Message of 8-27-12

Published: Mon, 08/27/12


A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth


Message of the Day

Christianity became the greatest moral and political revolution in the history of the human race. It . . . preached the equality of human souls--the true basis for all other equalities, political, social and economic.
- Otto Rank -

(The immeasurable value of the individual person is at the cornerstone of Christian moral theology. How does this principle influence your own thinking?)

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

2 Thes 1:1-5, 11-12;    Ps 96:1-5;    Mt 23:13-22

R. (3) Proclaim God's marvelous deeds to all the nations.

Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his name.

Announce his salvation, day after day.
Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.

For great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
awesome is he, beyond all gods.
For all the gods of the nations are things of nought,
but the LORD made the heavens.

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Reflection on the Gospel
- from Daily Bread
  http://www.preacherexchange.com/daily_bread.htm

Woe to you, blind guides!

Jesus has patience with all kinds of sin except one -- hypocrisy. He doesn't have much use for folks who pretend to be better than they are, especially if they burden others with their righteous judgments. One does not have to be a flagrant sinner to counsel sinners, or be sick to heal others, but it does help if we recognize that "there but for the grace of God go I." Today we remember St. Monica, who, in her youth, had a drinking problem. Who better to mother Augustine, that youthful carouser, and pray for his conversion than this woman who had overcome alcoholism?

We pray Paul's prayer for the church in Thessalonica: That our God may make us worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith.

- Paige Byrne Shortal

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Spiritual Reading

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

- The Gift of Strength

And therefore, if one wishes to come nearer to God, and to exalt his practice and his life, he must proceed from the works to their reason, and from the forms to the truth; thereby he shall become master of his works, and shall know truth, and shall come into the inward life. And God gives him the fourth gift, which is the spirit of Strength: and thus he shall be able to overcome joy and grief, profit and loss, hope and care in earthly things, together with all kinds of hindrances and all multiplicity. And thus he becomes free and detached from all creatures. When a person has become free from all creaturely images, he is master of himself, and easily and without labour becomes inward and recollected; and turns freely and without hindrance to God, with fervent devotion, with lofty desire, with thanksgiving and praise, and with a single intention. Thus he enters into fruition of all his deeds and his whole life, inward and outward; for he stands before the throne of the Holy Trinity, and often receives inward consolation and sweetness from God. For he who serves at such a table with thanksgiving and praise, and with inward reverence, often drinks of the wine, and often eats of that which is left, and of the crumbs which fall from the Lord's table: and he continually possesses inward peace, through the singleness of his intention. And if he will abide steadfastly before God in thanksgiving and praise, and with uplifted purpose, the spirit of Strength is doubled within him; for then he no longer loses himself in bodily desires, in longings after consolation or sweetness, nor in any other gift of God, nor in rest and peace of the heart. But he will forego all gifts and every consolation, if so be that he may find Him Whom he loves. In this way he is strong who abandons and overcomes the unrest of the heart and earthly things; and doubly strong is he who also foregoes and overpasses every consolation and heavenly gift. Thus a man transcends all creatures, and possesses himself, powerful and free, through the gift of spiritual Strength.

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

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