Message of 8-15-07

Published: Wed, 08/15/07



SHALOM PLACE PREMIUM GROUPS
- Life-long learning and formation in Christian spirituality.

Groups now open include the following:
A. Psychological Types and Spirituality
B. The Way of Christian Spirituality
C. Freedom from Codependency
D. Christian Spirituality Resources
E. Wonderfully Made (Christian Metaphysics)
F. Growing in Christ
G. Spiral Dynamics®
H. Discerning God's Will
I.  Dark Night of the Soul
J.  Silence, Solitude and Sabbath
K. Alpha Group -- includes all the above and all to come.

- see http://shalomplace.org/groups.html

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MESSAGE OF THE DAY

Let the first act on waking be to place yourself, your heart, mind, faculties, your whole being, in God's hands. Ask Him to take entire possession of you, to be the Guide of your soul, your Life, your Wisdom, your Strength. He wills that we seek him in all our needs, that we may both know Him truly, and draw closer and closer to Him; and in prayer we gain an invisible force which will triumph over seemingly hopeless difficulties.
     - Sidney Lear

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SCRIPTURE READINGS
     http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/

Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab;   Ps 45:10, 11, 12, 16;   1 Cor 15:20-27;   Lk 1:39-56

R.    (10bc) The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold.

The queen takes her place at your right hand in gold of Ophir.

Hear, O daughter, and see; turn your ear,
forget your people and your father’s house.

So shall the king desire your beauty;
for he is your lord.

They are borne in with gladness and joy;
they enter the palace of the king.

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Gospel Meditation

The Holy Spirit is God's gift to us to enable us to know and experience the indwelling presence of God and the power of his kingdom. The Holy Spirit is the way in which God reigns within each of us. Mary accepted her mission with uncompromising faith and obedience. She acted with unwavering trust and faith because she believed that God would fulfill the word he had spoken. Her great hymn of praise echoes the song of Hannah (see 1 Samuel 2:1-10) and proclaims the favor of the Lord: God exalts the lowly and he fills the hungry. The Holy Spirit is ever ready to renew your faith and hope in God's promises and to make you strong in love for God and your neighbor. Do you live in the joy and confidence of God's indwelling presence with you through his Holy Spirit?

"Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit and give me joy in seeking you more closely. Increase my faith in all your promises, my hope in the joys of heaven, and my love for You as my All."
- from http://dailyscripture.net

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MYSTICISM
   - by Evelyn Underhill -

By Poverty the mystic means an utter self-stripping, the casting off of immaterial as well as material wealth, a complete detachment from all finite things. By Chastity he means an extreme and limpid purity of soul, cleansed from personal desire and virgin to all but God: by Obedience, that abnegation of selfhood, that mortification of the will, which results in a complete self-abandonment, a “holy indifference” to the accidents of life. These three aspects of perfection are really one: linked together as irrevocably as the three aspects of the self. Their common characteristic is this: they tend to make the subject regard itself, not as an isolated and interesting individual, possessing desires and rights, but as a scrap of the Cosmos, an ordinary bit of the Universal Life, only important as a part of the All, an expression of the Will Divine. Detachment and purity go hand in hand, for purity is but detachment of the heart; and where these are present they bring with them that humble spirit of obedience which expresses detachment of will. We may therefore treat them as three manifestations of one thing: which thing is Inward Poverty. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven,” is the motto of all pilgrims on this road.
       --- Part 2, Chapter 3

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MEDITATING ON SCRIPTURE (Method of St. Francis de Sales)

A. Settling in: call to mind God's presence; address oneself to God in vocal prayer.

B. Reading the Scripture passage slowly, prayerfully.

C. Exercise of the will and intellect in considering the message: what is this passage saying?  what is it calling forth from me?

D. Conclusion: acts of thanksgiving, remorse and intercessions awakened by the meditation.

E. Application: Immediate follow-through on resolutions made.

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