knitternun

Saturday, January 27, 2007

27/01/07 week of Epiphany 3

[Please remember this is a sort of "menu" from which to select. No one has to read it all]

Collect

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Today's Scripture
http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/

Psalm 55; Psalm 138, 139:1-17(18-23)
Isa. 51:1-8; Gal. 3:23-29; Mark 7:1-23
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

Galatians 3:23-29. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

When Paul talks about clothing like this, he isn't speaking in metaphor. It's likely that people coming for baptism in the early church were clothed in fresh white garments as soon as they arose from the water. It was an impressive way to show that the old Adam has been laid aside--even drowned--and the new Adam resurrected and restored.


In many Orthodox churches in the East, infants are baptized in the nude, then clothed with a white garment, a dramatic demonstration that the baptized acquire a radically new identity. My brother married into a Greek Orthodox family, and I saw my little nephew baptized in this way. It was a moment of great tenderness when the priest anointed his naked little body, and of drama when he immersed the child (who was none too happy about it) three times in the deep baptismal font. The baby's mother and grandmother then whisked him away to a side room and emerged triumphantly with him moments later, the child perfectly dry and dressed in a natty new suit. I often remember that moment when I hear these words of Paul and imagine myself as well newly clothed with Christ.
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Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
BISHOP OF ANTIOCH AND OF CONSTANTINOPLE, PREACHER, THEOLOGIAN, LITURGIST

Psalm 49:1-8 or 34:15-22
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Luke 21:12-15

O God, who gave to your servant John Chrysostom grace eloquently to proclaim your righteousness in the great congregation, and fearlessly to bear reproach for the honor of your Name: Mercifully grant to all bishops and pastors such excellency in preaching, and fidelity in ministering your Word, that your people shall be partakers with them of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Makamba (Burundi)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing.
St. Therese of the Child Jesus
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Reading from the Desert Christians
http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

On Obedience

The holy Syncletia said, "I think that for those living in community obedience is a greater virtue than chasity, however perfect. Chastity carries within it the danger of pride, but obedience has within it the promise of humility."

The old men used to say, "If someone has faith in another and hands himself over to him in complete submission, he does not need to pay attention to God's commandments but he can entrust his whole will to his father. He will suffer no reproach from God, for God looks for nothing from beginners so much as renunciation through obedience."

Abba Mios of Belos said, "Obedience responds to obedience. When someone obeys God, then God obeys his request."
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Healing Our Hearts Through Forgiveness

How can we forgive those who do not want to be forgiven? Our deepest desire is that the forgiveness we offer will be received. This mutuality between giving and receiving is what creates peace and harmony. But if our condition for giving forgiveness is that it will be received, we seldom will forgive! Forgiving the other is first and foremost an inner movement. It is an act that removes anger, bitterness, and the desire for revenge from our hearts and helps us to reclaim our human dignity. We cannot force those we want to forgive into accepting our forgiveness. They might not be able or willing do so. They may not even know or feel that they have wounded us.

The only people we can really change are ourselves. Forgiving others is first and foremost healing our own hearts.
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:

(27) We who belong to The Third Order are a Christian community whose
members, although varied in race, education, and character, are bound
into a living whole through the love we share in Christ. This unity of
all of us who believe in Him will become, as our Lord intended, a
witness to the world of His divine mission. In our relationships with
those outside the Order we as Tertiaries show the same Christ like love,
and gladly give of ourselves, remembering that love is measured by
sacrifice.

O God, by the life of blessed Francis You moved Your people to a love of
simple things: may we, after his example, hold lightly to the things of
this world and store up for ourselves treasure in heaven through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html

"Irish Wisdom"

Once after I gave a retreat in Ireland, three older women came up afterward and said, "Oh, Father, what you were saying is what we believed years ago, but we threw it out with the Second Vatican Council." They told me about the fallen priest. He was the priest who'd had some terrible moral failure, as if all of didn't. The fallen priest was, of course, looked down upon and whisked away to some monastery on the coast of Ireland so the good Irish people wouldn't imagine that their priest sinned or drank. Yet the three women told me, excitedly, "You know what? We don't know if the priests knew this, but we old Irish people always went to the fallen ones for the cure." Now, there's Irish wisdom.

from Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the 12 Steps
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From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/dsteelman/tradition/sources.html

Your reward is certain

The Good Shepherd lost none of his sheep when he laid down his life for them; he did not desert them, but kept them safe; he did not abandon them but called them to follow him, leading them by the way of death through the lowlands of this passing world to the pastures of life.

Listen to the shepherd's words: My sheep hear my voice and follow me. Those who have followed him to death will inevitably also follow him to life; his companions in shame will be his companions in honor, just as those who have shared his suffering will share his glory. Where I am, he says, there shall my servant be also. And where is that? Surely in heaven, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Do not be troubled, then, because you must live by faith, nor grow weary because hope is deferred. Your reward is certain; it is preserved for you in him who created all things. You are dead, scripture says, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, you too will appear with him in glory. What was concealed from the farmer at seedtime he will see as he gathers in the sheaves, and the man who plows in sorrow will harvest his crop in gladness.

Peter Chrysologus, (400 - 450), bishop of Ravenna, was above all a pastor and preached many sermons to his people.
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict
http://www.osb.org/rb/

Chapter 7: On Humility

Let a man consider
that God is always looking at him from heaven,
that his actions are everywhere visible to the divine eyes
and are constantly being reported to God by the Angels.
This is what the Prophet shows us
when he represents God as ever present within our thoughts,
in the words "Searcher of minds and hearts is God" (Ps. 7:10)
and again in the words "The Lord knows the thoughts of men" (Ps. 93:11).
Again he says,
"You have read my thoughts from afar" (Ps. 138:3)
and "The thoughts of people will confess to You" (Ps. 75:11).

In order that he may be careful
about his wrongful thoughts, therefore,
let the faithful brother say constantly in his heart,
"Then shall I be spotless before Him,
if I have kept myself from my iniquity" (Ps. 17:24).



Selections above from Saint Benedict's Rule for Monasteries, translated from the Latin by Leonard J. Doyle OblSB, of Saint John's Abbey, (© Copyright 1948, 2001, by the Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, MN 56321). Adapted for use here with the division into sense lines of the first edition that was republished in 2001 to mark the 75th anniversary of Liturgical Press. Doyle's translation is available in both hardcover and paperback editions.
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