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He has loved us without being loved… We are bound to Him, and not He to us, because before He was loved, He loved us… There it is, then: we cannot… love Him with this first love. Yet I say that God demands of us, that as He has loved us without any second thoughts, so He should be loved by us. In what way can we do this, then? … I tell you, through a means which he has established, by
which we can love Him freely; … that is, we can be useful, not to Him — which is impossible — but to our neighbor… To show the love that we have for Him, we ought to serve and love every rational creature and extend our charity to good and bad — as much to one who does us ill service and criticizes us as to one who serves us. For, His charity extends over just men and sinners.
- Catherine of Siena
(What are some ways you will "serve and love" others today? Visualize this, and pray for the grace to do so sincerely.) |
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1 Kgs 17:1-6; Ps. 121:1b-8; Mt 5:1-12
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and
earth.
I lift up my eyes toward the mountains;
whence shall help come to me?
My help is from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
May he not suffer your foot to slip;
may he slumber not who guards you:
Indeed he neither slumbers nor sleeps,
the guardian of
Israel.
The LORD is your guardian; the LORD is your shade;
he is beside you at your right hand.
The sun shall not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The LORD will guard you from all evil;
he will guard your life.
The LORD will guard your coming and your going,
both now and
forever.
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture |
“You shall drink of the stream, and I have
commanded ravens to feed you there.”
How often timidity and lack of confidence cripple us! Have courage and faith! We need the spirit of the beatitudes if we are to be truly proactive in our “hunger and thirst for righteousness.” The Lord will never, never let us down if we are doing God’s will and trust in God completely. Let us reflect on what it means to be poor in spirit, completely without
the ability to go it alone, and let us trust ourselves and our life work to our loving Lord, who will see that we receive what we need, when we need it.
“Lord, we pray for all that we need to live the life you have placed in us and to do the work to which you have called us.”
- preacherexchange.com
mycatholic.com
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Theological Gems from Emile Merch's Theology of the Mystical Body - selected by Jim and Tyra Arraj
Book III: Christ
Chapter 10: Unification of Mankind by Trinitarian Unity
264. Death, for the soul, is the passage from a formative stage to a definitive stage.
269. For a person who is absolutely without sin, death could be very gentle. In the state of original innocence the transition was not even death, but a simple passing from the formative state to the definitive state.
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