Message of 3-30-12

Published: Fri, 03/30/12


A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth


Message of the Day

Jesus will prevail. His Church will prevail. Everything else is just passing away. Our current leadership will die one day, as will you and I. It is not for us to condemn others, but to witness to them of Him who is in our lives. Even now, the enemy is at work, but Jesus will prevail. I know a God whose mercy knows no limits and whose power has no restraints.
   - Todd H. Wetzel (b. 1946), Steadfast Faith

(The basis of our hope!)

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

Jer 20:10-13;    Ps 18:2-3a, 3bc-4, 5-6, 7;    Jn 10:31-42

R. (see 7) In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.

I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.

My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.

The breakers of death surged round about me,
the destroying floods overwhelmed me;
The cords of the nether world enmeshed me,
the snares of death overtook me.

In my distress I called upon the LORD
and cried out to my God;
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.

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

The thing I like about the Gospel today is that Jesus is using logic rather than faith and is answering the Jews using their own criteria. When they try to stone him to death, he says that he has done good works, not criminal acts. He asks them which of these good works are crimes worthy of execution. They say they are condemning him not for his good works but for his blasphemy, which is a capital offence: He says he is God. But Jesus does not refute this. He does not deny that he said it or deny that he is God, but says that their own scriptures support his statement. He says they cannot condemn him when their own scriptures say 'You are gods.' They have no basis for their condemnation. He is not saying they have to believe him or believe in him, they only have to follow their own scriptures. And he gives them specific evidence. He reminds them that he has performed miracles - no one else has done this. He says, if I don't do God's works, don't believe in me. If I do God's work (and he does), you still don't have to believe in me, but you should recognize the work.

He is not saying here that we have to have faith - he does say that other places, but not here. Here he is saying, look at the scripture, look at what I have done. Appreciate the good works, appreciate God's work. Today we don't have to take anything on faith. We just have to look at the evidence and come to the logical conclusion.

- by Tamora Whitney

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Spiritual Reading

On Cleaving to God
     by St. Albert the Great

And the more inward-looking the desire for it, the more powerful this means of ascent to the mysterious contemplation of the holy Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity in Jesus Christ is, and the more interior the yearning, the more productive it is. Certainly in matters spiritual the more inward they are the greater they are as spiritual experiences.                                   

For this reason, never give up, never stop until you have tasted some pledge, as I might say, or foretaste of the future full experience, and until you have obtained the satisfaction of however small a first fruits of the divine joy. And do not give up pursuing it and following its scent until you have seen the God of gods in Sion. Do not stop or turn back in your spiritual journey and your union and adherence to God within you until you have achieved what you have been seeking. 

- Chapter 7. How the heart should be gathered within itself.

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- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00067L6TQ/?tag=christianspiritu

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