Message of 1-20-15

Published: Tue, 01/20/15

A Daily Spiritual Seed
Tuesday: January 20, 2015
Message of the Day

The Bible tells us very clearly that to “know” God is not an affair of the mind only, but an act in which our whole being, heart, mind, and will, is vitally engaged; so that sheer intellectual speculation would enable us to form certain ideas about God but never to “know” Him. To be grasped, God’s will must be met with a readiness to obey.
 - Suzanne de Diétrich (1891-1981), Discovering the Bible

("Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it." [Lk 11:28] How are you being challenged to better "keep" the word these days?)
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Daily Readings
 
HEB 6:10-20;    PS 111:1-2, 4-5, 9, 10C;    MK 2:23-28

R. The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.

I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart
in the company and assembly of the just.
Great are the works of the LORD,
exquisite in all their delights.

He has won renown for his wondrous deeds;
gracious and merciful is the LORD.
He has given food to those who fear him;
he will forever be mindful of his covenant.

He has sent deliverance to his people;
he has ratified his covenant forever;
holy and awesome is his name.
His praise endures forever.

USCCB Lectionary
 Reflection on the Scriptures
 
In his Christmas greeting to the Curia on December 22nd Pope Francis cautioned all of us who make up the Body of Christ to avoid at all cost “spiritual Alzheimer’s disease.”  This post-Christmas time when we are already struggling to stay committed to our New Year’s resolutions can be wrought with forgetfulness, a loss of hope and even a sense of resignation to that which draws us away from God.  Francis says, “We see it in those who have lost the memory of their encounter with the Lord; ... in those who build walls and routines around themselves, and thus become more and more the slaves of idols carved by their own hands.”

As he so often has said, Francis offers the antidote to this malaise -- JOY!  “Let us not lose that joyful, humorous and even self-deprecating spirit which makes people amiable even in difficult situations,” he tells the Curia and us.  We must tend to our hope, even when we forget the sweet taste of life in times of gloom and sluggishness.  Let hope be for us “an anchor of the soul.”  (Heb 6:19)  As we notice ourselves getting sucked into that which is slowly, sluggishly pulling us into the muck of malaise and the quicksand of resignation, let us feel the weight of that anchor of hope taking hold in the deep waters of God’s covenantal love with us.

- by Kyle Lierk

Creighton Online Ministries

Spiritual Reading

Selected Quotes from the Writings of St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)

The soul is the greening life force of the flesh,
  for the body grows and prospers through her,
    just as the earth becomes fruitful when it is moistened.
The soul humidifies the body so it does not dry out,
  just like the rain which soaks into the earth.


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