Message of 4-18-11
Published: Sun, 04/17/11
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of
Christians is a God of love and comfort, a God who fills the soul
and heart of those whom he possesses, a God who makes them
conscious of their inward wretchedness, and his infinite mercy; who
unites himself to their inmost soul, who fills it with humility and
joy, with confidence and love, who renders them incapable of any
other end than himself.
- Blaise Pascal
(God is committed to you! Spend some time letting this truth sink
in.)
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LECTIONARY READINGS FOR THE DAY
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Is 42:1-7; Ps 27:1, 2, 3, 13-14; Jn 12:1-11
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?
When evildoers come at me
to devour my flesh,
My foes and my enemies
themselves stumble and fall.
Though an army encamp against me,
my heart will not fear;
Though war be waged upon me,
even then will I trust.
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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REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL
- from "Daily Bread"
http://www.preacherexchange.com/daily_bread.htm
"Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine
aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with
her hair."
Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus and who typically sits at the
feet of Jesus pondering his teaching, realizes what is happening.
As chief priests are gathering outside their house plotting how to
kill Jesus, Mary prophetically anoints his feet with costly
perfumed oil. She ignores the outrage expressed by Judas, that her
act is an extravagant waste, and continues to anoint the one Isaiah
prophesized would establish justice on the earth. Just days before
Jesus' arrest, and without saying a word, Mary proclaims Jesus as
the Chosen One.
"O Lord, for the courage to proclaim you in the face of
condemnation, we pray."
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SPIRITUAL READING
The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage
by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381)
If, then, one cannot achieve God and yet cannot and will not do
without Him, from these two things there arise in such men tumult
and restlessness, both without and within. And so long as one is
thus agitated, no creature, neither in heaven nor on earth, can
give him rest or help him. In this state there are sometimes spoken
from within sublime and salutary words, and singular teachings and
wisdom are given. In this inward tumult one is ready to suffer all
that can be suffered, that one may obtain that which one loves.
This fury of love is an inward impatience which will hardly use
reason or follow it, if it cannot obtain that which it loves. This
inward fury eats a man's heart and drinks his blood. Here the
sensible heat of love is fiercer than at any other stage in man's
whole life; and his bodily nature is secretly wounded and consumed
without any outward work, and the fruits of the virtues ripen more
quickly than in all the degrees which have been shown heretofore.
- Chapter 23: Of the pain and restlessness of love
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