29/03/07 week of the 5th Sunday in Lent
[PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A "MENU" FROM WHICH TO PICK AND CHOOSE. PLEASE DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE TO PRAY ALL OF IT. PLEASE THINK OF IT AS A BUFFET OF THE DIFFERENT FLAVORS OF CHRISTIANITY. THANK YOU]
If you would like these meditations to come directly to your in box, please click here:
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Blessed are those for whom Easter is...
not a hunt, but a find;
not a greeting, but a proclamation;
not outward fashions, but inward grace;
not a day, but an eternity.
Collect
Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/
AM Psalm 131, 132, [133]; PM Psalm 140, 142
Jer. 26:1-16; Rom. 11:1-12; John 10:19-42
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
Psalm 131. I still my soul and make it quiet, like a child upon its mother's breast.
Those words rose in memory as I stood in the women's court of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. I'd come to that ancient, holy place to offer prayers for my children back home; I was missing them deeply.
Most of the women surrounding me were around my age, many perhaps bringing their children here in their hearts as I had. When two young soldiers approached the wall and pressed their foreheads against it, a tremor ran through some of the women, and I wondered how many had daughters and sons in uniform.
The woman next to me leaned in to kiss the wall. Another slipped a folded piece of paper into a crevice. Every reachable crack and crevice held these folded prayers, and I reached into my travel vest for my own to tuck into what Amos Elon called "the mailbox of God." For centuries, people have left their prayers in these sacred stones.
I know we needn't write down our prayers and post them to God. Yet somehow taking part in that communal ritual brought a deep peace, and for a moment I knew myself held like a child in God's arms, at rest in this restless world.
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Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm
John Keble:
Psalm 26:1-8 or 15
Romans 12:9-21; Matthew 5:1-12
Grant, O God, that in all time of our testing we may know your presence and obey your will; that, following the example of your servant John Keble, we may accomplish with integrity and courage what you give us to do, and endure what you give us to bear; 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 Nakuru (Kenya)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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40 Ideas for Lent: A Lenten calendar http://ship-of-fools.com/lent/index.html
32. STOP SHOPPING
THURS 29 MAR
Don't buy anything today.
Idea by: Steve Tomkins (with apologies to the Buy Nothing Day campaign, and to the Church of Stop Shopping)
Lent quote: "People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers... and they pass by themselves without wondering." – St Augustine
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A Celtic lenten Calendar
http://www.oursanctuary.net/celticlent.html
In our walk to the cross
and beyond
who will roll the stone away
show us the empty tomb
our risen Saviour
Messiah
Only you, Lord
as you revealed yourself
to three women
early on that Resurrection morning
Only you, Lord
as you revealed yourself
to hesitant and frightened disciples
in the upper room
and showed your wounded side
Only you, Lord
as you revealed yourself
through the power of your Holy Spirit
on that Pentecost morning
and reveal your self today
through tongues of fire
and through the gentlest of breeze
through revelation
and revolution
in hearts and souls
In our walk to the cross
and beyond
who will roll the stone away
show us the empty tomb
our risen Saviour
Messiah
Only you, Lord
Only you
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php
Be not afraid to tell Jesus that you love Him; even though it be without feeling, this is the way to oblige Him to help you, and carry you like a little child too feeble to walk.
St. Therese of the Child Jesus
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Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html
Abba John gave this advice, 'Watching means to sit in the cell and be always mindful of God. This is what is meant by, "I was on the watch and God came to me." (Matt. 25:36)
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Sayings of the Jewish Fathers (Pirqe Aboth)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/sjf/index.htm
15. R. Jehoshua' said, An evil eye, and the evil nature, and hatred of the creatures put a man out of the world.
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
The Autumn of Life
The autumn leaves can dazzle us with their magnificent colors: deep red, purple, yellow, gold, bronze, in countless variations and combinations. Then, shortly after having shown their unspeakable beauty, they fall to the ground and die. The barren trees remind us that winter is near. Likewise, the autumn of life has the potential to be very colorful: wisdom, humor, care, patience, and joy may bloom splendidly just before we fall to the ground and die.
As we look at the barren trees and remember our dead, let us be grateful for the beauty we saw in them and wait hopefully for a new spring.
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CONFESSION
"My workaholism, of course."
Of course.
