Message of the Day
|
|
Lord, forgive-That I have dwelt too long on Golgotha,
My wracked eyes fixed
On Thy poor, tortured human form upon the cross,
And have not seen
The lilies in Thy dawn-sweet garden bend
To anoint Thy risen feet; nor known the ways
Thy radiant spirit walks abroad with men.
- Pauline Schroy
|
Readings of the Day
|
ACTS 6:8-15; PS 119:23-27, 29-30; JN 6:22-29 R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Though princes meet and talk against me,
your servant meditates on your statutes.
Yes, your decrees are my delight;
they are my counselors.
I declared my ways, and you answered me;
teach me your statutes.
Make me understand the way of your precepts,
and I will meditate on your wondrous deeds.
Remove from me the way of falsehood,
and favor me with your law.
The way of truth I have chosen;
I have set your ordinances before me.
USCCB lectionary
|
Reflection on the Gospel
|
Stephen, filled with grace and power, was working great wonders and signs among the people.
In the early days of the church, Christian martyrs were remembered on the anniversary of their death. Even Protestants will recognize some of them: St. Francis, St. Jude, St. Patrick. Not everyone is familiar with Stephen. He was one of seven men chosen by the apostles to distribute food and other necessities to the poor. He practiced his faith with passion and conviction; today he'd be chair of the Mission Committee, regularly encouraging church folk to remember the poor, vulnerable and forgotten. Stephen's preaching and service brought him into conflict with Jewish leaders, setting the stage for increasing hostility between Jews and followers of Jesus.
Fill us with grace and power, Lord. - by Jeanne Lischer
My Daily Bread
|
Spiritual Reading
|
The Sparkling Stone, by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381) Further, you must know that if this spiritual person would now become a God-seeing man, he needs must have three other things. The first is the feeling that the foundation of his being is abysmal, and he should possess it in this manner; the second is that his inward exercise should be wayless; the third is that his indwelling should be a divine fruition.
Now understand, you who would live in the spirit, for I am speaking to no one else. The union with God which a spiritual man feels, when the union is revealed to the spirit as being abysmal -- that is, measureless depth, measureless height, measureless length and measureless breadth -- in this manifestation the spirit perceives that through love it has plunged itself into the depth and has ascended into the height and escaped into the length; and it feels itself to be wandering in the breadth, and to dwell in a knowledge which is ignorance. And through this intimate feeling of union, it feels itself to be melting into the Unity; and, through dying to all things, into the life of God. And there it feels itself to be one life with God. And this is the foundation, and the first point, of the God-seeing life.
- Chapter Three: "Through Three Things A Person Becomes God-Seeing"
|
|
|
