All the virtues assist the soul to attain to a burning love of God, but, above all, pure prayer. By means of it the soul escapes completely from the midst of creatures, carried to God, as it were, on wings."
- St. Maximus the Confessor [7th C.), Centuries on Charity, I, 11 -
(Pure prayer is prayer focused only on God, with naked intent and full surrender. Ask the Spirit to help you pray in this manner today.)
|
EPH 3:14-21; PS 33:1-2, 4-5, 11-12, 18-19
LK 12:49-53
Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.
From now on a household of five will be divided,
three against two and two against three;
a father will be divided against his son
and a son against his father,
a mother against her daughter
and a daughter against her mother,
a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
Shalom Place Covid-19 resource page
- Practical, inspirational and spiritually formative writings and podcasts
see http://shalomplace.com/covid-19.html and check back often as we're frequently adding more.
Reflection on the Scriptures
|
I was taken aback when I first read today’s Gospel from Luke. These words are not ones I usually read when contemplating the gospel and what it means in my life. I am more used to those passages that tell us to love one another as Jesus has loved us, as God has loved us. OK, I think to myself. I can do that. I should do that. I work at it every day. But our faith asks more. God sent his son to be human and
Jesus certainly experienced the anguish and division. His apostles failed him – betrayed him and disavowed all knowledge of him. He was crucified. What can I learn from this? Peace on earth is difficult and hard. We are divided. To live out God’s work and to commit to a faith that does justice will require facing adversity, facing anguish, facing division.
The message is difficult and makes me unsettled. To do what’s right may mean alienating those I care about. What I need to remember is to find God in all things. To remember that standing up for what I believe does not mean demeaning others. Even in the midst of the division, we have to work for understanding, the kind of understanding that God has for us. My reflections have made me think of Father Greg Boyle,
S.J., the priest who works with gang members in Los Angeles. Amid the crushing poverty and violence, he sees humanity. Father Boyle reminds us: “There is no us and them; there is only us.”
Jesus did not shy away from or sugar-coat the truth. Healing the divisions is not easy. We have to be ready for division and we have to stand with and for those whose voices aren’t heard. We have to remember that God is with us.
- by Sr. Carol Zuegner
Revelations of Divine Love
- by Julian of Norwich
Sixteenth Revelation, Chapter 83
Life, Love, and Light
I HAD, in part, touching, sight, and feeling in three properties of God, in which the strength and effect of all the Revelation standeth: and they were seen in every Shewing, and most properly in the Twelfth, where it saith oftentimes: [It is I.] The properties are these: Life, Love, and Light. In life is marvellous homeliness, and in love is gentle courtesy, and in light is endless Nature-hood.
These properties were in one Goodness: unto which Goodness my Reason would be oned, and cleave to it with all its might.
I beheld with reverent dread, and highly marvelling in the sight and in the feeling of the sweet accord, that our Reason is in God; understanding that it is the highest gift that we have received; and it is grounded in nature.
Our faith is a light by nature coming of our endless Day, that is our Father, God. In which light our Mother, Christ, and our good Lord, the Holy Ghost, leadeth us in this passing life. This light is measured discreetly, needfully standing to us in the night. The light is cause of our life; the night is cause of our pain and of all our woe: in which we earn meed and thanks of God. For we, with mercy and
grace, steadfastly know and believe our light, going therein wisely and mightily.
And at the end of woe, suddenly our eyes shall be opened, and in clearness of light our sight shall be full: which light is God, our Maker and Holy Ghost, in Christ Jesus our Saviour.
Thus I saw and understood that our faith is our light in our night: which light is God, our endless Day.
|
|
|