Message of 11-2-12
Published: Fri, 11/02/12
A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
Message of the Day
To force the mind to pray, and to persevere in the practice of prayer, will cause it to pray with joy and with repose; but the force must proceed from our own will, the joy and repose will follow of grace.
- Macarius [4th C.], "Sayings," 10 -
(The more we turn our attention to God, bringing it back every time it strays, the stronger we become spiritually, and the more joyful as well. Take some time in your prayer to simply look toward God; bring your gaze back again and again when it strays.)
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Lectionary Readings of the Day
http://www.usccb.org/calendar/index.cfm?showLit=1&action=month
Wis 3:1-9; Ps 23:1-6; Rom 5:5-11; Jn 6:37-40
R. (1) The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
He guides me in right paths
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
with your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
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Reflection on the Scriptures
- http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
On this All Souls Day, consolation pours into the lost places of our hearts: "The souls of the just are in the hand of God." "I fear no evil for you are with me." And most poignantly, "And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day."
In the Lord, nothing, no one is lost. The precious gift of faith, the fruit of Jesus' sacrificial death and resurrection, assures us that in him, all that is good, precious and treasured remains--for eternity. Even for those whose ending left behind "unfinished business," our faith knows the love of God which strengthens and purifies the good and burnishes away all that gets in the way of perfect love and communion.
We pray today that this communion may be abundant and that through the gift of faith and in the sacramental life, we may be consoled and strengthened until we are fully reunited with those whom we love.
- by Rev. Richard Gabuzda
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Spiritual Reading
On Cleaving to God
by St. Albert the Great
While we should strive for spiritual perfection of mind, purity and peace in God, it will be found to be not a little beneficial to this that we should return quietly into the inner secret place of the mind in the face of everything said, thought or done to us. There, withdrawn from everything else and completely recollected within ourselves, we can place ourselves in the knowledge of the truth before us and undoubtedly discover and understand that it does us absolutely no good, and rather the contrary, when we are praised or honoured by others while we recognise by the knowledge of the truth about ourselves within that we are blameworthy and guilty. And just as nothing is any help if externally people praise someone if his conscience internally accuses him, in the same way on the contrary it does a man no harm to be despised, maligned and persecuted when he remains internally just as innocent, blameless and without fault. On the contrary he has all the more good reason to rejoice in the Lord with patience, in peace and silence. After all no adversity can do any harm where evil is not in control, and just as no evil goes unpunished, so no good goes unrewarded. Nor should we wish a reward with hypocrites or expect and receive profit from men, but from the Lord God alone, not in the present, but in the future, and not in fleeting time, but in eternity.
- Chapter 14. That we should seek the verdict of our conscience in every decision.
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