knitternun

Sunday, September 30, 2007

30/09/07 18th Sun after Pentecost

[PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A "MENU" FROM WHICH TO PICK AND CHOOSE ONE OR MORE MEDITATIONS. PLEASE DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE TO PRAY ALL OF IT. PLEASE THINK OF IT AS A BUFFET OF THE DIFFERENT FLAVORS OF CHRISTIANITY. IT IS HOPED THAT ALL WILL PRAY THE COLLECT, REFLECT ON THE DAY'S SCRIPTURES AND PRAY THE ANGLICAN CYCLE OF PRAYER. AFTER THAT, YOUR CHOICE. THANK YOU]




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
O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; 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/

AM Psalm 66, 67; PM Psalm 19, 46
2 Kings 17:1-18; Acts 9:36-43; Luke 5:1-11
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

Luke 16:19-31. If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.

The hardness of human hearts is as baffling to the mind as it is offensive to the soul. The gist of this week's hard saying is: Can we overlook the poor in the midst of abundance?


The rich man in the parable wants his brothers on earth to be warned so they do not suffer his fate--torment in hell. Abraham reminds him they have
Moses and the prophets to listen to. The rich man knows that his brothers will not listen. "No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent." Even in hell the rich man thinks Abraham and Lazarus are nothing more than servants to do his bidding. That is why Abraham's
last word back to him is so powerful: "If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."


Signs and wonders do not a Christian make. Faithfulness to God does. That includes acknowledging we are responsible for one another, even the
least among us. To pretend they are not here or not worthy of our attention is to become the lost rich man in the parable.
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Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm

Every Sunday in the Episcopal Church we celebrate the Resurrection.

Behold His Resurrection





“Why come to this place seeking the living among the dead?
He is not here...He is Risen!”-The heavenly messengers said.
Hallelujah...He’s Alive!...Alive forevermore!
He arose, just as He said He would, and opened glory’s door.
Without His resurrection...There’d be no salvation, no justification;
There’d be no purification, no sanctification.
Without His resurrection...There’d be no redemption story;
There’d be no Hope of Glory.
Praise God...our King is alive and well-
He’s conquered all...sin, death, and hell.
Take the message everywhere...Go and tell:
Resurrected...He’s The WAY for all who relent,
Believing in Him, as they bow and repent.
Resurrected...He’s The TRUTH for all who seek-
Having ears to hear what God would speak.
Resurrected...He’s The LIFE for the spiritually dead-
Quickened and cleansed by the blood He shed.
Praise the Name of JESUS...Praise Him forevermore-
He’s Alive within His people,
And He’s Heaven’s only door.

Hallelujah...He’s Alive!

author Connie Campbell Bratcher
http://www.inspirationalpoetry.com/faith2/beholdhisresurrection.shtml

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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of St. David's (Wales)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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Speaking to the Soul: http://www.episcopalcafe.com/

Service in creating

Daily Reading for September 30 • The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Lord, shall we not bring these gifts to Your Service?
Shall we not bring to Your service all our powers
For life, for dignity, grace and order,
And intellectual pleasures of the senses?
The Lord who created must wish us to create
And employ our creation again in His service
Which is already His service in creating.

From The Rock by T. S. Eliot, in Collected Poems 1909-1962 (Faber and Faber).
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Spiritual Practice of the Day http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/

You have not lived a perfect day unless you've done something for someone who will never be able to repay you.
— Ruth Smeltzer quoted in What Jesus Meant by Erik Kolbell

To Practice This Thought: Do a kindness for someone without expecting anything in return.
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

Enter within yourself and work in the presence of your Spouse Who is ever present loving you.

St John of the Cross
Spiritual Canticle, 1.8
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Reading from the Desert Christians

The Hard Sayings of Arsenius the Hermit

Among the Desert Fathers, Arsenius (360-449) is a model of the austere hermit and renouncer of the world. He was born to an extreme of privilege in Rome, of a wealthy senatorial family. Emperor Theodosius appointed him tutor of the princely sons Arcadius and Honorius. As an ancient source puts it, Arsenius was daily "surrounded by thousands of slaves with gold girdles, wearing collars of gold and garments of silk."

But Arsenius heeded the voice within him that warned him to flee from society in order to be saved. At the age of 34, he secretly quit the palace, sailed for Egypt, and joined the monks at Scetes, near Alexandria, where he remained for 40 years. After its destruction in 434, Arsenius became a hermit, moving deeper into the desert, to mountainous Troe, where he remained until his death at the age of 90.

Arsenius was described by a disciple as

angelic in appearance, like Jacob. His body was graceful and slender, his long beard reached to his waist. ... Tall of stature, he was bent with old age.

Despite his education, he refused to discuss theology and seldom wrote letters.

When he came to church occasionally he would sit behind a pillar so that no one would see his face and so that he would not be distracted by others

This was not arrogance but humility, for he was asked once why he consulted with an Egyptian peasant about his thoughts when his Greek and Latin education was so thorough. "For all my education, I know not even the alphabet of this peasant." "We get nothing from our secular education," he elaborated on another occasion, "but these Egyptian peasants acquire the virtues by hard work."

