Message of 11-14-11
Published: Mon, 11/14/11
A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
Annual Appeal
It's that time of the year again when we request your support for the Internet Minstry of Heartland Center for Spirituality. I'll keep these messages brief and will continue to provide below the same kind of content that we've been delivering in Daily Spiritual Seed for the past 14 years. I'll also take this opportunity to update you on what's happening at the retreat center, including a new web site I have begun to develop.
Stay tuned.
Phil St. Romain
Internet Ministry Coordinator
- - - Several ways you can support our Internet ministry:
a. Pray for us and for those make use of our services (that includes you, of course).
b. Tax-deductible donation or subscription: see
http://shalomplace.com/seed/donations.html (check payment information provided).
A special gratitude gift will be sent to all donors/subscribers.
c. Purchase an Amazon.com gift card:
- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00067L6TQ/?tag=christianspiritu
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Message of the Day
Let no one suppose, that we may attain to this true light and perfect knowledge, or life of Christ, by much questioning, or by hearsay, or by reading and study, nor yet by high skill and great learning. Yea, so long as one taketh account of anything which is this or that, whether it be oneself, or any other creature; or doeth anything, or frameth a purpose, for the sake of his own likings or desires, or opinions, or ends, he cometh not unto the life of Christ.
... Theologia Germanica [1518]
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Lectionary Readings of the Day
http://www.usccb.org/calendar/index.cfm?showLit=1&action=month
1 Mc 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63; Ps 119:53, 61, 134, 150, 155, 158; Lk 18:35-43
R. (see 88) Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your commands.
Indignation seizes me because of the wicked
who forsake your law.
Though the snares of the wicked are twined about me,
your law I have not forgotten.
Redeem me from the oppression of men,
that I may keep your precepts.
I am attacked by malicious persecutors
who are far from your law.
Far from sinners is salvation,
because they seek not your statutes.
I beheld the apostates with loathing,
because they kept not to your promise.
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Reflection on the Gospel
- from Daily Bread
http://www.preacherexchange.com/daily_bread.htm
Lord, please let me see.
We will each find ourselves, at times, like the man in today's Gospel -- blind (figuratively, anyway: not knowing what to do, how to help ourselves, dependent on others) and begging by the roadside of life. The irony in today's story is that in his dire need, the blind man sees clearly what many in the crowd cannot: that Jesus deserves the messianic title "Son of David," that he is the Messiah of God! We should not curse our own darkness if it brings us such clarity. May our need bring us to our knees in earnest, offering confident petitions to the Lord who will surely respond to our requests with merciful love.
For the grace always to turn to God in our need, we pray.
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Spiritual Reading
The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage
by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381)
Now the person who is established in the bonds of love shall dwell in the unity of the spirit; and he shall go out with enlightened reason and with overflowing love in heaven and on earth; and he shall mark all things with clear discernment; and he shall dispense and distribute all things, out of true generosity, and because of his richness in God.
In four ways this enlightened one is invited and urged to go out. The first going out shall be towards God and towards all saints; the second going out shall be towards sinners and towards all perverted men; the third going out shall be towards purgatory; and the fourth, towards himself and towards all good people.
- Chapter 40: Showing how the established person shall go out in four ways.
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