"And I think I'm a little irritable these days, when I'm tired. More than I used to be. So there's Wrath."
Oh, are we doing the Seven Deadlies today?
"Well, I don't think I have all seven."
Just your personal favorites..
"Yeah."
Okay, Wrath. You've never been good at that. You wait too long to say anything negative, and then when you're tired or not feeling well, you snap at someone you love over something that doesn't really matter much at all.
"I know. And lying."
Right. As in keeping up appearances and keeping the peace.
"Yeah. Mostly about what I want, trying to please people by saying I want what I think they want."
Right. You've been doing that ever since I've known you.
"I know."
Next?
"Well, Gluttony."
You'll do better following a reasonable plan than by thinking of eating as a sin. That never got you anywhere good. Just ask me for the gift of knowing what enough is.
"I keep forgetting what enough feels like."
Well, you can ask me more than once, you know.
"Okay."
Anything else?
"I don't think so."
Haven't heard from Envy.
"Oh, right. Envy."
You've got so many blessings, but you want other peoples', too?
"Sometimes."
Ask me for gratitude. I can give it to you -- you don't have to come up with all of it on your own. It's a natural consequence of seeing things clearly.
"What?"
You know -- you guys don't know why bad things happen, but you also don't know why good things happen. Gratitude is when you realize that.
"Oh. You're right."
Thank you. Glad you know that. That it?
"I think so. For these and all other sins I cannot remember..."
Be happy. We're getting there. Before you even thought these thoughts, I had forgiven them.
"Oh. Well. Thanks be to God, then."
You're welcome, I'm sure. We'll talk again. Now go in peace; it's going to be a beautiful day.
Copyright © 2007 Barbara Crafton - http://www.geraniumfarm.org
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
Day Twenty Nine - The Third Note, cont'd
This joy is a divine gift, coming from union with God in Christ. It is still there even in times of darkness and difficulty, giving cheerful courage in the face of disappointment, and an inward serenity and confidence through sickness and suffering. Those who possess it can rejoice in weakness, insults, hardship, and persecutions for Christ's sake; for when we are weak, then we are strong.
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Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/
HOW AMAZINGLY the petitions with which we enter prayer are refashioned in the very prayer itself. …
In Christ’s presence you can plead your case with the most measured eloquence, until finally he listens you into silence, into humiliation, into humility, and at last you come into some faint splash of the deep sanity that recalls you to what you are on earth for.
- Douglas V. Steere
Dimensions of Prayer
From page 58 of Dimensions of Prayer by Douglas V. Steere. Copyright © 1997 by Dorothy Steere.
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"I Thought I Was Perfect"
During my novitiate, we did all sorts of good things for God. We were achieving salvation, obeying all the laws. I was the perfect novice. (You can ask my novice master.) I bowed when we were supposed to bow. I was never late for Office. I was never late for meals. If I was late, I quickly fell to my knees as we were supposed to do. One day while kneeling in the choir I realized I was not coming to know or love the Lord; I was coming to love myself. I was becoming quite satisfied with this perfect novice who could sneer at his classmates when they came in late. I knew I was going to be a good Franciscan and a good novice. I could get along quite well, being a good friar, without knowing the Lord. I could gain a feeling of togetherness, of wholeness, of maturity, of righteousness. That day, that moment, more than any other, explains why I am here today: God revealed to me that I was loved exactly as I was. There was nothing to attain. That day I was set free. And chains flew from my body in every direction, from the top of my head to my toes. And I knew that I didn't have to apologize for my humanity, I didn't have to apologize for who I was, I didn't have to prove myself to my novice master or my classmates. I was a child of God. And I could go on my way rejoicing. I could go on my way lifting up my heart to the Lord knowing that I was going to fail. But somehow it didn't matter anymore. I was loved and that alone mattered. It was my baptism in the Spirit.
from The Great Themes of Scripture
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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
What an example! What a teaching!
