Message of 1-24-12
Published: Tue, 01/24/12
A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
Message of the Day
The 7 Modern Sins:
Politics without principles
Pleasures without conscience
Wealth without work
Knowledge without character
Industry without morality
Science without humanity
Worship without sacrifice.
- Canon Frederic Donaldson
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Lectionary Readings of the Day
http://www.usccb.org/calendar/index.cfm?showLit=1&action=month
2 Sm 6:12b-15, 17-19; Ps 24:7, 8, 9, 10; Mk 3:31-35
R. (8) Who is this king of glory? It is the Lord!
Lift up, O gates, your lintels;
reach up, you ancient portals,
that the king of glory may come in!
Who is this king of glory?
The LORD, strong and mighty,
the LORD, mighty in battle.
Lift up, O gates, your lintels;
reach up, you ancient portals,
that the king of glory may come in!
Who is this king of glory?
The LORD of hosts; he is the king of glory.
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Reflection on the Gospel
- from Daily Bread
http://www.preacherexchange.com/daily_bread.htm
Who are my mother and my brothers?
This response of Jesus seems a bit cheeky -- at least to this mother of adult sons. But I love the meaning: that our family is not limited to blood ... or nation or race or language or even worship style. Jesus began an expansionist movement like no other (tomorrow we remember the conversion of Saul to Paul). He knew his disciples -- then and now -- would resist. We like living in our comfort zones with folks who seem like us. As we continue in this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, let us remember that our brothers and sisters in Christ are beyond the walls of the building where we worship.
For eyes to recognize our brothers and sisters in all who love you.
- by Paige Byrne Shortal
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Spiritual Reading
The Way of Perfection
- by Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
(Teaches that the lover of God must care little for life and honor.)
We now come to some other little things which are also of very great importance, though they will appear trifling. All this seems a great task, and so it is, for it means warring against ourselves. But once we begin to work, God, too, works in our souls and bestows such favours on them that the most we can do in this life seems to us very little. And we nuns are doing everything we can, by giving up our freedom for the love of God and entrusting it to another, and in putting up with so many trials -- fasts, silence, enclosure, service in choir -- that however much we may want to indulge ourselves we can do so only occasionally: perhaps, in all the convents I have seen, I am the only nun guilty of self-indulgence. Why, then, do we shrink from interior mortification, since this is the means by which every other kind of mortification may become much more meritorious and perfect, so that it can then be practised with greater tranquillity and ease? This, as I have said, is acquired by gradual progress and by never indulging our own will and desire, even in small things, until we have succeeded in subduing the body to the spirit.
- Chapter 12
(Keep in mind that she is writing to sisters in a cloistered contemplative order.)
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