Message of 8-20-10
Published: Sat, 08/14/10
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
I implore you in God's name, not to think of Him as hard to
please, but rather as generous beyond all that you can ask or think.
- Abbé de Tourville (1842-1903), "Letters of Direction"
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LECTIONARY READINGS FOR THE DAY
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Ez 37:1-14; Ps. 107:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9; Mt 22:34-40
R. (1) Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.
Let the redeemed of the LORD say,
those whom he has redeemed from the hand of the foe
And gathered from the lands,
from the east and the west, from the north and the south.
They went astray in the desert wilderness;
the way to an inhabited city they did not find.
Hungry and thirsty,
their life was wasting away within them.
They cried to the LORD in their distress;
from their straits he rescued them.
And he led them by a direct way
to reach an inhabited city.
Let them give thanks to the LORD for his mercy
and his wondrous deeds to the children of men,
Because he satisfied the longing soul
and filled the hungry soul with good things.
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MEDITATION ON THE SCRIPTURES
- from
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
As N.T. Wright says in his wonderful book, Surprised by Hope, the
bodily resurrection of Jesus is . . . "the foundation for a renewed
way of life in and for the world" (emphasis added). St. Paul, in
concluding his exposition on the resurrection (1 Cor 15:58) doesn't
say "Look forward to the great future that awaits us when we die."
Rather, he says: "Keep firm, always full of energy for the Lord's
work, being sure that in the Lord none of your labors is wasted."
"Labors" not pieties. We have work to do.
Wright concludes his book by paraphrasing Paul: " . . . every deed
done in Christ and by the Spirit, every work of true creativity -
doing justice, making peace, healing families . . . seeking and
winning true freedom - is an early event in the long history of
things that implement Jesus' own resurrection and anticipate the
final new creation." Such deeds "act as signposts of hope, pointing
back to the first [resurrection] and on to the second . . ."
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SPIRITUAL READING
- Fenelon's "Maxims of the Saints"
4. It is important correctly to understand the doctrine of
cooperation. A disposition to cooperate, is not more opposed to
the sinful indolence which falls behind, than to the hasty and
unrighteous zeal which runs before. It is in the excess of zeal,
which has a good appearance, but in reality has unbelief and self
at the bottom, that we run before God.
5. Cooperation, by being calm and peaceable, does not cease to be
efficacious. Souls in this purified but tranquil state are souls
of power; watchful and triumphant against self; resisting
temptation; fighting even to blood against sin. But it is,
nevertheless, a combat free from the turbulence and inconsistencies
of human passion; because they contend in the presence of God, who
is their strength, in the spirit of the highest faith and love, and
under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, who is always tranquil in His
operations.
- Article 11
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