Message of 7-23-12
Published: Mon, 07/23/12
A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
Message of the Day
The Word both hides and reveals himself in visible forms as much as in the words of Scripture. The visible is the invisible written down. The divine idea, the logos, which produces, develops and attracts to itself every creature, is both silent and self-revelatory in it.
- Olivier Clement, The Roots of Christian Mysticism -
(God is present in everything that exists, and everything that exists reveals God in some manner. Be open to meeting God in new ways today through the medium of creation.)
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Lectionary Readings of the Day
http://www.usccb.org/calendar/index.cfm?showLit=1&action=month
Mi 6:1-4, 6-8; Ps 50:5-6, 8-9, 16-17, 21 and 23; Mt 12:38-42
R. (23b) To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
"Gather my faithful ones before me,
those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice."
And the heavens proclaim his justice;
for God himself is the judge.
"Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,
for your burnt offerings are before me always.
I take from your house no bullock,
no goats out of your fold."
"Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?"
"When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or do you think that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God."
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Reflection on the Gospel
- from Daily Bread
http://www.preacherexchange.com/daily_bread.htm
Only to do the right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.
These lines from the prophet Micah reveal in all their simplicity and beauty what the Lord requires of us. Examples of goodness in our own day surround us: the nurse who drives eight hours to help tornado victims, the child who asks for no presents for himself on his birthday so the money can be used for the homeless, retirees who volunteer at the food pantry or the hospital or the crisis nursery instead of spending their new free time in meaningless leisure activities. By learning to love goodness in others, we are inspired to act in accord with Micah's directive.
O Lord, to love goodness, we pray.
- by Portia Clark
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Spiritual Reading
The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage
by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381)
Now mark how, in each of our works, we shall go out to meet God, and shall increase our likeness unto Him, and shall more nobly possess the fruitive unity. By every good work, how small soever it be, which is directed to God with love and with an upright and single intention, we earn a greater likeness, and eternal life in God. A single intention draws together the scattered powers into the unity of the spirit, and joins the spirit to God. A single intention is end, and beginning, and adornment, of all virtues. A single intention offers to God praise and honour and all virtues: and it pierces and passes through itself, and all the heavens, and all things, and finds God within the simple ground of its own being. That intention is single which aims only at God and in all things only at their connection with God. The single intention casts out hypocrisy and duplicity, and a person must possess it and practise it in all his works above all other things; for it is this which keeps one in the presence of God, clear in understanding, diligent in virtue, and free from outward fear, both now and in the Day of Doom. Singleness of intention is the single eye of which Christ speaks, giving light to the whole body--that is, to the person's works and his whole life--and cleansing it of sin. Singleness of intention is the inward, enlightened, and loving tendency of the spirit; it is the foundation of all ghostliness; it includes in itself faith, hope, and charity, for it trusts in God and is faithful to Him. It casts nature underfoot, it establishes peace, it drives out ghostly discontent, and preserves fulness of life in all the virtues. And it gives peace and hope and boldness toward God, both now and in the Day of Doom.
- Chapter 62: Showing how we should go out to meet God.
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