17/03/07 week of the 3rd Sunday in lent
[Please remember this is a sort of "menu" from which to select. No one has to pray it all]
If you would like these meditations to come directly to your in box, please click here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KnitternunMeditation/
Collect
Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, 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 87, 90; Psalm 136; Jer. 13:1-11; Rom. 6:12-23; John 8:47-59
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
Romans 6:12-23. You are the slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin∨ of obedience.
We rarely talk now of slavery or servitude. We prefer instead to imagine ourselves as a classless culture where no one "serves" anyone, except in a restaurant or on the tennis court. Scripture reminds us otherwise. As Bob Dylan once sang "You gotta serve somebody," be it God Almighty or the gods of our own making and choosing.
Certainly our own culture offers glittering options for us to serve instead of God: money, beauty, comfort, cars... I remember an ad that began "Comfort and joy"--it sold liquor. Another read "Come let us adorn you"--in luxury. Last winter I heard a monk comment on "the real thing": "It's not soda," he said, "but God. God is 'the real thing.'" Ads ultimately want to reach our wallets, but they often seek to get there through our souls. Now ads in themselves certainly aren't evil, but if we let them lure us into preoccupation with possessions, we're likely to lose our groundedness in God.
No glitzy ad campaign will ever invite you to a holy Lent, but if you listen carefully, you just might hear a quiet voice calling you to love--and serve--the Lord. Good choice.
++++++++++
Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm
St. Patrick:
Psalm 97:1-2,7-12 or 96:1-7; 1 Thessalonians 2:2b-12; Matthew 28:16-20
Almighty God, who in your providence chose your servant Patrick to be the apostle of the Irish people, to bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of you: Grant us so to walk in that light, that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever.
++++++++++
Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Mpumalanga (Southern Africa)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++
40 Ideas for Lent: A Lenten calendar http://ship-of-fools.com/lent/index.html
22. MAKE A JOY JAR
SAT 17 MAR
Take an empty glass jar (jam, coffee, whatever). You might want to decorate it and make it a thing of beauty. Keep it on your window ledge, office desk, kitchen top, or wherever you spend a lot of time.
When something good or unexpected happens, write it on a scrap of paper and drop it in the jar. Then, when you're having a bad day and the world seems especially unfriendly, tip out your jar and read your slips of paper. Then you can literally count your blessings. Don't forget to thank God for them.
Idea by: Christine Barton
Lent quote: "Prayer is the one thing that can conquer God." – Tertullian
++++++++++
A Celtic lenten Calendar
http://www.oursanctuary.net/celticlent.html
May the strength of God
pilot us.
May the power of God,
preserve us.
May the wisdom of God, instruct us.
May the hand of God
protect us.
May the way of God
direct us.
May the shield of God
defend us.
May the host of God
guard us
against the snares of evil
and the temptations of the world.
May Christ be with us.
Christ before us.
Christ in us.
Christ over us.
may Thy salvation,
O Lord,
be always ours
this day and forever more.
++++++++++
Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php
Scattering a thousand graces, he passed through these groves in haste, and looking on them as he went, with his glance alone, he clothed them in beauty.
St John of the Cross
Spiritual Canticle, 5.
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Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html
Abba Theodore of Scetis said, 'A thought comes to me which troubles me and does not leave me free; but not being able to lead me to act, it simply stops me progressing in virtue; but a vigilant man would cut it off and get up to pray.'
++++++++++
Sayings of the Jewish Fathers (Pirqe Aboth)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/sjf/index.htm
4. Jose ben Jo'ezer of Çeredah and Jose ben Jochanan of Jerusalem received from them. Jose ben Jo'ezer of Çeredah said, Let thy house be a meeting-house for the wise; and powder thyself in the dust of their feet; and drink their words with thirstiness.
++++++++++
Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
Not Breaking the Bruised Reeds
Some of us tend to do away with things that are slightly damaged. Instead of repairing them we say: "Well, I don't have time to fix it, I might as well throw it in the garbage can and buy a new one." Often we also treat people this way. We say: "Well, he has a problem with drinking; well, she is quite depressed; well, they have mismanaged their business...we'd better not take the risk of working with them." When we dismiss people out of hand because of their apparent woundedness, we stunt their lives by ignoring their gifts, which are often buried in their wounds.
