Message of 10-24-08
Published: Sun, 10/19/08
A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
If you love truth, be a lover of silence. Silence, like the
sunlight will illuminate you in God.
- St. Issac - 7th Century Hermit Monk
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SCRIPTURE READINGS
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Eph 4:1-6; Ps 24:1-2, 3-4ab, 5-6; Lk 12:54-59
R. (see 6) Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
The LORD's are the earth and its fullness;
the world and those who dwell in it.
For he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?
or who may stand in his holy place?
He whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.
He shall receive a blessing from the LORD,
a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks for him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
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GOSPEL MEDITATION
from "Praying the Daily Gospels," by Philip St. Romain:
- http://www.liguori.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=6614
- Luke 12: 54-59 (The signs of the times)
We have become quite adept at understanding God's creation and of
prospering from it. We have placed people on the moon and learned
the secrets of the atom. We have a technology which promises
wonders only dreamed of by science fiction writers in the past. Yet
we have achieved only minimal ethical and spiritual progress
through the ages. In today's reading Jesus tells us that we ought
to apply our intelligence to the things of God as much as to
creation and materialism.
- People do not change, only culture" is a familiar maxim. Do
you agree with this? Why? Why not?
- What are some of the signs of the times today to which we
ought to pay more attention? What are you doing to take a stand?
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PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE (Benedictine Approach)
1. Relax. Settle in. Be aware that God is here, now, loving you.
2. Read a short passage of Scripture as though God were speaking
directly to you in it.
3. Choose a phrase from the passage that strikes you and repeat it
slowly, prayerfully, non-analytically.
4. When your heart is full, express to God the needs and sentiments
awakened by your meditation. When you're done, read another passage
and repeat steps 3 and 4.
5. If, at any time, you feel moved to simply be present to God in
loving silence, put the Scripture aside and rest in God.
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NOTES FROM A CLASSICAL WORK
- "The Practice of the Presence of God," by Brother Lawrence
- First Letter
(How the habitual sense of Gods Presence was found.)
SINCE you desire so earnestly that I should communicate to you the
method by which I arrived at that habitual sense of GODs Presence,
which our LORD, of His mercy, has been pleased to vouchsafe to me;
I must tell you, that it is with great difficulty that I am
prevailed on by your importunities; and now I do it only upon the
terms, that you show my letter to nobody. If I knew that you would
let it be seen, all the desire that I have for your advancement
would not be able to determine me to it. The account I can give you
is:
Having found in many books different methods of going to GOD, and
divers practices of the spiritual life, I thought this would serve
rather to puzzle me, than facilitate what I sought after, which was
nothing but how to become wholly GODs.
This made me resolve to give the all for the All: so after having
given myself wholly to GOD, to make all the satisfaction I could
for my sins, I renounced, for the love of Him, everything that was
not He; and I began to live as if there was none but He and I in
the world. Sometimes I considered myself before Him as a poor
criminal at the feet of his judge; at other times I beheld Him in
my heart as my FATHER, as my GOD: I worshipped Him the oftenest
that I could, keeping my mind in His holy Presence, and recalling
it as often as I found it wandered from Him. I found no small pain
in this exercise, and yet I continued it, notwithstanding all the
difficulties that occurred, without troubling or disquieting myself
when my mind had wandered involuntarily. I made this my business,
as much all the day long as at the appointed times of prayer; for
at all times, every hour, every minute, even in the height of my
business, I drove away from my mind everything that was capable of
interrupting my thought of GOD.
Such has been my common practice ever since I entered into
religion; and though I have done it very imperfectly, yet I have
found great advantages by it. These, I well know, are to be imputed
to the mere mercy and goodness of GOD, because we can do nothing
without Him; and I still less than any. But when we are faithful to
keep ourselves in His holy Presence, and set Him always before us,
this not only hinders our offending Him, and doing anything that
may displease Him, at least wilfully, but it also begets in us a
holy freedom, and if I may so speak, a familiarity with GOD,
wherewith we ask, and that successfully, the graces we stand in
need of. In fine, by often repeating these acts, they become
habitual, and the presence of GOD is rendered as it were natural to
us. Give Him thanks, if you please, with me, for His great goodness
towards me, which I can never sufficiently admire, for the many
favours He has done to so miserable a sinner as I am. May all
things praise Him. Amen.
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