You ask then how I knew He was present, when His ways can in no way be traced? He is life and power, and as soon as He enters in, He awakens my slumbering soul; He stirs and soothes and pierces my heart, for before it was hard as stone, and diseased.
- Bernard of Clairvaux
(How
are you affected by God's presence?) |
HEB 8:6-13; PS 85:8 AND 10, 11-12, 13-14
MK 3:13-19
Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he
wanted
and they came to him.
He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles,
that they might be with him
and he might send them forth to preach
and to have authority to drive out demons:
He appointed the Twelve:
Simon, whom he named Peter;
James, son of Zebedee,
and John the brother of James, whom he named Boanerges,
that is, sons of thunder;
Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew,
Matthew, Thomas, James the son of
Alphaeus;
Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean,
and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.
Reflection on the
Scriptures |
Among those in the gospel Jesus beckoned to come closer to him were some of his closest friends - including those he bestowed with playful nicknames, like the Sons of Thunder. But we can't say that we are not worthy to be called. He also called Judas “who betrayed him.” Every one of us who are called by Jesus will betray him at times, but he continues to ask for us. Over and over he says our name, holds out his arms in welcome and
loves us beyond measure, despite the ways we ignore him. He loves us in ways we can't understand with a love so different than ours. He doesn't have the long, bitter and unforgiving memories that enable us to hold grudges. He doesn't wait for us to “earn” our place in his heart. He simply loves us and accepts us for who we are.
Today we can be alert. We can pay attention. Can we hear his call? Can we feel his love? How is our life different today because we are his followers?
by Maureen McCann Waldron
Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Thirteenth Revelation, Chapter 33
“It is God’s will that we have great regard to
all His deeds that He hath done, but evermore it needeth us to leave the beholding what the Deed shall be” For though the Revelation was made of goodness in which was made little mention of evil, yet I was not drawn thereby from any point of the Faith that Holy Church teacheth me to believe. For I had sight of the Passion of Christ in diverse Shewings,—the First, the Second, the Fifth, and the Eighth,—wherein
I had in part a feeling of the sorrow of our Lady, and of His true friends that saw Him in pain; but I saw not so properly specified the Jews that did Him to death. Notwithstanding I knew in my Faith that they were accursed and condemned without end, saving those that converted, by grace. And I was strengthened and taught generally to keep me in the Faith in every point, and in all as I had before understood: hoping that I was therein with the mercy and the grace of God; desiring and praying in
my purpose that I might continue therein unto my life’s end.
And it is God’s will that we have great regard to all His deeds that He hath done, but evermore it needeth us to leave the beholding what the Deed shall be. And let us desire to be like
our brethren which be saints in Heaven, that will right nought but God’s will and are well pleased both with hiding and with shewing. For I saw soothly in our Lord’s teaching, the more we busy us to know His secret counsels in this or any other thing, the farther shall we be from the knowing thereof.
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