The fly that touches honey cannot use its wings;
so the soul that clings to spiritual sweetness
ruins its freedom and hinders contemplation.
- St. John of the Cross -

(Nothing can separate us from the love of God, except the things we  prefer more than God.)

Rv 14:1-3, 4b-5;    Ps 24:1-6;    Lk 21:1-4

R.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.

He noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins. 

What would Christian stewardship be without the widow's mite? It would be like Thanksgiving without turkey or Christmas without presents. At the temple that day, Jesus saw some wealthy people putting in their offerings - and then he noticed her. She didn't know anyone ever saw her; when her husband died, she became invisible. She lost her place and her name. But Jesus saw her, and he pointed out her gift to the disciples. Jesus didn't praise her or condemn the wealthy; he simply wanted his disciples to notice her, to compare what she did with what the others were doing. 

Increase in us a willingness to give as you have given to us, O God.

(By Jeanne Lischer)

Now mark this: when one is bare and imageless in his senses, and empty and idle in his higher powers, he enters into rest through mere nature; and this rest may be found and possessed within themselves in mere nature by all creatures, without the grace of God, whenever they can strip themselves of images and of all activity. But in this the loving man cannot find his rest, for charity and the inward touch of God's grace will not be still: and so the inward man cannot long remain in natural rest within himself.