Message of 9-17-10
Published: Mon, 09/13/10
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
Love attracts love,
mine rushes forth unto Thee..but alas!
it is not even as one drop of dew lost in the Ocean.
To love Thee as Thou lovest me
I must borrow Thy very Love.
- St. Therese Lisieux, "Story of a Soul"
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LECTIONARY READINGS FOR THE DAY
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
1 Cor 15:12-20; Ps 17:1bcd, 6-7, 8b and 15; Lk 8:1-3
R. (15b) Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.
Hear, O LORD, a just suit;
attend to my outcry;
hearken to my prayer from lips without deceit.
I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
incline your ear to me; hear my word.
Show your wondrous mercies,
O savior of those who flee
from their foes to refuge at your right hand.
Hide me in the shadow of your wings,
But I in justice shall behold your face;
on waking, I shall be content in your presence.
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MEDITATION ON THE SCRIPTURES
- from
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
". . . meditating on St. Paul's unflinching demand that we accept
the resurrection as a sine non qua of being Christians is both
comforting and challenging. St. Paul is almost scary in bluntly
asserting that if Christ has not been raised then "empty too is our
preaching; empty, too, your faith. " And he gets tougher. "For if
the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if
Christ has not been raised, your faith is in vain." In short, if we
can only accept Christ as an ethical preacher and reject the
resurrection, our faith is empty.
Instinctively, I WANT to believe in the resurrection because I
cannot accept the idea that death is the end of life. So I do. It
helps that the time and form of the resurrection are unknown. We
don't have to believe a specific scenario of what will transpire
like those counting on the rapture to sweep them into heaven.
We can accept the idea that at some time and in some form there
will be a resurrection and leave the details to God. Then we can
take comfort in the last two lines of this passage. "But now
Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who
have fallen asleep." We can trust that our loved ones live on in
some form. Ultimately it's in the hands of a God who loves them and
us."
- by Eileen Wirth
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SPIRITUAL READING
- Fenelon's "Maxims of the Saints"
Holy souls are without impatience, but not without trouble; are
above murmuring, but not above affliction. The souls of those who
are thus wholly in Christ may be regarded in two points of view, or
rather in two parts; namely, the natural appetites, propensities,
and affections, on the one hand, which may be called the inferior
part; and the judgment, the moral sense, and the will, on the
other, which may be described as the superior part. As things are,
in the present life, those who are wholly devoted to God may suffer
in the inferior part, and may be at rest in the superior. Their
wills may be in harmony with the Divine will; they may be approved
in their judgments and conscience, and at the same time may suffer
greatly in their physical relations, and in their natural
sensibilities. In this manner, Christ upon the cross, while His
will remained firm in its union with the will of His heavenly
Father, suffered much through His physical system; He felt the
painful longings of thirst, the pressure of the thorns, and the
agony of the spear. He was deeply afflicted also for the friends
He left behind Him, and for a dying world. But in His inner and
higher nature, where He felt Himself sustained by the secret voice
uttered in His sanctified conscience and in His unchangeable faith,
He was peaceful and happy.
- Article 14
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