We are half-hearted creatures like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a
slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
- C. S. Lewis, Into the Wardrobe
(As someone once put it, “the enemy of the best is the good.” What would this mean for you at this time?) |
1 Pt 2:2-5, 9-12; Ps. 100:2, 3, 4, 5; Mk 10:46-52
R. Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
serve the LORD with
gladness;
come before him with joyful song.
Know that the LORD is God;
he made us, his we are;
his people, the flock he tends.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
his courts with praise;
Give thanks to him;
bless his name.
The LORD is good:
his kindness endures forever,
and his faithfulness, to all generations.
Reflection on the Scriptures |
“He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to
Jesus.”
The blind Bartimaeus, reduced to begging by the roadside, would not be deterred when he heard that Jesus was coming. Despite countless rebukes from bystanders, he repeatedly cried out for Jesus’ mercy. He did not hide in shame as those around him expected. There is no disgrace in constantly petitioning the Lord. We should not be put off by
others’ opinions or discouraged when there appears to be no immediate response to our pleas. We must be persistent and cast aside all distractions and obstacles and focus on God as the source of all mercy and goodness. Let us approach Jesus confident that he will heal every illness.
For the faith that saves, we pray.
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Revelations of Divine Love - by Julian of Norwich
Eighth Revelation, Chapter 18
“Thus was I learned to choose Jesus for my Heaven, whom I saw only in pain at
that time “
IN this [time] I would have looked up from the Cross, but I durst not. For I wist well that while I beheld in the Cross I was surely-safe; therefore I would not assent to put my soul in peril: for away from the Cross was no
sureness, for frighting of fiends.
Then had I a proffer in my reason, as if it had been friendly said to me: Look up to Heaven to His Father. And then saw I well, with the faith that I felt, that there was nothing betwixt the Cross and Heaven
that might have harmed me. Either me behoved to look up or else to answer. I answered inwardly with all the might of my soul, and said: Nay; I may not: for Thou art my Heaven. This I said for that I would not. For I would liever have been in that pain till Doomsday than to come to Heaven otherwise than by Him. For I wist well that He that bound me so sore, He should unbind me when that He would. Thus was I learned to choose Jesus to my Heaven, whom I saw only in pain at that time: meliked no
other Heaven than Jesus, which shall be my bliss when I come there.
And this hath ever been a comfort to me, that I chose Jesus to my Heaven, by His grace, in all this time of Passion and sorrow; and that hath been a learning to me that I should
evermore do so: choose only Jesus to my Heaven in weal and woe.
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