Arsenius was renowned for his austerity in food, clothing, sleep, prayer, and solitude. He would receive a basket of bread as a gift and when his donors visited the following year he had not finished the basket. When given fruit, he politely tried one but never at the whole fruit.

Arsenius considered sleep a kind of luxury, preferring to be awake at night in contemplative vigil "When nature compelled him to go to sleep, he would say to sleep, 'Come here, wicked servant.' Then seated, he would snatch a little sleep and soon wake up again." "Abba Arsenius used to say that one hour's sleep is enough for a monk if he is a good fighter."

But his relations with others gave Arsenius his reputation as a hermit of unwavering austerity. For he refused to entertain nearly everyone and only reluctantly those who might legitimately claim his attention. When Archbishop Theophilus came to introduce himself and to hear a wise word from the famous hermit, he was met with silence until Arsenius said, "Will you do what I tell you?" The archbishop nodded his assent. Arsenius went on, "If you hear that Arsenius is at some place, don't go there."

From that time on, the archbishop apparently sent messengers to see if Arsenius would accept a visit, but Arsenius replied, "If I accept you then I must accept everyone."

Even fellow-monks he often refused to see. Once a group of monks were on their way to gather flax and thought to stop to see Arsenius. They sent one of their number ahead to alert the old man. But upon inquiring, Arsenius realized that the brothers were not coming on his account but because his dwelling was conveniently on the way, so Arsenius refused to see them.

A couple of sayings reflect the logic of Arsenius's solitude. When asked why he refused the company of others he responded: "I cannot live with God and with men,. The thousands and ten thousands of the heavenly hosts have but one will, which men have many."

Once a monk came to see him. Arsenius opened the door expecting his disciple. So he fell face to the ground, refusing to get up until the visitor left. Another time, a monk visited, and Arsenius kept silent until the monk left.

The most famous incident of this sort involved a female visitor from Rome. The young woman of wealth and senatorial rank inquired of Archbishop Theophilus whether Arsenius would see her. On her behalf, Theophilus went to the old man, who refused to receive her. But the young woman was not dissuaded. She had her donkey saddled and set out herself, telling Theophilus that she had not traveled all this way to see a man - there were plenty of these in Rome - but rather a prophet. When she reached his cell, Arsenius happened to be outside.

Seeing him she threw herself at his feet. Outraged, he lifted her up again, and said, looking steadily at her, "If you must see my face, here it is, look." She was covered with shame and did not look at his face. Then the old man said to her, "Have you not heard tell of my way of life? It ought to be respected. How dare you make such a journey? Do you not realize that you are a woman and cannot go just anywhere? Or is it so that on returning to Rome you can say to other women: I have seen Arsenius? Then they will turn the sea into a thoroughfare with women coming to see me."

But she promised to tell no one and said, "Pray for me and remember me always." But Arsenius answered: "I pray God remove all memory of you from my heart." She quit the place, returned to the town and fell ill with fever. When Archbishop Theophilus heard of her illness, he came to see her and asked what had happened. She repeated what Arsenius had told her, adding that now she was dying of grief. Theophilus told her that those were the old man's way, that saints avoid women as temptation, but that he knew Arsenius would pray for her soul. At this she recovered and went back to Rome joyfully reconciled.

In his social relations, Arsenius fuels the image of hermit as cantankerous and blunt. But his eremiticism must be consistent and thorough-going if it is to yield fruit. Theophilus understood this single-mindedness and came to respect it. In fact, Arsenius frequently offered counsel to others. To one brother, he said, "Strive with all your might to bring your interior activity into accord with God, and you will overcome exterior passions. This self-discipline was thorough. When a brother told him that he could not fast or work and opined that visiting the sick was an equivalent good work, Arsenius responded firmly, "Go, eat, sleep, do no work, only do not leave your cell."

As he was dying, Arsenius forbade his disciples to distribute his remains, disappointing the relic-hunters of his day. They told him that they did not know how to bury anyone, and Arsenius rebuked them. "Don't you know how to tie a rope to my feet and drag me to the mountain?" He left his disciples all of his possessions: a tunic, a hair-shirt, and palm-leaf scandals.

URL of this page: http://www.hermitary.com/articles/arsenius.html
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Eucharist, the Sacrament of Communion

Baptism opens the door to the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the sacrament through which Jesus enters into an intimate, permanent communion with us. It is the sacrament of the table. It is the sacrament of food and drink. It is the sacrament of daily nurture. While baptism is a once-in-a-lifetime event, the Eucharist can be a monthly, weekly, or even daily occurrence. Jesus gave us the Eucharist as a constant memory of his life and death. Not a memory that simply makes us think of him but a memory that makes us members of his body. That is why Jesus on the evening before he died took bread saying, "This is my Body," and took the cup saying, "This is my Blood." By eating the Body and drinking the Blood of Christ, we become one with him.
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis: http://www.tssf.org/textonly/principles.shtml

