Message of 3-28-11
Published: Sat, 03/26/11
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
TO give heart and mind to God, so that they are ours no longer--to
do good without being conscious of it, to pray ceaselessly and
without effort as we breathe--to love without stopping to reflect
upon our feelings--such is the perfect forgetfulness of self, which
casts us upon God, as a babe rests upon its mother's breast.
- Jean Nicolas (J N) Grou
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LECTIONARY READINGS FOR THE DAY
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
2 Kgs 5:1-15ab; Ps 42:2, 3; 43:3, 4; Lk 4:24-30
R. (see 42:3) Athirst is my soul for the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
As the hind longs for the running waters,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
Athirst is my soul for God, the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
Send forth your light and your fidelity;
they shall lead me on
And bring me to your holy mountain,
to your dwelling-place.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
Then will I go in to the altar of God,
the God of my gladness and joy;
Then will I give you thanks upon the harp,
O God, my God!
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REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL
- from "Daily Bread"
http://www.preacherexchange.com/daily_bread.htm
"If the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would
you not have done it?"
Naaman, the Syrian general and leper, asks the great prophet Elisha
what he must do to be cleansed. He expects some difficult or
arduous task, but when Elisha's messenger tells him to do something
simple, Naaman is insulted and begins to leave. A servant advises:
If you would gladly attempt something extraordinary, why won't you
do something simple? Naaman humbly follows Elisha's instructions,
is cured of his leprosy and believes in God. We have often been
told that God works in mysterious ways, but we continue to have
rigid expectations about how our prayers will be answered.
"O Lord, for the humility and trust of Naaman, we pray."
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SPIRITUAL READING
The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage
by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381)
The first work of Christ, and the beginning of this degree consists
in this: that God draws the heart, the desires, and all the powers
of the soul up towards heaven, and calls them to be united with
Him, and says in ghostly wise within the heart: Go ye out of
yourselves by the way in which I draw and invite you. This drawing
and this inviting I cannot well make plain to gross and insensitive
men; but it is an inward constraining and drawing of the heart
towards the most high unity of God. This inward summons is joyful
to the loving heart above anything it ever experienced before. For
hence arise a new way and a higher exercise.
Here the heart opens itself in joy and in desire, and all the veins
gape, and all the powers of the soul are in readiness, and desire
to fulfill that which is demanded of them by God and by His unity.
This invitation is a shining forth of Christ, the Eternal Sun; and
it brings forth such great pleasure and joy in the heart, and makes
the heart open so widely, that it can never wholly close again. And
thereby a man is wounded in the heart from within, and feels the
wound of love. To be wounded by love is the sweetest feeling and
the sharpest pain which any one may endure. To be wounded by love
is to know for certain that one shall be healed; for the ghostly
wound brings woes and weal at the same time. For Christ, the true
Sun streams and shines into the wounded and open heart and calls it
to oneness again. And this renews the wound and all its pangs.
- Chapter 22: Of the third degree of the spiritual coming of Christ
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