Holy Spirit, Spirit of Truth, you are the reward of the saints, the comforter of souls, light in the darkness, riches to the poor, treasure to lovers, food for the hungry, comfort to those who are wandering; to sum up, you are the one in whom all treasures are contained.
- St. Mary Magdalene dei Pazzi -

(Come Holy Spirit . . . Come . . . )

RU 1:1, 3-6, 14-16, 22;    PS 146:5-10;    MT 22:34-40

R. Praise the Lord, my soul!

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD, his God,
Who made heaven and earth,
the sea and all that is in them.

The LORD keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.

The LORD gives sight to the blind.
The LORD raises up those who were bowed down;
The LORD loves the just.
The LORD protects strangers.

The fatherless and the widow he sustains,
but the way of the wicked he thwarts.
The LORD shall reign forever;
your God, O Zion, through all generations. Alleluia.







There are things that evoke an identity, such as the national anthem or the colors of the national flag. Israel's national identity was, at its core, a religious identity clearly evoked in the Shemá Israel -hear, O Israel [Dt. 6:4-5] quoted by Jesus, himself a Jew, in today's gospel reading. A devout Jew would recite the Shemá  upon rising in the morning and quite likely before retiring at night. It remains today an identity quite engraved in the heart of a devout Jewish person.

The Shemá is truly a call to wholeheartedness -with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind - and as such it should also be engraved in our own hearts. God's call, which is also a call to prioritize our loves, is never a call to mediocrity.

Yes, there is in God's calling a diversity that corresponds to the diversity of persons, indeed to the uniqueness of each person. Unfortunately this diversity of callings/vocations is at times misread as a diversity in the expected degree of wholeheartedness in the response, as if priests/brothers/ sisters were called to a wholehearted response, while the rest of the baptized were called to "muddle through" as best they can.

Baptism is the seed of a calling that will develop as the person grows up and to the extent that such a calling is owned and embraced -not automatically. As through prayerful reflection on our lives we recognize both our giftedness and how it fits in our life context, we try to see in that the path the Lord is inviting us to follow, precisely in order to love your neighbor as yourself, the second commandment the Lord says is like it (like the  Shemá). Then our response, which we already desire to be wholehearted, becomes concretized in marriage, priesthood, religious life, medicine, law, nursing, teaching... The difference among vocations lies not on the side of the expected response, but on the side of the diverse calling we are expected to respond to wholeheartedly.

- by Luis Rodriguez, S.J.

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

- from Dark Night of the Soul

Bk 1, Ch 10  #5. When the soul desires to remain in inward ease and peace, any operation and affection or attention wherein it may then seek to indulge will distract it and disquiet it and make it conscious of aridity and emptiness of sense. 

#6. By not hindering the operation of infused contemplation that God is bestowing upon it, it can receive this with more powerful abundance, and cause its spirit to be enkindled to burn with the love which this dark and secret contemplation brings with it and sets firmly in the soul. For contemplation is naught else than a secret, peaceful and loving infusion from God which, if it be permitted, enkindles the soul with the spirit of love.

- compiled by James and Tyra Arraj