Message of 7-6-12

Published: Fri, 07/06/12


A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth


Message of the Day

Every concept formed by the intellect in an attempt to comprehend and circumscribe the divine nature can succeed only in fashioning an idol, not in making God known.
- Gregory of Nyssa, "Life of Moses -

(Our ideas about God are only meant to direct our attention toward God, who is always greater than our ideas. Be attentive to God this day.)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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

Am 8:4-6, 9-12;    Ps 119:2, 10, 20, 30, 40, 131;    Mt 9:9-13

R. (Matthew 4:4) One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.

With all my heart I seek you;
let me not stray from your commands.

My soul is consumed with longing
for your ordinances at all times.

The way of truth I have chosen;
I have set your ordinances before me.

Behold, I long for your precepts;
in your justice give me life.

I gasp with open mouth
in my yearning for your commands.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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

"I desire mercy, not sacrifice."

It is hard for us to imagine how shocking this was to the religious folks who were judging Jesus - and, of course, the people with whom Jesus was enjoying dinner. They must have asked themselves, "Wait a minute! How could mercy be God's desire, more than sacrifice?" They must have been saying, at least in their hearts, "Being judgmental toward sinners is a sign of our fidelity to God. And we show our fidelity to God by not being sinners and by staying ritually pure and worshipping God through sacrifice, taught us in the Scriptures!"

Jesus was challenging their thinking about being religious and he is challenging ours. It is so consoling for all of us who are sinners. God doesn't love us because we earn it, deserve it, or prove how good we are. God loves us because we need loving, because we need forgiving, because we can't earn his love. And, because we have experienced ourselves as "love-sinners," - that is who we are - we are moved by grace to love other sinners, too. Being a sinner who is healed by God's love allows us, blesses us, to love the same way - through compassion, forgiveness, and accompaniment. This self-sacrificing love sends us to be for and with those who need loving - even those who don't seem to deserve it - starting with people in our families, in our churches, and those with whom we work.

How much grace would flow from each of us responding to the call to eat and drink with a few sinners tonight, and to enjoy them, affirm them and love them as Jesus did?

O Lord, may your grace, which brought this grace to our hearts and opened them, bring it to great fruitfulness in love and charity, in ways we can't even imagine. Amen.

- by Andy Alexander, S.J.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Spiritual Reading

On Cleaving to God
     by St. Albert the Great

Furthermore you should not be much concerned about tangible devotion, the experience of sweetness or tears, but rather that you should be mentally united with God within yourself by a good will in your intellect. For what pleases God above everything is a mind free from imaginations, that is images, ideas and the representations of created things. It befits a monk to be indifferent to everything created so that he can turn easily and barely to God alone within himself, be empty for him and cleave to him. For this reason deny yourself so that you can follow Christ, the Lord your God, in nakedness, who was himself poor, obedient, chaste, humble and suffering, and in whose life and death many were scandalised, as is clear from the Gospel accounts.  

- Chapter 10. That one should not be concerned about feeling tangible devotion so much as about cleaving to God with one's will.

 * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Amazon Gift Cards: Good for any occasion.
- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00067L6TQ/?tag=christianspiritu

- - - -

Please help support Heartland Center's Internet ministries:

- For more info on tax-deductible donations, see
http://shalomplace.com/seed/donations.html

    Thanks for your consideration!

_________________________________________________

    * Web Archive: http://www.aweber.com/z/article/?dailyseed
    * RSS:   http://www.aweber.com/z/rss/?dailyseed