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(Message of the day and other readings below.)
Dear Daily Spiritual Seed subscribers,
I am excited this year to offer to all donors a gratitude gift of a free-admission coupon for an online course on Christian Prayer Methods ($25 value)
that I have recently published with udemy.com The course includes 10 short presentations on different topics relevant to the practice of Christian prayer, including practical instruction on methods like Lectio Divina, Centering Prayer, Christian Meditation, Breathing Prayer, Praying with Icons, and Mindful Prayer.
Just to repeat: this free-pass coupon will be shared for
donations of any size, and your donations are also tax-deductible.
Here’s an idea: if you’re not needing this kind of teaching in your life at this time, perhaps you know someone who could benefit from it. The coupon is printable and could be given as a gift to another, or as a Christmas stocking stuffer -- whatever you’d like to do with it!
Your donation would also be supporting the Internet ministry of Heartland Center for Spirituality.
Win-win all around!
Peace, Phil
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Tax-deductible Donation Options
Donate any amount online using Credit or Debit Card
Send donation by check or money order: Internet Ministry Heartland
Center for Spirituality 3600 Broadway Great Bend, KS 67530 (be sure to include your email address)
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Nothing disciplines the inordinate desires of the flesh like service, and nothing transforms the desires of the flesh like serving in hiddenness. The flesh whines against service but it screams against hidden service. It strains and pulls for honor and
recognition. —Richard Foster
(What hidden service will you do today?) |
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1 MC 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63; PS 119:53, 61, 134, 150, 155, 158; LK
18:35-43
R. Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your commands.
Indignation seizes me because of the wicked
who forsake
your law.
Though the snares of the wicked are twined about me,
your law I have not forgotten.
Redeem me from the oppression of
men,
that I may keep your precepts.
I am attacked by malicious persecutors
who are far from your law.
Far from sinners is
salvation,
because they seek not your statutes.
I beheld the apostates with loathing,
because they kept not to your promise. USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture |
"A blind man sat at the side of the road begging. Hearing a crowd go by the man asked, 'What is that?' The answer came that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by." –Luke 18:35-37
Imagine if you were color-blind and nearsighted with impaired peripheral vision. Could you see? Yes. Would you need healing of your vision? Absolutely. Likewise, we can see spiritually but "we see indistinctly, as in a mirror" (1 Cor 13:12). We should not let the fact that we have some vision keep us from crying out to Jesus for vision good enough to live His abundant life.
If we don't see God better in our spouse, what chance do we have to persevere in our wedding vows? If we don't see more deeply into God's plan, will we ever stop abortion? Until we see with the eyes of our hearts (Eph 1:18) our eucharistic Lord under the appearances of bread and wine,
we will not center our lives to be in communion and go to Communion. This is severe self-deprivation.
Some of us have spent thousands of dollars so that we can see better physically. We have glasses, sunglasses, reading glasses, bifocals, trifocals,
contacts, eye drops, and laser surgery to improve our sight physically. It is much more important to see better spiritually. Consequently, cry out to Jesus "all the more, 'Son of David, have pity on me!' " (Lk 18:39) Pray to Jesus: "Lord, I want to see" (see Lk 18:41).
PRAYER: Father, may I follow Your orders exactly so that I will see rightly . PROMISE: "Though the snares of the wicked are twined about me Your law I have not forgotten." –Ps 119:61
PRAISE: St. Margaret chose marriage over entering the convent and converted a kingdom
mycatholic.com
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Theological Gems from Emile Merch's Theology of the Mystical Body - selected by Jim and Tyra Arraj
Book Two: The Coming of Christ
Chapter 7: Original Sin
160. According to the juridical view, God regards nature as sinful because it is no longer such as He wishes it to be, and because sin is precisely deviation from God's law.
"How could I have committed sin, if
I was not as yet born?"
By what right can we say that absence of grace in a man who has not sinned personally is a privation? Grace, as we well know, is supernatural; nothing in nature as such has a claim to it.
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