Day Thirty - The Three Notes

The humility, love and joy which mark the lives of Tertiaries are all God given graces. They can never be obtained by human effort. They are gifts of the Holy Spirit. The purpose of Christ is to work miracles through people who are willing to be emptied of self and to surrender to him. We then become channels of grace through whom his mighty work is done.
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Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/

A Holy Moment
September 30th, 2007
Sunday’s Reflection

THY WILL BE DONE. In relation to our ordinary, workaday lives, these may be the most revolutionary words we will ever say. Saying them can change our orientation to life: we put our little boats into a great stream and drop our oars. The prospect of relinquishing our lives to God’s will can be terrifying, as it may have been at first for Jesus on that night of prayer in the garden. But this fear comprises part of a holy moment; it is endured and transcended so that God’s will may be done.

- Sarah Parsons
A Clearing Season

From page 83 of A Clearing Season by Sarah Parsons. Copyright © 2005 by the author. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html



Jesus Subverts All Domination

As men, the twelve apostles were the entitled ones in their society. Jesus helped them to shed their entitlement, their sense of false empowerment. He undercut every attempt at the domination of one group over another. When his own disciples tried to take the high road of power or control, Jesus took the low road to teach them his new "way."

Jesus undercuts their idea of the in-group against the out-group (Mark 9:38-40). He undercuts the domination of one over another (9:33-35), of adults over children (9:36-37; 10:13-16) and of the rich over the poor (10:17-30).

In Mark 10:1-12, he undercuts the domination of men over women: "The Pharisees came to him and they asked him, 'Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?' And he answered and said unto them, 'What did Moses say?' 'Moses suffered to write a bill of divorce, and to put her away.'"

This is not so much a teaching on the indissolubility of the marriage bond as it is a teaching on domination of men over women. Jesus refuses it. The divorce laws of his day were mainly laws to protect men by allowing them to keep moving freely ahead and to abandon women without penalty. Jesus refuses to buy into that. He says, "From the beginning of creation, God made them male and female"—he sees them as brothers and sisters, as equals—"and so the two shall be one flesh." They shall not be two but one, preaching a world of equality, not of domination. This becomes clear in the final parallelism of verses 11-12: "He said to them, 'Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.'"

Why did we never see this? Partly because we didn't understand how women were oppressed in Jesus' time and partly because males have been doing most of the Bible interpretation, I suppose. You never read the gospel very well from the high road.

from Kingdom Spirituality Is Global Spirituality
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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

Reading the holy scriptures

In the Acts of the Apostles there is a holy eunuch, or rather, man (as holy scripture names him), who was reading Isaiah, and when Philip asked him: Do you really understand what you are reading? He answered: How can I without a teacher? To speak of myself for a moment, I am neither holier nor more zealous than that eunuch, who came to the temple from Ethiopia, that is, from the ends of the earth, setting out from the royal palace. He loved the law and divine knowledge so much that even while sitting in his chariot he read the sacred writings. And yet all the time that he was holding the book, ruminating on the Lord's words, reading them fluently and out loud, he did not know who he was unwittingly revering in the book. Then Philip came and showed him Jesus, who lay enclosed in the text in secret. The marvelous power of a teacher! In that same hour the eunuch believed, was baptized, was faithful and holy, and turned from a pupil into a master.

I have touched briefly on these matters, to make you understand that you cannot enter upon the holy scriptures without someone to go before you and show you the way.

Jerome of Jerusalem
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Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/

THE COMMISSION OF THE CALL


"Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake." Colossians 1:24

We make calls out of our own spiritual consecration, but when we get right with God He brushes all these aside, and rivets us with a pain that is terrific to one thing we never dreamed of, and for one radiant flashing moment we see what He is after, and we say - "Here am I, send me."

This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. God can never make us wine if we object to the fingers He uses to crush us with. If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way! But when He uses someone whom we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, and makes those the crushers, we object. We must never choose the scene of our own martyrdom. If ever we are going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed; you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.

I wonder what kind of finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you, and you have been like a marble and escaped? You are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you, the wine would have been remarkably bitter. To be a sacramental personality means that the elements of the natural life are presenced by God as they are broken providentially in His service. We have to be adjusted into God before we can be broken bread in His hands. Keep right with God and let Him do what He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.
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G. K. Chesterton Day by Day
http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/gkcday/gkcday.html

SEPTEMBER 30th

WHEN a man really tells the truth, the first truth he tells is that he himself is a liar.

'What's Wrong with the World.'
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/

January 30, May 31, September 30
Chapter 7: On Humility

The second degree of humility
is that a person love not his own will
nor take pleasure in satisfying his desires,
but model his actions on the saying of the Lord,
"I have come not to do My own will,
but the will of Him who sent Me" (John 6:38).
It is written also,
"Self-will has its punishment,
but constraint wins a crown."


Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html

The first rung of the ladder of the spiritual life is to recognize that God is God, that nothing else can be permitted to consume us or satisfy us, that we must reach out for God before we can even begin to live the God-life. We must come to understand that we are not our own destinies.