We all are bruised reeds, whether our bruises are visible or not. The compassionate life is the life in which we believe that strength is hidden in weakness and that true community is a fellowship of the weak.
++++++++++
From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
Day Seventeen - The Second Way of Service - Study
"And this is eternal life: that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." (John 17:3) True knowledge is knowledge of God. Tertiaries therefore give priority to devotional study of scripture as one of the chief means of attaining that knowledge of God which leads to eternal life.
++++++++++
Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/
GOD, JUST AS WE WEAR GREEN on Saint Patrick’s Day, you too seem to be a wearer of green. Clearly it is your preferred color in painting creation. No wonder green is the liturgical color for Ordinary Time, calling us to make the ordinary, extraordinary. Your own vestments are woven of moss and fern, celebrating your promise of making the whole earth your “emerald isle.” Amen.
- W. Paul Jones
An Eclectic Almanac for the Faithful
From page 104 of An Eclectic Almanac for the Faithful by W. Paul Jones. Copyright © 2006 by W. Paul Jones.
+++++++++++
Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"Love Your Enemies"
Fear is the major barrier to the emergence of great faith and great-souled people. To enter into the mystery of forgiveness, we must first recognize our fears. Most of what we hold in unforgiveness we fear. I was given the impression, when I grew up in the Church, that the problem was doubt. And so all our teaching was head education. Teach people up here how to get the right answers about God and then they will have great faith. Show me where head information alone has created great-souled people, prophets of great desire, freedom and courage for the Church! God speaks to us, heals us and frees us at another level, at the level of our fears. Until you allow God to address your fears, you'll never recognize them yourself and you'll undoubtedly be trapped in them. As we grow in faith, we move beyond the need to exclude (he, she, they are the enemy). We gradually move into that place where we can risk letting the would-be enemy in. And then begins the way of wisdom. We find ourselves capable, at last, of obeying what is the greatest of Jesus' commandments, the most radical of all of his teaching: Love your enemies. How many of us love other people who kick us around, who make it hard for us? We haven't internalized the commandments of Jesus. Scriptural language, though, is both introverted and extroverted. If we haven't been able to love our enemies out there, if we still think the Russians or Iraqis are the problem, it's probably because we haven't first loved the enemy within. And if we haven't forgiven the enemy within, we will never know how to love and forgive the "enemies" without.
from The Passion of God and the Passion Within
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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.htm
Keep on walking!
You ask, "What does walking mean?" I'll tell you very briefly; it means forging ahead, in case you should possibly not understand, and start walking sluggishly. Forge ahead, always examine yourself without self-deception, without flattery, without buttering yourself up. After all, there's nobody inside you before whom you need feel ashamed, or whom you need to impress. There is someone there, but one who is pleased with humility; let him test you, and you, too, test yourself. Always be dissatisfied with what you are, if you want to arrive at what you are not yet. Because wherever you are satisfied with yourself, there you have stuck. If, though, you say, "That's enough, that's the lot," then you've even perished. Always add some more, always keep on walking, always forge ahead. Don't stop on the road, don't turn round and go back, don't wander off the road. You stop, if you don't forge ahead; you go back, if you turn back to what you have already left behind; you wander off the road, if you apostatize. The lame person on the road goes better than the sprinter off the road.
Augustine of Hippo, 354 - 430), bishop of Hippo, became the most influential person of the Western Church and left many writings to posterity.
++++++++++
Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/
THE WORKER'S RULING PASSION
"Wherefore we labour that . . we may be accepted of Him." 2 Corinthians 5:9
"Wherefore we labour . . . ." It is arduous work to keep the master ambition in front. It means holding one's self to the high ideal year in and year out, not being ambitious to win souls or to establish churches or to have revivals, but being ambitious only to be "accepted of Him." It is not lack of spiritual experience that leads to failure, but lack of labouring to keep the ideal right. Once a week at least take stock before God and see whether you are keeping your life up to the standard He wishes. Paul is like a musician who does not heed the approval of the audience if he can catch the look of approval from his Master.
