Contemplation is nothing else than a secret,
peaceful, and loving infusion of God, which if admitted, will set the soul on fire with the Spirit of love.
- St. John of the Cross
(This is the classical understanding of “contemplation” in the Christian mystical tradition. Open your heart to this Love this day.) |
Ez 36:23-28; Ps 51:12-13, 14-15, 18-19
Mt 22:1-14
Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and the elders of the people in parables saying,
“The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who gave a wedding feast for his son.
He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast,
but they refused to come.
A second time he sent other servants, saying,
‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have
prepared my banquet,
my calves and fattened cattle are killed,
and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’
Some ignored the invitation and went away,
one to his farm, another to his business.
The rest laid hold of his servants,
mistreated them, and killed them.
The king was enraged and sent his troops,
destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
Then the king said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready,
but those who were invited were not worthy to come.
Go
out, therefore, into the main roads
and invite to the feast whomever you find.’
The servants went out into the streets
and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,
and the hall was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to meet the guests
he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.
He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it
that you came in here without a wedding garment?’
But he was reduced to silence.
Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his
hands and feet,
and cast him into the darkness outside,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’
Many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Reflection on the
Scriptures |
“Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to
the feast whomever you find.”
If there is any consolation for the last kid picked, this is it. Those who actually share in the banquet are not on the original guest list. They simply are available and willing to accept the
invitation; as such, they get to partake in an amazing feast. We may not think that we’re extraordinary or important, but those are not necessarily the qualities that the Lord seeks. A ready and willing spirit will suffice. We need to be open to the Lord’s call and gracious in our acceptance.
“That we may be ready to acknowledge the Lord’s invitation, we pray.”
- from
preacherexchange.com
Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Ninth Revelation, Chapter 23
“The Glad
Giver”
“All the Trinity wrought in the Passion of Jesus Christ”
Jesus willeth that we take heed to the bliss that is in the blessed Trinity [because] of our salvation and that we desire to have as much spiritual enjoying,
with His grace, (as it is aforesaid): that is to say, that the enjoying of our salvation be [as] like to the joy that Christ hath of our salvation as it may be while we are here.
All the Trinity wrought in the Passion of Christ, ministering abundance of virtues and plenty of grace to us by Him: but only the Maiden’s Son
suffered: whereof all the blessed Trinity endlessly enjoyeth. All this was shewed in these words: Art thou well pleased?—and by that other word that Christ said: If thou art pleased, then am I pleased;—as if He said: It is joy and satisfying enough to me, and I ask nought else of thee for my travail but that I might well please thee.
And in this He brought to mind the property of a glad giver. A glad giver taketh but little heed of the thing that he giveth, but all his desire and all his intent is to please him and solace him to whom he giveth it. And if the receiver take the gift highly and thankfully, then the courteous giver setteth at nought all his cost and all his travail, for joy and delight that he hath pleased and solaced him that he loveth. Plenteously and fully was this
shewed.
Think also wisely of the greatness of this word “ever.” For in it was shewed an high knowing of lo [86] ve that He hath in our salvation, with manifold joys that follow of the Passion of Christ. One is that He rejoiceth that He hath done it in deed, and He shall no more suffer; another, that He bought us from
endless pains of hell.
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