Message of 3-21-11
Published: Sun, 03/20/11
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with
yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own
imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them--every day
begin the task anew.
- François de Sales (1567-1622)
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LECTIONARY READINGS FOR THE DAY
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Dn 9:4b-10; Ps 79:8, 9, 11 and 13; Lk 6:36-38
R. (see 103:10a) Lord, do not deal with us according to our sins.
Remember not against us the iniquities of the past;
may your compassion quickly come to us,
for we are brought very low.
Help us, O God our savior,
because of the glory of your name;
Deliver us and pardon our sins
for your name's sake.
Let the prisoners' sighing come before you;
with your great power free those doomed to death.
Then we, your people and the sheep of your pasture,
will give thanks to you forever;
through all generations we will declare your praise.
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REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL
- from "Daily Bread"
http://www.preacherexchange.com/daily_bread.htm
"For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured
out to you."
We are made in the image and likeness of God, designed to be God's
measure, conduits of grace; not mere straws through which good
things trickle, but pipelines of mercy. Yet we are not always open
to the abundance with which God would fill us. We allow our hearts
and minds to get clogged with base, even vile things -- lust,
hatred, selfpity, resentment, vindictiveness -- so that there is no
room for the things of God: faith, hope, love, peace, gratitude and
wonder. Let us clear out all that inhibits the flow of God's love.
"For openness to God's abundant blessing ... for generosity and
willingness to share all we have received with others, we pray."
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SPIRITUAL READING
The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage
by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381)
When the sun has risen in the heavens as high as it can, it stands
in the sign of Cancer (which means Crab, because it cannot go
further, but begins to go back). Then come the fiercest heats of
the whole year. And the sun draws up all the moisture, and the
earth becomes dry, and the fruits ripen quickly.
So likewise, when Christ, the Divine Sun, has risen to the zenith
of our hearts--that is, above all the gifts and consolations and
sweetness which we may receive from Him--so that we do not rest in
any savours, how great soever they be, which God may pour into our
souls; if then, masters of ourselves, we ever turn inwards, by the
way which has been shown heretofore, with humble praise and with
fervent thanksgiving, towards the very source from which all gifts
flow forth according to the needs and the merits of each creature:
then Christ stands on high in the zenith of our hearts, and He will
draw all things, that is, all our powers, to Himself. When thus
neither savour nor consolation can overcome or hinder the loving
heart, but it would rather forgo all consolations and all gifts,
that it may find Him Whom it loves: then there arises from this the
third kind of inward exercise, by which man is uplifted and adorned
in his sensibility and the lower part of his being.
- Chapter 22: Of the third degree of the spiritual coming of Christ
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