Any ambition which is in the tiniest degree away from this central one of being "approved unto God" may end in our being castaways. Learn to discern where the ambition leads, and you will see why it is so necessary to live facing the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says - "Lest my body should make me take another line, I am constantly watching so that I may bring it into subjection and keep it under." (1 Cor. 9:27.)
I have to learn to relate everything to the master ambition, and to maintain it without any cessation. My worth to God in public is what I am in private. Is my master ambition to please Him and be acceptable to Him, or is it something less, no matter how noble?
++++++++++
Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/
Chapter 38: On the Weekly Reader
The meals of the sisters should not be without reading.
Nor should the reader be
anyone who happens to take up the book;
but there should be a reader for the whole week,
entering that office on Sunday.
Let this incoming reader,
after Mass and Communion,
ask all to pray for her
that God may keep her from the spirit of pride
And let her intone the following verse,
which shall be said three times by all in the oratory:
"O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall declare Your praise."
Then, having received a blessing,
let her enter on the reading.
And let absolute silence be kept at table,
so that no whispering may be heard
nor any voice except the reader's.
As to the things they need while they eat and drink,
let the sisters pass them to one another
so that no one need ask for anything.
If anything is needed, however,
let it be asked for by means of some audible sign
rather than by speech.
Nor shall anyone at table presume to ask questions
about the reading or anything else,
lest that give occasion for talking;
except that the Superior may perhaps wish
to say something briefly for the purpose of edification.
The sister who is reader for the week
shall take a little ablution before she begins to read,
on account of the Holy Communion
and lest perhaps the fast be hard for her to bear.
She shall take her meal afterwards
with the kitchen and table servers of the week.
The sisters are not to read or chant in order,
but only those who edify their hearers.
Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html
Benedictine spirituality was rooted in prayer, study and work. Every hour of the short days were filled with one or the other and mealtime, too, was no exception. Monastics used food for energy, not for pleasure. It was spiritual nourishment that was the food that restored them and impelled them and made them strong and mealtime was a good time to get it. They rested in body and in spirit there and, even at a moment of physical need, centered their hearts on higher things. They filled their hearts as well as their stomachs.
Benedict considered reading such an important part of the meal, in fact, that he insists that the person doing the reading be a good reader, someone who would inspire rather than irritate the souls of the listeners. The reading was to be an artistic event, an instructive experience, a moment of meditation, not a wrestling match with words. Nor was it to be a moment of personal display or lordship by those few educated who could read while the rest of the community could not.
This paragraph is just as important now as the day it was written. Maybe moreso. People who give too much attention to the body give too little attention to anything else. They make themselves the idol before which they worship and run the risk of forgetting to raise their minds to higher things because they are more intent on the rich sauces and fine meats and thick desserts that fill their days than to the gaping emptiness in their minds and hearts and souls.
In the course of the meal, the monastics are to concentrate on two things: the words of the reading and the needs of their neighbors. It is an astounding demonstration of the nature of the entire Christian life frozen in a single frame. We are to listen intently for the Word of God and be aware of those around us at the same time. Either one without the other is an incomplete Christianity. And never, at any time, are we to concentrate solely on ourselves in the name of religion.
On Sundays and solemn feastdays, when the community received communion, the fast from the night before to the meal which followed the Eucharist was a long one. It would have been even longer for the reader who could eat only after the meal was ended. So Benedict, the one more full of compassion than of law, allowed the reader to take a little wine before starting in order to hold him over. The reader still fasts, in other words, but with help.
If anything, this chapter on a now defunct practice, is a lesson in the way that gentleness softens rigor without destroying either the practice or the person. Legalists too often opt for practice, whatever the cost to the people who are trying to do it; liberals too often opt for people's convenience, whatever the loss of spiritual practice. Benedict, on the other hand, opts for a way of life that cares for people physically while it goes on strengthening them spiritually.
The contemporary question with which the chapter confronts us is an extremely powerful one: When we eliminate a spiritual discipline from our lives, because it is out of date, or impossible to do anymore, or too taxing to be valuable, what do we put in its place to provide the same meaning? Or do we just pare away and pare away whatever demands spiritual centering from us until all that is left is a dried up humanism, at best.
