Message of 11-29-11
Published: Tue, 11/29/11
A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
Message of the Day
Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God, we do not see ourselves--blessed riddance. The one who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One.
- A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God
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Lectionary Readings of the Day
http://www.usccb.org/calendar/index.cfm?showLit=1&action=month
Is 11:1-10; Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17; Lk 10:21-24
R. (see 7) Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king's son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
He shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the poor he shall save.
May his name be blessed forever;
as long as the sun his name shall remain.
In him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed;
all the nations shall proclaim his happiness.
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Reflection on the Gospel
- from Praying the Daily Gospels
http://www.liguori.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=6614
- Is. 11: 1- 10 (The Messianic Age)
Today's passage from the book of Isaiah presents us with a few beautiful images of the kind of world the Messiah would bring. As your prayerfully consider the phrases below, note what kinds of feelings and desires they awaken in you, and pray for the grace to bring the Messianic reign wherever you go this day.
. . . his delight shall be in the fear of God.
. . . he shall not judge by what is seen or heard.
. . . the earth shall be struck with the rod of truth.
. . . with justice for a waistband, and with faithfulness for a belt.
. . . for all the earth shall be full of the knowledge of God.
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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.)
It is here that true humility can enter, for this virtue and that of detachment from self, I think, always go together. They are two sisters, who are inseparable. These are not the kinsfolk whom I counsel you to avoid: no, you must embrace them, and love them, and never be seen without them. Oh, how sovereign are these virtues, mistresses of all created things, empresses of the world, our deliverers from all the snares and entanglements laid by the devil so dearly loved by our Teacher, Christ, Who was never for a moment without them! He that possesses them can safely go out and fight all the united forces of hell and the whole world and its temptations. Let him fear none, for his is the kingdom of the Heavens. There is none whom he need fear, for he cares nothing if he loses everything, nor does he count this as loss: his sole fear is that he may displease his God and he begs Him to nourish these virtues within him lest he lose them through any fault of his own.
- Chapter 10
(Keep in mind that she is writing to sisters in a cloistered contemplative order.
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