05/02/07 Week of Epiphany 5
[Please remember this is a sort of "menu" from which to select. No one has to pray it all]
Collect
Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
++++++++++
Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/
Ps 80 * 77(79); Isa 58:1-12; Gal 6:11-18; Mark 9:30-41
++++++++++
From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
Mark 9:30-41. But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him.
I nod my head and try to look intelligent, straining to catch a comprehensible word here and there, but the young man to whom I am speaking about my computer has left me in the dust as usual: I simply do not understand his technical talk. He sees through my act and kindly explains it again, in a more simple way, but it does no good. I'm hopeless.
I am so embarrassed by not knowing things I should know. Embarrassed and angry with myself: computers are important, for heaven's sake. We all need to know about them. Kids today are born knowing about them. Why can't I seem to follow what others find so simple?
But it's a waste of my time and energy to be embarrassed by not knowing things, angry at my own ignorance, and it will keep me in the dark longer than I would be there if I just broke down and asked for help. Only God knows everything--the rest of us have a lot to learn. And we have other people to help us when we need help in order to understand. All we have to do is ask.
Let us gratefully adore where we do know, and reverently admire where we do not. --John Skinner
++++++++++
Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm
The Martyrs of Japan
Psalm 116;; Galatians 2:19-20; Mark 8:34-38
O God our Father, source of strength to all your saints, who brought the holy martyrs of Japan through the suffering of the cross to the joys of life eternal: Grant that we, being encouraged by their example, may hold fast the faith we profess, even to death itself; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
++++++++++
Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Maridi (The Sudan)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++
Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php
In giving us His Son, His only Word (for He possesses no other), God spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word - and He has no more to say ... because what He spoke before to the prophets in parts, He has now spoken all at once by giving us the All who is His Son.
St John of the Cross
Romances
++++++++++
Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html
On Life Together
There was an anchorite who was gazing with the antelopes and who prayed to God, saying, "Lord, teach me something more." And a voice came to him, saying, "Go into this monastery and do whatever they tell you." He went there and remained in the monastery, but he did not know the work of the brothers. The young monks began to teach him how to work and they would say to him, "Do this, you idiot," and "Do that, you fool." When he had borne it, he prayed to God, saying, "Lord, I do not know the work of men; send me back to the antelopes." And having been freed by God, he went back into the country to graze with the antelopes.
A beginner who goes from one monastery to another is like a wild animal who jumps this way and that for fear of the halter.
++++++++++
Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
God's Unconditional Love
What can we say about God's love? We can say that God's love is unconditional. God does not say, "I love you, if ..." There are no "ifs" in God's heart. God's love for us does not depend on what we do or say, on our looks or intelligence, on our success or popularity. God's love for us existed before we were born and will exist after we have died. God's love is from eternity to eternity and is not bound to any time-related events or circumstances. Does that mean that God does not care what we do or say? No, because God's love wouldn't be real if God didn't care. To love without condition does not mean to love without concern. God desires to enter into relationship with us and wants us to love God in return.
Let's dare to enter into an intimate relationship with God without fear, trusting that we will receive love and always more love.
++++++++++
Weekly Reflection from the Merton Institute:
The Merton Reflection for the Week of February 5, 2007
If I had no choice about the age in which I was to live, I nevertheless have a choice about the attitude I take and about the way and the extent of my participation in its living ongoing events. To choose the world is not then merely a pious admission that the world is acceptable because it comes from the hand of God. It is first of all an acceptance of a task and a vocation in the world, in history and in time. In my time, which is the present. To choose the world is to choose to do the work I am capable of doing, in collaboration with my brother and sister, to make the world better, more free, more just, more livable, more human. And it has now become transparently obvious that mere automatic “rejection of the world” and “contempt for the world” is in fact not a choice but the evasion of choice. The man, who pretends that he can turn his back on Auschwitz or Viet Nam, and act as if they were not there, is simply bluffing.
