Weekend Edition - A Daily Spiritual Seed
Published: Fri, 07/20/12
A Daily Spiritual Seed
Weekend Edition: July
20-22, 2012
| Contents: - Weekend Scripture Readings - Spiritual Guidance - Discussion Board highlights - Affiliate Web Sites - Theology Note of the Week - Spiritual Growth Resources. - Book of the Week - Saint of the Week - Joke of the Week - Web Resource of the Week - - - Sunday: Jer 23:1-6; Ps 23:1-6; Eph 2:13-18; Mk 6:30-34 R. (1) The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.  The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.In verdant pastures he gives me repose; beside restful waters he leads me; he refreshes my soul. He guides me in right paths for his name's sake. Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side with your rod and your staff that give me courage. You spread the table before me in the sight of my foes; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for years to come. - - - Amazon
Gift Cards - - - Spiritual Guidance - see http://shalomplace.org/eve/forums
for these and hundreds of other
discussions. The Sanctuary
Foundation for Prayer: resources for spiritual growth. Theology Note of the
Week Open Theism, also called openness and the open view, is a theological position dealing with human free will and its relationship to God and the nature of the future. It is the teaching that God has granted to humanity free will and that in order for the free will to be truly free, the future free will choices of individuals cannot be known ahead of time by God. Open Theists hold that if God knows what we are going to choose, then how can we be truly free when it is time to make those choices --since a counter choice cannot then be made by us, because it is already "known" what we are going to do. In other words, we would not actually be able to make a contrary choice to what God "knows" we will choose thus implying that we would not then be free. |
Featured Spiritual
Growth Resources
 SpiritLife* Spiritual Enrichment * Spiritual Director Formation (optional) Classes begin August 25, 2012 Heartland Center for Spirituality. Great Bend, KS See http://heartlandspirituality.org/spiritlife Online Option (whole course or individual classes) - - - Book (movie, CD) of the Week Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus Through the Gospel of John, by Jean Vanier. Paulist Press, 2004. - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0809142961/ref=noism/christianspiritu/  This book is the best I have read
as a commentary on John's Gospel. It began as a series of lectures by
Jean Vanier back in 1950, "when I left the navy to follow Jesus more
closely." His spiritual director Pere Thomas Philippe Op encouraged him
to let himself be drawn into the mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of
St. John. He has studied many commentaries and reflected long on
the words of the Gospel. His research brought him to know better the
context, the language, symbolism, historical setting, and biblical
roots of various passages. His writing makes more accessible the beauty, wisdom, and relevance of this Gospel for people of today, as he continues to live the ordinary life with those with disabilities in l'Arche. Vanier enters into each section of the Gospel in a poetical manner and he calls his style a meditative prose as he writes of the mine of precious stones he has personally discovered. Vanier hopes as he shares the story of Jesus through the words of John to discover a spirituality that gives him the light, the strength, and the love to live with his disabled brothers. As Jesus was committed to healing, Vanier aims to model his life on the great Healer. "The Gospel of John gives some facts about the life of Jesus although every fact leads further into a mystery revealed in a symbolic way that tells us something about who we are called to be. Thus, the Gospel of John is not only about the disciples at the time of Jesus, their growth in faith and trust, and the passages and crises of faith they had to live It is also about the growth in faith and trust of all the followers of Jesus, and the crises and passages we have to go through in order to become beloved disciples." The beautiful meditative poetry of Vanier will urge the readers to sing the song of this Gospel so all the world can hear a new hope and experience joy in sadness and despair. In conclusion, Vanier admits that this Gospel has called Peter and him to see that prayer is to dwell in Jesus and let Him dwell in you. (Thanks to Sr. Irene Hartman OP for this review.) Make the Christian Spirituality Bookstore your starting point for online shopping at Amazon.com. You can buy books, cds, videotapes, software, appliances and many other products at discount prices. As Amazon.com affiliate, we are paid a small fee for purchases originating from our web site. Every little bit helps! http://shalomplace.com/books/index.html - - - Saint of the Week - http://www.americancatholic.org/features/saints/saint.aspx?id=1447 - St. Bridget (1303?-1373): July 23  From age seven on, Bridget had
visions of Christ crucified. Her visions formed the basis for her
activity--always with the emphasis on charity rather than spiritual
favors.She lived her married life in the court of the Swedish king Magnus II. Mother of eight children (the second eldest was St. Catherine of Sweden), she lived the strict life of a penitent after her husband's death. Bridget constantly strove to exert her good influence over Magnus; while never fully reforming, he did give her land and buildings to found a monastery for men and women. This group eventually expanded into an Order known as the Bridgetines (still in existence). In 1350, a year of jubilee, Bridget braved a plague-stricken Europe to make a pilgrimage to Rome. Although she never returned to Sweden, her years in Rome were far from happy, being hounded by debts and by opposition to her work against Church abuses. A final pilgrimage to the Holy Land, marred by shipwreck and the death of her son, Charles, eventually led to her death in 1373. In 1999, she, Saints Catherine of Siena and Edith Stein were named co-patronesses of Europe. - - - Joke of the Week - Dog in the back seat . . . It was the end of the day when I parked my police car in front of the station. As I gathered my equipment, my K-9 partner, Jake, was barking, and I saw a little boy staring in at me. "Is that a dog you got in the back seat there?" he asked. "It sure is," I replied. Puzzled, the boy looked at me and then towards the back of the car. Finally he said, "What'd he do?" - - - Web
Resource of the Week
Politifact - http://www.politifact.com/ Fact Check - http://www.factcheck.org/ The political season inundates in the U.S. inundates us with spin and lies, so much so that I wonder if politicians really think we're so stupid as to not see through their shallow, fallacious reasoning. It turns out that both major political parties are equal-opportunity purveyors of such garbage. How to sort things out? First, be an informed citizen; learn what's really going on. This means watching more than Fox News and MSNBC. Second, if an ad doesn't sound right, check out one of the two web sites listed above. Politifact is a Pulitzer Prize winning site and also a lot of fun with its ratings of True, Half-True, False, and Pants on Fire. It also looks at promises made by politicians and political parties, and how many of these were kept. Want to find out how different analysts and politicans rank on the whole? You can find that out, too, with explanations and evidence to help sort things out. Fact Check has been around longer and has a good, searchable database. It's also a good place to check out these emails that make the rounds for their truthfulness. |
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