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Holy Spirit,
giving life to all life,
moving all creatures,
root of all things,
washing them clean,
wiping out their mistakes,
healing their wounds,
you are our true life,
luminous, wonderful,
awakening the heart
from its ancient sleep.
- Hildegard of Bingen -
(Pray this prayer slowly, inviting the Spirit to awaken your heart to God's love and wisdom this day.)
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Webinars
August 13, 2020: Can a Christian Believe in Evolution? by Philip
St. Romain
September 10, 2020: What does it Mean to be Pro-Life? by Philip
St. Romain
Book Studies
Fully Awake and Truly Alive: Spiritual Practices to Nurture Your Soul, by Rev. Jane E Vennard
Led By: Marcia Berchek and Ann Axman on Zoom
Dates: Wednesday August 5, 12,19 and 26, September 2
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MI 7:14-15, 18-20; Ps 85:2-4, 5-6, 7-8
MT 12:46-50
While Jesus was speaking to the crowds,
his mother and his brothers appeared outside,
wishing to speak with him.
Someone told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside,
asking to speak with you.”
But he said in reply to the one who told him,
“Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”
And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said,
“Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father
is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
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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Matthew 13: 35-43 Parable of the weeds explained
Again we find Jesus explaining his parables to his disciples, but he invites everyone to be open to his teaching. We live in a world that is both good and bad, Jesus tells us. God can purge the evil from our midst, but we must hear his words of love and put them into practice.
• Some philosophers have argued that goodness is merely the absence of evil; others, notably Augustine, argued that evil is the absence of good. Where do you stand on the issue of sources of good and evil?
• How does hearing God’s word help you to become a better person? Write down your thoughts. Spend some time thanking God for the gift of the Scriptures.
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 16: That we have a natural affinity to love God above all things
It happens often amongst partridges that one steals away another's eggs with intention to sit on them, whether moved by greediness to become a mother, or by a stupidity which makes them mistake their own, and behold a strange thing, yet well supported by testimony!--the young one which was hatched and nourished under the wings of a stranger partridge, at
the first call of the true mother, who had laid the egg whence she was hatched, quits the thief-partridge, goes back to the first mother, and puts herself in her brood, from the correspondence which she has with her first origin. Yet this correspondence appeared not, but remained secret, shut up and as it were sleeping in the bottom of nature, till it met with its object; when suddenly excited, and in a sort awakened, it produces its effect, and turns the young partridge's inclination to its
first duty. It is the same, Theotimus, with our heart, which though it be formed, nourished and bred amongst corporal, base and transitory things, and in a manner under the wings of nature, notwithstanding, at the first look it throws on God, at its first knowledge of him, the natural and first inclination to love God which was dull and imperceptible, awakes in an instant, and suddenly appears as a spark from amongst the ashes, which touching our will gives it a movement of the supreme love due
to the sovereign and first principle of all things.
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