From: Contemplation in A World of Action. NY: Doubleday and Company, 1971: 164-165
Thought to Remember:
The “world” is not just a physical space traversed by jet planes and full of people running in all directions. It is a complex of responsibilities and options made out of the love, the hates, the fears, the joys, the hopes, the greed, the cruelty, the kindness, the faith, the trust, the suspicion of all.
Contemplation in A World of Action: 161
++++++++++
From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
Day Five - the First aim of the Order
To make our Lord known and loved everywhere.
The Order is founded on the conviction that Jesus Christ is the perfect
revelation of God; that true life has been made available to us through his
Incarnation and Ministry; by his Cross and Resurrection; and by the sending
of his Holy Spirit. Our Order believes that it is the commission of the
church to make the gospel known to all, and therefore accepts the duty of
bringing others to know Christ, and of praying and working for the coming of
the Kingdom of God.
Collect (Monday)
God, you are always pleased to show yourself to those who are childlike and
humble in spirit: help us to follow the example of our blessed father
Francis, to look upon the wisdom of this world as foolishness, and to set
our minds only on Christ Jesus and him crucified; to whom with you and the
Holy Spirit be all glory for ever. Amen.
++++++++++
Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"The Promise Land"
The Good News is always pointing to the future, to someplace new, to the promised land. It never points backward, except to validate the call to faith on God’s future. This is the irony of Christian history: Much of it has been looking backward to the good old days of faith and miracles, back to “when God was God,” when the great prophets lived. How did the word of God become this conservative thing, this disguised fear holding humanity down, holding us to the (usually recent) past? We clearly were not listening to the word of God. The word always points us to the future and calls us out of our own idol-making and insecurities to the security and future God will create. Christianity, like Judaism, is essentially a forward-looking religion because it destroys our idols, character armor and defense mechanisms, and leads us to trust in God’s future. Faith is the security to be insecure.
from Sojourners, “The Energy of Promise”
++++++++++
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
Jesus abased himself
Let us walk in Jesus' ways, following the paths he has shown us; above all let us pursue the way of humility, since he himself became the way of humility for our sake. By his teaching he indicated it to us; by suffering for us he has blazed the trail. Only by abasing himself was he able to suffer. Could anyone have put God to death, if he had not abased himself? Christ was the Son of God, and as Son of God he was also God himself. It was of him, God's Son and Word, that John said: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning; all things were made through him, and without him nothing came into being. Who could slay the word of God through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing came into being? Only when he had brought himself down to their level could human beings have the power to put him to death.
But how did he bring himself down? John tells us: the Word was made flesh and lived among us. The Word of God could not be slain; and so for the immortal word to be able to die for us, he became man and lived among us. The Immortal put on mortality in order to die for us, and by his death to slay the death of us all. This is the Lord's doing; this is his gift to us.
Augustine of Hippo, (354 - 430), bishop of Hippo, became the most influential person of the Western Church and left many writings to posterity.
++++++++++
Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/
Chapter 7: On Humility
The eighth degree of humility
is that a monk do nothing except what is commended
by the common Rule of the monastery
and the example of the elders.
Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html
"It is better to ask the way ten times than to take the wrong road once," a Jewish proverb reads. The eighth degree of humility tells us to stay in the stream of life, to learn from what has been learned before us, to value the truths taught by others, to seek out wisdom and enshrine it in our hearts. The eighth degree of humility tells us to attach ourselves to teachers so that we do not make the mistake of becoming our own blind guides.
It is so simple to become a law unto ourselves. The problem with it is that it leaves us little chance to be carried by others. It takes a great deal of time to learn all the secrets of life by ourselves. It makes it impossible for us to come to know what our own lights have no power to signal. It leaves us dumb, undeveloped and awash in a naked arrogance that blocks our minds, cripples our souls and makes us unfit for the relationships that should enrich us beyond our merit and despite our limitations.
Our living communities have a great deal to teach us. All we need is respect for experience and the comforting kind of faith that it takes to do what we cannot now see to be valuable, but presume to be holy because we see the holiness that it has produced in those who have gone before us in the family and the church.
