Message of 10-24-11
Published: Mon, 10/24/11
A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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Message of the Day
Let us take things as we find them: let us not attempt to distort them into what they are not. We cannot make facts. All our wishing cannot change them. We must use them.
- John Henry Newman
(An old saying has it that we're entitled to our opinions, but not to our facts. Opinions that are incongruent with fact are useless, and this holds true with regard to religion and spirituality as with the rest of life.)
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Lectionary Readings of the Day
http://www.usccb.org/calendar/index.cfm?showLit=1&action=month
Rom 8:12-17; Ps 68:2 and 4, 6-7ab, 20-21; Lk 13:10-17
R. (21a) Our God is the God of salvation.
God arises; his enemies are scattered,
and those who hate him flee before him.
But the just rejoice and exult before God;
they are glad and rejoice.
The father of orphans and the defender of widows
is God in his holy dwelling.
God gives a home to the forsaken;
he leads forth prisoners to prosperity.
Blessed day by day be the Lord,
who bears our burdens; God, who is our salvation.
God is a saving God for us;
the LORD, my Lord, controls the passageways of death.
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Reflection on the Gospel
- from Daily Bread
http://www.preacherexchange.com/daily_bread.htm
And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.
Many forces render us ineffective at leading the lives Jesus calls us to have. Fear, addiction, unhealthy habits and harmful relationships leave us broken and unproductive. Though it seems simple, Jesus' gentle, healing touch and words of encouragement are all that's needed to make the woman whole. With this understanding, we too can embrace the beautifully simple reality that in order to straighten out our lives, all we need is to accept the hand of Jesus and respond with joy to his words of healing and hope.
Lord, set us free, we pray.
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Spiritual Reading
The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage
by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381)
The enlightened person shall also mark and behold the attributes of the Father in the Godhead: how He is omnipotent Power and Might, Creator, Mover, Preserver, Beginning and End, the Origin and Being of all creatures. This the rill of grace shows to the enlightened reason in its radiance. It also shows the attributes of the Eternal Word: abysmal Wisdom and Truth, Pattern of all creatures and all life, Eternal and unchanging Rule, Seeing all things and Seeing Through all things, none of which is hidden from Him; Transillumination and Enlightenment of all saints in heaven and on earth, according to the merits of each. And even as this rill of radiance shows the distinctions between many things, so it also shows to the enlightened reason the attributes of the Holy Ghost: incomprehensible Love and Generosity, Compassion and Mercy, infinite Faithfulness and Benevolence, inconceivable Greatness, outpouring Richness, a limitless Goodness drenching through all heavenly spirits with delight, a Flame of fire which burns all things together in the Unity, a flowing Fountain, rich in all savours, according to the desire of each; the Preparation of all saints for their eternal bliss and their entrance therein, an Embrace and Penetration of the Father, the Son, and all saints in fruitive Unity. All this is observed and beheld without differentiation or division in the simple Nature of the Godhead. And according to our perception these attributes abide as Persons do, in manifold distinctions. For between might and goodness, between generosity and truth, there are, according to our perception great differences. Nevertheless all these are found in oneness and undifferentiation in the most high Nature of the Godhead. But the relations which make the personal attributes remain in eternal distinction. For the Father begets distinction. For the Father incessantly begets his Son, and Himself is unbegotten; and the Son is begotten, and cannot beget; and thus throughout eternity the Father has a Son, and the Son a Father. And these are the relations of the Father to the Son, and of the Son to the Father. And the Father and the Son breathe forth one Spirit, Who is Their common Will or Love. And this Spirit begets not, nor is He begotten; but must eternally pour forth, being breathed forth from both the Father and the Son. And these three Persons are one God and one Spirit. And all the attributes with the works which flow forth from them are common to all the Persons, for They work by virtue of Their Onefold Nature.
- Chapter 37: The second rill enlightens understanding.
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