|
The trees, the flowers, the plants grow in silence. The stars, the sun, the moon move in silence. Silence gives us a new perspective.
- Mother Theresa
(How can you find more time for silence in your life?) |
|
|
Jer 20:10-13; Ps. 18:2-3a, 3bc-4, 5-6, 7; Jn 10:31-42
R. In my distress I called upon
the Lord, and he heard my
voice.
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
My God, my
rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.
The breakers of death surged round about me,
the destroying floods overwhelmed me;
The
cords of the nether world enmeshed me,
the snares of death overtook me.
In my distress I called upon the LORD
and cried out to my God;
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.
USCCB Lectionary
|
|
|
John 10: 31-42 (Jesus confronts his critics)
Before the Jews rush to hasty conclusions,
Jesus again reminds them that his works confirm his words, and he invites them to reconsider their unfounded judgments against him. When they reply by trying to arrest him, he escapes because he is not yet ready to make his decisive confrontation.
- To whom do your works testify? To whom do you give the
glory?
- Spend some time with the passage The Father is in me and I am in the Father” and its equivalent in the First Letter of John: The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (4: 4). Pray for the grace to be filled with this power.
Paperback, Kindle
|
|
|
|
|
The Way of Perfection, by Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) Treats of the great need which we have to beseech the Eternal Father to grant us what we ask in these words: “Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo.” Explains certain temptations. This chapter is noteworthy. The devil makes you think you are poor, and he has some reason for doing so, because you have made (with the lips, of course) a vow of poverty, as have some other people who practise prayer. I say "with the lips" because, if before making the vow we really meant in our hearts what we were going to say, the devil could not possibly lead us into that temptation -- not even in twenty
years, or in our entire lifetime -- for we should see that we were deceiving the whole world, and ourselves into the bargain. Well, we make our vow of poverty, and then one of us, believing herself all the time to be keeping it, says: "I do not want anything, but I am having this because I cannot do without it: after all, if I am to serve God, I must live, and He wants us to keep these bodies of ours alive." So the devil, in his angelic disguise, suggests to her that there are a thousand
different things which she needs and that they are all good for her. And all the time he is persuading her to believe that she is still being true to her vow and possesses the virtue of poverty and that what she has done is no more than her duty. - Chapter 36 (Keep in
mind that she is writing to sisters in a cloistered contemplative order.)
Paperback, Kindle
|
|
|
|
|
|
