Message of 8-13-07
Published: Mon, 08/13/07
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all...As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength.
- Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton
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SCRIPTURE READINGS
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Dt 10:12-22; Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20; Mt 17:22-27
R.
(12a) Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you.
He has granted peace in your borders;
with the best of wheat he fills you.
He sends forth his command to the earth;
swiftly runs his word!
He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
He has not done thus for any other nation;
his ordinances he has not made known to them. Alleluia.
Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you.
He has granted peace in your borders;
with the best of wheat he fills you.
He sends forth his command to the earth;
swiftly runs his word!
He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
He has not done thus for any other nation;
his ordinances he has not made known to them. Alleluia.
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Praying the Daily Gospels
- by Philip St. Romain:
- http://www.liguori.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=6614
- Matthew 17: 22-27 (The temple tax)
Although Jesus has been careful to avoid proclaiming himself the Son of God, today’s reading alludes to this claim. Because the Temple is considered God’s house, he explains, he, the true of the King of creation, should not have to pay the temple tax. Only Matthew relates this story and the account of Peter’s extracting the coin from a fish (perhaps an allusion to Peter’s trade).
• How do
you feel about cheating on income taxes?
• God helps those who help themselves” is a popular saying. Do you believe this? Why? Why not?
• God helps those who help themselves” is a popular saying. Do you believe this? Why? Why not?
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THEOLOGICAL GEMS FROM EMIL MERCH'S THEOLOGY OF THE MYSTICAL BODY
from http://www.innerexplorations.com/chtheomortext/theolgems.htm
213. The human nature, in all the perfection it can have, is human. To be God’s nature, it has to become divine.
216. In its substance the body was material, but nevertheless was spiritualized, because united to the spirit, it had a sort of "being of union" with the spirit.
God is Being itself. He is "He who is," purus actus essendi, ipsum esse subsistens… Through the Incarnation He unites Himself to a finite being.
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LECTIO DIVINA METHOD (Benedictine Approach)
1. Relax. Settle in. Be aware that God is here, now, loving you.
2. Read a short passage of Scripture as though God were speaking directly to you in it.
3. Choose a phrase from the passage that strikes you and repeat it slowly, prayerfully, non-analytically.
4. When your heart is full, express to God the needs and sentiments awakened by your meditation. When you're done, read another passage and repeat steps 3 and 4.
5. If, at any time, you feel moved to simply be present to God in loving silence, put the Scripture aside and rest in God.
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