Message of 9-3-10
Published: Thu, 08/26/10
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
Jesus says, "Cry over your pains, and you will discover that I'm
right there in your tears, and you will be grateful for my presence
in your weakness." Ministry means to help people become grateful
for life even with pain. That gratitude can send into the world
precisely to the places where people are in pain. The minister, the
disciple of Jesus, goes where there is pain not because he is a
masochist or she is a sadist, but because God is hidden in the pain.
- Henri J. M. Nouwen
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LECTIONARY READINGS FOR THE DAY
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
1 Cor 4:1-5; Ps. 37:3-4, 5-6, 27-28, 39-40; Lk 5:33-39
R. (39a) The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.
Trust in the LORD and do good,
that you may dwell in the land and be fed in security.
Take delight in the LORD,
and he will grant you your heart's requests.
Commit to the LORD your way;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will make justice dawn for you like the light;
bright as the noonday shall be your vindication.
Turn from evil and do good,
that you may abide forever;
For the LORD loves what is right,
and forsakes not his faithful ones.
Criminals are destroyed
and the posterity of the wicked is cut off.
The salvation of the just is from the LORD;
he is their refuge in time of distress.
And the LORD helps them and delivers them;
he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
because they take refuge in him.
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MEDITATION ON THE SCRIPTURES
- from
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
It is important for us to remember that humans need time to
discover the truth and to process it. Sometimes we want to dump
the truth on others, and that almost never works out very well.
Through the benefit of reflections by the apostles and many other
saints, and always by the grace of God, we are allowed to piece
together the meaning of the events recorded for us in scripture. In
one sense, this is a new thing for every generation. But in
another sense, we are intimately connected with those who have gone
before us. Standing on the shoulders of giants, so to speak, we
see something truly new was being done through the incarnation,
death, and resurrection of our Lord. The new thing fulfilled the
promises contained in symbols and images from the past, but
reflected a new direction, a new way of living, and a new hope.
As Paul writes, we are "servants of Christ and stewards of the
mysteries of God." To those who have been given much, much is
required. May we have the grace to discern properly how to adapt
to new situations and to transmit our faith to the next generation,
as faithful stewards of the mysteries of God revealed to us in
Christ. And may we be willing to give space - surrounded by our
prayer and our love -- for those near to us who still need to hear
and embrace the truth.
- by Edward Morse
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SPIRITUAL READING
- Fenelon's "Maxims of the Saints"
It does not follow, because the love of ourselves is lost in the
love of God, that we are to take no care, and to exercise no watch
over ourselves. No man will be so seriously and constantly
watchful over himself as he who loves himself IN and FOR God alone.
Having the image of God in himself, he has a motive strong, we
might perhaps say, as that which controls the actions of angels, to
guard and protect it.
It may be thought, perhaps, that this is inconsistent with the
principle in the doctrines of holy living, which requires in the
highest stages of inward experience, to avoid those reflex acts
which consist in self-inspection, because such acts have a tendency
to turn the mind off from God. The apparent difficulty is
reconciled in this way. The holy soul is a soul with God; moving
as God moves; doing as God does; looking as God looks. If,
therefore, God is looking within us, as we may generally learn from
the intimations of His providences, then it is a sign that we are
to look within ourselves. Our little eye, our small and almost
imperceptible ray, must look in, in the midst of the light of His
great and burning eye. It is thus that we may inspect ourselves
without a separation from God.
On the same principle, we may be watchful and careful over our
neighbors; watching them, not in our own time, but in God's time;
not in the censoriousness of nature, but in the kindness and
forbearance of grace; not as separate from God, but in concurrence
with Him.
- Article 12
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