Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of you.
O, Father, give to your child what he himself knows not how to ask.
Teach me to pray. Pray yourself in me.
... François Fenelon
(Spend some time with this prayer until it becomes your own.)
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Jb 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-23; Ps 88:2-3, 4-5, 6, 7-8
Lk 9:51-56
When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled,
he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem,
and he sent messengers ahead of him.
On the way they entered a Samaritan village
to prepare for his reception there,
but they would not welcome him
because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem.
When the disciples James and John saw this they asked,
“Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven
to consume them?”
Jesus turned
and rebuked them,
and they journeyed to another village.
UCCB Lectionary
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Reflection on the Scriptures |
“When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem.”
Today’s readings show us two men — Job and Jesus — living life and considering
death. Job is overwhelmed by life’s troubles and thinks it would be better if he had never been born. But, Job learns, God is in charge. Jesus, on the other hand, is “resolutely determined” to fulfill God’s will, whatever that entails. I think “resolutely determined” is the key. My life and all its one-day-at-a-time joys and sorrows are what I embrace when I affirm that God is in charge and resolve to follow the Lord, through life, through death, to greater life.
“Lord, teach me that there is no challenge without your sustaining grace.”
- from preacherexchange.com
DailyScripture.net
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The Ascent of Mount Carmel, by St. John of the Cross E. Allison Peers Translation. Paperback, Kindle, Audio Book.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1935785982/?tag=christianspiritu
BOOK THE FIRST Wherein is described the nature of dark night and how necessary it is to pass through it to Divine union; and in particular this book describes the dark night of sense, and desire, and the evils which these work in the soul.
CHAPTER I Sets down the first stanza. Describes two different nights through which spiritual persons pass, according to the two parts of man, the lower and the higher. Expounds the stanza which follows.
Stanza The first
On a dark night, Kindled in love with yearnings — oh, happy chance! — I went forth without being observed, My house being now at rest.
- - - - - - - - - -
5. And it was a happy chance that God should lead it into this night, from which there came to it so much good; for of itself the soul would not have succeeded in entering therein, because no man of himself can succeed in voiding
himself of all his desires in order to come to God.
6. This is, in brief, the exposition of the stanza; and we shall now have to go through it, line by line, setting down one line after another, and expounding that which pertains to our purpose. And the same method is followed in the other stanzas, as I said in the Prologue — namely, that
each stanza will be set down and expounded, and afterwards each line.
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