The second rung of the spiritual life follows naturally: If God is my center and my end, then I must accept the will of God, knowing that in it lies the fullness of life for me, however obscure. The question, of course, is how do we recognize the Will of God? How do we tell the will of God from our own? How do we know when to resist the tide and confront the opposition and when to embrace the pain and accept the bitterness because "God wills it for us." The answer lies in the fact that the Jesus who said "I have come not to do my own will but the will of the One who sent me" is also the Jesus who prayed in Gethsemane, "Let this chalice pass from me:" The will of God for us is what remains of a situation after we try without stint and pray without ceasing to change it.
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Dynamis http://groups.yahoo.com/group/orthodoxdynamis/
Dynamis is a daily Bible meditation based upon the lectionary of the Holy Orthodox Church.

Sunday, September 30, 2007 Tone 1
Hieromartyr Gregory, Enlightener of Armenia
Kellia: Jeremiah 20:7-13 Epistle: 2 Corinthians
9:6-11 Gospel: St. Luke 6:31-36

Signs For Awakening VIII ~ Deception, Ridicule, and Faith: Jeremiah
20:7-13 LXX, especially vss. 9, 10: "The Name of the Lord...was a
burning fire flaming in my bones, and I am utterly weakened on all
sides, and cannot bear up. For I have heard the reproach of many
gathering round, saying...let us conspire together against him." In the
present passage, Jeremiah portrays the wide range of experiences that
resulted from dedicating his life to the Lord. His descriptions supply
priceless insights into what the service of God is like, and every
disciple should study them closely to be aware of what may come as a
result of being united to Christ.

The Prophet accuses the Lord of having "deceived" him (vs. 20:7).
In the Hebrew texts parallel to the LXX, the word deceived is a verb
used to speak of a virgin being seduced. In your relationship with the
Lord, you may find more is demanded of you as a disciple than you
initially understood. Perhaps you feel you were lured into the Faith by
the fascination of Christ Himself.

Jeremiah reveals that he struggled against being a Prophet, but "Thou
hast been strong" (vs. 7). Like Jacob, if you wrestle with God, He will
win but He will also bless you.

Jeremiah's comment that God is strong is followed, as we might expect,
by the remark that God "prevailed" (vs. 7). Struggling with God is both
losing and winning, for the Lord is stronger than you are, but He is
compassionate and full of mercy and does not abandon His own.

Jeremiah 15:10-11 gives some inkling of the price the Prophet paid for
declaring God's message. He became "a man of strife and contention."
Here he speaks of being mocked continually as "a laughing-stock" (Jer.
20:7). The faithless will often laugh at your faith.

Worse for Jeremiah was the constant reproach for honestly believing in
the word of God (vs. 8). It is one thing to be laughed at for your
faith. It is another to be reproached and upbraided.

The burden of the public and private reactions against Jeremiah prompted
him to try to quit the role of Prophet: "I will by no means name the
Name of the Lord" (vs. 9). When you honestly live the True Faith, it
may well burn and weaken your resolve to be faithful (vs. 9).

It is one thing when you live the Faith and are isolated by mocking,
reproach, and laughing, by friends who do not want any part of your
religion (vs. 10). But it may also have a sinister side: former friends
may conspire against you as they did Jeremiah. There may come a time
when they will even watch your every move to "be avenged on" you (vs. 10).

The public and private resistance to Jeremiah's constant proclamation of
impending doom for his country turned into surveillance (vs. 10).
People began watching "his intentions, if perhaps he shall be deceived,
and we shall prevail against him" (vs. 10). Constant scrutiny with
purpose to defame your witness might infect you with strong feeling of
paranoia and caution.

Under pressure to stop warning of doom from God, Jeremiah continually
spoke as God directed him. Inundated with mocking, laughter, criticism,
surveillance, and hostility, he still knew that "the Lord was with me as
a mighty man of war: therefore they persecuted me, but could not
perceive anything against me; they were greatly confounded" (vs. 11).
Obey the Lord!

Jeremiah was not perfect in desiring revenge. Only Christ is perfect
man and a forgiving God. He understands the desire to "see Thy
vengeance upon them" (vs. 12). Leave all to Him!

Notice that Jeremiah is calling to you, "Sing ye to the Lord" (vs. 13).
Indeed, praise God!

The Prophet preferred to "sing praise to [God]: for [He] rescued the
soul of the poor from the hand of evil-doers" (vs. 13). Our good God
wants the same for you, so trust Him.

O glorious Prophet, Jeremiah, thou knowest our tribulations and failings
before God. Intercede with the merciful Lord that He grant us a good
confession and true faith.

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Reading for January 30, May 31, September 30

January 30, May 31, September 30
Chapter 7: On Humility

The second degree of humility
is that a person love not his own will
nor take pleasure in satisfying his desires,
but model his actions on the saying of the Lord,
"I have come not to do My own will,
but the will of Him who sent Me" (John 6:38).
It is written also,
"Self-will has its punishment,
but constraint wins a crown."

