Message of 3-25-11
Published: Sun, 03/20/11
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
(God) could, if He chose, repair our bodies miraculously without
food; or give us food without the aid of farmers, bakers, and
butchers; or knowledge without the aid of learned men; or convert
the heathen without missionaries. Instead, He allows soils and
weather and animals and the muscles, minds, and wills of people to
cooperate in the execution of His will. "God," says Pascal,
"instituted prayer in order to lend to His creatures the dignity of
causality." But it is not only prayer; whenever we act at all, He
lends us that dignity. It is not really stranger, nor less strange,
that my prayers should affect the course of events than that my
other actions should do so.
- C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), "The Efficacy of Prayer"
(Do not take for granted the importance of your work, play,
relationships, prayer, etc.. It is through these that the reign of
God breaks forth into this world.)
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LECTIONARY READINGS FOR THE DAY
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Is 7:10-14; 8:10; Ps 40:7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 11; Heb 10:4-10
R. (8a and 9a) Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
Sacrifice or oblation you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, "Behold I come."
"In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,
To do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!"
I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O Lord, know.
Your justice I kept not hid within my heart;
your faithfulness and your salvation I have spoken of;
I have made no secret of your kindness and your truth
in the vast assembly.
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MEDITATION ON THE SCRIPTURES
- from
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
Our greatest joy, our flourishing, and our road toward human
fulfillment begin and progress in subordinating our self
determination to God's desire for each one of us. In the
Post-Enlightenment world of the glorification of the individual
person, this is rankest heresy. If there is anything for which
secular culture cannot forgive practicing Christians, it is
obedience to what we believe to be the Will of God.
How can any of us know God's will? It's hard enough to accurately
read our own desires, much less to somehow plumb the desire of God.
A number of years ago when I undertook the Spiritual Exercises of
Saint Ignatius for the first time, I hit this question head on. I
was guided by my director to pray with Mary in the events described
in today's Gospel. I remember asking Mary to give me some insight
into her desire, even her thought process when this request of God
was placed before her. What came to me that day as clearly as if
she had spoken was "Eileen, if God wants you to accomplish the
divine desire, it cannot be impossible to understand or to discover
it. Rather it has to be almost easy, but it will seem outrageous
to your fears, and that is what makes it hard. So discover what
you are afraid of - truly afraid of - and you will hear the
invitation to God to not be afraid and to take the step that will
disclose God's love for you and for all you are called to serve."
- by Eileen Burke-Sullivan
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SPIRITUAL READING
- Fenelon's "Maxims of the Saints"
Some persons of great piety, in describing the highest religious
state, have denominated it the state of transformation. But this
can be regarded as only a synonymous expression for the state of
pure love.
In the transformed state of the soul, as in the state of pure love,
love is its life. In this principle of love all the affections of
the soul, of whatever character, have their constituting or their
controlling element. There can be no love without an object of
love. As the principle of love, therefore, allies the soul with
another, so from that other which is God, all its power of movement
proceeds. In itself it remains without preference for anything;
and consequently is accessible and pliant to all the touches and
guidances of grace, however slight they may be. It is like a
spherical body, placed upon a level and even surface, which is
moved with equal ease in any direction. The soul in this state,
having no preferences of itself, has but one principle of movement,
namely, that which God gives it. In this state the soul can say
with the Apostle Paul, "I live; Yet not I, but Christ lives in me."
- Article 35
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