No one, except the enemies of the Church, could conceivably be helped by Christian creeds
and dogmas being emptied of their content. Where everyone might benefit, however, is by attention being focused more directly on the content, rather than on its, necessarily inadequate, verbal expression. Thus the Church’s doctrinal propositions may never be disregarded; but they are intended, like every form of words, to be ‘seen through’—in the sense indicated by St. Thomas Aquinas . . . The only way to escape ‘illusion,’ even in matters of faith, is to get beyond the verbal propositions to the
reality they signify.
- Dom Aelred Graham, Zen Catholicism
(Look beyond . . . to the One who is the Reality beyond all words.)
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Acts 1:1-11; Ps 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9; Eph 1:17-23; Mt 28:16-20
R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
All you peoples, clap your hands,
shout to God with cries of
gladness,
For the LORD, the Most High, the awesome,
is the great king over all the earth.
God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy;
the LORD, amid trumpet blasts.
Sing praise to God, sing praise;
sing praise to our king, sing praise.
For king of all the earth is God;
sing hymns of praise.
God
reigns over the nations,
God sits upon his holy throne.
Reflection on the Scriptures |
Jesus’ last words to his apostles point to his saving mission and to their mission to be
witnesses of his saving death and his glorious resurrection and to proclaim the good news of salvation to all the world. Their task is to proclaim the good news of salvation, not only to the people of Israel, but to all the nations. God’s love and gift of salvation is not just for a few, or for a nation, but it is for the whole world - for all who will accept it. The gospel is the power of God, the power to forgive sins, to heal, to deliver from evil and oppression, and to restore life. Do you
believe in the power of the gospel?
This is the great commission which the risen Christ gives to the whole church. All believers have been given a share in this task - to be heralds of the good news and ambassadors for Jesus Christ, the only savior of the world. We have not been left alone in this task, for the risen Lord works in and through us by the power of his
Holy Spirit. Today we witness a new Pentecost as the Lord pours out his Holy Spirit upon his people to renew and strengthen the body of Christ and to equip it for effective ministry and mission world-wide. Do you witness to others the joy of the gospel and the hope of the resurrection?
“Lord Jesus, through the gift of your Holy Spirit, you fill us with an
indomitable spirit of praise and joy which no earthly trial can subdue. Fill me with your resurrection joy and help me to live a life of praise and thanksgiving for your glory. May I witness to those around me the joy of the gospel and the reality of your resurrection.”
- by dailyscripture.net
Revelations of Divine Love - by Julian of Norwich
Eighth Revelation, Chapter 17 “How might any pain be more to
me than to see Him that is all my life, and all my bliss, and all my joy suffer?”
AND in this dying was brought to my mind the words of Christ: I thirst.
For I saw in Christ a double thirst: one bodily; another spiritual, the
which I shall speak of in the Thirty-first Chapter.
I saw four manner of dryings: the first was bloodlessness; the second was pain following after; the third, hanging up in the air, as men hang a cloth to dry; the fourth, that the bodily Kind
asked liquid and there was no manner of comfort ministered to Him in all His woe and distress. Ah! hard and grievous was his pain, but much more hard and grievous it was when the moisture failed and began to dry thus, shrivelling.
These were the pains that shewed in the blessed head: the first wrought to the dying, while it had moisture; and that other, slow, with
shrinking drying, [and] with blowing of the wind from without, that dried and pained Him with cold more than mine heart can think. And other pains—for which pains I saw that all is too little that I can say: for it may not be told.
The which Shewing of Christ’s pains filled me full of pain. For I wist well He suffered but once, but [this was as if] He would shew it me
and fill me with mind as I had afore desired. And in all this time of Christ’s pains I felt no pain but for Christ’s pains. Then thought-me: I knew but little what pain it was that I asked; and, as a wretch, repented me, thinking: If I had wist what it had been, loth me had been to have prayed it. For methought it passed bodily death, my pains. I thought: Is any pain like this? And I was answered in my reason: Hell is another pain: for there is despair. But of all pains that lead to salvation
this is the most pain, to see thy Love suffer.
How might any pain be more to me than to see Him that is all my life, all my bliss, and all my joy, suffer? Here felt I soothfastly that I loved Christ so much above myself that there was no
pain that might be suffered like to that sorrow that I had to [see] Him in pain.
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