Some thoughts:

What does Benedict identify as the 2nd degree of humility? How would we accomplish this? What tools might we need? How do we learn God's will for us? How would we avoid legalism? Over-scrupulosity?

I find myself fascinated with the last quotation. Whenever St. Benedict quotes from the Bible, he identified the book, chapter and verse, but not here. This aroused my curiosity so I turned to a couple of heavy duty commentaries on the RB: Terence Kardong's _Benedict's Rule: A Translation and Commentary_ and Adalebert de Vogue's _Reading St. Benedict: Reflections on the Rule_. Although it doesn't say so in this translation above, the Latin reads "Item dicit Scriptura" , literally "Scripture also says". The quotation itself is not from Scripture as we know it today, but rather is from the Passion of St. Anastasia, a saint venerated in Rome. This saying became a popular proverb. Adalbert suggests that Benedict may not have known the origin of the phrase which is why he didn't provide his usual citation.

I mention this because it brings home to me how fortunate we are in the 21st century that we can go to almost any bookstore and purchase a copy of the Bible which is what will teach us, if we allow it, to model our actions on those of our Lord and seek to do the will of the Father.


Commentary by Sr Joan Chittister
http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html

The first rung of the ladder of the spiritual life is to recognize that God is God, that nothing else can be permitted to consume us or satisfy us, that we must reach out for God before we can even begin to live the God-life. We must come to understand that we are not our own destinies.

The second rung of the spiritual life follows naturally: If God is my center and my end, then I must accept the will of God, knowing that in it lies the fullness of life for me, however obscure. The question, of course, is how do we recognize the Will of God? How do we tell the will of God from our own? How do we know when to resist the tide and confront the opposition and when to embrace the pain and accept the bitterness because "God wills it for us." The answer lies in the fact that the Jesus who said "I have come not to do my own will but the will of the One who sent me" is also the Jesus who prayed in Gethsemane, "Let this chalice pass from me:" The will of God for us is what remains of a situation after we try without stint and pray without ceasing to change it.

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Saturday, September 29, 2007

Reading for January 29, May 28, September 29

January 29, May 30, September 29
Chapter 7: On Humility

We must be on our guard, therefore, against evil desires,
for death lies close by the gate of pleasure.
Hence the Scripture gives this command:
"Go not after your concupiscences" (Eccles. 18:30).

So therefore,
since the eyes of the Lord observe the good and the evil (Prov. 15:3)
and the Lord is always looking down from heaven
on the children of earth
"to see if there be anyone who understands and seeks God" (Ps. 13:2),
and since our deeds are daily,
day and night,
reported to the Lord by the Angels assigned to us,
we must constantly beware, brethren,
as the Prophet says in the Psalm,
lest at any time God see us falling into evil ways
and becoming unprofitable (Ps. 13:3);
and lest, having spared us for the present
because in His kindness He awaits our reformation,
He say to us in the future,
"These things you did, and I held My peace" (Ps. 49:21).

Some thoughts:

My first reaction is that this passage hardly needs any comments by me. Sr. Joan herself has only 3 sentences! On closer look though...

Once again, Benedict is still writing about the first degree of humility and here he addresses "evil desires." What are evil desires, I wonder? How do you, Gentle Reader, make of this phrase "evil desires"? Benedict, quoting, says "Go not after your concupiscences." Which is a funny word we don't find in day to day conversation. I found an excellent article here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concupiscence if any would like to refer to it.

In brief this article distinguishes between the Roman Catholic and Protestant views of concupiscence. The RC view is that concupiscence might lead to sin whereas the Prot view is that it is already sinful. Benedict's use indicates to me that he has the RC view in mind. He could have had the Prot view in mind, since that dates back to Augustine who lived and wrote before Benedict was born. But the phrases "go not after" indicates choice and free will to me.

Although it is hard to talk about concupiscence without sounding like a prig, it would probably do us good to consider what just might be the sort of desires that lead us to sin. Many are obvious. I myself think the danger is in the subtler desires. Maybe also in the way we allow ourselves to be persuaded.I am thinking here of the emphasis upon consumerism and the buy buy buy mentality which leads us to confuse "want" with "need". I am also thinking here of the justifications we employ to excuse ourselves for allowing this confusion to take place.

Maybe all of us have TVs. If we have TVs, then cable is practically necessary just to have reception. But how many channels do we have to have? Or how many clothes, pairs of shoes, ties, belts, suits, kitchen appliance etc etc do we need? It seems to me that the more things we have the more we are distracted from hearing the Lord. Seems to me that more we give into desires, the more room there is for these desires to become evil, i.e. interfere with our relationship with the Lord.

One good practical test, it seems to me, is what do we do with our money? Do we tithe that 10%? Are we ready to do without "wants" so that we have the 10% to give? Are we willing to chose to donate the money we would have spent on a "want" so that those who don;t have enough might have a chance to get the "needs"?

Commentary by Sr Joan Chittister

http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html

The God-life, Benedict is telling us, is a never-ending, unremitting, totally absorbing enterprise. God is intent on it; so must we be. The Hebrew poet, Moses Ibn Ezra, writes: "Those who persist in knocking will succeed in entering." Benedict thinks no less. It is not perfection that leads us to God; it is perseverance.

