(Spiritual life . . . ) is the silence of our whole being in compunction and adoration before God, in the habitual realization that He is everything and we are nothing, that He is the Center to which all things tend, and to Whom all our actions must be directed. That our life and strength proceed from Him, that both in life and in death we depend entirely on Him.
- Thomas Merton -

(Let these words be expressed as a prayer, requesting of God that you realize the truths they proclaim.)

JER 20:10-13;    PS 18:2-3A, 3BC-4, 5-6, 7;    JN 10:31-42

R. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.

I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.

My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.

The breakers of death surged round about me,
the destroying floods overwhelmed me;
The cords of the nether world enmeshed me,
the snares of death overtook me.

In my distress I called upon the LORD
and cried out to my God;
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears. 





We too easily forget what the letter to the Hebrews tells us: Jesus was human like us in all things save sin. He had had to learn His Father's will in the same way we do - by prayer and by trial and error - in this case by going up against those in power. His hope, always, was that they would listen and change. But, failing that, His fate was pretty much sealed. He was a troublemaker. That's what's behind the many gospel passages that say "They sought ways to put Him to death," a sentiment prefigured in today's reading from Jeremiah.

We believe that Jesus' victory was won on the cross, that in his death God is enthroned not just as "King of the Jews" but as King of all the world. But that Kingship must continually be made our own in every generation. As the body of Christ, who lives on in the Church, we have the same Christ-duty to speak prophetically to power. Like Jesus 2000 years ago, we have ample reason today to say: "This is not the way God wants the world to be run . . . Change . . . Repent!"

Jesus gives us the needed courage . . .

- by Robert P. Heaney, Ph.D.

Selected Quotes from St. John of the Cross on the Journey of the Soul to God by Contemplation

- from Ascent of Mt. Carmel

Bk. 2. Ch. 3. #4. Faith is a dark night for man, but in this very way it gives him light.

Bk. 2. Ch. 4. #2. Like a blind man he must lean on dark faith, accept it for his guide and light, and rest on nothing of what he understands, tastes, feels, or imagines. 

#5. To reach the supernatural bounds a person must depart from his natural bounds and leave self far off in respect to his interior and exterior limits in order to mount from a low state to the highest.

- compiled by James and Tyra Arraj