Message of 10-28-11
Published: Fri, 10/28/11
A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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Message of the Day
Sunshine let it be, or frost,
Storm or calm, as Thou shalt choose;
Though Thine every gift were lost,
Thee Thyself we could not lose.
- Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861-1907), Poems
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Lectionary Readings of the Day
http://www.usccb.org/calendar/index.cfm?showLit=1&action=month
Eph 2:19-22; Ps 19:2-3, 4-5; Lk 6:12-16
R. (5a) Their message goes out through all the earth.
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day pours out the word to day,
and night to night imparts knowledge.
Not a word nor a discourse
whose voice is not heard;
Through all the earth their voice resounds,
and to the ends of the world, their message.
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Reflection on the Scripture
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
- Feast of Sts. Simon and Jude, Apostles
Simon and Jude are mentioned together in the canon of the Mass. Parishes, churches and schools are named after the pair. And tradition associates both of them with the original evangelization of Persia (Iran) and celebrates both of them as martyrs. The New Testament gives us nothing but their names in lists of the Twelve Apostles. . . .
The fact that we know so little about this pair of Apostles gives us reason to simply reflect on who the Twelve were collectively. Why exactly did Jesus choose an inner core of twelve? And in this age of heightened gender sensitivity, many ask, "Why twelve males when we know that several Galilean women were also key members of the earliest disciples" (see Luke 8:1-3; 24:10)? The reasonable answer to both of those questions is that Jesus' choice of the number twelve, and specifically twelve men, was a prophetic symbolic act indicating that he was bringing about the expected messianic restoration of the twelve tribes of Israel. . . .
We Gentiles who claim to be followers of Jesus are extensions of that end-time gathering at Pentecost. The chosen Twelve, Simon and Jude among them, were instruments of this work of God by simply cooperating with God's initiative. Even relatively unknown apostles like Simon and Jude remind us that we are called to do the same, even anonymously.
- by Fr. Dennis Hamm, S.J.
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Spiritual Reading
On Cleaving to God
by St. Albert the Great
This, after all, is the hidden heavenly treasure, none other than the pearl of great price, which must be sought with resolution, esteeming it in humble faithfulness, eager diligence, and calm silence before all things, and preferring it even above physical comfort, or honour and renown. For what good does it do a religious if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his soul? Or what is the benefit of his state of life, the holiness of his profession, the virtue of his habit and tonsure, or the outer circumstances of his way of life if he is without a life of spiritual humility and truth in which Christ abides through a faith created by love. This is what Luke means by, the Kingdom of God (that is, Jesus Christ) is within you. (Luke 17.21)
- Chapter 2. How one can cling to and seek Christ alone, disdaining everything else.
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