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29/09/07 Michaelmas

[PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A "MENU" FROM WHICH TO PICK AND CHOOSE ONE OR MORE MEDITATIONS. PLEASE DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE TO PRAY ALL OF IT. PLEASE THINK OF IT AS A BUFFET OF THE DIFFERENT FLAVORS OF CHRISTIANITY. IT IS HOPED THAT ALL WILL PRAY THE COLLECT, REFLECT ON THE DAY'S SCRIPTURES AND PRAY THE ANGLICAN CYCLE OF PRAYER. AFTER THAT, YOUR CHOICE. THANK YOU]




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

Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Everlasting God, who have ordained and constituted in a wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals: Mercifully grant that, as your holy angels always serve and worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may help and defend us here on earth; 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's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/

AM Psalm 87, 90; PM Psalm 136
2 Kings 11:1-20a; 1 Cor. 7:10-24; Matt. 6:19-24
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

Genesis 28:10-17. There was a ladder...and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

Angels are popular today. You can believe in angels--the word means messengers--without taking the trouble to believe in the One who sends them.
From It's a Wonderful Life to Touched by an Angel, our culture paints for itself images of spiritual beings, without seeking clarity about the kind of spirit behind them. Our pictures of angels cater to our craving for spiritual realities we can see. The Bible, the story of God who cannot be seen, doesn't give us much help.


The angels the Bible describes are as elusive and mysterious as the God whose messengers they are. Isaiah says--concretely enough--that seraphim have six wings--that's something, I guess. But what tells me more about what angels might look like is the fact the first thing they always say when they meet someone is, "Do not be afraid!" Would they do that if they looked like the cute little cherubs on Valentines or on our Christmas cards? I don't think so. I'm glad that we remember St. Michael, the warrior spirit, and All Angels on the same day. Whatever they look like, they must be both holy and strong.
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Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm

St. Michael & All Angels:
AM Psalm 8, 148; Job 38:1-7; Hebrews 1:1-14
PM Psalm 14, 150 or 104; Daniel 12:1-3 or 2 Kings 6:8-17; Mark 13:21-27 or Revelation 5:1-14

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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of St. Asaph (Wales)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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Speaking to the Soul: http://www.episcopalcafe.com/

One family

Daily Reading for September 29 • St. Michael and All Angels

Spirit of power, we find it hard to come together in the Church,
even within a single congregation.
How shall we learn to be one family, loving and serving the whole of humankind?
Lead us into such unity of purpose that we may receive power:
not the power to threaten or destroy, but the power to restore waste places.
Use us to declare your glory, that blind eyes may see,
deaf ears hear, and the cynical be brought to faith.
Spirit of the Living God,
Hear our prayer.

Spirit of truth, we live in a modern Babel
where words are used to conceal meaning rather than make it plain.
Lead the peoples of the world into such a love of truth
that nation may speak with nation,
not seeking to confuse but to understand and to be understood,
whereby trust is created, out of which a truly international community may be born.
Spirit of the Living God,
Hear our prayer.

Creator Spirit, you give to the old the capacity to dream dreams
and to the young to see visions,
but because we exalt ourselves and our desires to the place that is yours alone,
our visions are visions of horror and our dreams nightmares.
Raise up artists and prophets among us
with the will and the ability to inspire and cleanse our society,
to set our hearts aflame and turn our eyes to the heights.
Spirit of the Living God,
Hear our prayer.

Source of all comfort, we pray for the lonely, the sick, the sad, the bereaved,
and all who suffer or are ill at ease....
We claim for them the gift of your peace,
that their troubled hearts may be set at rest and their fears banished.
Spirit of the Living God,
Hear our prayer.

Giver of life, we remember those who have died....
May they enter into the Kingdom where your presence is all in all.
Spirit of the Living God,
Hear our prayer. Amen.

From The Daily Office Revised, in The Wideness of God’s Mercy: Litanies to Enlarge Our Prayer, revised edition, compiled and adapted by Jeffery W. Rowthorn. Copyright © 2007. Used by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, NY. www.churchpublishing.org
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Spiritual Practice of the Day http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/

We are also the enemy strangers that others are struggling to welcome in their own right.
— Caroline A. Westerhoff in Good Fences

To Practice This Thought: Be aware of how strange you may appear to others, and be a good guest.
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

Confidence, nothing but confidence leads to the love of God.
St. Therese of the Child Jesus
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Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

(Abba Poemen) said, 'The beginning of evil is heedlessness.'
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Baptism, a Call to Commitment

Baptism as a way to the freedom of the children of God and as a way to a life in community calls for a personal commitment. There is nothing magical or automatic about this sacrament. Having water poured over us while someone says, "I baptise you in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit," has lasting significance when we are willing to claim and reclaim in all possible ways the spiritual truth of who we are as baptised people.