Gentle First Truth is teaching you and leaving you as a commandment: to love God above all things and your neighbor as yourself. He gave you the example, hanging on the wood of the most holy cross. While the Jews cried, "Crucify him!" he cried out humbly, meekly: "Father, forgive those who are crucifying me, because they don't know what they are doing!" Look at his boundless charity! He not only forgives them, but excuses them before the Father. What an example! What a teaching! The just one, who never had the poison of sin in himself, suffers at the hands of the unjust to atone for our sin! Oh how ashamed we should be to follow the teaching of the devil and sensuality, more concerned about acquiring and keeping worldly riches—which are all empty and pass like the wind—than we are about our own and our neighbors' souls! For as long as we live in hatred for our neighbors we are hating our own selves, because hatred deprives us of divine charity. How stupidly blind not to see that with the sword of hatred for our neighbors we are killing ourselves!
So I am asking you and I want you to follow Christ crucified and be a lover of your neighbors' salvation. Show you are a follower of the Lamb, who in hunger for his Father's honor and the salvation of souls chose his own physical death.
Catherine of Siena, (1347 - 1380) served the people of Siena with her good works and the Church at large with her peacemaking.
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Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/
OUR LORD'S SURPRISE VISITS
"Be ye therefore ready also." Luke 12:40
The great need for the Christian worker is to be ready to face Jesus Christ at any and every turn. This is not easy, no matter what our experience is. The battle is not against sin or difficulties or circumstances, but against being so absorbed in work that we are not ready to face Jesus Christ at every turn. That is the one great need, not the facing our belief, or our creed, the question whether we are of any use, but to face Him.
Jesus rarely comes where we expect Him; He appears where we least expect Him, and always in the most illogical connections. The only way a worker can keep true to God is by being ready for the Lord's surprise visits. It is not service that matters, but intense spiritual reality, expecting Jesus Christ at every turn. This will give our life the attitude of child-wonder which He wants it to have. If we are going to be ready for Jesus Christ, we have to stop being religious (that is, using religion as a higher kind of culture) and be spiritually real.
If you are "looking off unto Jesus," avoiding the call of the religious age you live in, and setting your heart on what He wants, on thinking on His line - you will be called unpractical and dreamy; but when He appears in the burden and the heat of the day, you will be the only one who is ready. Trust no one, not even the finest saint who ever walked this earth, ignore him, if he hinders your sight of Jesus Christ.
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/
Chapter 48: On the Daily Manual Labor
From the Calends of October until the beginning of Lent,
let them apply themselves to reading
up to the end of the second hour.
At the second hour let Terce be said,
and then let all labor at the work assigned them until None.
At the first signal for the Hour of None
let everyone break off from her work,
and hold herself ready for the sounding of the second signal.
After the meal
let them apply themselves to their reading or to the Psalms.
On the days of Lent,
from morning until the end of the third hour
let them apply themselves to their reading,
and from then until the end of the tenth hour
let them do the work assigned them.
And in these days of Lent
they shall each receive a book from the library,
which they shall read straight through from the beginning.
These books are to be given out at the beginning of Lent.
But certainly one or two of the seniors should be deputed
to go about the monastery
at the hours when the sisters are occupied in reading
and see that there be no lazy sister
who spends her time in idleness or gossip
and does not apply herself to the reading,
so that she is not only unprofitable to herself
but also distracts others.
If such a one be found (which God forbid),
let her be corrected once and a second time;
if she does not amend,
let her undergo the punishment of the Rule
in such a way that the rest may take warning.
Moreover, one sister shall not associate with another
at inappropriate times.
Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html
During Lent, the monks are to go on working but to increase their reading time. In this period, they are to be assigned a book to read "straight through." In Lent they are to put themselves on a regimen and study what they are told to study in a serious and ordered way. Nevertheless, the work continues. Benedictines were to "earn their bread by the labor of their hands" and no devotion was to take the place of the demands of life. These were working monastics who depended on God to provide the means of getting food but who did not, as the ancients said, depend on God to put it in the nest.
At the same time, work is not what defines the Benedictine. It is the single-minded search for God that defines Benedictine spirituality. That is what the monastic pursues behind every other pursuit. That is what gives the monastic life meaning. That is what frees the monastic heart. The monastic does not exist for work. Creative and productive work are simply meant to enhance the Garden and sustain us while we grow into God.
In today's culture in which people are identified more by what they do than what they are, this is a lesson of profound importance. Once the retirement dinner is over and the company watch is engraved, there has to be something left in life that makes us human and makes us happy or life may well have been in vain. That something, Benedictine spirituality indicates, is a mind and a heart full of a sense of meaning and an instinct for God.
