Message of 12-26-07
Published: Sat, 12/22/07
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
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
God the Father gives birth to his Son in the very oneness of the
divine nature. In the same way, God the Father gives birth to his
Son in the ground and essence of the soul, and thus he unites
himself with her. Were any image present there would not be real
union, and in real union lies our beatitude. . . . Therefore you
must dwell in the ground of your soul, where God will join you to
his essence without the medium of any image.
- Meister Eckhart
(Rest in God beyond thoughts and words. Be awake to your inner
union with God.)
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SCRIPTURE READINGS
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59; Ps 31:3cd-4, 6 and 8ab, 16bc and 17; Mt
10:17-22
R. (6) Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.
Be my rock of refuge,
a stronghold to give me safety.
You are my rock and my fortress;
for your name's sake you will lead and guide me.
Into your hands I commend my spirit;
you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God.
I will rejoice and be glad because of your mercy.
Rescue me from the clutches of my enemies and my persecutors.
Let your face shine upon your servant;
save me in your kindness.
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- Reflection: (used with permission from http://www.scripture.net )
After the defeat at Dunkirk, Churchill offered his country blood,
toil, sweat, and tears. This is not the message we prefer to hear
when the Lord commissions us in his service. Nonetheless, our
privilege is to follow in the footsteps of the Master who laid down
his life for us. The Lord gives us sufficient grace to follow him
and to bear our cross with courage and hope. Do you know the joy
and victory of the cross of Jesus Christ?
"Lord Jesus, your coming in the flesh to ransom us from slavery to
sin gives us cause for great rejoicing even in the midst of trials
and pain. Help me to patiently and joyfully accept the hardships,
adversities, and persecution which come my way in serving you.
Strengthen my faith and give me courage that I may not shrink back
from doing your will".
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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 retaiSometimes, the very activity which one self has
rejected as an impediment becomes for another the channel of
spiritual perception. I have mentioned the Curé d'Ars, who, among
other inhibitions, refused to allow himself to smell a rose. Yet
St. Francis preached to the flowers, and ordered a plot to be set
aside for their cultivation when the convent garden was made, "in
order that all who saw them might remember the Eternal Sweetness."
So, too, we are told of his spiritual daughter, St.
Douceline, that "out of doors one day with her sisters, she heard a
bird's note. 'What a lovely song!' she said: and the song drew her
straight way to God. Did they bring her a flower, its beauty had a
like effect." "To look on trees, water, and flowers," says St.
Teresa of her own beginnings of contemplation, "helped her to
recollect the Presence of God." Here we are reminded of Plato. "The
true order of going is to use the beauties of Earth as steps along
which one mounts upwards for the sake of that other Beauty." This,
too, is the true order of Holy Poverty: the selfless use, not the
selfish abuse of lovely and natural things.
------ 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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