Message of 4-3-08
Published: Thu, 03/27/08
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
"Everything that we read in the sacred Books shines and glitters
even in the outer shell; but the marrow is sweeter. Those who
desire to eat the kernel must first break open the shell."
- St. Jerome -
(Let the outer shell of your mind and heart be opened as well to
encountering God through the Scriptures today.)
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SCRIPTURE READINGS
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
Acts 5:27-33; Ps. 34:2 and 9, 17-18, 19-20; Jn 3:31-36
R. (7a) The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.
The LORD confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
Many are the troubles of the just man,
but out of them all the LORD delivers him.
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GOSPEL MEDITATION
- from http://www.dailyscripture.net/
If you choose to follow your own way apart from God and his will,
then you choose for death - a spiritual death which poisons and
then kills the soul until there is nothing left but an empty person
devoid of love, truth, goodness, purity, peace, and joy. Do your
choices lead you towards God or away from God?
"Lord Jesus Christ, let your Holy Spirit fill me and transform my
heart and mind that I may choose life - abundant life in you and
with you. And give me the courage and strength to always discern
good from evil and to reject everything that is false and contrary
to your holy will."
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PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE (Carmelite Method)
A. Introduction: settling in, relaxing in awareness of God's
presence.
B. Reading the text slowly, prayerfully.
C. Meditation: imaginative representation of the material; reflection
on the meaning of the material and its application to one's life.
D. Affective prayer: conversation with God, attentive to sharing
feelings awakened in meditation. Prayer of petition, thanksgiving,
remorse.
E. Resting in God in silent loving awareness, if moved to do so.
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NOTES FROM A CLASSICAL WORK
- "Imitation of Christ," by Thomas A. Kempis
The Disciple
Many there are who desire contemplation, but who do not care to
do the
things which contemplation requires. It is also a great obstacle
to be
satisfied with externals and sensible things, and to have so
little of
perfect mortification. I know not what it is, or by what spirit
we are
led, or to what we pretend -- we who wish to be called spiritual
--
that we spend so much labor and even more anxiety on things that
are
transitory and mean, while we seldom or never advert with full
consciousness to our interior concerns.
-------- Bk. 3, Chapter 31
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