Message of 10-17-07
Published: Fri, 10/12/07
- 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
Of all the duties enjoined by Christianity none is more essential
and yet more neglected than prayer. Most people consider the
exercise a fatiguing ceremony, which they are justified in
abridging as much as possible. Even those whose profession or fears
lead them to pray, pray with such languor and wanderings of mind
that their prayers, far from drawing down blessings, only increase
their condemnation.
- Francois Fenelon
(This "condemnation" is usually discouragement with prayer and
further neglect of it, a vicious circle. We learn to pray by
praying; the more we do it, the deeper our prayer grows.)
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SCRIPTURE READINGS
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Rom 2:1-11; Ps 62:2-3, 6-7, 9; Lk 11:42-46
R. (13b) Lord, you give back to everyone according to his works.
Only in God is my soul at rest;
from him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my stronghold; I shall not be disturbed at all.
Only in God be at rest, my soul,
for from him comes my hope.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my stronghold; I shall not be disturbed.
Trust in him at all times, O my people!
Pour out your hearts before him;
God is our refuge!
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Praying the Daily Gospels
- by Philip St. Romain:
- http://www.liguori.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=6614
- Luke 11: 42-46 ("Woe to you...')
If we saw a friend backing toward the edge of a cliff, we would
certainly yell out a warning. Similarly, Jesus feels compelled to
warn the scribes and Pharisees that some of their beliefs and
practices are hurting themselves and others.
- He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help," Abraham
Lincoln wrote. Does this criterion apply to Jesus?
- Of what practices in the Church are you most critical? What are
you doing to help improve these situations?
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MYSTICISM
- by Evelyn Underhill -
Poverty, then, consists in a breaking down of man's inveterate
habit of trying to rest in, or take seriously, things which are
"less than God": i.e., which do not possess the character of
reality. Such a habit is the most fertile of all causes of
"world-weariness," disillusion and unrest: faults, or rather
spiritual diseases, which the mystics never exhibit, but which few
who are without all mystic feeling can hope to escape. Hence the
sharpened perceptions of the contemplatives have always seen
poverty as a counsel of prudence, a higher form of common sense. It
was not with St. Francis, or any other great mystic, a first
principle, an end in itself. It was rather a logical deduction from
the first principle of their science--the paramount importance to
the soul of an undistracted vision of reality.
------ 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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