Message of the Day
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Character is not built by battling and excitement alone. The harvest is not ripened by the thunderous forces of nature, but by the secret silent invisible forces. So the best qualities of our spiritual lives are matured by quietness, silence and
commonplace.
- A. P. Gouthey
(Only in silence can we discover our deeper thoughts and
feelings, and sense that still small voice of the Spirit. Reduce the unnecessary noise in your life. Make silence a priority.)- share your comments and responses: http://dailyspiritualseed.blogspot.com
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Readings of the Day
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2 SM 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13; PS 3:2-7; MK 5:1-20
R. Lord, rise up and save me.
O LORD, how many are my adversaries!
Many rise up against me!
Many are saying of me,
"There is no salvation for him in God."
But you, O LORD, are my shield;
my glory, you lift up my head!
When I call out to the LORD,
he answers me from his holy mountain.
When I lie down in sleep,
I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.
I fear
not the myriads of people
arrayed against me on every side. USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Gospel
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Suppose the Lord has told him to curse [me]; who then will dare to say,
"Why are you doing this?" King David would never be mistaken as a role model for "family values" today. He pretty well broke every commandment, yet he is revered as one of the greatest biblical rulers. Despite his many weaknesses, David recognized God's presence in every triumph and tragedy. He also
realized that God's message could be delivered through myriad individuals, even those whom he feared or disliked. We often learn life's greatest truths through the unlikeliest of people.
Lord, give me an open mind and an open heart that I might hear your truth amid the many voices that vie for my attention today.
- by Mary Joshi
Daily Bread
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Spiritual Reading
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The Sparkling Stone, by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381) The one who is sent down by God from these heights into the world is full of truth and rich in all virtues. And he seeks not his own but the glory of Him Who has sent him. And hence he is just and truthful in all things, and he possesses a rich and a generous ground, which is set in the richness
of God: and therefore he must always spend himself on those who have need of him; for the living fount of the Holy Ghost, which is his wealth, can never be spent. And he is a living and willing instrument of God, with which God works whatsoever He wills and howsoever He wills; and these works he reckons not as his own, but gives all the glory to God. And so he remains ready and willing to do in the virtues all that God commands, and strong and courageous in suffering and enduring all
that God allows to befall him. And by this he possesses a universal life, for he is ready alike for contemplation and for action, and is perfect in both of them. And none can have this universal life save the God-seeing man; and none can contemplate and enjoy God save he who has within himself the six points, ordered as I have described heretofore. And therefore, all those are deceived who fancy themselves to be contemplative, and yet inordinately love, practice, or possess, some
creaturely thing; or who fancy that they enjoy God before they are empty of images, or that they rest before they enjoy. All such are deceived; for we must make ourselves fit for God with an open heart, with a peaceful conscience, with naked contemplation, without hypocrisy, in sincerity and truth. And then we shall mount up from virtue unto virtue, and shall see God, and shall enjoy Him, and in Him shall become one with Him, in the way which I have shown to you. That this be done in all
of us, so help us God. Amen.
- Chapter 14. Of that common life which comes from the contemplation and fruition of God. Amazon.com link
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