Study is hard work. It is so much easier to find something else to do in its place than to stay at the grind of it. We have excuses aplenty for avoiding the dull, hard, daily attempt to learn. There is always something so much more important to do than reading. There is always someone we have to talk to about something that can't wait until the reading time is over. There is always some overwhelming fatigue to be dealt with before we can really begin to concentrate. There is always some excuse for not stretching our souls with new ideas and insights now or yet or ever. But Benedictine spirituality says life is to be struggled through and worked at and concentrated on and cultivated. It is not a matter of simply going through it and hoping that enough of the rust of time is removed by accident to make us burnished spiritual adults.
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Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan
Read Excerpts from the Church Fathers during Lent
http://www.churchyear.net/lentfathers.html
St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures: Lecture XX1
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Thursday, March 29, 2007 Great Fast
Mark, Bishop of Arethusa
6th Hour: Isaiah 65:8-16 1st Vespers: Genesis 46:1-7
2nd Vespers: Proverbs 23:15-24:5
Completing the Fast: Isaiah 65:8-16 LXX, especially vss. 15, 16: "My
servants shall be called by a new name, which shall be blessed on the
earth; for they shall bless the true God." St. Nikolai of Zica shares
his own intimate description of a Paschal Liturgy at Jerusalem that he
attended: "When the Patriarch sang 'Christ is risen,' a heavy burden
fell from our souls. We felt as if we also had been raised from the
dead....Coming out from the service at dawn, we began to regard
everything in the light of the glory of Christ's Resurrection, and all
appeared different from what it had yesterday; everything seemed better,
more expressive, more glorious."
By the power of the Holy Spirit, all the Faithful in Christ are blessed
to meet this same new reality within the Divine Liturgy - a recreation
in which everything becomes "better, more expressive, more glorious."
Our good God foreshadows all this in the present verses from Isaiah
speaking of the age to come when "there shall be a new heaven and a new
earth: and they shall not at all remember the former, neither shall they
at all come into their mind" (vs. 17).
The glorious and radiant life of which the Prophet speaks impels us
onward to embrace the "bright sadness"of last days of Great Lent,
complete the Fast, and enter Great and Holy Week when finally we shall
join in the Paschal shout: "Christ is risen!"
This prophecy from Isaiah ends by describing the unmerited inheritance
that God has prepared for His New Covenant People "who have sought Me"
(vs. 10). Simultaneously, it reveals the cause of the bitter-sweet,
missed opportunity of the ancient People of God. Hence, Isaiah's words
explain why the Jews still survive through centuries of affliction, even
as it reminds the Faithful in Christ of our legacy from them through the
Apostles. While the ancient chosen People still hunger and thirst, we
are blessed to "exult with joy" (vs.14) before Him Who calls us "My
servants" and "My chosen" (vss. 14,15).
The Prophecy begins with a word from the Lord God: "as a grape-stone
shall be found in the cluster, and they shall say, 'Destroy it not; for
a blessing of the Lord is in it,' so will I do for the sake of Him that
serves Me, for His sake I will not destroy them all" (vs. 8 LXX). The
Holy Fathers understood Christ to be that "stone" or Seed from which the
New Vine has come, for He was born of the ancient People of God - the
Old Vine. The Prophecy is accurate, for God Himself led "forth the Seed
that came of Jacob and of Judah" (vs. 9). The Lord Jesus became a
physical descendant both of Jacob and of the tribe of Judah, and so, "My
elect and My servants shall inherit it, and shall dwell there" (vs. 9).
Especially take note of the radical reversal of circumstances for the
People of God. In vivid metaphors, the Prophecy describes the flowering
of the Church, "My servants." At the same time, the Lord interweaves
this portrait of flourishing with images of worsening conditions for
those who rejected Him - prophetic images that history has borne out.
Beginning with two disastrous and failed revolts against the Roman
empire, the Jews subsequently faced dispersion, exile, inquisitions,
persecutions, marginalizing, and death camps - century upon century
after their rejection of Christ. Even their recent return to the Holy
Land remains fraught with violence and disorder. They appear destined
"to the sword" and "slaughter" (vs. 12). Why? because "I called you,
and ye hearkened not; I spoke, and ye refused to hear" (vs. 12).
Let us not be foolish, as some have, and despise Israel after the flesh,
but "consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell,
severity; but toward you, goodness if you continue in His goodness.
