Message of 10-17-11

Published: Mon, 10/17/11

A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth

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Message of the Day

It was no exceptional thing for Jesus to withdraw Himself "into the wilderness to pray."
He was never for one moment of any day out of touch with God... He was speaking and listening to the Father all day long; and yet He, who was in such constant touch with God, felt the need, as well as the joy, of more prolonged and more quiet communion with Him... Most of the reasons that drive us to pray for strength and forgiveness could never have driven Him; and yet He needed prayer.
- G. H. Knight (1835-1917), In the Secret of His Presence

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Lectionary Readings of the Day
   http://www.usccb.org/calendar/index.cfm?showLit=1&action=month

Rom 4:20-25;    Luke 1:69-75;    Lk 12:13-21

R. (see 68) Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.

He has come to his people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty savior,
born of the house of his servant David.

Through his holy prophets he promised of old
that he would save us from our enemies,
from the hands of all who hate us.
He promised to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant.

This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
free to worship him without fear,
holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.

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Reflection on the Gospel
- from Daily Bread
    http://www.preacherexchange.com/daily_bread.htm

One's life does not consist of possessions.

That's almost heresy in our buy-one-get-one-free, shop-til-you-drop culture, isn't it? The desire to acquire may be innate, but spending our days attending to this desire just doesn't satisfy us. Who wants to spend their life managing "stuff"? Working to earn money to buy it, shopping for it, hauling it home, storing it, cleaning it, walking around it, eventually disposing of it. What a waste. And whenever someone tries to preach against conspicuous consumption, the message seems to fall on deaf ears. Maybe we need another approach. When my little ones are in the presence of fragile things, I don't tell them not to touch. Instead I tell them, "Hands behind your back!" It's easier to remember to do something than not to do something. What if, instead of avoiding consumption, we concentrated on being "rich in what matters to God"? If we use up our time and energy in relationships, in service, in the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, then there is less time and energy for stuff.

Generous God, help us to trust in your abundant care for us and to resist the desire to acquire more than we need.

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Spiritual Reading

The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage
   by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381)

The most high Nature of the Godhead may thus be perceived and beheld: how it is Simplicity and Onefoldness, inaccessible Height and bottomless Depth, incomprehensible Breadth and eternal Length, a dark Silence, a wild Desert, the Rest of all saints in the Unity, and a common Fruition of Himself and of all saints in Eternity. And many other marvels may be seen in the abysmal Sea of the Godhead; and though, because of the grossness of the senses to which they must be shown from without, we must use sensible images, yet, in truth, these things are perceived and beheld from within, as an abysmal and unconditioned Good. But if they must be shown from without, it must be done by means of diverse similitudes and images, according to the enlightenment of the reason of him who shapes and shows them.

- Chapter 37: The second rill enlightens understanding.

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