++++++++++
Collect
Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
++++++++++
Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/
Ps 80 * 77(79); Isa 58:1-12; Gal 6:11-18; Mark 9:30-41
++++++++++
From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
Mark 9:30-41. But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him.
I nod my head and try to look intelligent, straining to catch a comprehensible word here and there, but the young man to whom I am speaking about my computer has left me in the dust as usual: I simply do not understand his technical talk. He sees through my act and kindly explains it again, in a more simple way, but it does no good. I'm hopeless.
I am so embarrassed by not knowing things I should know. Embarrassed and angry with myself: computers are important, for heaven's sake. We all need to know about them. Kids today are born knowing about them. Why can't I seem to follow what others find so simple?
But it's a waste of my time and energy to be embarrassed by not knowing things, angry at my own ignorance, and it will keep me in the dark longer than I would be there if I just broke down and asked for help. Only God knows everything--the rest of us have a lot to learn. And we have other people to help us when we need help in order to understand. All we have to do is ask.
Let us gratefully adore where we do know, and reverently admire where we do not. --John Skinner
++++++++++
Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm
The Martyrs of Japan
Psalm 116;; Galatians 2:19-20; Mark 8:34-38
O God our Father, source of strength to all your saints, who brought the holy martyrs of Japan through the suffering of the cross to the joys of life eternal: Grant that we, being encouraged by their example, may hold fast the faith we profess, even to death itself; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
++++++++++
Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Maridi (The Sudan)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++
Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php
In giving us His Son, His only Word (for He possesses no other), God spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word - and He has no more to say ... because what He spoke before to the prophets in parts, He has now spoken all at once by giving us the All who is His Son.
St John of the Cross
Romances
++++++++++
Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html
On Life Together
There was an anchorite who was gazing with the antelopes and who prayed to God, saying, "Lord, teach me something more." And a voice came to him, saying, "Go into this monastery and do whatever they tell you." He went there and remained in the monastery, but he did not know the work of the brothers. The young monks began to teach him how to work and they would say to him, "Do this, you idiot," and "Do that, you fool." When he had borne it, he prayed to God, saying, "Lord, I do not know the work of men; send me back to the antelopes." And having been freed by God, he went back into the country to graze with the antelopes.
A beginner who goes from one monastery to another is like a wild animal who jumps this way and that for fear of the halter.
++++++++++
Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
God's Unconditional Love
What can we say about God's love? We can say that God's love is unconditional. God does not say, "I love you, if ..." There are no "ifs" in God's heart. God's love for us does not depend on what we do or say, on our looks or intelligence, on our success or popularity. God's love for us existed before we were born and will exist after we have died. God's love is from eternity to eternity and is not bound to any time-related events or circumstances. Does that mean that God does not care what we do or say? No, because God's love wouldn't be real if God didn't care. To love without condition does not mean to love without concern. God desires to enter into relationship with us and wants us to love God in return.
Let's dare to enter into an intimate relationship with God without fear, trusting that we will receive love and always more love.
++++++++++
Weekly Reflection from the Merton Institute:
The Merton Reflection for the Week of February 5, 2007
If I had no choice about the age in which I was to live, I nevertheless have a choice about the attitude I take and about the way and the extent of my participation in its living ongoing events. To choose the world is not then merely a pious admission that the world is acceptable because it comes from the hand of God. It is first of all an acceptance of a task and a vocation in the world, in history and in time. In my time, which is the present. To choose the world is to choose to do the work I am capable of doing, in collaboration with my brother and sister, to make the world better, more free, more just, more livable, more human. And it has now become transparently obvious that mere automatic “rejection of the world” and “contempt for the world” is in fact not a choice but the evasion of choice. The man, who pretends that he can turn his back on Auschwitz or Viet Nam, and act as if they were not there, is simply bluffing.
From: Contemplation in A World of Action. NY: Doubleday and Company, 1971: 164-165
Thought to Remember:
The “world” is not just a physical space traversed by jet planes and full of people running in all directions. It is a complex of responsibilities and options made out of the love, the hates, the fears, the joys, the hopes, the greed, the cruelty, the kindness, the faith, the trust, the suspicion of all.