Otherwise you also will be cut off" (Rom. 11:22).
O Lord of hosts be with us for we have none other help but Thee. Have
mercy on us!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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Blessed are those for whom Easter is...
not a hunt, but a find;
not a greeting, but a proclamation;
not outward fashions, but inward grace;
not a day, but an eternity.
Collect
Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/
AM Psalm 131, 132, [133]; PM Psalm 140, 142
Jer. 26:1-16; Rom. 11:1-12; John 10:19-42
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
Psalm 131. I still my soul and make it quiet, like a child upon its mother's breast.
Those words rose in memory as I stood in the women's court of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. I'd come to that ancient, holy place to offer prayers for my children back home; I was missing them deeply.
Most of the women surrounding me were around my age, many perhaps bringing their children here in their hearts as I had. When two young soldiers approached the wall and pressed their foreheads against it, a tremor ran through some of the women, and I wondered how many had daughters and sons in uniform.
The woman next to me leaned in to kiss the wall. Another slipped a folded piece of paper into a crevice. Every reachable crack and crevice held these folded prayers, and I reached into my travel vest for my own to tuck into what Amos Elon called "the mailbox of God." For centuries, people have left their prayers in these sacred stones.
I know we needn't write down our prayers and post them to God. Yet somehow taking part in that communal ritual brought a deep peace, and for a moment I knew myself held like a child in God's arms, at rest in this restless world.
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Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm
John Keble:
Psalm 26:1-8 or 15
Romans 12:9-21; Matthew 5:1-12
Grant, O God, that in all time of our testing we may know your presence and obey your will; that, following the example of your servant John Keble, we may accomplish with integrity and courage what you give us to do, and endure what you give us to bear; 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 Nakuru (Kenya)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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40 Ideas for Lent: A Lenten calendar http://ship-of-fools.com/lent/index.html
32. STOP SHOPPING
THURS 29 MAR
Don't buy anything today.
Idea by: Steve Tomkins (with apologies to the Buy Nothing Day campaign, and to the Church of Stop Shopping)
Lent quote: "People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers... and they pass by themselves without wondering." – St Augustine
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A Celtic lenten Calendar
http://www.oursanctuary.net/celticlent.html
In our walk to the cross
and beyond
who will roll the stone away
show us the empty tomb
our risen Saviour
Messiah
Only you, Lord
as you revealed yourself
to three women
early on that Resurrection morning
Only you, Lord
as you revealed yourself
to hesitant and frightened disciples
in the upper room
and showed your wounded side
Only you, Lord
as you revealed yourself
through the power of your Holy Spirit
on that Pentecost morning
and reveal your self today
through tongues of fire
and through the gentlest of breeze
through revelation
and revolution
in hearts and souls
In our walk to the cross
and beyond
who will roll the stone away
show us the empty tomb
our risen Saviour
Messiah
Only you, Lord
Only you
++++++++++
Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php
Be not afraid to tell Jesus that you love Him; even though it be without feeling, this is the way to oblige Him to help you, and carry you like a little child too feeble to walk.
St. Therese of the Child Jesus
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Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html
Abba John gave this advice, 'Watching means to sit in the cell and be always mindful of God. This is what is meant by, "I was on the watch and God came to me." (Matt. 25:36)
++++++++++
Sayings of the Jewish Fathers (Pirqe Aboth)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/sjf/index.htm
15. R. Jehoshua' said, An evil eye, and the evil nature, and hatred of the creatures put a man out of the world.
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
The Autumn of Life
The autumn leaves can dazzle us with their magnificent colors: deep red, purple, yellow, gold, bronze, in countless variations and combinations. Then, shortly after having shown their unspeakable beauty, they fall to the ground and die. The barren trees remind us that winter is near. Likewise, the autumn of life has the potential to be very colorful: wisdom, humor, care, patience, and joy may bloom splendidly just before we fall to the ground and die.
As we look at the barren trees and remember our dead, let us be grateful for the beauty we saw in them and wait hopefully for a new spring.
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CONFESSION
"My workaholism, of course."
Of course.
"And I think I'm a little irritable these days, when I'm tired. More than I used to be. So there's Wrath."
Oh, are we doing the Seven Deadlies today?
"Well, I don't think I have all seven."
Just your personal favorites..
