Message of 5-14-12

Published: Mon, 05/14/12


A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth


Message of the Day

 "An elder replied, 'I tell you, many have ruined their bodies with no discernment and gone away without finding anything. We may have evil-smelling breath because of our fasting, we may know the Scriptures by heart, we may recite all the psalms. . . and still lack what God is looking for--love and humility."
- Anonymous Sayings of the Desert Fathers -

(Whatever helps us become more loving and humble is good for us; whatever hinders us is not. What does this mean in your life?)

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

Acts 1:15-17, 20-26;    Ps 113:1-8;    Jn 15:9-17

R. (8) The Lord will give him a seat with the leaders of his people.

Praise, you servants of the LORD,
praise the name of the LORD.
Blessed be the name of the LORD
both now and forever.

From the rising to the setting of the sun
is the name of the LORD to be praised.
High above all nations is the LORD;
above the heavens is his glory.

Who is like the LORD, our God, who is enthroned on high
and looks upon the heavens and the earth below?

He raises up the lowly from the dust;
from the dunghill he lifts up the poor
To seat them with princes,
with the princes of his own people.

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

I have called you friends.

What does it mean to be Jesus' friend? Maybe this is Jesus' way of reminding us that we can't be disciples by ourselves. All of us -- even introverts -- need a community of people with whom we can share the joys, sorrows, challenges and victories of everyday life. As individuals, and as the church, Jesus has "friended" us, called us to live in community. I have called you friends, Jesus says; now you must friend my other friends. Make room around the table. Reach out to the lost and forgotten. Turn no one away with words of hatred or condemnation. We thank you, God, for the friendship of Christ and for the opportunities you give us to be friends with each other.

- by Jeanne Lischer

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Spiritual Reading

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

In this storm of love two spirits strive together: the spirit of God and our own spirit. God, through the Holy Ghost, inclines Himself towards us; and, thereby, we are touched in love. And our spirit, by God's working and by the power of love, presses and inclines itself into God: and, thereby, God is touched. From these two contacts there arises the strife of love, at the very deeps of this meeting; and in that most inward and ardent encounter, each spirit is deeply wounded by love. These two spirits, that is our own spirit and the Spirit of God, sparkle and shine one into the other, and each shows to the other its face. This makes each of the spirits yearn for the other in love. Each demands of the other all that it is; and each offers to the other all that it is and invites it to all that it is. This makes the lovers melt into each other. God's touch and His gifts, our loving craving and our giving back: these fulfil love. This flux and reflux causes the fountain of love to brim over: and thus the touch of God and our loving craving become one simple love. Here man is possessed by love, so that he must forget himself and God, and knows and can do nothing but love. Thereby the spirit is burned up in the fire of love, and enters so deeply into the touch of God, that it is overcome in all its cravings, and turned to nought in all its works, and empties itself; above all surrender becoming very love. And it possesses, above all virtues, the inmost part of its created being, where every creaturely work begins and ends. Such is love in itself, foundation and origin of all virtues.

- Chapter 54: Of a loving strife between the Spirit of God and our spirit..

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