Message of the Day
|
For it is no small thing that God is going to give to those who thus yearn (for God); no half-efforts will get them to the goal. What God is going to give them is not something he has made; he is going to give himself. . . Toil, then, to lay hold of God; yearn long for what you are going to possess forever.
- St. Augustine (How do you experience this yearning for God that the Saint speaks of? How do you seek to have it fulfilled?) |
Readings of the Day
|
ROM 11:29-36; PS 69:30-31, 33-34, 36; LK 14:12-14 R. Lord, in your great love, answer me. But I am afflicted and in pain;
let your saving help, O God, protect me.
I will praise the name of God in song,
and I will glorify him with thanksgiving.
"See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not."
For God will save Zion
and rebuild the cities of Judah.
They shall dwell in the land and own it,
and the descendants of his servants shall inherit it,
and those who love his name shall inhabit it.
USCCB lectionary
|
Reflection on the Gospel
|
Jesus probes our hearts as well. Do you only show favor and generosity to those who will repay you in kind? What about those who do not have the means to repay you - the poor, the sick, and the disadvantaged? Generosity demands a measure of self-sacrifice. It doesn't impoverish, but rather enriches the soul of the giver. True generosity springs from a heart full of mercy and compassion. God loved us first, and our love is a response of gratitude to his great mercy and kindness towards us. We cannot out-give God in his generosity towards us. Do you give freely as Jesus gives without expectation for personal gain or reward?
"Lord Jesus, fill me with gratitude for your boundless love and mercy towards me. And purify my love for others that I may seek their good rather than my own benefit or gain. Free me to love others as you love." - from dailyscripture.net
|
Spiritual Reading
|
The Sparkling Stone, by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381)
And hence the fourth way of distinction; which is, that we feel God and ourselves. Hereby we now find ourselves standing in the Presence of God; and the truth which we receive from the Face of God teaches us that God would be wholly ours and that He wills us to be wholly His. And in that same moment in which we feel that God would be wholly ours, there arises within us a gaping and eager craving which is so hungry and so deep and so empty that, even though God gave all that He could give, if he gave not Himself, we should not be appeased. For, whilst we feel that He has given Himself and yielded Himself to our untrammeled craving, that we may taste of Him in every way that we can desire -- and of this we learn the truth in His sight all that we taste, against all that we lack, is but like to a single drop of water against the whole sea: and this makes our spirit burst forth in fury and in the heat and the restlessness of love. For the more we taste, the greater our craving and our hunger; for the one is the cause of the other. And thus it comes about that we struggle in vain. For we feed upon His Immensity, which we cannot devour, and we yearn after His Infinity, which we cannot attain: and so we cannot enter into God nor can God enter into us, for in the untamed fury of love we are not able to renounce ourselves. And therefore the heat is so unmeasured that the exercise of love between ourselves and God flashes to and fro like the lightning in the sky; and yet we cannot be consumed in its ardour.
- Chapter 10: "How we, though one with God, must eternally remain other than God."
|
|
|
