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Message of the Day

When our lives are focused on God, awe and wonder lead us to worship Him, filling our inner being with a fullness we would never have thought possible...
Awe prepares the way in us for the power of God... to transform us and this transformation of our inner attitudes can only take place when awe leads us in turn to wonder, admiration, reverence, surrender, and obedience toward God.
  - James Houston (b. 1922), The Transforming Power of Prayer

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

Is 42:1-7;    Ps 27:1, 2, 3, 13-14;    Jn 12:1-11

R. (1a) The Lord is my light and my salvation.

The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life's refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?

When evildoers come at me
to devour my flesh,
My foes and my enemies
themselves stumble and fall.

Though an army encamp against me,
my heart will not fear;
Though war be waged upon me,
even then will I trust.

I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.

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

[Judas] said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief.

Evil is real. Sometimes we recognize it. Sometimes we recognize it too late because so often evil comes disguised as good. It is true of the infamous dictators who sold themselves with promises of a better life. It is true of less obvious demagogues in the media, the military or the corporation. It is true within the church, within communities and within families. Because it is true of each of us. We are each capable of hypocrisy. We are each tempted to present ourselves as better than we are. Today is a good day for self-examination. As we get to know our personal Judas, we might more easily recognize Judas in the messages of this world.

Forgive us, Lord, our lies, our deception, our pretense; give us the grace of self-knowledge so that we may better love you and those you give us to love.

 - by Paige Byrne Shortal
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Spiritual Reading

The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage
   by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381)

Now consider diligently how we can acquire and possess the most inward exercise of our spirit in the created light. The man who is well adorned with the moral virtues of the outward life, and has risen into nobility and divine peace by inward practices; he possesses the unity of the spirit, enlightened by supernatural wisdom, flowing forth in generous love toward heaven and earth and lifting itself up by its reverence and its merits, and flowing back into that very ground, the most high Unity of God, from which all things proceed. For each creature, according to whether it has received more or less from God, has more or less of ascending love and inward tendency towards its origin; for God and all His gifts invite us into Him, and through charity and the virtues and resemblance, we desire to enter into Him.

- Chapter 50: Showing how one should be adorned to receive the most inward exercise.

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