Message of 3-31-16

Published: Thu, 03/31/16

A Daily Spiritual Seed
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Message of the Day
 
Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection not in words alone, but in every leaf in springtime.
  - Martin Luther

(What signs of new life do you experience these days?.)
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Daily Readings

Acts 3:11-26;    Ps. 8:2ab and 5, 6-7, 8-9;     Lk 24:35-48


R.  O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!


O LORD, our Lord,

how glorious is your name over all the earth!

What is man that you should be mindful of him,

or the son of man that you should care for him?


You have made him little less than the angels,

and crowned him with glory and honor.

You have given him rule over the works of your hands,

putting all things under his feet.


All sheep and oxen,

yes, and the beasts of the field,

The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,

and whatever swims the paths of the seas.

 
Reflection on the Scriptures
In today’s gospel, we have a range of human reactions.  The disciples are startled and terrified at their unexpected encounter with a risen Jesus.  Their fear later turned into joy.  What a range of emotions!  We often experience relief when things turn out better than we anticipated.  Why is it that we fear for the worst? 

Jesus helps them open their minds to the truth that was emerging from the facts that had unfolded.  I note that Jesus requires them to draw upon what they knew already.  He was not announcing completely new truths, but helping to unfold the meaning of events that they had been experiencing. In many respects, Peter was trying to do the same thing in the first reading.  Perhaps he had learned a few things from Jesus after all! 
 
Jesus was helping them to solve a mystery.  We love a good mystery.  Isn’t it grand when we fit together the pieces of the story and see a deeper plot emerging, in which the details begin to make sense! But to get to that joyous state, we must struggle first.  No valleys, no mountains.  Struggling can be hard.  Sometimes we want someone to tell us the answer so badly!  We want to know why!  Thanks be to God that He continues to be mindful of our predicament.  


- by Edward Morse


 
Spiritual Reading
Revelations of Divine Love
- by Julian of Norwich 

Seventh Revelation, Chapter 15


“It is not God’s will that we follow the feeling of pains in sorrow and mourning for them”

AND after this He shewed a sovereign ghostly pleasance in my soul. I was fulfilled with the everlasting sureness, mightily sustained without any painful dread. This feeling was so glad and so ghostly that I was in all peace and in rest, that there was nothing in earth that should have grieved me.

This lasted but a while, and I was turned and left to myself in heaviness, and weariness of my life, and irksomeness of myself, that scarcely I could have patience to live. There was no comfort nor none ease to me but faith, hope, and charity; and these I had in truth, but little in feeling. 

 
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