"Yeah."
Okay, Wrath. You've never been good at that. You wait too long to say anything negative, and then when you're tired or not feeling well, you snap at someone you love over something that doesn't really matter much at all.
"I know. And lying."
Right. As in keeping up appearances and keeping the peace.
"Yeah. Mostly about what I want, trying to please people by saying I want what I think they want."
Right. You've been doing that ever since I've known you.
"I know."
Next?
"Well, Gluttony."
You'll do better following a reasonable plan than by thinking of eating as a sin. That never got you anywhere good. Just ask me for the gift of knowing what enough is.
"I keep forgetting what enough feels like."
Well, you can ask me more than once, you know.
"Okay."
Anything else?
"I don't think so."
Haven't heard from Envy.
"Oh, right. Envy."
You've got so many blessings, but you want other peoples', too?
"Sometimes."
Ask me for gratitude. I can give it to you -- you don't have to come up with all of it on your own. It's a natural consequence of seeing things clearly.
"What?"
You know -- you guys don't know why bad things happen, but you also don't know why good things happen. Gratitude is when you realize that.
"Oh. You're right."
Thank you. Glad you know that. That it?
"I think so. For these and all other sins I cannot remember..."
Be happy. We're getting there. Before you even thought these thoughts, I had forgiven them.
"Oh. Well. Thanks be to God, then."
You're welcome, I'm sure. We'll talk again. Now go in peace; it's going to be a beautiful day.
Copyright © 2007 Barbara Crafton - http://www.geraniumfarm.org
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
Day Twenty Nine - The Third Note, cont'd
This joy is a divine gift, coming from union with God in Christ. It is still there even in times of darkness and difficulty, giving cheerful courage in the face of disappointment, and an inward serenity and confidence through sickness and suffering. Those who possess it can rejoice in weakness, insults, hardship, and persecutions for Christ's sake; for when we are weak, then we are strong.
++++++++++
Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/
HOW AMAZINGLY the petitions with which we enter prayer are refashioned in the very prayer itself. …
In Christ’s presence you can plead your case with the most measured eloquence, until finally he listens you into silence, into humiliation, into humility, and at last you come into some faint splash of the deep sanity that recalls you to what you are on earth for.
- Douglas V. Steere
Dimensions of Prayer
From page 58 of Dimensions of Prayer by Douglas V. Steere. Copyright © 1997 by Dorothy Steere.
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"I Thought I Was Perfect"
During my novitiate, we did all sorts of good things for God. We were achieving salvation, obeying all the laws. I was the perfect novice. (You can ask my novice master.) I bowed when we were supposed to bow. I was never late for Office. I was never late for meals. If I was late, I quickly fell to my knees as we were supposed to do. One day while kneeling in the choir I realized I was not coming to know or love the Lord; I was coming to love myself. I was becoming quite satisfied with this perfect novice who could sneer at his classmates when they came in late. I knew I was going to be a good Franciscan and a good novice. I could get along quite well, being a good friar, without knowing the Lord. I could gain a feeling of togetherness, of wholeness, of maturity, of righteousness. That day, that moment, more than any other, explains why I am here today: God revealed to me that I was loved exactly as I was. There was nothing to attain. That day I was set free. And chains flew from my body in every direction, from the top of my head to my toes. And I knew that I didn't have to apologize for my humanity, I didn't have to apologize for who I was, I didn't have to prove myself to my novice master or my classmates. I was a child of God. And I could go on my way rejoicing. I could go on my way lifting up my heart to the Lord knowing that I was going to fail. But somehow it didn't matter anymore. I was loved and that alone mattered. It was my baptism in the Spirit.
from The Great Themes of Scripture
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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
What an example! What a teaching!
Gentle First Truth is teaching you and leaving you as a commandment: to love God above all things and your neighbor as yourself. He gave you the example, hanging on the wood of the most holy cross. While the Jews cried, "Crucify him!" he cried out humbly, meekly: "Father, forgive those who are crucifying me, because they don't know what they are doing!" Look at his boundless charity! He not only forgives them, but excuses them before the Father. What an example! What a teaching! The just one, who never had the poison of sin in himself, suffers at the hands of the unjust to atone for our sin! Oh how ashamed we should be to follow the teaching of the devil and sensuality, more concerned about acquiring and keeping worldly riches—which are all empty and pass like the wind—than we are about our own and our neighbors' souls! For as long as we live in hatred for our neighbors we are hating our own selves, because hatred deprives us of divine charity. How stupidly blind not to see that with the sword of hatred for our neighbors we are killing ourselves!
