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So far as past errors are concerned, forget them and start afresh, as if it were your first day in this body; but so far as your present contacts are concerned, be kind to them, as if it were your last day in this body.
- Paul Brunton
[Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time. . . (The Serenity Prayer)] |
WEBINAR: God, and the Problem of Suffering |
Presented by Philip St. Romain, M.S., D. Min.
August 27, 2015, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m., CDT
Free-will Donation
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1 THES 2:1-8; PS 139:1-6; MT 23:23-26
R. You have searched me and you know me, Lord.
O LORD, you have probed me and you know me; you know when I sit and when I stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. My journeys
and my rest you scrutinize, with all my ways you are familiar.
Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know the whole of
it. Behind me and before, you hem me in and rest your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; too lofty for me to
attain.
USCCB Lectionary
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Reflection on the Scriptures |
These are not easy readings to reflect upon. First we have the angel of the Lord calling Gideon to commit a version of
herem or holy war, namely “cutting down Midian to the last man.” Even though I recognize the historical ambiguities and scriptural hyperboles at work here, as a scholar of the Rwanda genocide I can’t help but recoil at such texts. And then we have Jesus expressing grave doubts about the place of the wealthy in the coming Kingdom of God. This is not an easy message for me as an American Christian, no matter how “middle class” I might claim to be. Compared to most of the communities I’ve
encountered in Africa, I am most definitely rich. If nothing else, these readings remind me that the biblical witness is not just therapeutic; there are many texts that can (and should) make us uncomfortable.
I must say, though, that I find
Gideon’s honesty to be refreshing. In the face of the angel’s flattery, his response is nothing if not blunt. “If the Lord is with us, why has all of this happened to us?” In the face of the manifold sufferings in our lives and in our world, have we not also shared Gideon’s doubts about God’s abiding presence? If Gideon teaches me nothing else in this reading, it is to be bold enough to voice these doubts in prayer.
- by Jay Carney Creighton Online Ministries
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Revelations of Divine Love
- by Julian of
Norwich Chapter
4
This [Shewing] I took for the time of my temptation, —for methought by the sufferance of God I should be tempted of fiends ere I died. Through this sight of the blessed Passion, with the Godhead that I saw in mine understanding, I knew well
that It was strength enough for me, yea, and for all creatures living, against all the fiends of hell and ghostly temptation.
In this [Shewing] He brought our blessed Lady to my understanding. I saw her ghostly, in bodily likeness: a simple maid and a meek, young of age and little waxen above a child, in the stature that she
was when she conceived. Also God shewed in part the wisdom and the truth of her soul: wherein I understood the reverent beholding in which she beheld her God and Maker, marvelling with great reverence that He would be born of her that was a simple creature of His making. And this wisdom and truth: knowing the greatness of her Maker and the littleness of herself that was made,—caused her to say full meekly to Gabriel: Lo me, God’s handmaid! In this sight I understood soothly that she is more than
all that God made beneath her in worthiness and grace; for above her is nothing that is made but the blessed Manhood Of Christ, as to my sight.
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