Message of the Day
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If we think of the Holy Spirit only as an impersonal power or influence, then our thought will constantly be, how can I get hold of and use the Holy Spirit; but if we think of Him in the biblical way as a divine Person, infinitely wise, infinitely holy, infinitely tender, then our thought will constantly be, "How can the Holy Spirit get hold of and use me?
- (Reuben Archer) R. A. Torrey (What is your image/understanding of the Holy Spirit? Pray the grace to be open to being used by the Spirit.)
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Readings of the Day
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GN 18:16-33; PS 103:1-4, 8-9, 10-11; MT 8:18-22 R. The Lord is kind and merciful. Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
He pardons all your iniquities,
he heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
he crowns you with kindness and compassion.
Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
He will not always chide,
nor does he keep his wrath forever.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Gospel
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Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles.
Jesus calls us to go beyond obvious expectations of service, justice and love. We are to measure charity and generosity by Jesus' standard of radical love, not by our own limited sense of duty. To love as Jesus loves, we must maintain constant social vigilance and seek the common good. We must operate out of a distinctive sense of justice and fairness that promotes the dignity of each human being. We must act in a way that shares with every person our belief that all of God's children have incomparable worth. We cannot forget the fundamental imperative to respond in love and justice to the least in our midst.
Lord, help us to be your instruments to build a just and loving world, we pray. - by Jeanne Lischer
My Daily Bread
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Spiritual Reading
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The Sparkling Stone, by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381)
Now the Prophet, and also the Preacher, say: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; but by this is meant that fear which is exercised upon the right side, where one considers the loss of eternal blessedness, for this fear arises from the natural tendency which every man has in himself to be blessed, that is, to see God. And therefore, even though a man may be faithless to God, yet whenever he truly observes himself from within, he feels himself to be leaning out from himself towards that blessedness which is God. And this blessedness he fears to lose; for he loves himself better than God, and he loves blessedness wholly for his own sake. And therefore he dare not trust in God. And yet this is that Fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom and is a law to the unfaithful servants of God: for it compels a man to leave sin, and to strive after virtue, and to do good deeds, and these things prepare a man from without to receive the grace of God and become a faithful servant.
But from that very hour in which, with God's help, he can overcome his selfhood -- that is to say when he is so detached from himself that he is able to leave in the keeping of God everything of which he has need, through doing this he is so well pleasing to God that God bestows upon him His grace. And, through grace, he feels true love: and love casts out doubt and fear, and fills the man with hope and trust, and thus he becomes a faithful servant, and means and loves God in all that he does. Behold, this is the difference between the faithful servant and the hireling. - Chapter 6: "On the difference between the hirelings and the faithful servants of God."
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