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Christianity is a religion which concerns us as we are here and now, creatures of body and soul. We do not follow the footsteps of His most holy life by the exercise of a trained religious imagination, but by treading the firm, rough earth, up hill and down dale.
- Evelyn Underhill, The School of Charity
(Open your mind and heart to God, who meets us where we are.)
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Covid-19 Resources at Shalom Place
- practical, inspirational, and spiritual growth links and materials
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ACTS 11:19-26; Ps 87:1B-3, 4-5, 6-7
JN 10:22-30
The feast of the Dedication was taking place in Jerusalem.
It was winter.
And Jesus walked about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon.
So the Jews gathered around him and said to him,
“How long are you going to keep us in suspense?
If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
Jesus answered them, “I told you and you do not believe.
The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me.
But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep.
My sheep hear my voice;
I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
No one can take them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all,
and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.
The Father and I are one.”
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 10: 22-30 (Jesus is one with the Father)
Today’s reading brings to mind a saying of C. S. Lewis who maintained that a man who said and did the things Jesus said and did was either who he said he was or else he was a lunatic on the level of a poached egg. There is no middle ground left to the interpreter of the meaning of Jesus’ life; Jesus does not intend that there he a middle ground.
• Who are the “sheep” whose well-being the Father has entrusted to you? Have you been faithful to them lately? How can you better love them?
• Pray for the grace to be more loving toward family members.
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 13: On the difference of loves
When the love of benevolence is exercised without correspondence on the part of the beloved, it is called the love of simple benevolence; but when it is practised with mutual correspondence, it is called the love of friendship.
Now mutual correspondence consists in three things; friends must love one another, know that they love one another, and have communication, intimacy and familiarity with one another. If we love a
friend without preferring him before others, the friendship is simple; if we prefer him, then this friendship will be called dilection, as if we said love of election, because we choose this from amongst many things we love, and prefer it.
Again, when by this dilection we do not much prefer one friend before others it is called simple dilection, but when, on the contrary, we much more esteem and greatly prefer one friend before others of his kind, then this friendship is called dilection by excellence.
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