Message of 8-20-12

Published: Mon, 08/20/12


A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth


Message of the Day

Free will is not taken away because it is assisted (by grace), but is assisted in order that it not be taken away.
- St. Augustine -

(How does God's grace enable your growth in freedom? Let your heart and mind rest in the freedom of the sons and daughters of God.)

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

Ez 24:15-23;    Dt 32:18-21;    Mt 19:16-22

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

Go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.

This is the only place in the Gospels where a person is directly invited to follow Jesus and yet chooses to walk away, refusing the invitation. Somehow Jesus knew that this man's wealth and possessions were getting in the way of his faithfulness. And so Jesus asked him to give it all away and follow him. He wanted an outward sign of the man's commitment. But the man couldn't do it; he went away sad, Matthew tells us, "for he had many possessions." What gets in the way of our faithfulness?

Help us respond to your challenging invitation, O Christ.

Jeanne Lischer

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Spiritual Reading

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

- The Gift of Knowledge

And if he here exerts himself well, with great zeal, and with a single intention, and fights all that which is opposed to the virtues; this man receives the third gift, which is Knowledge and Discretion. Thus he becomes reasonable and discerning, and knows what to do and what to leave undone, and where he must give and where he must take away. And through simplicity of intention and godly love, this man rests in God above himself in the unity; and he possesses himself in likeness, and he possesses all his works with a greater delight, because he is obedient and submissive to the Father, and has reason and discernment through the Son, and is gentle and merciful through the Holy Ghost. And thus he bears a resemblance unto the Holy Trinity, and he rests in God, through his love and the simplicity of his intention. And herein the whole of the active life consists. Thus a man should exert himself with great zeal, and should follow his single intention with reason and discernment. And he must beware of all that is opposed to the virtues, and must ever bow himself down in humility at the feet of Christ: and in this way he will grow ever more and more in virtue and in resemblance; and if he keeps himself thus he cannot err. Yet according to this way, he still remains in the active life. For if a man practises and clings to the activities of the heart and the diversity of works, more than to the ground and reason of all works; and if he busies himself more with the practice of the sacraments, with their forms and outward symbols, than with the ground and the truth which are signified thereby: so he shall ever remain an outward man. But he shall be saved by his good works and his simplicity of intention.

- Chapter 63: Of the ordering of all the virtues through the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.

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