Message of 9-3-12
Published: Mon, 09/03/12
A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
Message of the Day
The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another and all involved in one another.
- Thomas Merton -
(Are you awake to this sense of connection with other people, creation, and God? Pray the grace to grow in this awareness.)
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Lectionary Readings of the Day
http://www.usccb.org/calendar/index.cfm?showLit=1&action=month
1 Cor 2:1-5; Ps 119:97-102; Lk 4:16-30
R. (97) Lord, I love your commands.
How I love your law, O LORD!
It is my meditation all the day.
Your command has made me wiser than my enemies,
for it is ever with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers
when your decrees are my meditation.
I have more discernment than the elders,
because I observe your precepts.
From every evil way I withhold my feet,
that I may keep your words.
From your ordinances I turn not away,
for you have instructed me.
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Reflection on the Gospel
- from Daily Bread
http://www.preacherexchange.com/daily_bread.htm
The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.
Today in the United States and Canada we celebrate Labor Day, a day to honor workers and to thank God for the opportunity to perform meaningful work. Labor Day is a good time to remember those who do menial jobs that are unappreciated and underpaid but vitally important: those who care for the elderly, who feed them and bathe them; those who take care of our waste, who collect garbage or work under the streets in the sewers; those who work in the fields and harvest our food, often under fear of deportation.
Lord, especially for those struggling to find work, we pray.
- Portia Clark
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Spiritual Reading
The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage
by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381)
- The gift of counsel
When, therefore, no creature can either overcome or impede a man from persisting in his single and upward-striving intention, and when through this Strength he is steadfast in praising God, seeking and meaning God above all His gifts, then God bestows upon him the fifth gift, which is the gift of Counsel In this gift the Father draws the man inwardly, and calls him to His right hand, with the chosen in His unity. And the Son says in ghostly wise within him: Follow Me to My Father: one thing is needful." And the Holy Ghost makes the heart expand and flame up in fiery love. And thence comes the life of loving tumult and inward restlessness; for, in him who listens to this counsel, there arises a storm of love, and nothing can satisfy him save God alone. And therefore he abandons himself and all things, that he may find Him in Whom he lives and in Whom all things are one. Here the man should have God in mind in a simple way, and should master himself by means of the reason, and should renounce all self-will, and should await in freedom the unity which he desires, until the day when it is God's pleasure to give it. Thus the spirit of Counsel works in him in two ways: for that man is great, and follows the precept and counsel of God, who abandons himself and all things, and says, with an insatiable, impetuous and burning love: Thy Kingdom come. But that man is greater still, and follows still better the counsel of God, who overcomes his own self-will, and renounces it in love, and says unto God with reverent submission: Thy Will be done in all things and not my will. When Christ our dear Lord approached His passion, He said those very words unto His Father, in humble abnegation of Himself; and they were to Him the most happy, and to us the most wholesome, and to the Father the most lovable, and to the devil the most terrible, words which Christ ever spoke; for, by His renunciation of self-will according to His manhood, we are all saved. In this way the will of God now becomes to the loving and humble man the highest joy, and the greatest desire of his ghostly feelings: even though this will should lead him to hell, which is impossible. And here nature is cast down into the depths, and God is exalted most highly; and this man becomes capable of receiving all the gifts of God; for he has denied himself, and has renounced his own self, and has given all for all. And he therefore asks nothing and wills nothing but that which God wishes to give him. That which God wills, this is his joy; and he who surrenders himself to God in love is the most free of all men living. He lives without care, for God cannot lose that which is His.
- Chapter 63: Of the ordering of all the virtues through the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.
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