Message of 12-26-16

Published: Mon, 12/26/16

A Daily Spiritual Seed
Monday: December 26, 2016
Message of the Day
Wouldn't life be worth the living
Wouldn't dreams be coming true
If we kept the Christmas spirit
All the whole year through?
   ~Author Unknown

(How will you keep the Christmas spirit alive in your life?)
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Readings of the Day
ACTS 6:8-10; 7:54-59;   PS 31:3CD-4, 6, 8AB, 16-17 

MT 10:17-22

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Beware of men, for they will hand you over to courts
and scourge you in their synagogues,
and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake
as a witness before them and the pagans.
When they hand you over,
do not worry about how you are to speak
or what you are to say.
You will be given at that moment what you are to say.
For it will not be you who speak
but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Brother will hand over brother to death,
and the father his child;
children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.
You will be hated by all because of my name,
but whoever endures to the end will be saved.”

USCCB lectionary
Reflection on the Scripture
- Feast of St. Stephen - 

"Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." –Acts 7:59

Christmas means God has become human and was born so that we could have a deep, personal relationship with Him. A deep love for the Crucified One results in being persecuted with and for Him. The result of Christmas is to live and die like St. Stephen – martyred or at least suffering redemptively for the Christ of Christmas. Naturally, we shy away and run from true love, love that hurts so much it becomes a sharing in Calvary.

Let us put aside our distractions and allow ourselves to fearfully fall into the hands of the living God, Who is Love Himself (Heb 10:31).

PRAYER: Father, I decide to take down the wall of possessions and activities which I have put between me and Your love.

PROMISE: "You will be hated by all on account of Me. But whoever holds out till the end will escape death." –Mt 10:22

PRAISE: St. Stephen rejoiced in death which would bring him closer to his Beloved. He was so "filled with faith and the Holy Spirit" (Acts 6:5) that he was martyred even before the apostles.

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Spiritual Reading
Theological Gems from Emile Merch's Theology of the Mystical Body
- selected by Jim and Tyra Arraj

Book III: Christ
 
Chapter 13: Revelation and the Trinity

382. Christ has a twofold consciousness, because He has two natures.

-- passive generation and active spiration --

383. In us, the supernatural is in process of formationÉ In Him it is a plenitude so powerful that it dominates the essential human nature in which it is found.

-- Christ is conscious of being the Word.. the Word is the ultimate support and the sole subsistence of all the human reality in Christ.
 
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