Message of 12-19-07
Published: Sat, 12/15/07
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
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
MESSAGE OF THE DAY
Prayer is an act of love, words are not needed. Even if sickness
distracts thoughts, all that is needed is the will to love.
- St. Teresa of Avila, "The Way of Perfection"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SCRIPTURE READINGS
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Jgs 13:2-7, 24-25a; Ps 71:3-4a, 5-6ab, 16-17; Lk 1:5-25
R. (see 8) My mouth shall be filled with your praise, and I will
sing your glory!
Be my rock of refuge,
a stronghold to give me safety,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
O my God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked.
For you are my hope, O LORD;
my trust, O God, from my youth.
On you I depend from birth;
from my mother's womb you are my strength.
I will treat of the mighty works of the LORD;
O God, I will tell of your singular justice.
O God, you have taught me from my youth,
and till the present I proclaim your wondrous deeds.
- - -
ADVENT REFLECTIONS
His ways are so beautiful--to think that we have God almighty to
stoop so low as to love you and me and make use of us--and make us
feel that He really needs us--as I grow older my wonder at His
humility grows.... --Mother Teresa
John the Baptist--the Elijah of the New Testament--did not come to
earth in a fiery chariot but as a tiny baby to elderly parents.
Today, name some small ways that God is making a large difference
in your life.
- from "Day to day through Advent with Mother Teresa"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
MYSTICISM
- by Evelyn Underhill -
Many a mystic has found the perfection of detachment to be
consistent with a far less drastic renunciation of external things
than that which these women felt to be essential to their peace.
The test, as we have seen, does not lie in the nature of the things
which are retained, but in the reaction which they stimulate in the
self. "Absolute poverty is thine," says Tauler, "when thou canst
not remember whether anybody has ever owed thee or been indebted to
thee for anything; just as all things will be forgotten by thee in
the last journey of death." Poverty, in this sense, may be
consistent with the habitual and automatic use of luxuries which
the abstracted self never even perceives. Thus we are told that St.
Bernard was reproached by his enemies with the inconsistency of
preaching evangelical poverty whilst making his journeys from place
to place on a magnificently caparisoned mule, which had been lent
to him by the Cluniac monks. He expressed great contrition: but
said that he had never noticed what it was that he rode upon.
------ 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.
_________________________________________________
* Web Archive: http://www.aweber.com/z/article/?dailyseed
* RSS: http://www.aweber.com/z/rss/?dailyseed