Message of 12-3-10
Published: Mon, 11/29/10
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not
promised tomorrow to your procrastination.
- St. Augustine
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A story is told of a senior devil coaching a junior one on how to
bring human souls to damnation.
Junior Devil: I know. I'll tell them there is no God.
Senior Devil: No, that won't work. They know you can't prove that.
Junior Devil: I'll tell them God doesn't care if you're good or
bad; God loves them anyway so it doesn't matter.
Senior Devil: That won't work, either. Most of them know you can
love someone even if they're good or bad, but it makes a difference
if they are.
Junior Devil: Then what? What temptation shall I use?
Senior Devil: Tell them there's plenty of time.
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LECTIONARY READINGS FOR THE DAY
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Is 29:17-24; Ps 27:1, 4, 13-14; Mt 9:27-31
R. (1a) The Lord is my light and my salvation.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life's refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?
One thing I ask of the LORD;
this I seek:
To dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
That I may gaze on the loveliness of the LORD
and contemplate his temple.
I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.
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MEDITATION ON THE SCRIPTURES
- from
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
"Do you believe that I can do this?" Matthew 9
This is the central question of our Christian lives. To be a
follower of Jesus, to accept what he offers us, and to accept our
mission to make a difference by loving and announcing the Gospel,
all take faith in him. This kind of faith is personal, not
intellectual. I can know all about faith, all about who Jesus is,
and pass every exam on it all, and still not be his follower.
Personal faith means I believe in him. I believe he is who he says
he is. I believe what he promises. I believe he has power over sin
and death - over my sin and death - even over my blindness.
When we think about it, it is a startling realization that we can't
make ourselves "see" something, in the sense that we can't will to
"get it," to understand and be set on fire with his love for me.
That isn't an intellectual conclusion which I can figure out and
then commit myself to. Or, to say it another way, we might
understand who Jesus is and not have our hearts set free by it. We
can even teach others about the Gospel and do lots and lots of very
inspiring good works, self-sacrificing things, and still not be on
fire, in love, with Jesus.
- by Andy Alexander, S.J.
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SPIRITUAL READING
- Fenelon's "Maxims of the Saints"
Of the two states, the meditative and discursive on the one hand,
which reflects, compares, and reasons, and supports itself by aids
and methods of that nature, and the contemplative on the other,
which rests in God without such aids, the contemplative is the
higher. God will teach the times of both. Neither state is, or
ought to be, entirely exclusive of the other.
- Artilce 23
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