Message of 6-12-08
Published: Tue, 06/03/08
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
To get up each morning with the resolve to be happy...is to set our
own conditions to the events of each day. To do this is to
condition circumstances instead of being conditioned by them.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
(This is what happens when we pray and meditate first thing in the
morning.)
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SCRIPTURE READINGS
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
1 Kgs 18:41-46; Ps. 65:10, 11, 12-13; Mt 5:20-26
R. (2a) It is right to praise you in Zion, O God.
You have visited the land and watered it;
greatly have you enriched it.
God's watercourses are filled;
you have prepared the grain.
Thus have you prepared the land:
drenching its furrows, breaking up its clods,
Softening it with showers,
blessing its yield.
You have crowned the year with your bounty,
and your paths overflow with a rich harvest;
The untilled meadows overflow with it,
and rejoicing clothes the hills.
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GOSPEL MEDITATION
- from "Daily Bread"
http://www.preacherexchange.com/daily_bread.htm
"Go first and be reconciled ... and then come and offer your gift."
How seriously do I take this verse of scripture? The Eucharist is,
after all, a feast of love, and the love to which we are called is
not an abstract, theoretical I-wish-you-well-now-go-away kind of
love, but one that desires real peace for my neighbor, whether the
neighbor is on the other side of the pew, the street or the world.
We may find it difficult or embarrassing, but there it is. We are
called to be holy even as God is holy, and that certainly extends
to those apparently insignificant, petty, day-to-day differences
that can so easily escalate into major battles, or over time
solidify into old hatreds as hard and cold as rock.
"Lord, let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me."
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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
O Light eternal, surpassing all created brightness, flash forth
the
lightning from above and enlighten the inmost recesses of my
heart.
Cleanse, cheer, enlighten, and vivify my spirit with all its
powers,
that it may cleave to You in ecstasies of joy. Oh, when will that
happy and wished-for hour come, that You may fill me with Your
presence and become all in all to me? So long as this is not
given me,
my joy will not be complete.
-------- Bk. 3, Chapter 34
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