Message of 11-15-11
Published: Tue, 11/15/11
A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
Annual Appeal
As in years past, our Internet ministry has taken several emphases. The first is Daily Spiritual Seed, this eNewsletter, which reaches hundreds of people daily. The second major one is through the Shalom Place web site, which is host to thousands of visitors each month. One will find there links to online workshops, retreats, podcasts, handouts, worksheets, bookstore, eBooks and a discussion forum. You can even find someone to meet with you for spiritual direction or for a short-term consultation, if you'd like. Many of these resources are provided free of charge. Like Daily Spiritual Seed, however, we do request a volunary donation if you've found them to be helpful. If you haven't been to Shalom Place in awhile, go to http://shalomplace.com and be sure to take one of our new online spiritual health inventories while you're at it.
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
Within your own soul resides divine aid, and sovereign succour. Retreat within it, and all will be quiet, secure, peaceable, and calm. Thus, by means of mental silence, which can only be attained with divine help, you may look for tranquillity in tumult: solitude in company; light in darkness; forgetfulness in pressures: vigour in despondency; courage in fear; resistance in temptation; and quiet in tribulation.
- François Fénelon (1651-1715)
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Lectionary Readings of the Day
http://www.usccb.org/calendar/index.cfm?showLit=1&action=month
2 Mc 6:18-31; Ps 3:2-3, 4-5, 6-7; Lk 19:1-10
R. (6b) The Lord upholds me.
O LORD, how many are my adversaries!
Many rise up against me!
Many are saying of me,
"There is no salvation for him in God."
But you, O LORD, are my shield;
my glory, you lift up my head!
When I call out to the LORD,
he answers me from his holy mountain.
When I lie down in sleep,
I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.
I fear not the myriads of people
arrayed against me on every side.
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Reflection on the Gospel
- from http://www.dailyscripture.net/
What would you do if Jesus knocked on your door and said, "I must stay at your home today"? Would you be excited or embarrassed? Jesus often "dropped-in" at unexpected times and he often visited the "uninvited" - the poor, the lame, and even public sinners like Zacchaeus, the tax collector! Tax collectors were despised and treated as outcasts, no doubt because they over-charged people and accumulated great wealth at the expense of others. Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and was much hated by all the people. Why would Jesus single him out for the honor of staying at his home? Zacchaeus needed God's merciful love and forgiveness. In his encounter with Jesus he found more than he imagined possible. He shows the depth of his repentance by deciding to give half of his goods to the poor and to use the other half for making restitution for fraud. Zacchaeus' testimony included more than words. His change of heart resulted in a change of life, a change that the whole community could experience as genuine.
"Lord Jesus, come and stay with me. Fill my life with your peace, my home with your presence, and my heart with your praise. Help me to show kindness, mercy, and goodness to all, even to those who cause me ill-will or harm."
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Spiritual Reading
The Way of Perfection
- by Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
(Teaches that detachment from the things aforementioned is insufficient if we are not detached from our own selves and that this virtue and humility go together.)
Once we have detached ourselves from the world, and from our kinsfolk, and are cloistered here, in the conditions already described, it must look as if we have done everything and there is nothing left with which we have to contend. But, oh, my sisters, do not feel secure and fall asleep, or you will be like a man who goes to bed quite peacefully, after bolting all his doors for fear of thieves, when the thieves are already in the house. And you know there is no worse thief than one who lives in the house. We ourselves are always the same; unless we take great care and each of us looks well to it that she renounces her self-will, which is the most important business of all, there will be many things to deprive us of the holy freedom of spirit which our souls seek in order to soar to their Maker unburdened by the leaden weight of the earth.
- Chapter 10
(Keep in mind that she is writing to sisters in a cloistered contemplative order.
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