"Prayer without study is like a soul without a body," the rabbis say. Benedict clearly felt the same. The purpose of reading at table was to prepare the monastic for prayer. It is necessary to understand the scriptures before it is possible to pray them. It is essential to be steeped in the scriptures before it is possible to exude them. Table reading, in other words, was not a way to get away from people; it was a way to get closer to God. It was also one of the few times in the monastic day, outside of prayer times, that the spiritually thirsty but hard working Benedictine could spend concentrated time on the things of God.
The point is that it isn't so much the practice of reading at table that is important in this chapter, it is the idea of groundedness in the spiritual life that should make us stop and think. We're all busy. We're all overscheduled. We're all trying to deal with people and projects that consume us. We're all spiritually thirsty. And, we're all responsible for filling the mind with rich ideas in order to leaven the soul. Prayer, contemplation, and spiritual adulthood don't happen by themselves. We have to work at them. If mealtime isn't a good time for study because the children or the family or the guest demand an attention then that no other time will provide, the question becomes, what periods do we set aside to become as comfortable with the ideas of God in life as we do the television schedule or the daily paper?
The proclamation of the Word is the sowing of the soul. It is not to be done idly. It is not to be done without artistry. The proclamation of the Word of God must become part of the process of experiencing God. Prima donnas who do it more for their own sake than for the sake of the assembly, who come to perform rather than to blend in with the tone and theme of the liturgy, do not enrich a service. They distract from it. On the other hand, the ungifted or the unprepared interrupt the flow of the prayer and call equally disturbing attention to themselves. Lectors, homilists, and musicians, liturgy teams and pastors and teachers, all have something to learn here that is just as important for our own time as it was for this one. Good will is no excuse for a lack of artistry. Authority is no substitute for education. The spiritual nourishment of an entire people is in our hands. We do not have the right to treat liturgy lightly. We do not have the right to reduce the sacraments to such rote in the name of tradition that their dryness leaves the people dry. We do not have the right to make performance a substitute for the participation of the praying community.
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Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan
Read Excerpts from the Church Fathers during Lent
http://www.churchyear.net/lentfathers.html
St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 11-20
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If you would like these meditations to come directly to your in box, please click here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KnitternunMeditation/
Collect
Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
++++++++++
Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/
Psalm 87, 90; Psalm 136; Jer. 13:1-11; Rom. 6:12-23; John 8:47-59
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
Romans 6:12-23. You are the slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin∨ of obedience.
We rarely talk now of slavery or servitude. We prefer instead to imagine ourselves as a classless culture where no one "serves" anyone, except in a restaurant or on the tennis court. Scripture reminds us otherwise. As Bob Dylan once sang "You gotta serve somebody," be it God Almighty or the gods of our own making and choosing.
Certainly our own culture offers glittering options for us to serve instead of God: money, beauty, comfort, cars... I remember an ad that began "Comfort and joy"--it sold liquor. Another read "Come let us adorn you"--in luxury. Last winter I heard a monk comment on "the real thing": "It's not soda," he said, "but God. God is 'the real thing.'" Ads ultimately want to reach our wallets, but they often seek to get there through our souls. Now ads in themselves certainly aren't evil, but if we let them lure us into preoccupation with possessions, we're likely to lose our groundedness in God.
No glitzy ad campaign will ever invite you to a holy Lent, but if you listen carefully, you just might hear a quiet voice calling you to love--and serve--the Lord. Good choice.
++++++++++
Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm
St. Patrick:
Psalm 97:1-2,7-12 or 96:1-7; 1 Thessalonians 2:2b-12; Matthew 28:16-20
Almighty God, who in your providence chose your servant Patrick to be the apostle of the Irish people, to bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of you: Grant us so to walk in that light, that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever.
++++++++++
Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Mpumalanga (Southern Africa)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++
40 Ideas for Lent: A Lenten calendar http://ship-of-fools.com/lent/index.html
22. MAKE A JOY JAR
SAT 17 MAR
Take an empty glass jar (jam, coffee, whatever). You might want to decorate it and make it a thing of beauty. Keep it on your window ledge, office desk, kitchen top, or wherever you spend a lot of time.
