It's that time of year again, when I come to you, hat in hand, requesting support for the Internet Ministry of Heartland Center for Spirituality.  All throughout this week I will have an appeal note at the top of the newsletter, but the rest of Daily Seed will be included below as usual.
  I should tell you from the start that I do not like doing this appeal every year, but it would be poor stewardship not to.  Daily Seed and many other resources we offer through the Internet are made available without fee to encourage participation and utilization.  We do have expenses, however, and this appeal is one way we strive to make ends meet.
  Listed below are a number of support options.  The most direct and beneficial are the donation and paid subscription ones, but the others help as well.  

Thanks for your consideration.

Phil St. Romain

• Donation and voluntary subscription options (including secure online credit card and check payment options.
  
  • http://shalomplace.com/seed/donations.html
• Christian Spirituality Bookstore purchases (including gift cards, electronics and other goods).
  
  • http://shalomplace.com/books
• Book, eBook and/or audio resource purchases.
  
  • http://shalomplace.com/products.html and
    
  • http://shalomplace.com/psrbks.html

We also invite you to help us improve Daily Spiritual Seed by taking an online survey, which you can complete in less than a minute.
- see http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TXKVYRV

The purpose of religion, at any rate, the Christian religion, is not to get you into heaven but to get heaven into you.
  - Frederick Ward Kates (1910-1987), A Moment Between Two Eternities, New York: Harper & Row, 1965

(An old saying has it that "heaven begins on earth, or it does not begin at all." What glimpses of heaven have you noticed lately?)

Ti 1:1-9;   Ps 24:1b-2, 3-4ab, 5-6;    Lk 17:1-6

R. (see 6) Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

The LORD's are the earth and its fullness;
the world and those who dwell in it.
For he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.

Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?
or who may stand in his holy place?
He whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.

He shall receive a blessing from the LORD,
a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks for him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.

Faith in God is the key for removing obstacles and difficulties which keep us from doing his will. We belong to God and our lives are no longer our own. Our joy and privilege is to follow the Lord Jesus and to serve in the power of his love and goodness. The Lord Jesus is ever ready to work in and through us for his glory. For our faith to be effective it must be linked with trust and with obedience - an  active submission to God and a willingness to do whatever he commands. Do you trust in the grace and strength which God freely gives to help us resist temptation and to overcome obstacles in doing his will?

"Lord Jesus, you give us victory over the destructive forces of sin and harmful desires that keep us from doing your will. Give me the strength to always choose what is good and to reject what is wrong. May your love rule my heart that I may forgive those who cause me harm and guide those who need your help."

At times, the inward man performs his introspection simply, according to the fruitive tendency, above all activity and above all virtues, through a simple inward gazing in the fruition of love. And here he meets God without intermediary. And from out the Divine Unity, there shines into him a simple light and this light shows him Darkness and Nakedness and Nothingness. [64] In the Darkness, he is enwrapped and falls into somewhat which is in no wise, even as one who has lost his way. In the Nakedness, he loses the perception and discernment of all things, and is transfigured and penetrated by a simple light. In the Nothingness, all his activity fails him, for he is vanquished by the working of GodÕs abysmal love, and in the fruitive inclination of his spirit he vanquishes God, and becomes one spirit with him. And in this oneness with the Spirit of God, he enters into a fruitive tasting and possesses the Being of God. And he is filled, according to the measure in which he has sunk himself in his essential being with the abysmal delights and riches of God. And from these riches an envelopment and a plenitude of sensible love flow forth into the unity of the higher powers. And from this plenitude of sensible love, a savoury and penetrating satisfaction flows forth into the heart and the bodily powers. And through this inflow the man becomes immovable within, and helpless as regards himself and all his works. And in the deeps of his ground he knows and feels nothing, in soul or in body, but a singular radiance with a sensible well-being and an all-pervading saviour. This is the first way, and it is the way of emptiness; for it makes a man empty of all things, and lifts him up above activity and above all the virtues. And it unites the man with God, and brings about a firm perseverance in the most interior practices which he can cultivate. When, however, any restlessness, or working of the virtues, puts intermediaries, or images, between the inward man and the naked introversion which he desires, then he is hindered in this exercise; for this way consists in a going out, beyond all things, into the Emptiness. This is the first form of the most inward exercise.