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- The regular newsletter content can be found below.
I’ll admit that it’s a challenge trying to come up with helpful content for A Daily Spiritual Seed and our other Internet resources. That’s one reason why I’m asking for your suggestions and feedback this year. I know there are now countless sites on Christianity, spirituality, prayer, and so forth. There’s also much overlap between the
various sites. But everyone, it seems, has their own unique approach, and I’ve heard it said many times through the years that shalomplace.com offers resources that just can’t be found elsewhere.
There’s already so much available through shalomplace.com: books and
eBooks, worksheets and handouts, workshops and retreats, opportunities to sign up for spiritual direction, and, of course, the Shalom Place Discussion Board. Unlike a blog, which usually allows for only the owner to post new topics (which others can comment on), any registered user of the Discussion Board may open a new topic — about almost anything! Obviously, our main emphasis is spirituality issues, but there are discussion areas for politics, health and wellness, book reviews, and even
jokes. Allowing others to bring up topics they’d like to discuss has been a good way to surface interesting content.
Tomorrow, I’ll tell you more about the Discussion Board, but it is worth mentioning, here, that its publication entails the professional hosting and management
services of another company, Social Strata, Inc. I tried managing the Board myself years ago, but so many things can go and do go wrong with the scripts that it just wasn’t worth it. I’m grateful for the reliability and help I receive from Social Strata, Inc., but . . . you guessed it: this costs money as well. That’s another expense your support helps to offset, and I’m grateful for it.
Peace, Phil
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The "least of my brethren" are the hungry and the lonely, not only for food, but for the Word of God; the thirsty and the ignorant not only for water, but also for knowledge, peace, truth, justice and love; the naked and the unloved, not only for clothes but also for human dignity; the
unwanted; the unborn child; the racially discriminated against; the homeless and abandoned, not only for a shelter made of bricks, but for a heart that understands, that covers, that loves; the sick, the dying destitutes, and the captives, not only in body, but also in mind and spirit; all those who have lost all hope and faith in life; the alcoholics and dying addicts and all those who have lost God (for them God was but God is) and who have lost all hope in the power of the Spirit.
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Mother Teresa
(How are you one of these "least of my brethren"??
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TI 3:1-7; PS 23:1B-6; LK 17:11-19
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
Beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
He guides me in right paths
for his name’s
sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Only goodness and kindness follow
me
all the days of my life;
And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
USCCB Lectionary
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If we do not recognize and appreciate the mercy and help shown to us we will be ungrateful and unkind towards others. Ingratitude is forgetfulness or a poor return for kindness received. Ingratitude easily leads to lack of charity and intolerance towards others, as well as to other vices, such as complaining, grumbling, discontentment, pride, and presumption. How often have we been
ungrateful to our parents, pastors, teachers, and neighbors? Do you express gratitude to God for his abundant help and mercy towards you and are you gracious, kind, and merciful towards your neighbor in their time of need and support?
"Lord Jesus, may I never fail to recognize your loving kindness and
mercy. Fill my heart with compassion and thanksgiving, and free me from ingratitude and discontentment. Help me to count my blessings with a grateful heart and to give thanks in all circumstances."
DailyScripture.net
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The Way of Perfection, by Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) Describes the importance of understanding what we ask for in prayer. Treats of these words in the Paternoster: "Sanctifocetur nomen tuum, adveniat regnum tuum." Applies them to the Prayer of Quiet, and begins the explanation of
them.
If it were not that you would tell me I am treating of contemplation, it would be appropriate, in writing of this petition, to say a little about the beginning of pure contemplation, which those who experience it call the Prayer of Quiet; but, as I have said, I am discussing
vocal prayer here, and anyone ignorant of the subject might think that the two had nothing to do with one another, though I know this is certainly not true. Forgive my wanting to speak of it, for I know there are many people who practise vocal prayer in the manner already described and are raised by God to the higher kind of contemplation without having had any hand in this themselves or even knowing how it has happened. For this reason, daughters, I attach great importance to your saying your
vocal prayers well. I know a nun who could never practise anything but vocal prayer but who kept to this and found she had everything else; yet if she omitted saying her prayers her mind wandered so much that she could not endure it. May we all practise such mental prayer as that. She would say a number of Paternosters, corresponding to the number of times Our Lord shed His blood, and on nothing more than these and a few other prayers she would spend two or three hours. She came to me once in
great distress, saying that she did not know how to practise mental prayer, and that she could not contemplate but could only say vocal prayers. She was quite an old woman and had lived an extremely good and religious life. I asked her what prayers she said, and from her reply I saw that, though keeping to the Paternoster, she was experiencing pure contemplation, and the Lord was raising her to be with Him in union. She spent her life so well, too, that her actions made it clear she was
receiving great favours. So I praised the Lord and envied her her vocal prayer. If this story is true -- and it is -- none of you who have had a bad opinion of contemplatives can suppose that you will be free from the risk of becoming like them if you say your vocal prayers as they should be said and keep a pure conscience. I shall have to say still more about this. Anyone not wishing to hear it may pass it over.
(Keep in mind that she is writing to sisters in a cloistered
contemplative order.) Paperback (Kindle edition available)
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