When something good or unexpected happens, write it on a scrap of paper and drop it in the jar. Then, when you're having a bad day and the world seems especially unfriendly, tip out your jar and read your slips of paper. Then you can literally count your blessings. Don't forget to thank God for them.
Idea by: Christine Barton
Lent quote: "Prayer is the one thing that can conquer God." – Tertullian
++++++++++
A Celtic lenten Calendar
http://www.oursanctuary.net/celticlent.html
May the strength of God
pilot us.
May the power of God,
preserve us.
May the wisdom of God, instruct us.
May the hand of God
protect us.
May the way of God
direct us.
May the shield of God
defend us.
May the host of God
guard us
against the snares of evil
and the temptations of the world.
May Christ be with us.
Christ before us.
Christ in us.
Christ over us.
may Thy salvation,
O Lord,
be always ours
this day and forever more.
++++++++++
Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php
Scattering a thousand graces, he passed through these groves in haste, and looking on them as he went, with his glance alone, he clothed them in beauty.
St John of the Cross
Spiritual Canticle, 5.
++++++++++
Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html
Abba Theodore of Scetis said, 'A thought comes to me which troubles me and does not leave me free; but not being able to lead me to act, it simply stops me progressing in virtue; but a vigilant man would cut it off and get up to pray.'
++++++++++
Sayings of the Jewish Fathers (Pirqe Aboth)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/sjf/index.htm
4. Jose ben Jo'ezer of Çeredah and Jose ben Jochanan of Jerusalem received from them. Jose ben Jo'ezer of Çeredah said, Let thy house be a meeting-house for the wise; and powder thyself in the dust of their feet; and drink their words with thirstiness.
++++++++++
Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
Not Breaking the Bruised Reeds
Some of us tend to do away with things that are slightly damaged. Instead of repairing them we say: "Well, I don't have time to fix it, I might as well throw it in the garbage can and buy a new one." Often we also treat people this way. We say: "Well, he has a problem with drinking; well, she is quite depressed; well, they have mismanaged their business...we'd better not take the risk of working with them." When we dismiss people out of hand because of their apparent woundedness, we stunt their lives by ignoring their gifts, which are often buried in their wounds.
We all are bruised reeds, whether our bruises are visible or not. The compassionate life is the life in which we believe that strength is hidden in weakness and that true community is a fellowship of the weak.
++++++++++
From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
Day Seventeen - The Second Way of Service - Study
"And this is eternal life: that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." (John 17:3) True knowledge is knowledge of God. Tertiaries therefore give priority to devotional study of scripture as one of the chief means of attaining that knowledge of God which leads to eternal life.
++++++++++
Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/
GOD, JUST AS WE WEAR GREEN on Saint Patrick’s Day, you too seem to be a wearer of green. Clearly it is your preferred color in painting creation. No wonder green is the liturgical color for Ordinary Time, calling us to make the ordinary, extraordinary. Your own vestments are woven of moss and fern, celebrating your promise of making the whole earth your “emerald isle.” Amen.
- W. Paul Jones
An Eclectic Almanac for the Faithful
From page 104 of An Eclectic Almanac for the Faithful by W. Paul Jones. Copyright © 2006 by W. Paul Jones.
+++++++++++
Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"Love Your Enemies"
Fear is the major barrier to the emergence of great faith and great-souled people. To enter into the mystery of forgiveness, we must first recognize our fears. Most of what we hold in unforgiveness we fear. I was given the impression, when I grew up in the Church, that the problem was doubt. And so all our teaching was head education. Teach people up here how to get the right answers about God and then they will have great faith. Show me where head information alone has created great-souled people, prophets of great desire, freedom and courage for the Church! God speaks to us, heals us and frees us at another level, at the level of our fears. Until you allow God to address your fears, you'll never recognize them yourself and you'll undoubtedly be trapped in them. As we grow in faith, we move beyond the need to exclude (he, she, they are the enemy). We gradually move into that place where we can risk letting the would-be enemy in. And then begins the way of wisdom. We find ourselves capable, at last, of obeying what is the greatest of Jesus' commandments, the most radical of all of his teaching: Love your enemies. How many of us love other people who kick us around, who make it hard for us? We haven't internalized the commandments of Jesus. Scriptural language, though, is both introverted and extroverted. If we haven't been able to love our enemies out there, if we still think the Russians or Iraqis are the problem, it's probably because we haven't first loved the enemy within. And if we haven't forgiven the enemy within, we will never know how to love and forgive the "enemies" without.
from The Passion of God and the Passion Within
++++++++++
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.htm
Keep on walking!
