Message of 5-2-11
Published: Fri, 04/29/11
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
There are many who want me to tell them of secret ways of becoming
perfect and I can only tell them that the sole secret is a hearty
love of God, and the only way of attaining that love is by loving.
You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by
running, to work by working; and just so you learn to love God and
man by loving. Begin as a mere apprentice and the very power of
love will lead you on to become a master of the art.
- Francis de Sales
(Begin again today!)
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LECTIONARY READINGS FOR THE DAY
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Acts 4:23-31; Ps 2:1-3, 4-7a, 7b-9; Jn 3:1-8
R. (see 11d) Blessed are all who take refuge in the Lord.
Why do the nations rage
and the peoples utter folly?
The kings of the earth rise up,
and the princes conspire together
against the LORD and against his anointed:
"Let us break their fetters
and cast their bonds from us!"
He who is throned in heaven laughs;
the LORD derides them.
Then in anger he speaks to them;
he terrifies them in his wrath:
"I myself have set up my king
on Zion, my holy mountain."
I will proclaim the decree of the LORD.
The LORD said to me, "You are my Son;
this day I have begotten you.
Ask of me and I will give you
the nations for an inheritance
and the ends of the earth for your possession.
You shall rule them with an iron rod;
you shall shatter them like an earthen dish."
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REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL
- from "Daily Bread"
http://www.preacherexchange.com/daily_bread.htm
"The kings of the earth took their stand and the princes gathered
together against... your holy servant Jesus."
At what point do you suppose those kings and princes realized what
they had done? Did they know and not care that they had killed an
innocent, even holy, man? Or did they remain "invincibly ignorant"
until they died? Or did they, like Saul-become-Paul, ever realize
and repent of their evil acts? We don't know. But all of us, from
Peter and Paul, to the saints of old and modern times, to you and
me -- all of us are offered the opportunity to be "born from above,"
as it says in the Gospel. That new birth involves first a purgation
that begins with recognizing our personal involvement in the
suffering of others.
"Lord Jesus, give me courage to see, to repent and, where possible,
to make amends. Amen."
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SPIRITUAL READING
The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage
by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381)
By this fierce ardour and this impatience some men are at times
caught into the spirit, above the senses; and there words are
spoken to them and images and similitudes shown to them, teaching
them some truth of which they or other men have need, or else
things that are to come. These are called revelations or visions.
If they are bodily images, they are received in the imagination.
This may be the work of an angel in man, through the power of God.
If it be an intellectual truth, or a ghostly image, through which
God reveals Himself in His unfathomableness, this is received in
the understanding; and the man can clothe it in words in so far as
it can be expressed in words. Sometimes a man may also be drawn
above himself and above the spirit (but not altogether outside
himself) into an Incomprehensible Good, which he shall never be
able either to utter or to explain in the way in which he heard and
saw; for in this simple act and this simple vision, to hear and to
see are one. And none can work this in man, without intermediary
and without the co-operation of any creature, save God alone. It is
called Raptus; which means, rapt away, or uplifted, or carried
away. At times God grants to such men a sudden spiritual glimpse,
like the lightning in the sky. It comes like a sudden glimpse of
strange brightness, shining forth from the Simple Nudity. And
thereby for an instant the spirit is raised above itself; but the
light passes at once and the man returns to himself again. This is
the work of God Himself; it is something very sublime; for those to
whom it happens often become illuminated men.
- Chapter 24: Of ecstacies and divine revelations
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