Contemplation in A World of Action: 161
++++++++++
From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
Day Five - the First aim of the Order
To make our Lord known and loved everywhere.
The Order is founded on the conviction that Jesus Christ is the perfect
revelation of God; that true life has been made available to us through his
Incarnation and Ministry; by his Cross and Resurrection; and by the sending
of his Holy Spirit. Our Order believes that it is the commission of the
church to make the gospel known to all, and therefore accepts the duty of
bringing others to know Christ, and of praying and working for the coming of
the Kingdom of God.
Collect (Monday)
God, you are always pleased to show yourself to those who are childlike and
humble in spirit: help us to follow the example of our blessed father
Francis, to look upon the wisdom of this world as foolishness, and to set
our minds only on Christ Jesus and him crucified; to whom with you and the
Holy Spirit be all glory for ever. Amen.
++++++++++
Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"The Promise Land"
The Good News is always pointing to the future, to someplace new, to the promised land. It never points backward, except to validate the call to faith on God’s future. This is the irony of Christian history: Much of it has been looking backward to the good old days of faith and miracles, back to “when God was God,” when the great prophets lived. How did the word of God become this conservative thing, this disguised fear holding humanity down, holding us to the (usually recent) past? We clearly were not listening to the word of God. The word always points us to the future and calls us out of our own idol-making and insecurities to the security and future God will create. Christianity, like Judaism, is essentially a forward-looking religion because it destroys our idols, character armor and defense mechanisms, and leads us to trust in God’s future. Faith is the security to be insecure.
from Sojourners, “The Energy of Promise”
++++++++++
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
Jesus abased himself
Let us walk in Jesus' ways, following the paths he has shown us; above all let us pursue the way of humility, since he himself became the way of humility for our sake. By his teaching he indicated it to us; by suffering for us he has blazed the trail. Only by abasing himself was he able to suffer. Could anyone have put God to death, if he had not abased himself? Christ was the Son of God, and as Son of God he was also God himself. It was of him, God's Son and Word, that John said: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning; all things were made through him, and without him nothing came into being. Who could slay the word of God through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing came into being? Only when he had brought himself down to their level could human beings have the power to put him to death.
But how did he bring himself down? John tells us: the Word was made flesh and lived among us. The Word of God could not be slain; and so for the immortal word to be able to die for us, he became man and lived among us. The Immortal put on mortality in order to die for us, and by his death to slay the death of us all. This is the Lord's doing; this is his gift to us.
Augustine of Hippo, (354 - 430), bishop of Hippo, became the most influential person of the Western Church and left many writings to posterity.
++++++++++
Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/
Chapter 7: On Humility
The eighth degree of humility
is that a monk do nothing except what is commended
by the common Rule of the monastery
and the example of the elders.
Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html
"It is better to ask the way ten times than to take the wrong road once," a Jewish proverb reads. The eighth degree of humility tells us to stay in the stream of life, to learn from what has been learned before us, to value the truths taught by others, to seek out wisdom and enshrine it in our hearts. The eighth degree of humility tells us to attach ourselves to teachers so that we do not make the mistake of becoming our own blind guides.
It is so simple to become a law unto ourselves. The problem with it is that it leaves us little chance to be carried by others. It takes a great deal of time to learn all the secrets of life by ourselves. It makes it impossible for us to come to know what our own lights have no power to signal. It leaves us dumb, undeveloped and awash in a naked arrogance that blocks our minds, cripples our souls and makes us unfit for the relationships that should enrich us beyond our merit and despite our limitations.
Our living communities have a great deal to teach us. All we need is respect for experience and the comforting kind of faith that it takes to do what we cannot now see to be valuable, but presume to be holy because we see the holiness that it has produced in those who have gone before us in the family and the church.
++++++++++
posted by Gloriamarie Amalfitano @ 8:49 AM
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