Message of 6-16-15

Published: Tue, 06/16/15

Message of the Day

“The God of compassion has shown me a loving face; now I am to be that refection in return. I am to be the presence of God to another. When I offer the cup of compassion to someone, it is God in me reaching to God in the other. There is a oneness of Love bonding us to all of life.”
- Joyce Rupp, The Cup of Our Life

("God is love. Whoever lives in love, lives in God, and God in them ." 1 Jn 4:16)

Daily Readings

2 COR 8:1-9; PS 146:2, 5-6AB, 6C- 7, 8-9A; MT 5:43-48

R. Praise the Lord, my soul!

Praise the LORD, my soul!

I will praise the LORD all my life;

I will sing praise to my God while I live.

Blessed he whose help is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in the LORD, his God,

Who made heaven and earth,

the sea and all that is in them.

Who keeps faith forever,

secures justice for the oppressed,

gives food to the hungry.

The LORD sets captives free.

The LORD gives sight to the blind.

The LORD raises up those who were bowed down;

the LORD loves the just.

The LORD protects strangers.

USCCB Lectionary

Reflection on the Scriptures

As he so often does, Jesus expects something from me in today’s gospel which flips my human nature on its head and leaves me scratching my head saying, “Really, Jesus, really?! You expect me to pray for my enemies?”

“I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (MT 5:44)

I find myself saying back, “Man, Jesus, that’s a tall order. That’s tough!”

Jesus walks the talk, as he always does, in a very profound way from the cross when he has the courage, compassion and faithfulness to pray, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” (LK 23:34) Think about that for a moment. The man is being nailed to a tower of wood and hung to suffocate to death and he prays forgiveness for the perpetrators. Incredible.

- by Kyle Lierk

Creighton Online Ministries

SPIRITUAL READING

On Spiritual Direction
- by Philip St. Romain, M.S., D. Min.
Excerpted from Handbook for Spiritual Directees

http://shalomplace.com/view/handbook.html

The Agenda in Spiritual Direction (part 2)

Ideally, your spiritual director should be a person with some formal training or experience in this area. He or she should have knowledge of the Christian mystical tradition and should be at least generally familiar with psychological development. Your director should be a person of prayer who has attended one or more eight-day silent directed retreats. Finally, he or she should also be in spiritual direction with another and should have already worked through painful issues from the past.

I consider these minimal requirements for a Christian spiritual director. Not many meet these requirements, but there are enough who do. Generally, the ministry staff at a retreat center are good resources for finding a spiritual director. Most religious communities also have a few qualified people. Diocesan priests can be found who meet the minimal requirements, and more lay people than ever are functioning effectively in this role.

If you do not already have a spiritual director and donÕt know whom to ask, I suggest you call your local retreat house. If you know of no such center, ask your parish priest for advice. Even after choosing someone, do not think you have to stay with that person. Agree with your director to give the relationship a trial for a while. Then, after a few sessions, evaluate whether you feel comfortable enough to continue.

see http://shalomplace.com/direction for more info about spiritual direction.

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