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Our natural will is to have God, and the good will of God is to have us, and we may never cease willing or longing for God until we have him in the fullness of joy. Christ will never have his full bliss in us until we have our full bliss in him."
- Blessed Julian of Norwich -
(God's desire for you: let this awareness awaken in you a deeper
willingness to belong to God completely.)
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EPH 1:11-14; PS 33:1-2, 4-5, 12-13
LK 12:1-7
At that time:
So many people were crowding together
that they were trampling one another underfoot.
Jesus began to speak, first to his disciples,
“Beware of the leaven–that is, the hypocrisy–of the Pharisees.
“There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness
will be heard in the light,
and what you have whispered behind closed doors
will be proclaimed on the housetops.
I tell you, my friends,
do not be afraid of those who kill the body
but after that can do no more.
I shall show you whom to fear.
Be afraid of the one who after killing
has the power to cast into Gehenna;
yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one.
Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins?
Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God.
Even the hairs of your head have all been counted.
Do not be afraid.
You are worth more than many sparrows.”
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture
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“We were predestined to praise His glory by being the first to hope in Christ.” —Ephesians 1:12
We are tailor-made for praising God. Our voices are for singing. Our hands, eyes, and hearts are made just right to be lifted up to the Lord. With our feet we can dance before the Lord (2 Sm 6:14). Our entire bodies can be offered “as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God, your spiritual worship” (Rm 12:1). Our minds and emotions can be trained and inspired to make music unto the Lord and to articulate our love for
Him in words.
We are born to praise the Lord, or more precisely, re-born to praise Him. Almost all our other activities will pass away. Soon we will not be preaching, teaching, healing, working, and suffering. However, we will always be praising. Praise is the eternal activity.
So don’t be afraid to praise Him. “There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nothing hidden that will not be made known. Everything you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight; what you have whispered in locked rooms will be proclaimed from the rooftops” (Lk 12:2-3). Even the quiet, hidden workings of God will be proclaimed. You will be the one to proclaim them.
In the end, every knee will bend, and every tongue proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil 2:10-11). So why wait? Praise Him now. Make praise your priority. Isn’t that what life, and eternal life, are all about? The Lord is worthy to be praised (Rv 5:12). The old spiritual says: “I don’t know what you came to do, but I came to praise the Lord.”
Prayer: By the power of the Spirit, may I bless the Lord at all times; may His praise be ever in my mouth (Ps 34:2).
Promise: “The hairs of your head are counted! Fear nothing, then. You are worth more than a flock of sparrows.” —Lk 12:7
Presentation Ministries
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Abandonment to Divine Providence
- by Jean-Pierre de Caussade
BOOK II,
CHAPTER IV. CONCERNING THE ASSISTANCE RENDERED BY THE FATHERLY PROVIDENCE OF GOD TO THOSE SOULS WHO HAVE ABANDONED THEMSELVES TO HIM
SECTION I. Confidence in God
The less the soul in the state of abandonment feels the help it receives from God, the more efficaciously does He sustain it.
Let us go to God, then, my soul, in abandonment, and let us acknowledge that we are incapable of acquiring virtue by our own industry or effort; but let us not allow this absence of particular virtues to diminish our confidence. Our divine Guide would not have reduced us to the necessity of walking if He had not intended to carry us in His arms. What need have we of lights and certainties, ideas and reflexions? Of what
use would it be to us to see, to know, and to feel, when we are no longer walking but being carried in the arms of divine Providence. The more we have to suffer from darkness, and the more rocks, precipices, and deserts there are in our way; the more we have to endure from fears, dryness, weariness of mind, anguish of soul, and even despair, and the sight of purgatory and hell, the greater must be our confidence and faith. One glance at Him who carries us is sufficient to restore our courage in
the greatest peril. We will forget the paths and what they are like; we will forget ourselves, and abandoning ourselves entirely to the wisdom, goodness, and power of our Guide we will think only of loving Him, and avoiding all sin, not only that which is evident, however venial it may be, but even the appearance of evil, and of fulfilling all the duties and obligations of our state.
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