So I am asking you and I want you to follow Christ crucified and be a lover of your neighbors' salvation. Show you are a follower of the Lamb, who in hunger for his Father's honor and the salvation of souls chose his own physical death.
Catherine of Siena, (1347 - 1380) served the people of Siena with her good works and the Church at large with her peacemaking.
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Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/
OUR LORD'S SURPRISE VISITS
"Be ye therefore ready also." Luke 12:40
The great need for the Christian worker is to be ready to face Jesus Christ at any and every turn. This is not easy, no matter what our experience is. The battle is not against sin or difficulties or circumstances, but against being so absorbed in work that we are not ready to face Jesus Christ at every turn. That is the one great need, not the facing our belief, or our creed, the question whether we are of any use, but to face Him.
Jesus rarely comes where we expect Him; He appears where we least expect Him, and always in the most illogical connections. The only way a worker can keep true to God is by being ready for the Lord's surprise visits. It is not service that matters, but intense spiritual reality, expecting Jesus Christ at every turn. This will give our life the attitude of child-wonder which He wants it to have. If we are going to be ready for Jesus Christ, we have to stop being religious (that is, using religion as a higher kind of culture) and be spiritually real.
If you are "looking off unto Jesus," avoiding the call of the religious age you live in, and setting your heart on what He wants, on thinking on His line - you will be called unpractical and dreamy; but when He appears in the burden and the heat of the day, you will be the only one who is ready. Trust no one, not even the finest saint who ever walked this earth, ignore him, if he hinders your sight of Jesus Christ.
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/
Chapter 48: On the Daily Manual Labor
From the Calends of October until the beginning of Lent,
let them apply themselves to reading
up to the end of the second hour.
At the second hour let Terce be said,
and then let all labor at the work assigned them until None.
At the first signal for the Hour of None
let everyone break off from her work,
and hold herself ready for the sounding of the second signal.
After the meal
let them apply themselves to their reading or to the Psalms.
On the days of Lent,
from morning until the end of the third hour
let them apply themselves to their reading,
and from then until the end of the tenth hour
let them do the work assigned them.
And in these days of Lent
they shall each receive a book from the library,
which they shall read straight through from the beginning.
These books are to be given out at the beginning of Lent.
But certainly one or two of the seniors should be deputed
to go about the monastery
at the hours when the sisters are occupied in reading
and see that there be no lazy sister
who spends her time in idleness or gossip
and does not apply herself to the reading,
so that she is not only unprofitable to herself
but also distracts others.
If such a one be found (which God forbid),
let her be corrected once and a second time;
if she does not amend,
let her undergo the punishment of the Rule
in such a way that the rest may take warning.
Moreover, one sister shall not associate with another
at inappropriate times.
Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html
During Lent, the monks are to go on working but to increase their reading time. In this period, they are to be assigned a book to read "straight through." In Lent they are to put themselves on a regimen and study what they are told to study in a serious and ordered way. Nevertheless, the work continues. Benedictines were to "earn their bread by the labor of their hands" and no devotion was to take the place of the demands of life. These were working monastics who depended on God to provide the means of getting food but who did not, as the ancients said, depend on God to put it in the nest.
At the same time, work is not what defines the Benedictine. It is the single-minded search for God that defines Benedictine spirituality. That is what the monastic pursues behind every other pursuit. That is what gives the monastic life meaning. That is what frees the monastic heart. The monastic does not exist for work. Creative and productive work are simply meant to enhance the Garden and sustain us while we grow into God.
In today's culture in which people are identified more by what they do than what they are, this is a lesson of profound importance. Once the retirement dinner is over and the company watch is engraved, there has to be something left in life that makes us human and makes us happy or life may well have been in vain. That something, Benedictine spirituality indicates, is a mind and a heart full of a sense of meaning and an instinct for God.
