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Much that was called religion has carried an unconscious attitude of hostility toward life. True religion must teach that life is filled with joys pleasing to the eye of God, that knowledge without action is empty. All
must see that the teaching of religion by rules and rote is largely a hoax. The proper teaching is recognized with ease. You can know it without fail because it awakens within you the sensation which tells you this is
something you have always known.
- The Orange Catholic Bible Commentaries -
(Do your religious beliefs affirm the goodness of creation, including yourself? Does is help you to live life more fully? Is your God a
good God? Check yourself to see. Such life-affirming convictions are of the mind of Christ.)
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Ez 47:1-2, 8-9, 12; Ps 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9; 1 Cor 3:9c-11, 16-17; Jn 2:13-22
R. (5) The waters of the river gladden the city of God, the holy dwelling of the Most High! God is our refuge and our strength,
an ever-present help in distress.
Therefore, we fear not, though the earth be shaken
and mountains plunge into the depths of the sea.
There is a stream whose runlets gladden the city of God,
the holy dwelling of the Most High.
God is in its midst; it shall not be disturbed;
God will help it at the break of dawn.
The LORD of hosts is with us;
our stronghold is the God of Jacob.
Come! behold the deeds of the LORD,
the astounding things he has wrought on earth. USCCB Lectionary
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Today we celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. Constantine built it in the fourth century and the Church has been celebrating this on November the 9th at least since the twelfth century. This is a day to remember our unity with the Chair of Peter and the mother church. However, if we look at the lectionary readings for today, they challenge us to look beyond physical structures, even important, beautiful ones, and meditate upon our call to be holy temples of God.
A temple is to be a sanctuary, a holy place. From that temple should flow love, joy, peace, healing, and holiness. Ezekiel "saw" such a temple. Water flows out of it. That water makes salt water fresh and causes living things to multiply. Trees along the river produce abundant fruit and their leaves are used for healing. This image of God's temple reminds me of Abraham. When Abraham lives by faith, everything he touches turns to gold. People are blessed simply because Abraham and his family live in the neighborhood. Joseph is a teenager locked up in prison for no good reason. Yet, from that prison, the water flows until the whole earth is blessed through him. The psalmist tells us how this can be. The temple is the city of God, the holy dwelling of the Most High. The waters that flow out of the temple to enliven the earth first gladden the city of God. St. Bernard said it well: "You cannot be a channel if you are not first a reservoir." If God's temple, be it Abraham, Joseph, or you and me, has a deep reservoir of faith, then that water will flow out and fulfill the promise to Abraham that all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. We do not produce the water; we are "instruments of his peace."
- by George Butterfield Creighton Online Ministries
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On Cleaving to God, by St. Albert the Great
It is clear therefore that nothing is greater, and nothing better than to enter into the inner secret place of the mind always and in every tribulation and occurrence, and there to call upon the Lord Jesus Christ himself, our helper in temptations and tribulations, and to humble ourselves there by confession of sin, and praise God and Father himself, the giver of correction and the giver of consolation. Above all one should accept everything, in general and individually, in oneself or in others, agreeable or disagreeable, with a prompt and confident spirit, as coming from the hand of his infallible Providence or the order he has arranged.
- Chapter 14. That we should seek the verdict of our conscience in every decision.
Paperback (Kindle edition available)
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