Message of 3-31-15

Published: Tue, 03/31/15

Message of the Day

Let him who is not in community beware of being alone. Into the community you were called—the call was not meant for you alone; in the community of the called you bear your cross, you struggle, you pray. You are not alone even in death, and on the Last Day you will be only one member of the great congregation of Jesus Christ. If you scorn the fellowship of the brethren, you reject the call of Jesus Christ.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together

(How do you balance solitude and community? What is that balance like these days?)

Daily Readings

IS 49:1-6; PS 71:1-6, 15, 17; JN 13:21-33, 36-38

R. I will sing of your salvation.

In you, O LORD, I take refuge;

let me never be put to shame.

In your justice rescue me, and deliver me;

incline your ear to me, and save me.

Be my rock of refuge,

a stronghold to give me safety,

for you are my rock and my fortress.

O my God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked.

For you are my hope, O Lord;

my trust, O God, from my youth.

On you I depend from birth;

from my mother’s womb you are my strength.

My mouth shall declare your justice,

day by day your salvation.

O God, you have taught me from my youth,

and till the present I proclaim your wondrous deeds.

USCCB Lectionary

Reflection on the Scriptures

The Son of God likes to fix things, it seems. The agony and death of his friends troubles Jesus more than he can bear passively. He cannot contain himself. He has to say something and he has to do something because he cares deeply.

Think about some of the other things we know troubled Jesus and inspired his swift action: a woman who could not stand up straight for 18 years, a man who cannot see, a man involuntarily controlled by demons, a woman about to be stoned for her infidelity, a man who by law cannot be healed on the Sabbath, and a man who must announce his uncleanliness everywhere he goes and live in isolation because of his leprosy.

Jesus appears to be in favor of healthy and robust lives filled with second chances and wonderful surprises and hate the stench of death in all its forms. Death, both slow and quick, and the associated anguish that goes along with it troubles Jesus deeply and it is everywhere around him.

- by Laura Kauzlarich-Mizaur

Creighton Online Ministries

Spiritual Reading

Stages of Growth in Christian Prayer
- by Philip St. Romain
(based on the writings of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross)

Transition From Active Prayer to Infused Contemplation (part one)

As already noted, one begins the spiritual journey by practicing

active forms of prayer, and contemplative prayer eventually

emerges spontaneously. In describing this transition from active

to contemplative prayer, Saint John of the Cross gives three

signs to validate this experience. These signs are paraphrased

below:

1. One no longer seems to gain any sense of closeness to God

through the practice of active prayer.

2. One is not sick nor lukewarm in faith nor in sin but is still

drawn to spirituality and desirous of spiritual growth.

3. One enjoys being in God's presence in general loving awareness, without

any particular discursive knowledge or awareness.

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