Message of 3-27-12

Published: Tue, 03/27/12


A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth


Message of the Day

[Jesus] is our mouth, through which we speak to the Father; He is our eye, through which we see the Father; He is our right hand through which we offer ourselves to the Father. Unless He intercedes, there is no intercourse with God.
   - St. Ambrose of Milan (339-397), from Lib. de Issac et Anima

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

Nm 21:4-9;    Ps 102:2-3, 16-21;    Jn 8:21-30

R. (2) O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.

O LORD, hear my prayer,
and let my cry come to you.
Hide not your face from me
in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me;
in the day when I call, answer me speedily.

The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,
and all the kings of the earth your glory,
When the LORD has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory;
When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
and not despised their prayer.

Let this be written for the generation to come,
and let his future creatures praise the LORD:
"The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die."

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

I say only what the Father taught me.

The One who sent me is with me. Here Jesus is teaching in the Temple, where he is questioned and criticized by the Pharisees and chief priests. At times they are confused by his statements, and other times they argue with him, accusing him of blasphemy. Animosity toward Jesus is growing among religious leaders, who come to see him as a threat to their beliefs and to their whole social structure. Nevertheless, Jesus stands his ground, and we are told many came to believe in him. We listen for Jesus' voice today in the cries of the poor who also question our leaders and ask for justice.

O Lord, open our hearts to hear your voice and follow you, we pray.

  - by Portia Clark

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Spiritual Reading
The Way of Perfection
  - by Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

(Continues to treat of mortification and explains how one must renounce the world's standards of wisdom in order to attain to true wisdom.)

Let the sister who thinks that she is accounted the least among all consider herself the [happiest and] most fortunate, as indeed she really is, if she lives her life as she should, for in that case she will, as a rule, have no lack of honour either in this life or in the next. Believe me when I say this -- what an absurdity, though, it is for me to say "Believe me" when the words come from Him Who is true Wisdom, Who is Truth Itself, and from the Queen of the angels! Let us, my daughters, in some small degree, imitate the great humility of the most sacred Virgin, whose habit we wear and whose nuns we are ashamed to call ourselves. Let us at least imitate this humility of hers in some degree -- I say "in some degree" because, however much we may seem to humble ourselves, we fall far short of being the daughters of such a Mother, and the brides of such a Spouse. If, then, the habits I have described are not sternly checked, what seems nothing to-day will perhaps be a venial sin to-morrow, and that is so infectious a tendency that, if you leave it alone, the sin will not be the only one for long; and that is a very bad thing for communities.

- Chapter 13

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

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