Message of 7-30-12
Published: Mon, 07/30/12
A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
Message of the Day
The chief thing is to take the burden on one's shoulders. As you press forward, it soon shakes down and the load is evenly distributed.
- John Bosco -
(The acceptance of necessary suffering is a key to sanity and serenity. What does this mean for you at this time in your life?)
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Lectionary Readings of the Day
http://www.usccb.org/calendar/index.cfm?showLit=1&action=month
Jer 13:1-11; Dt 32:18-21; Mt 13:31-35
R. (see 18a) You have forgotten God who gave you birth.
You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you,
You forgot the God who gave you birth.
When the LORD saw this, he was filled with loathing
and anger toward his sons and daughters.
"I will hide my face from them," he said,
"and see what will then become of them.
What a fickle race they are,
sons with no loyalty in them!"
"Since they have provoked me with their 'no-god'
and angered me with their vain idols,
I will provoke them with a 'no-people';
with a foolish nation I will anger them."
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Reflection on the Gospel
- from Daily Bread
http://www.preacherexchange.com/daily_bread.htm
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.
What was Jesus thinking? Surely he knew what a nuisance mustard was for farmers. A large mustard plant and the birds it attracted could ruin a field. What could that have to do with God's kingdom? Perhaps Jesus is trying to tell us that the kingdom will be opposite of what we expect. Instead of Bigger and More, maybe we need to think small. Jesus consistently held up the value and power of what is small and apparently insignificant. A widow gives her only coin. The shepherd searches for one lost sheep. A huge crowd is fed with a boy's small lunch. Yeast raises a loaf of bread. And a baby, born in a stable, changes the world in ways we are still trying to understand.
Help us to recognize the small ways in which your reign is already in our midst, Eternal God.
Jeanne Lischer
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Spiritual Reading
The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage
by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381)
Thus we shall dwell in the unity of the spirit, in grace and in likeness; and shall always go out to meet God by means of the virtues, and offer up to Him with a simple intention our whole life and all our works; and thus in every work, and ever more and more, we shall increase our likeness. And thus we rise up out of the ground of our single intention, and pass through ourselves and go out to meet God without means, and rest in Him in the abyss of simplicity: there we possess that heritage which has been prepared for us from all eternity. All ghostly life and all works of virtue consist in the Divine likeness and in singleness of intention; and all their supreme rest consists in simplicity above all likeness. Nevertheless, one spirit surpasses another in virtue and in likeness, and each possess its own proper being in itself, according to the degree of its nobleness. And God suffices each one in particular, and each one, according to the measure of his love, seeks God in the ground of his spirit; both here and in eternity.
- Chapter 62: Showing how we should go out to meet God.
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