In this sense baptism is a call to parents of baptised children and to the baptised themselves to choose constantly for the light in the midst of a dark world and for life in the midst of a death-harbouring society.
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis: http://www.tssf.org/textonly/principles.shtml

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/

No Unimportant Moments
September 29th, 2007
Saturday’s Reflection

OUR EARTHLY existence takes on new meaning when we remember that God chose to put on our humanity and chose to wear that humanity as an ordinary working man. Our ordinary existence is not so ordinary when we remember that God chose this existence to give us a true picture of the divine. Therefore there are no unimportant moments in any lifetime. All are precious gifts of opportunity to know and serve the One who made us and chose to stand with us and like us in the gift of life.

- Norman Shawchuck and Rueben P. Job
A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God

From page 50 of A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God by Norman Shawchuck and Rueben P. Job. Copyright © 2003 by the authors. Published by Upper Room Bo
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html


Grin and Bear It

Real holiness doesn't feel like holiness; it just feels like you're dying; it feels like you're losing it. And yet, you're losing it from the center, from a place where all things are One, where you can joyously, graciously let go of it. You know God is doing it when you can smile, when you can trust the letting go.

I'm not suggesting stoic, teeth-gritting tolerance; I mean grin and bear it. Unless the grin is there, unless the joy is there, it isn't God's work.

Many of us were taught the no without the yes, the joy. We were trained just to put up with it, to take it on the chin. That destroyed a lot of people in the Church. Saying no to the self does not necessarily please God. When God, by love and freedom, can create a joyous yes inside of you—so much so that you can absorb the no's—then it's God's work.

from Letting Go: A Spirituality of Subtraction
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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

The archangels

An innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of the just; — we dwell under their shadow; we are baptized into their fellowship; we are allotted their guardianship; we are remembered, as we trust, in their prayers. We dwell in the very presence and court of God himself, and of his eternal Son our Savior, who died for us, and rose again, and now intercedes for us before the throne. We have privileges surely far greater than Elisha's; but of the same kind. Angels are among us, and are powerful to do anything. And they do wonders for the believing, which the world knows nothing about. According to our faith, so it is done unto us. Only believe, and all things are ours. We shall have clear and deeply-seeded convictions in our minds of the reality of the invisible world, though we cannot communicate them to others, or explain how we come to have them.

John Henry Newman
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Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/

THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE CALL


"For necessity is laid upon me: yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!" 1 Corinthians 9:16

We are apt to forget the mystical, supernatural touch of God. If you can tell where you got the call of God and all about it, I question whether you have ever had a call. The call of God does not come like that, it is much more supernatural. The realization of it in a man's life may come with a sudden thunder-clap or with a gradual dawning, but in whatever way it comes, it comes with the undercurrent of the supernatural, something that cannot be put into words, it is always accompanied with a glow. At any moment there may break the sudden consciousness of this incalculable, supernatural, surprising call that has taken hold of your life - "I have chosen you." The call of God has nothing to do with salvation and sanctification. It is not because you are sanctified that you are therefore called to preach the gospel; the call to preach the gospel is infinitely different. Paul describes it as a necessity laid upon him.

If you have been obliterating the great super natural call of God in your life, take a review of your circumstances and see where God has not been first, but your ideas of service, or your temperamental abilities. Paul said - "Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!" He had realized the call of God, and there was no competitor for his strength.

If a man or woman is called of God, it does not matter how untoward circumstances are, every force that has been at work will tell for God's purpose in the end. If you agree with God's purpose He will bring not only your conscious life, but all the deeper regions of your life which you cannot get at, into harmony.
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G. K. Chesterton Day by Day
http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/gkcday/gkcday.html

ST. MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS

HISTORIC Christianity has always believed in the valour of St. Michael riding in front of the Church Militant, and in an ultimate and absolute pleasure, not indirect or utilitarian, the intoxication of the Spirit, the wine of the blood of God.

'George Bernard Shaw.'
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/

January 29, May 30, September 29
Chapter 7: On Humility

We must be on our guard, therefore, against evil desires,
for death lies close by the gate of pleasure.
Hence the Scripture gives this command:
"Go not after your concupiscences" (Eccles. 18:30).

So therefore,
since the eyes of the Lord observe the good and the evil (Prov. 15:3)
and the Lord is always looking down from heaven
on the children of earth
"to see if there be anyone who understands and seeks God" (Ps. 13:2),
and since our deeds are daily,
day and night,
reported to the Lord by the Angels assigned to us,
we must constantly beware, brethren,
as the Prophet says in the Psalm,
lest at any time God see us falling into evil ways
and becoming unprofitable (Ps. 13:3);
and lest, having spared us for the present
because in His kindness He awaits our reformation,
He say to us in the future,
"These things you did, and I held My peace" (Ps. 49:21).

Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html

The God-life, Benedict is telling us, is a never-ending, unremitting, totally absorbing enterprise. God is intent on it; so must we be. The Hebrew poet, Moses Ibn Ezra, writes: "Those who persist in knocking will succeed in entering." Benedict thinks no less. It is not perfection that leads us to God; it is perseverance.
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Dynamis http://groups.yahoo.com/group/orthodoxdynamis/
Dynamis is a daily Bible meditation based upon the lectionary of the Holy Orthodox Church.