Study is hard work. It is so much easier to find something else to do in its place than to stay at the grind of it. We have excuses aplenty for avoiding the dull, hard, daily attempt to learn. There is always something so much more important to do than reading. There is always someone we have to talk to about something that can't wait until the reading time is over. There is always some overwhelming fatigue to be dealt with before we can really begin to concentrate. There is always some excuse for not stretching our souls with new ideas and insights now or yet or ever. But Benedictine spirituality says life is to be struggled through and worked at and concentrated on and cultivated. It is not a matter of simply going through it and hoping that enough of the rust of time is removed by accident to make us burnished spiritual adults.
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Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan
Read Excerpts from the Church Fathers during Lent
http://www.churchyear.net/lentfathers.html
St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures: Lecture XX1
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Thursday, March 29, 2007 Great Fast
Mark, Bishop of Arethusa
6th Hour: Isaiah 65:8-16 1st Vespers: Genesis 46:1-7
2nd Vespers: Proverbs 23:15-24:5
Completing the Fast: Isaiah 65:8-16 LXX, especially vss. 15, 16: "My
servants shall be called by a new name, which shall be blessed on the
earth; for they shall bless the true God." St. Nikolai of Zica shares
his own intimate description of a Paschal Liturgy at Jerusalem that he
attended: "When the Patriarch sang 'Christ is risen,' a heavy burden
fell from our souls. We felt as if we also had been raised from the
dead....Coming out from the service at dawn, we began to regard
everything in the light of the glory of Christ's Resurrection, and all
appeared different from what it had yesterday; everything seemed better,
more expressive, more glorious."
By the power of the Holy Spirit, all the Faithful in Christ are blessed
to meet this same new reality within the Divine Liturgy - a recreation
in which everything becomes "better, more expressive, more glorious."
Our good God foreshadows all this in the present verses from Isaiah
speaking of the age to come when "there shall be a new heaven and a new
earth: and they shall not at all remember the former, neither shall they
at all come into their mind" (vs. 17).
The glorious and radiant life of which the Prophet speaks impels us
onward to embrace the "bright sadness"of last days of Great Lent,
complete the Fast, and enter Great and Holy Week when finally we shall
join in the Paschal shout: "Christ is risen!"
This prophecy from Isaiah ends by describing the unmerited inheritance
that God has prepared for His New Covenant People "who have sought Me"
(vs. 10). Simultaneously, it reveals the cause of the bitter-sweet,
missed opportunity of the ancient People of God. Hence, Isaiah's words
explain why the Jews still survive through centuries of affliction, even
as it reminds the Faithful in Christ of our legacy from them through the
Apostles. While the ancient chosen People still hunger and thirst, we
are blessed to "exult with joy" (vs.14) before Him Who calls us "My
servants" and "My chosen" (vss. 14,15).
The Prophecy begins with a word from the Lord God: "as a grape-stone
shall be found in the cluster, and they shall say, 'Destroy it not; for
a blessing of the Lord is in it,' so will I do for the sake of Him that
serves Me, for His sake I will not destroy them all" (vs. 8 LXX). The
Holy Fathers understood Christ to be that "stone" or Seed from which the
New Vine has come, for He was born of the ancient People of God - the
Old Vine. The Prophecy is accurate, for God Himself led "forth the Seed
that came of Jacob and of Judah" (vs. 9). The Lord Jesus became a
physical descendant both of Jacob and of the tribe of Judah, and so, "My
elect and My servants shall inherit it, and shall dwell there" (vs. 9).
Especially take note of the radical reversal of circumstances for the
People of God. In vivid metaphors, the Prophecy describes the flowering
of the Church, "My servants." At the same time, the Lord interweaves
this portrait of flourishing with images of worsening conditions for
those who rejected Him - prophetic images that history has borne out.
Beginning with two disastrous and failed revolts against the Roman
empire, the Jews subsequently faced dispersion, exile, inquisitions,
persecutions, marginalizing, and death camps - century upon century
after their rejection of Christ. Even their recent return to the Holy
Land remains fraught with violence and disorder. They appear destined
"to the sword" and "slaughter" (vs. 12). Why? because "I called you,
and ye hearkened not; I spoke, and ye refused to hear" (vs. 12).
Let us not be foolish, as some have, and despise Israel after the flesh,
but "consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell,
severity; but toward you, goodness if you continue in His goodness.
Otherwise you also will be cut off" (Rom. 11:22).
O Lord of hosts be with us for we have none other help but Thee. Have
mercy on us!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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