Message of 1-26-15

Published: Mon, 01/26/15

A Daily Spiritual Seed
Monday: January 26, 2015
Message of the Day
In religion, we are not asked to make up our minds, we are asked to make up our lives... We may refuse to make up our minds, but our lives get made up, one way or the other... Whatever we believe with our minds, our lives are committed either to God’s way or to the God-denying way, and what matters in religion is the act of commitment.
... A. Leonard Griffith (b. 1920), Barriers to Christian Belief

(How does your life give evidence of God's love?)
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Readings of the Day
 
2 TM 1:1-8;    PS 96:1-3, 7-8A, 10;    MK 3:22-30

R. Proclaim God’s marvelous deeds to all the nations.

Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his name.

Announce his salvation, day after day.
Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.

Give to the LORD, you families of nations,
give to the LORD glory and praise;
give to the LORD the glory due his name!

Say among the nations: The LORD is king.
He has made the world firm, not to be moved;
he governs the peoples with equity.

USCCB lectionary
Reflection on the Scripture
"Promote their knowledge of the truth as our religion embodies it." –Titus 1:1

No matter how well or poorly I teach the Scriptures through this booklet, you can almost immediately at least double the insights you receive from reading the Scriptures for the daily Mass by deciding to share anything you receive. If you put any light you receive on the lampstand (Mk 4:21), you will receive more light. "In the measure you give you shall receive, and more besides" (Mk 4:24). Understanding the Bible is not so much a matter of intelligence, but of sharing.

To share the good news credibly though, we must live the Good News. Understanding the Bible is basically a matter of obeying it. Some people maintain they need to understand something before obeying it. With the Bible, however, we must obey it before we ever truly and deeply understand it. For example, we don't understand how Jesus is present in Holy Communion merely because we have read the Bible. The Bible doesn't explain this in detail. However, when we obey the Bible by doing the Last Supper in memory of Jesus (1 Cor 11:24-25), devoting ourselves "to the breaking of bread" (Acts 2:42), and sharing our faith in Jesus present in the Eucharist, then we receive amazing insights. We see the light and understand what the Bible means. Believing, living, and sharing is seeing.

PRAYER: Father, give me a deep faith in You by which I can understand You much more deeply.

PROMISE: "I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God bestowed when my hands were laid on you. The Spirit God has given us is no cowardly Spirit, but rather One that makes us strong, loving, and wise." –2 Tm 1:6-7

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Spiritual Reading
NOTES ON THE LIFE OF CHRISTIAN PRAYER
 
2700. Through his Word, God speaks to humanity. By words, mental or vocal, our prayer takes flesh. Yet it is most important that the heart should be present to him to whom we are speaking in prayer: "Whether or not our prayer is heard depends not on the number of words, but on the fervor of our souls." (St. John Chrysostom, "Ecloga de oratione" 2: pg 63, 585).
- The Catechism of the Catholic Church, IV, 3

- part 4 of 24

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, IV
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