|
Message of the Day
|
"My belief is that the Sacred speaks to me in the events of my life, in other people's voices, in my own voice expressed in my body, my emotions, my dreams, and in the silence at the center of my sacred being. There is something in us beyond our brains that calls us to fullness and wholeness, or holiness if you will. This is what allows us to be connected to the spiritual realm, an interwoven network that connects us all, whether we recognize it or not."
- Betty Dee Kling, Listening for Voices from the Sacred Center
(How is the calling to fullness/wholeness breaking through in your life at this time? How are you called to respond?) |
|
Lectionary Readings
|
SIR 5:1-8; PS 1:1-4, 6; MK 9:41-50
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the one who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
USCCB Lectionary
|
|
Reflection on the Gospel
|
Jesus used the image of salt to describe how his disciples are to live in the world. As salt purifies, preserves, and produces rich flavor, so the disciple of Christ must be salt in the world of human society to purify, preserve, and bring the flavor of God's kingdom of righteousness, peace, and mercy. What did Jesus mean by the expression "salted with fire" and "salt becoming saltless"? Salt in the ancient world was often put in ovens to intensify the heat. When the salt was burned off and no longer useful it was thrown out on the foot path where it would easily get trodden upon
(Matthew 5:13). Perhaps Jesus wanted to contrast useful
salt and salt which lost its ability to prevent corruption to encourage his disciples to bring the rich flavor of Christ's love, holiness, and righteousness to a world dominated by greed, selfish ambition, and neglect for the weak, poor, and defenseless. Paul the Apostle reminds us that we are called to be "the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life" (2 Corinthians 2:15-16 ). Do you allow the fragrance of Christ's love and truth to influence others through the witness of your life, speech, and actions?
"Lord Jesus, fill me with the fragrance of your love and truth that I may radiate the joy and peace of the gospel wherever I go and with whomever I meet."
DailyScripture.net
|
|
Spiritual Reading
|
The Cloud of Unknowing, by Anonymous A short conceit of the work of this book, treated by question. BUT now thou askest me and sayest, "How shall I think on Himself, and what is He?" and to this I cannot answer thee but thus: "I wot not."
For thou hast brought me with thy question into that same darkness, and into that same cloud of unknowing, that I would thou wert in thyself. For of all other creatures and their works, yea, and of the works of God's self, may a man through grace have fullhead of knowing, and well he can think of them: but of God Himself can no man think. And therefore I would leave all that thing that I can think, and choose to my love that thing that I cannot think. For why; He may well be loved, but not thought. By love may He be gotten and holden; but by thought never. And therefore, although it be good sometime to think of the kindness and the worthiness of God in special, and although it be a light and a part of contemplation: nevertheless yet in this work it shall be cast down and covered with a cloud of forgetting. And thou shalt step above it stalwartly, but Mistily, with a devout and a pleasing stirring of love, and try for to pierce that darkness above thee. And smite upon that thick cloud of unknowing with a sharp dart of longing love; and go not thence for thing that befalleth.
- Chapter 6
|
|
|
|
