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“Amma Syncletica said, ‘Many live on the mountains and behave as if they were living amidst the uproar of a city, and they are lost. It is possible while living amongst a crowd to be inwardly solitary, and while living alone to be inwardly beset by the crowd.’”
[“Sayings of the Desert Fathers,”
Syncletica]
(What does inner solitude mean to you? What helps you to live in this manner?) |
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- Feast of St. Dominic. Readings for Ordinary Time
Na 2:1, 3; 3:1-3, 6-7; Dt. 32:35-36, 39, 41;
Mt 16:24-28
Jesus said to his disciples,
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny
himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?
Or what can one give in exchange for his life?
For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory,
and then he will repay each according to his conduct.
Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here
who will not taste
death
until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.”
USCCB Lectionary
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The gospel says we must die to ourselves, so it is important that we understand what this means. Jesus neither calls us to despise ourselves nor to deny our personal dreams and ambitions—unless they lead to sin. The self we are to deny is that strong tendency in each of us to be selfish and unconnected to others—to be ruled by instinct and
desire rather than by truth and love. The cross is the way to grow into the higher, spiritual self.
- Review your past day, focusing on a few key events. What decisions did you make? What were your motives behind these decisions?
- “Incarnation happens with every decision to love” is a doctrine of the mystics. How do you understand this? Pray for the grace to be more conscious of the loving alternatives you have for each decision you
make.
Paperback, Kindle
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The Way of Perfection, by Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
Speaks of the fear of God and of how we must keep ourselves from venial sins.
How I have enlarged on this subject! Yet I have not said as much about it as I should like; for it is a delightful thing to talk about this love of God. What, then, must it be to possess it? May the Lord, for His own sake, give it me! May I not depart from this life till there is nothing in it that I desire, till I have forgotten what it is to love anything but Thee and till I deny the name of love to any other kind of affection — for all love is false but love of Thee,
and, unless the foundations of a building are true, the building itself will not endure. I do not know why it surprises us to hear people say: “So-and-so has made me a poor return for something.” “Someone else does not like me.” I laugh to myself when I hear that. What other sort of return do you expect him to make you? And why do you expect anyone to like you? These things will show you what the world is; your love itself becomes your punishment, and the reason why you are so upset about it is
that your will strongly resents your involving it in such childish pastimes.
- Chapter 41 (Keep in mind that she is writing to sisters in a cloistered contemplative order.)
Paperback, Kindle
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