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Sometimes we are unduly excited when things go well, and at other times we are too alarmed when things go badly. . . We ought to establish our hearts firmly in God's strength, and struggle, as best we can, to place all of our hope and confidence in the Lord so that we shall be like him, as far as it is possible, even in his unchanging rest and stability."
- Bl. Jordan of Saxony -
(Does your faith help you to find a certain stability and equanimity through the ups and downs of life? Give your full attention to God, that you may know God's "unchanging rest and stability.")
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Covid-19 Resources at Shalom Place
- practical, inspirational, and spiritual growth links and materials
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ACTS 16:22-34; Ps 138:1-2AB, 2CDE-3, 7C-8
JN 16:5-11
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Now I am going to the one who sent me,
and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’
But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts.
But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go.
For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you.
But if I go, I will send him to you.
And when he comes he will convict the world
in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation:
sin, because they do not believe in me;
righteousness, because I am going to the Father
and you will no longer see me;
condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.”
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 16: 5-11 (The promise of the Spirit)
In some wonderful and mysterious way, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection enable us to enjoy a fuller relationship with God than was possible prior to his coming. John emphasizes this point today when Jesus tells his disciples that his going will be for their own good.
• Eugene Kennedy wrote that we do not become truly human until we grow close enough to others to be missed. This is what the disciples of Jesus felt when he bade them farewell. Do you enjoy this kind of closeness with anyone? Would anyone miss you if you were to die?
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 14: That Charity may be named Love
Origin says somewhere that in his opinion the Divine Scripture wishing to hinder the word love from giving occasion of evil thoughts to the weak, as being more proper to signify a carnal passion than a spiritual affection, instead of this name of love has used the words charity and dilection, which are more honest. But S.
Augustine having deeply weighed the use of God's word clearly shows that the name love is no less sacred than the word dilection, and that the one and the other signify sometimes a holy affection and sometimes also a depraved passion, alleging to this purpose different passages of Holy Scripture. But the great S. Denis, as excelling doctor of the proper use of the divine names, goes much further in favour of the word love, teaching that theologians, that
is, the Apostles and their first disciples (for this saint knew no other theologians) to disabuse the common people, and break down their error in taking the word love in a profane and carnal sense, more willingly employed it in divine things than that of dilection; and, though they considered that both might be used for the same thing, yet some of them were of opinion that the word love was more proper and suitable to God than the word dilection. Hence the
divine Ignatius wrote these words: "My love is crucified." And as these ancient theologians made use of the word love in divine things to free it from the taint of impurity of which it was suspected according to the imagination of the world, so to express human affections they liked to use the word dilection as exempt from all suspicion of impropriety. Wherefore one of them, as S. Denis reports, said: "Thy dilection has entered into my soul like the
dilection of women." In fine the word love signifies more fervour, efficacy, and activity than that of dilection, so that amongst the Latins dilection is much less significative than love: "Clodius," says their great orator, "bears me dilection, and to say it more excellently, he loves me." Therefore the word love, as the most excellent, has justly been given to charity, as to the chief and most eminent of all loves; so that for all these reasons,
and because I intend to speak of the acts of charity rather than of its habit, I have entitled this little work, A Treatise of the Love of God.
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