Message of 8-22-07

Published: Wed, 08/22/07



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

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

MESSAGE OF THE DAY

If we want the Word of God to have authority in our life, there is only one way - obey it. If we want the Holy Spirit to have authority in our life, there is only one way - Obey Him. If we always obey impulses of fear or doubt or resentment, what will have authority over our minds? Fear, and doubt and resentment.
   - Tom Marshall

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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

Jgs 9:6-15;   Ps 21:2-6;   Mt 20:1-16

R.    (2a) Lord, in your strength the king is glad.

O LORD, in your strength the king is glad;
in your victory how greatly he rejoices!
You have granted him his heart’s desire;
you refused not the wish of his lips.

For you welcomed him with goodly blessings,
you placed on his head a crown of pure gold.
He asked life of you: you gave him
length of days forever and ever.

Great is his glory in your victory;
majesty and splendor you conferred upon him.
You made him a blessing forever,
you gladdened him with the joy of your face.

- - -

Praying the Daily Gospels
 - by Philip St. Romain:
 - http://www.liguori.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=6614

- Matthew 20:1-16 (The first and the last)

At first glance, there seems to be an injustice which Jesus glosses over in today’s reading. Although each group gets what it has agreed upon, it seems the partiality shown the last workers is a slight against the long-suffering group. This is a parable about the kingdom d)f God, however, which emphasizes that being with God will be reward enough for anyone, no matter how much the person may “deserve" adlmittance.

• Do you think it fair that the good thief on the cross was promised salvation by Jesus when so many of us have to work our whole lives through in faithfulness?

• “A person is not a Christian if his first concern is pay,” William Barclay wrote. What should be the first concern of a Christian when considering employment?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

MYSTICISM
   - by Evelyn Underhill -

“God is pure Good in Himself,” says Eckhart, “therefore will He dwell nowhere but in a pure soul. There He can pour Himself out: into that He can wholly flow. What is Purity? It is that a man should have turned himself away from all creatures and have set his heart so entirely on the Pure Good that no creature is to him a comfort, that he has no desire for aught creaturely, save so far as he may apprehend therein the Pure Good, which is God. And as little as the bright eye can endure aught foreign in it, so little can the pure soul bear anything in it, any stain on it, that comes between it and God. To it all creatures are pure to enjoy; for it enjoyeth all creatures in God, and God in all creatures.”
          --- Part 2, Chapter 3

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

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.

_________________________________________________