Message of the Day
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We never become truly spiritual by sitting down and wishing to become so. You must undertake something so great that you cannot accomplish it unaided.
- Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), Life and letters of Phillips Brooks, v. III
(What might this "something so great" be for you? Ask the
Spirit to help you make a contribution unto its accomplishment this day.)
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Readings of the Day
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IS 1:10-17; PS 50:8-9, 16BC-17, 21, 23; MT
10:34-11:1
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
"Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,
for your burnt offerings are before me always.
I take from your house no bullock,
no goats out of your fold."
"Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your
mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?"
"When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or do you think you that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show the
salvation of God."
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Gospel
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Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan's plea, defend the widow.
God takes no pleasure in empty gestures. We must back our words with actions of love and solidarity.
Justice demands that we work together for the common good and well-being of all. True Christians are committed to ensuring that every person -- no exceptions, no conditions -- has access to the basic necessities that allow for human decency: food, clothing, shelter, education, work, health care and safety. We must reach out to those in the developing world as well as those in our communities, and stand up to the people and practices that deny others what should inherently be their due.
Give us the strength, Lord, to help others shoulder their burdens, 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) Further, Christ prayed thus, that He might be in us and we in Him. This we find in the Gospel, in many places. And this is the union without means; for the Love of God is not only outpouring, but it also draws us inwards, into the Unity. And those who feel and are aware of
this, become inward and enlightened men, and their highest powers are uplifted, above all exercises, into their naked being: and there, above reason, the powers become simplified in their essence, and so they are full and overflowing. For in that simplicity, the spirit finds itself united with God without means; and this union, with the exercise which belongs to it, shall endure eternally, as I have told you heretofore.
Further, Christ uttered His most sublime prayer, namely, that His beloved might be made perfect in one, as He is one with the Father: not one as He is with the Father one single Divine Substance, for this is impossible to us; but so one, and in such a unity, as He is one fruition and one beatitude with the Father without distinction in Essential Love. Those who are thus united with God in this threefold way, in them the prayer of Christ has been fulfilled.Yet all loving spirits are one fruition and one blessedness with God without distinction;
for that beatific state, which is the fruition of God and of all His beloved, is so simple and onefold that therein neither Father, nor Son, nor Holy Ghost, is distinct according to the Persons, neither is any creature. But all enlightened spirits are here lifted up above themselves into a wayless fruition, which is an abundance beyond all the fulness that any creature has ever received or shall ever receive. For there all uplifted spirits are, in their superessence, one fruition and one
beatitude with God without distinction; and there this beatitude is so onefold that no distinction can enter into it. And this was prayed for by Christ when He besought His Father in heaven that all His beloved might be made perfect in one, even as He is one with the Father through the Holy Ghost: even so He prayed and besought that He in us and we in Him and His heavenly Father might be one in fruition through the Holy Ghost. And this I think the most loving prayer which Christ ever made for
our blessedness.Yet all loving spirits are one fruition and one blessedness with God without distinction; for that beatific state, which is the fruition of God and of all His beloved, is so simple and onefold that therein neither Father, nor Son, nor Holy Ghost, is distinct according to the Persons, neither is any creature. But all enlightened spirits are here lifted up above themselves into a wayless fruition, which is an abundance beyond all the fulness that any creature has ever received or
shall ever receive. For there all uplifted spirits are, in their superessence, one fruition and one beatitude with God without distinction; and there this beatitude is so onefold that no distinction can enter into it. And this was prayed for by Christ when He besought His Father in heaven that all His beloved might be made perfect in one, even as He is one with the Father through the Holy Ghost: even so He prayed and besought that He in us and we in Him and His heavenly Father might be one in
fruition through the Holy Ghost. And this I think the most loving prayer which Christ ever made for our blessednes
- Chapter 13: Of the threefold prayer of Christ: that we might be one with God. Amazon.com link
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