Message of 1-31-12

Published: Tue, 01/31/12


A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth


Message of the Day

God is always present, and always working towards the life of the soul, and its deliverance from captivity under flesh and blood. But this inward work of God, though never ceasing or altering, is yet always, and only hindered by the activity of our own nature and faculties, by bad people through their obedience to earthly passions, and by good people through their striving to be good in their own way, by their natural strength and a multiplicity of holy labours and contrivances.  Both these sorts of people obstruct the work of God upon their souls. For we can cooperate with God no other way than by submitting to the work of God, and seeking, and leaving ourselves to it.
  -  William Law (1686-1761), letter II, to Rev. Mr. S., Works of Rev. William Law, v. IX,

(God is always present . . . always working . . . )

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

2 Sm 18:9-10, 14b, 24-25a, 30; 19:3;    Ps 86:1-2, 3-4, 5-6;    Mk 5:21-43

R. (1a) Listen, Lord, and answer me.

Incline your ear, O LORD; answer me,
for I am afflicted and poor.
Keep my life, for I am devoted to you;
save your servant who trusts in you.
You are my God.

Have mercy on me, O Lord,
for to you I call all the day.
Gladden the soul of your servant,
for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.
Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my pleading.

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Reflection on the Gospel
  - from Daily Bread
    http://www.preacherexchange.com/daily_bread.htm

Daughter, your faith has saved you.

There is so much to notice in today's Gospel. Choose any detail and see where it leads you. A synagogue official humbles himself to ask an itinerant rabbi for help. The woman's affliction renders her unclean and therefore not welcome in the synagogue, yet Jesus heals her and the synagogue official's daughter who is also unclean. The woman has suffered for 12 years, and the little girl is 12 years old. Jesus calls the woman "daughter." One lesson: Every daughter and son is as precious to Jesus as mine are to me. As disciples, we are to reach past whatever separates us from another and love as Jesus loves.

Lord Jesus, open my eyes and my heart to others.

  - 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.)

I repeat that this consists mainly or entirely in our ceasing to care about ourselves and our own pleasures, for the least that anyone who is beginning to serve the Lord truly can offer Him is his life. Once he has surrendered his will to Him, what has he to fear? It is evident that if he is a true religious and a real man of prayer and aspires to the enjoyment of Divine consolations, he must not [turn back or] shrink from desiring to die and suffer martyrdom for His sake. And do you not know, sisters, that the life of a good religious, who wishes to be among the closest friends of God, is one long martyrdom? I say "long", for, by comparison with decapitation, which is over very quickly, it may well be termed so, though life itself is short and some lives are short in the extreme. How do we know but that ours will be so short that it may end only one hour or one moment after the time of our resolving to render our entire service to God? This would be quite possible; and so we must not set store by anything that comes to an end, least of all by life, since not a day of it is secure. Who, if he thought that each hour might be his last, would not spend it in labour?

- Chapter 12

(Keep in mind that she is writing to sisters in a cloistered contemplative order.)

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