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Easter means hope prevails over despair. Jesus reigns as Lord of Lords and King of Kings . . . Easter says to us that despite everything to the contrary, his will for us will prevail, love will prevail over hate, justice over injustice and oppression, peace over exploitation and bitterness.
- Desmond Tutu, Crying in the Wilderness: The Struggle for Justice in South Africa
(Christ's risen presence is with us these days. Open your heart and mind to claim this hopeful message and presence.)
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Covid-19 Resources at Shalom Place
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ACTS 4:32-37; Ps 93:1AB, 1CD-2, 5
JN 3:7B-15
Jesus said to Nicodemus:
“‘You must be born from above.’
The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes,
but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes;
so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus answered and said to him,
‘How can this happen?”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this?
Amen, amen, I say to you,
we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen,
but you people do not accept our testimony.
If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe,
how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
No one has gone up to heaven
except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
USCCB Lectionary
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Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain,
2018 (3rd ed.)
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John 3: 7-15 (Jesus the revealer of God)
In today's reading John proposes that we accept Jesus as the one who reveals to us what we need to know about God. Human reason is confined to knowledge of this world, Jesus tells Nicodemus. Knowledge of God must come from one who is of God. Faith in Jesus lets us share in this knowledge.
* Do you believe that the truths of divine revelation conflict in any way with what human reason can demonstrate to be true? If so, what are you doing to clarify your thinking?
* What did Jesus reveal to us about God that is most important to you? Spend some time thanking God for this gift.
Paperback, Kindle and eBook
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Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
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BOOK I: CONTAINING A PREPARATION FOR THE WHOLE TREATISE
Chapter 12: That in these two portions of the soul there are four different degrees of reason
But if faith, hope and charity be formed by this holy acquiescence in the point of the spirit, how can reasonings which depend on the light of faith be made in the inferior part of the soul? As, Theotimus, we see that barristers dispute with many arguments on the acts and rights of parties to a suit, and that the high parliament or senate settles all the
strife by a positive sentence, though even after this is pronounced the advocates and auditors do not give up discoursing among themselves the motives parliament may have had:--even so, after reasoning, and above all the grace of God have persuaded the point and highest part of the spirit to acquiesce, and make the act of faith after the manner of a sentence or judgment, the understanding does not at once cease discoursing upon that same act of faith already conceived, to consider the motives
and reasons thereof. But always the arguments of theology are stated at the pleading place and bar of the superior portion of the soul, but the acquiescence is given above, on the bench and tribunal of the point of the spirit. Now, because the knowledge of these four degrees of the reason is much required for understanding all treatises on spiritual things, I have thought well to explain it rather fully.
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