Message of 8-31-12

Published: Fri, 08/31/12


A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth


Message of the Day

"'Lo, I am with you always," means
when you look for God,
God is in the look of your eyes,
in the thought of looking, nearer to you than your self,
or things that have happened to you.
There's no need to go outside.
Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself.
- Rumi -

(The desire for God is itself an evidence of Grace at work, and in the looking for God, they eyes of the mind and heart are transformed to see with God's own seeing. Let yourself sink into the marvel of this process.)

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

1 Cor 1:17-25;    Ps 33:1-2, 4-5, 10-11;    Mt 25:1-13

R. (5) The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

Exult, you just, in the LORD;
praise from the upright is fitting.
Give thanks to the LORD on the harp;
with the ten stringed lyre chant his praises.

For upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.

The LORD brings to nought the plans of nations;
he foils the designs of peoples.
But the plan of the LORD stands forever;
the design of his heart, through all generations.

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

I have always heard today's gospel, one of several parables at the end of Matthew's work, as a reference to the "final judgment", but I was deeply inspired by Robert Farrar Capon's exegesis (See The Parables of Judgment for a very rich explanation of this wonderful parable). At first read, it seems the foolish  virgins are the ones who trust, without all the neurotic planning and arrangements of the others. But who is ready when the Bridegroom comes?  Capon suggests it is only the wise virgins who have the flasks of oil, who "have the faith that will get them through their lives in solid contact with the presently unseeable and unknowable Bridegroom." They are the ones who stand in readiness.

Standing in readiness is not about having my "house in order" when I die.  It is about doing a life trusting in God, knowing that God has loved me into existence and that I am/we are God's own.  "If (God) has already done it all for me already, why shouldn't I live as if I trusted (God)?" (Capon). I stand in readiness, trusting in God, ready to act, when the unexpected hits.... the loss of employment or accidental death of a family member,  a devastating addiction or painful divorce, a raging flood in our community, or pettiness and negativity in the workplace. Why shouldn't we live as if we trusted in God?

- by Diane Jorgensen

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Spiritual Reading

On Cleaving to God
     by St. Albert the Great

All that is said above and whatever is necessary for salvation cannot be better, more immediately and more securely achieved than by love, through which whatever is lacking of what is necessary for salvation  can be made good. In love we possess the fullness of all good and the  realisation of our highest longing is not denied us. After all it is  love alone by which we turn back to God, are changed into God, cleave  to God, and are united to God in such a way that we become one spirit  with him, and are by him and through him made blessed here by grace  and hereafter in glory. Now love is such that it cannot rest except  in the beloved, but it does when it wins the beloved in full and  peaceful possession. For love, which itself is charity, is the way of  God to men and the way of man to God. God cannot house where there is  no love. So if we have love, we have God, for God is love.

- Chapter 12. How powerful the love of God is.

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