You ask, "What does walking mean?" I'll tell you very briefly; it means forging ahead, in case you should possibly not understand, and start walking sluggishly. Forge ahead, always examine yourself without self-deception, without flattery, without buttering yourself up. After all, there's nobody inside you before whom you need feel ashamed, or whom you need to impress. There is someone there, but one who is pleased with humility; let him test you, and you, too, test yourself. Always be dissatisfied with what you are, if you want to arrive at what you are not yet. Because wherever you are satisfied with yourself, there you have stuck. If, though, you say, "That's enough, that's the lot," then you've even perished. Always add some more, always keep on walking, always forge ahead. Don't stop on the road, don't turn round and go back, don't wander off the road. You stop, if you don't forge ahead; you go back, if you turn back to what you have already left behind; you wander off the road, if you apostatize. The lame person on the road goes better than the sprinter off the road.
Augustine of Hippo, 354 - 430), bishop of Hippo, became the most influential person of the Western Church and left many writings to posterity.
++++++++++
Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/
THE WORKER'S RULING PASSION
"Wherefore we labour that . . we may be accepted of Him." 2 Corinthians 5:9
"Wherefore we labour . . . ." It is arduous work to keep the master ambition in front. It means holding one's self to the high ideal year in and year out, not being ambitious to win souls or to establish churches or to have revivals, but being ambitious only to be "accepted of Him." It is not lack of spiritual experience that leads to failure, but lack of labouring to keep the ideal right. Once a week at least take stock before God and see whether you are keeping your life up to the standard He wishes. Paul is like a musician who does not heed the approval of the audience if he can catch the look of approval from his Master.
Any ambition which is in the tiniest degree away from this central one of being "approved unto God" may end in our being castaways. Learn to discern where the ambition leads, and you will see why it is so necessary to live facing the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says - "Lest my body should make me take another line, I am constantly watching so that I may bring it into subjection and keep it under." (1 Cor. 9:27.)
I have to learn to relate everything to the master ambition, and to maintain it without any cessation. My worth to God in public is what I am in private. Is my master ambition to please Him and be acceptable to Him, or is it something less, no matter how noble?
++++++++++
Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/
Chapter 38: On the Weekly Reader
The meals of the sisters should not be without reading.
Nor should the reader be
anyone who happens to take up the book;
but there should be a reader for the whole week,
entering that office on Sunday.
Let this incoming reader,
after Mass and Communion,
ask all to pray for her
that God may keep her from the spirit of pride
And let her intone the following verse,
which shall be said three times by all in the oratory:
"O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall declare Your praise."
Then, having received a blessing,
let her enter on the reading.
And let absolute silence be kept at table,
so that no whispering may be heard
nor any voice except the reader's.
As to the things they need while they eat and drink,
let the sisters pass them to one another
so that no one need ask for anything.
If anything is needed, however,
let it be asked for by means of some audible sign
rather than by speech.
Nor shall anyone at table presume to ask questions
about the reading or anything else,
lest that give occasion for talking;
except that the Superior may perhaps wish
to say something briefly for the purpose of edification.
The sister who is reader for the week
shall take a little ablution before she begins to read,
on account of the Holy Communion
and lest perhaps the fast be hard for her to bear.
She shall take her meal afterwards
with the kitchen and table servers of the week.
The sisters are not to read or chant in order,
but only those who edify their hearers.
Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html
Benedictine spirituality was rooted in prayer, study and work. Every hour of the short days were filled with one or the other and mealtime, too, was no exception. Monastics used food for energy, not for pleasure. It was spiritual nourishment that was the food that restored them and impelled them and made them strong and mealtime was a good time to get it. They rested in body and in spirit there and, even at a moment of physical need, centered their hearts on higher things. They filled their hearts as well as their stomachs.
