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“I really don’t want a God who is solicitous of my every need, fawning for my attention, eager for nothing in the world so much as the fulfillment of my self-potential. One of the scourges of our age is that all of our deities are house-broken and eminently companionable. Far from demanding anything, they ask
only how they can more meaningfully enhance the lives of those they serve.”
- Belden C. Lane, The Solace of fierce Landscapes
(Ask not what God can do for you, but what you can do for God this day.)
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Is 29:17-24; Ps 27:1, 4, 13-14
Mt 9:27-31
As Jesus passed by, two blind men followed him, crying out,
“Son of David, have pity on us!”
When he entered the house,
the blind
men approached him and Jesus said to them,
“Do you believe that I can do this?”
“Yes, Lord,” they said to him.
Then he touched their eyes and said,
“Let it be done for you according to your faith.”
And their eyes were opened.
Jesus warned them sternly,
“See that no one knows about this.”
But they went out and spread word of him through all that land.
USCCB Lectionary
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Matthew 9: 27-31 (Jesus cures two blind men)
Jesus was very aware that his actions and words were misinterpreted
by those who had their own ideas about what the messiah should be. He did not fit the role of the political monarch some wanted, nor was he committed to the cause of Jewish nationalism. He saw himself more as a loving servant and sought frequently to deflect attention away from himself toward his Father.
* If you could ask and
receive one gift from God, what would you choose? Hear Jesus ask you, “Are you confident I can do this for you?”
* Ask for the grace to strengthen your faith in GodÕs providence.
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."
Now let us go back and finish the journey which I have been describing, for the Lord seems to have been saving me labour by teaching both you and me the Way which I began to outline to you and by showing me how much we ask
for when we repeat this evangelical prayer. May He be for ever blessed, for it had certainly never entered my mind that there were such great secrets in it. You have now seen that it comprises the whole spiritual road, right from the beginning, until God absorbs the soul and gives it to drink abundantly of the fountain of living water which I told you was at the end of the road. It seems, sisters, that the Lord's will has been to teach us what great consolation is comprised in it, and this is a
great advantage to those who cannot read. If they understood this prayer, they could derive a great deal of sound instruction from it and would find it a real comfort. Our books may be taken from us, but this is a book which no one can take away, and it comes from the lips of the Truth Himself, Who cannot err. - Chapter 42 (Keep in mind that she is writing to sisters in a cloistered contemplative order.)
Paperback, Kindle
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