since you might need to plan ahead, check out the program offerings at Heartland Center for Spirituality for the Summer of 2012.
A. Theology Institute with Carla Mae Streeter, June 15-19, 2012.
B. Listening to God: A Contemplative Retreat, with Philip St. Romain, June 21-25, 2012.
You can attend one or the other: special rate for both.

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The 'Logic' of Happiness: Proverbs and Practical Wisdom for Daily Living, by Philip St. Romain
- Winner of "Angel Award" for excellence in media.

This book invites us to take a journey deep into the soul, where the mystery of self and the mystery of God are so intertwined as to seem one life. It is a treasure trove of versatile, uplifting, intuitive meditations, proverbs, exhortations, reflections and exploratory questions on such topics as Empty Lovingness, True Prayer, and Sanity. St. Romain urges us to "be here now in love" that we might know greater peace and joy in daily living.
- http://tinyurl.com/3uzynqg (paperback)
(Also available for Kindle, Nook, and on iBookstore)

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Book of the Week

Jesus-Shock, by Peter Kreeft. St. Augustine Press, 2008.
- http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587313944/ref=noism/christianspiritu/

What influence did Jesus make on the world? This is the question that Kreeft aims to answer in this small book published in 2008. This book shows what responses Jesus received in His lifetime and up to the present, not only from His friends but also from His enemies. Was He popular? Was His message received as He intended it to be? The author believes that Jesus was received with shock, with astonishment, and even with disgust.

Kreeft begins by asking about the bitterest controversy of the Protestant Reformation as displayed by Protestants and Catholics, and between Protestants among themselves. He says it was not the topic of justification. It was not between religion and politics. It was not about the sufficiency of the Bible and the corruption in the Church, nor was it the relation between the Bible and the Church. It was not about Mary or the saints, or the Pope, or purgatory, or the Trinity, or even about the Incarnation.

The division was about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist!!! This book is about the experience of Christ's Real Presence and hence the title Jesus-Shock.

The author admits that while he was having a long dry period, just not being able to find a topic to write about, he prayed before the Blessed Sacrament and asked, "What do You want me to write about?" His answer came loud and clear, "ME".  This book is the result of the author's response to that invitation.

In Part Three of this book, Kreeft names a series of shocks that his readers can find in the Scripture about the Jesus Saviour:
  • Shock at His words, His teachings, like Jesus at 12 in the temple
  • Shocks in the ways Jesus escapes from dilemmas, like the story of paying taxes
  • Shocks at His healings, like the paralytic on the roof
  • Shocks of His power over nature when the apostles were scared in the boat
  • Shocks of His power over death; when He raised people from the dead
  • Shock of His own resurrection
  • Shock of His power over demons when He sent them into the pigs
  • Shock of our own lack of faith

- Thanks to Sr. Irene Hartman, O.P.  for this review.

Make the Christian Spirituality Bookstore your starting point for online shopping at Amazon.com.  You can buy books, cds, videotapes, software, appliances and many other products at discount prices.  As Amazon.com affiliate, we are paid a small fee for purchases originating from our web site.  Every little bit helps!
http://shalomplace.com/books/index.html

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Saint of the Week
http://www.americancatholic.org/features/saints/saint.aspx?id=1133

St. Peter Claver (1581-1654): September 9

A native of Spain, young Jesuit Peter Claver left his homeland forever in 1610 to be a missionary in the colonies of the New World. He sailed into Cartagena (now in Colombia), a rich port city washed by the Caribbean. He was ordained there in 1615.

By this time the slave trade had been established in the Americas for nearly 100 years, and Cartagena was a chief center for it. Ten thousand slaves poured into the port each year after crossing the Atlantic from West Africa under conditions so foul and inhuman that an estimated one-third of the passengers died in transit. Although the practice of slave-trading was condemned by Pope Paul III and later labeled "supreme villainy" by Pius IX, it continued to flourish.

Peter Claver's predecessor, Jesuit Father Alfonso de Sandoval, had devoted himself to the service of the slaves for 40 years before Claver arrived to continue his work, declaring himself "the slave of the Negroes forever."

As soon as a slave ship entered the port, Peter Claver moved into its infested hold to minister to the ill-treated and exhausted passengers. After the slaves were herded out of the ship like chained animals and shut up in nearby yards to be gazed at by the crowds, Claver plunged in among them with medicines, food, bread, brandy, lemons and tobacco. With the help of interpreters he gave basic instructions and assured his brothers and sisters of their human dignity and God's saving love. During the 40 years of his ministry, Claver instructed and baptized an estimated 300,000 slaves.

His apostolate extended beyond his care for slaves. He became a moral force, indeed, the apostle of Cartagena. He preached in the city square, gave missions to sailors and traders as well as country missions, during which he avoided, when possible, the hospitality of the planters and owners and lodged in the slave quarters instead.

After four years of sickness which forced the saint to remain inactive and largely neglected, he died on September 8, 1654. The city magistrates, who had previously frowned at his solicitude for the black outcasts, ordered that he should be buried at public expense and with great pomp.

He was canonized in 1888, and Pope Leo XIII declared him the worldwide patron of missionary work among black slaves.

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Joke of the Week

- Fried chicken
 
Our teacher asked us what our favorite animal was, and I said, "Fried chicken."
 
She said I wasn't funny, but she couldn't have been right, because everyone else in the class laughed. My parents told me to always be truthful and honest, and I am. Fried chicken is my favorite animal.
 
I told my dad what happened, and he said my teacher was probably a member of PETA. He said they love animals very much. I do, too. Especially chicken, pork and beef. Anyway, my teacher sent me to the principal's office. I told him what happened, and he laughed, too. Then he told me not to do it again.
 
The next day in class my teacher asked me what my favorite live animal was. I told her it was chicken. She asked me why, just like she'd asked the other children. So I told her it was because you could make them into fried chicken. She sent me back to the principal's office again. He laughed, and told me not to do it again.
 
I don't understand. My parents taught me to be honest, but my teacher doesn't like it when I am.
 
Today, my teacher asked us to tell her what famous person we admire most. I told her, "Colonel Sanders."
 
Guess where I am now...

(Thanks, Paula)


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