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Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow, and to love Him as they love their cow - for the milk and cheese and profit it brings them. This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfort. They do not rightly love God, when they love Him for their own
advantage. Indeed, I tell you the truth, any object you have in your mind, however good, will be a barrier between you and the inmost Truth.
- Meister Eckhart
(How does this quote speak to your image of God? What might be a
barrier between you and God at this time in your life?) |
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Eph 1:11-14; Ps 33:1-2, 4-5, 12-13
Lk
12:1-7
At that time:
So many people were crowding together
that they were trampling one another underfoot.
Jesus began to speak, first to his disciples,
“Beware of the leaven–that is, the hypocrisy–of the Pharisees.
“There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will
not be known.
Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness
will be heard in the light,
and what you have whispered behind closed doors
will be proclaimed on the housetops.
I tell you, my friends,
do not be afraid of those who kill the body
but after that can do no more.
I shall show you whom to fear.
Be afraid of the one who after killing
has the power to cast into Gehenna;
yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one.
Are not five sparrows sold for two small
coins?
Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God.
Even the hairs of your head have all been counted.
Do not be afraid.
You are worth more than many sparrows.”
USCCB Lectionary
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Luke 12:1-7 (Fear God alone)
People who are afraid are not free, Jesus tells us in today's reading. “Perfect love casts out all fear,” John wrote in his epistle. If we could eliminate from our lives the
fear of death and the fear of harsh judgments from others, we would be truly free. If we really believe that God loves us unconditionally, this fear will leave us.
* When do you most often experience fear and anxiety? How do you usually handle these feelings? How can you change your thinking concerning these occasions to diminish fear? Write out suggestions for yourself.
* Spend some time with the verse “Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.”
Paperback, Kindle
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The Way of Perfection, by Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
Treats of these last words of the Paternoster: "Sed libera nos a malo. Amen." "But deliver us from evil. Amen."
You, daughters, must ask as you think best. Personally, I shall find no redress in this life, so I ask the Lord to deliver me from all evil "for ever." What good thing shall we find in this life, sisters, in which we are
deprived of our great Good and are absent from Him? Deliver me, Lord, from this shadow of death; deliver me from all these trials; deliver me from all these pains; deliver me from all these changes, from all the formalities with which we are forced to comply for as long as we live, from all the many, many, many things which weary and depress me, and the enumeration of all of which would weary the reader if I were to repeat them. This life is unendurable. The source of my own depression must be
my own wicked life and the realization that even now I am not living as I should, so great are my obligations.
- Chapter 42 (Keep in mind that she is writing to sisters in a cloistered contemplative order.)
Paperback, Kindle
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