Message of the Day
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I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand.
- St. Anselm -
(The perspective of faith opens the mind to understand things beyond the power of rational reflection alone. How do you experience this? Spend some time thanking
God for the gift of faith.)
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Readings of the Day
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ACTS 16:11-15; PS 149:1-6, 9; JN 15:26-16:4
R.
The Lord takes delight in his people.
Sing to the LORD a new song
of praise in the assembly of the faithful.
Let Israel be glad in their maker,
let the children of Zion rejoice in their
king.
Let them praise his name in the festive dance,
let them sing praise to him with timbrel and harp.
For the LORD loves his people,
and he adorns the lowly with victory.
Let the faithful exult in glory;
let them sing for joy upon their couches.
Let the high praises of God be in their throats.
This is the glory of all his faithful. Alleluia.
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Gospel
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I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told
you.
Jesus warned his disciples about people who do not know the Father or him, yet will try to stop them from carrying on Jesus' ministry. These critics think they're doing God's will. The situation reminds me a bit of those who find Pope Francis' approach too radical. They criticize his focus on social teaching without realizing that Jesus emphasized the same. They don't know the social
doctrine of the church, so they call the pope a socialist. While some may think the pope advocates a radical shift in living our faith, his example merely presents continuity in the essence of Jesus' mission.
For the courage to learn and live the church's message of justice and peace, we pray.
Patricia Russell
Daily Bread
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Spiritual Reading
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The Book of Supreme Truth, by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381)
But God
has eternally loved us and established us within His contentment, and if we rightly observe this, our love and our contentment shall be wakened anew. For, in the mutual relations of the Persons in the Godhead, this contentment perpetually renews itself, in a new gushing forth of love, in an ever new embrace within the Unity. And this takes place beyond Time; that is, without before and after, in an eternal NOW. For, in this embrace in the Unity, all things are consummated; and in the gushing
forth of love, all things are wrought; and in the life-giving and fruitful Nature lie the power and possibilities of all things. For in the life-giving and fruitful Nature, the Son is in the Father, and the Father in the Son, and the Holy Ghost in Both. For It is a life-giving and fruitful Unity, which is the home and the beginning of all life and of all becoming. And so all creatures are therein, beyond themselves, one Being and one Life with God, as in their Eternal Origin. But in the
precession of the different Persons, the Son proceeds from the Father, and the Holy Ghost from Both: and it is there that God has made and ordained all creatures according to their proper being, and has re-made man, through His grace and His death, inasmuch as he cleaves to Him. And He has adorned His own with love and with the virtues; and has turned back with them, towards His Origin.
- Chapter 10: Of the mutual contentment of the Divine Persons, and the mutual contentment between God and good people. Amazon.com link
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