Message of 12-9-11

Published: Fri, 12/09/11


A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth


Message of the Day

There come times when I have nothing more to tell God. If I were to continue to pray in words, I would have to repeat what I have already said. At such times it is wonderful to say to God, "May I be in Thy presence, Lord? I have nothing more to say to Thee, but I do love to be in Thy presence.
   - Ole Kristian O. Hallesby

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Lectionary Readings of the Day
   http://www.usccb.org/calendar/index.cfm?showLit=1&action=month

Is 48:17-19;    Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6;    Mt 11:16-19

R. (see John 8:12)Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.

Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.

He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.

Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.

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Reflection on the Scripture
   http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html

The four weeks of Advent recapitulate the long awaited fulfillment of the promise that God would send the Messiah to be a source of salvation and reconciliation for the people of Israel.  The Messiah whom we Christians identify with Jesus  gave himself over in obedience to his Father, the same one who fulfilled the promises he made to the chosen people of the Old Testament.   

We are indeed blessed and privileged to be the recipients of God's favor for us in the person of Jesus whose life, death and resurrection is the ultimate personal source of God's blessings towards us.  That salvation and reconciliation is already our gift from God, but it is continually being worked out in our lives (individually and corporately).  We, as the risen Body of Christ in our world today are all  beneficiaries of God's goodness in Jesus

As we await our being finally and fully loved and reconciled with God, we pray with especial gratitude to God who promises and fulfills those promises to us.  Let us dedicate ourselves in this season of Advent to those promises as we experience their fulfillment in our lives and the lives of our neighbors.

We might ask ourselves how we are freed from the exiles that invade our lives as the Babylonian captivity invaded our ancestors' lives. And, as we work out our response to God in our own time, we turn to God who continues to fulfill his promises toward us.

Our reading today helps us to focus properly on the God who saves us and invites us to express our gratitude not just with our words but with our actions for others, particularly those who need it most around us.

- by Tom Shanahan, S.J.

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Spiritual Reading

On Cleaving to God
     by St. Albert the Great

Above all therefore it is necessary that things heard, seen, done and said, and other such things, must be received without adding things from the imagination, without mental associations and without emotional involvement, and one should not let past or future associations, implications or constructs of the imagination form and grow. For when constructs of the imagination are not allowed to enter the memory and mind, one is not hindered, whether s/he be engaged in prayer, meditation, or reciting psalms, or in any other practice or spiritual exercise, nor will they recur again.

- Chapter 4. How one's activity should be purely in the intellect and not in the senses.

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