Benedict considered reading such an important part of the meal, in fact, that he insists that the person doing the reading be a good reader, someone who would inspire rather than irritate the souls of the listeners. The reading was to be an artistic event, an instructive experience, a moment of meditation, not a wrestling match with words. Nor was it to be a moment of personal display or lordship by those few educated who could read while the rest of the community could not.
This paragraph is just as important now as the day it was written. Maybe moreso. People who give too much attention to the body give too little attention to anything else. They make themselves the idol before which they worship and run the risk of forgetting to raise their minds to higher things because they are more intent on the rich sauces and fine meats and thick desserts that fill their days than to the gaping emptiness in their minds and hearts and souls.
In the course of the meal, the monastics are to concentrate on two things: the words of the reading and the needs of their neighbors. It is an astounding demonstration of the nature of the entire Christian life frozen in a single frame. We are to listen intently for the Word of God and be aware of those around us at the same time. Either one without the other is an incomplete Christianity. And never, at any time, are we to concentrate solely on ourselves in the name of religion.
On Sundays and solemn feastdays, when the community received communion, the fast from the night before to the meal which followed the Eucharist was a long one. It would have been even longer for the reader who could eat only after the meal was ended. So Benedict, the one more full of compassion than of law, allowed the reader to take a little wine before starting in order to hold him over. The reader still fasts, in other words, but with help.
If anything, this chapter on a now defunct practice, is a lesson in the way that gentleness softens rigor without destroying either the practice or the person. Legalists too often opt for practice, whatever the cost to the people who are trying to do it; liberals too often opt for people's convenience, whatever the loss of spiritual practice. Benedict, on the other hand, opts for a way of life that cares for people physically while it goes on strengthening them spiritually.
The contemporary question with which the chapter confronts us is an extremely powerful one: When we eliminate a spiritual discipline from our lives, because it is out of date, or impossible to do anymore, or too taxing to be valuable, what do we put in its place to provide the same meaning? Or do we just pare away and pare away whatever demands spiritual centering from us until all that is left is a dried up humanism, at best.
"Prayer without study is like a soul without a body," the rabbis say. Benedict clearly felt the same. The purpose of reading at table was to prepare the monastic for prayer. It is necessary to understand the scriptures before it is possible to pray them. It is essential to be steeped in the scriptures before it is possible to exude them. Table reading, in other words, was not a way to get away from people; it was a way to get closer to God. It was also one of the few times in the monastic day, outside of prayer times, that the spiritually thirsty but hard working Benedictine could spend concentrated time on the things of God.
The point is that it isn't so much the practice of reading at table that is important in this chapter, it is the idea of groundedness in the spiritual life that should make us stop and think. We're all busy. We're all overscheduled. We're all trying to deal with people and projects that consume us. We're all spiritually thirsty. And, we're all responsible for filling the mind with rich ideas in order to leaven the soul. Prayer, contemplation, and spiritual adulthood don't happen by themselves. We have to work at them. If mealtime isn't a good time for study because the children or the family or the guest demand an attention then that no other time will provide, the question becomes, what periods do we set aside to become as comfortable with the ideas of God in life as we do the television schedule or the daily paper?
The proclamation of the Word is the sowing of the soul. It is not to be done idly. It is not to be done without artistry. The proclamation of the Word of God must become part of the process of experiencing God. Prima donnas who do it more for their own sake than for the sake of the assembly, who come to perform rather than to blend in with the tone and theme of the liturgy, do not enrich a service. They distract from it. On the other hand, the ungifted or the unprepared interrupt the flow of the prayer and call equally disturbing attention to themselves. Lectors, homilists, and musicians, liturgy teams and pastors and teachers, all have something to learn here that is just as important for our own time as it was for this one. Good will is no excuse for a lack of artistry. Authority is no substitute for education. The spiritual nourishment of an entire people is in our hands. We do not have the right to treat liturgy lightly. We do not have the right to reduce the sacraments to such rote in the name of tradition that their dryness leaves the people dry. We do not have the right to make performance a substitute for the participation of the praying community.
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Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan
Read Excerpts from the Church Fathers during Lent
http://www.churchyear.net/lentfathers.html
St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 11-20
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posted by Gloriamarie Amalfitano @ 12:50 PM
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