Message of 9-17-12

Published: Mon, 09/17/12


A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth


Message of the Day

We are at liberty to be real, or to be unreal. We may be true or false, the choice is ours. We may wear now one mask and now another, and never, if we so desire, appear with our own true face. But we cannot make these choices with impunity. Causes have effects, and if we lie to ourselves and to others, then we cannot expect to find truth and reality whenever we happen to want them.
- Thomas Merton, in New Seeds of Contemplation

(What masks do you wear?  How can you tell when you are wearing them?  Pray the grace to be willing to be true to the person God created you to be.)
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Lectionary Readings of the Day
   http://www.usccb.org/calendar/index.cfm?showLit=1&action=month

1 Cor 11:17-26, 33;    Ps 40:7-10, 17;    Lk 7:1-10

R. (1 Cor 11:26b) Proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes again.

Sacrifice or oblation you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Burnt offerings or sin offerings you sought not;
then said I, "Behold I come."

"In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,
To do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!"

I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.

May all who seek you
exult and be glad in you
And may those who love your salvation
say ever, "The LORD be glorified."

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

I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.

My pastor calls this "The Year of the Book" because at Mass most of us can't let our eyes stray too far from the written text without slipping into the old familiar language. At first I found most difficult those words we say just before receiving holy Communion. The old words, "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you," were so intimate, and the new reference to the centurion's humility and great faith didn't move me so much until I came across a lovely rendering in the song "Come into My House" by William Gokelman and David Kauffman. I recommend this worthy piece of music. Whatever we think about the efficacy of the new translation, there is an attitude that we should try to bring to worship. St. Paul makes this clear in today's first reading as he chides the Christians in Corinth for their divisions when they assemble.

Lord, only say the word and my soul shall be healed.

- 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 Counsel

And therefore God gives him the sixth gift, which is the spirit of Understanding. This gift we have already likened to a fountain with three rills, for it establishes our spirit in the unity, it reveals Truth and it brings forth a wide and general love. This gift may also be likened to sunshine, for by its shining the sun fills the air with a simple brightness and lights all forms, and shows the distinctions of all colours. And thereby it shows forth its own power; and its heat is common to the whole world, bringing forth fruits and useful things. So likewise does the first ray of this gift bring about simplicity within the spirit. And this simplicity is penetrated by a particular radiance even as the air of the heavens by the splendour of the sun. For the grace of God, which is the ground of all gifts, maintains itself essentially like to a simple light in our potential understanding: and, by means of this simple light our spirit is made stable and onefold and enlightened, and fulfilled of grace and Divine gifts: and here it is like unto God through grace and Divine love. And since the spirit is now like unto God, and means and loves God alone above all gifts, it will no longer be satisfied by likeness, nor by a created brightness; for it has both by nature and above nature a primal tendency towards the Abysmal Being from which it has flowed forth. And the Unity of the Divine Being eternally draws back all likeness into its unity. And here the spirit is enkindled into fruition, and it melts into God as into its eternal rest; for the grace of God is to God even as the sunshine is to the sun, and the grace of God is the means and the way which leads us to God. And for this reason it shines within us in simplicity, and makes us deiform, that is, like unto God. And this likeness perpetually merges itself in God, and dies in God, and becomes one with God, and remains one, for charity makes us one with God, and causes us to remain one and to dwell in the One. Nevertheless we keep the eternal likeness in the light of grace or of glory; thereby we possess ourselves actively in charity and in the virtues. And we keep the union with God, above our activity, in the nakedness of our spirit, in the Divine light, where we possess God in rest, above all virtues. For charity in the likeness must ever be at work; and union with God in fruitive love must ever be at rest. And this is the working of love; for in one "Now" and at the same time love works and rests in its Beloved. And the one is strengthened by the other; for the higher the love, the greater the rest; and the greater the rest, the deeper the love; for the one lives in the other, and whosoever loves not, rests not, and whosoever rests not, loves not. And yet, some good men think that they neither love nor rest in God; and this thought itself comes from love. Because they desire to love more than they can, it seems to them that their love falls short. And yet in this work they taste love and rest; for none save the resigned, emptied and enlightened man can understand how one may love in labour and rest in fruition. Yet every lover is one with God in rest, and like unto God in the works of love; for God in His most high nature, of which we bear the likeness, dwells in fruition in eternal rest according to His Essential Unity, but works in eternal activity according to the Trinity: and the one is the perfection of the other; for rest abides in the Unity, and work in the Trinity. And thus they dwell together throughout eternity. And, therefore, if a man is to taste of God, he must love and if he will love, then he may taste. But if he lets himself be satisfied with other things, he shall not be able to taste what God is. And therefore we must possess ourselves in simplicity, in virtue, and in likeness, and God above ourselves through love in rest and unity. And this is the first way in which the man who is common to all is made stable.
- Chapter 63: Of the ordering of all the virtues through the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.

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