Saturday, September 29, 2007
Venerable Kyriakos the Hermit of Palestine
Kellia: Jeremiah 17:5-14 Epistle: 1 Corinthians
15:39-45 Gospel: St. Luke 5:17-26

Signs For Awakening VII ~ The True Sanctuary: Jeremiah 17:5-14 LXX,
especially vs. 12: "An exalted throne of glory is our sanctuary." The
holy Prophet and Psalmist, David, in a like spirit with Jeremiah,
declares that "Our God is refuge and strength, a helper in afflictions
which mightily befall us. Therefore shall we not fear when the earth be
shaken, nor when the mountains be removed into the heart of the seas"
(Ps. 45:1,2 LXX). Both Prophets look to God as the true and reliable
point of safety in the flux of this present, tumultuous life.

In the present passage, Jeremiah explores our too-frequent alternative:
trust in man, leaning "his arm of flesh upon" man (Jer. 17:5). Jeremiah
states firmly that trust in mankind is "cursed" (vs. 5), and anyone who
vests reliance on men and their institutions will prove to "be a fool"
(vs.11) in forsaking "the fountain of life, the Lord" (vs.13).

Jeremiah knew that trusting begins in the heart, which is "deep beyond
all things, and...tried by the Lord Who gives....to every one according
to his ways" (vss. 9,10). Deep in the heart is the nous, which guides
the heart for good or ill. Thus, as Metropolitan Hierotheos says, when
"the nous is ill, man's entire soul is darkened. This is what the Lord
meant when He said: 'If the light that is in you is darkness, how great
is that darkness!' (Mt. 6:23)."

Before the battle at Ai, Joshua, following the Lord's command, set a
contingent of thirty thousand men to lie behind the city in ambush as
part of a deception against the people of that city (Jos. 8:3-8).
Animals use deception to hide from predators, capture prey, or enhance
their broods by gathering "eggs which she did not lay" (Jer. 7:11). The
Prophet likens the latter behavior to "a man gaining his wealth
unjustly" (vs. 11). In deceiving, one may act naturally according to
the command of God or unnaturally from darkness in the nous and the
heart. Watch closely to assure that your aim is not to cloak or deceive
to your advantage.

Others cannot tell with certainty what is in your heart. Often we do
not know ourselves. As a result, we may first deceive ourselves before
we mislead others. The Apostle Paul warns against blind entrapment by
our own hearts: "we should not trust in ourselves but in God" (2 Cor.
1:9). The media often report cases in which the drive to gain riches
leads men to gain wealth by many unjust means. Thus, in petty crimes
and in huge corporate scams, deception is exposed. Then for the
deceiver, "in the midst of his days, his riches...leave him, and at his
latter end he will be a fool" (Jer. 17:11). It is better "not to be
haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who
gives us richly all things to enjoy" (1 Tim. 6:17).

Watching within yourself alone is no absolute guarantee of avoiding
deception, since you can dupe yourself. Even the great Apostle Paul
admits, "I know nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this;
but He Who judges is the Lord" (1 Cor. 4:4). Who knows your heart? The
Lord does! The answer to the sad, universal darkness that stealthily
enters hearts and steals them is God Himself; but we must learn to hear
Him, arise at His voice, and obey.

Jeremiah teaches that "an exalted throne of glory is our sanctuary" (vs.
12). The heavenly Throne is glorious because it is the Throne of God.
Enthrone God in your heart, the Sanctuary against Satan's devices, and
your own self-deception. Before the "exalted throne of glory," O man,
humble thyself! Draw near Christ and be "a thriving tree by the
waters," with roots in "the moist place," in Life Himself. Then, "when
heat comes...there shall be upon [you] shady branches" and you "shall
not fear in a year of drought, and...shall not fail to bear fruit" (vs. 8).

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and with Thy governing Spirit
establish me." (Ps. 50:10,12 LXX)

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Friday, September 28, 2007

Reading for January 28, May 27 September 28

January 28, May 29, September 28
Chapter 7: On Humility

As for self-will,
we are forbidden to do our own will
by the Scripture, which says to us,
"Turn away from your own will" (Eccles. 18:30),
and likewise by the prayer in which we ask God
that His will be done in us.
And rightly are we taught not to do our own will
when we take heed to the warning of Scripture:
"There are ways which seem right,
but the ends of them plunge into the depths of hell" (Prov. 16:25);
and also when we tremble at what is said of the careless:
"They are corrupt and have become abominable in their will."

And as for the desires of the flesh,
let us believe with the Prophet that God is ever present to us,
when he says to the Lord,
"Every desire of mine is before You" (Ps. 37:10).

Some thoughts:

As I read this, I recall that Benedict has not yet started to discuss the second degree of humility, so I tend to see this passage as I saw yesterday's. More exposition about what it is to fear God. Does this seem like a valid way to read it to you? What is the relationship between self-will and fear of God? Does self-will interfere with the fear of God? Does fearing God place our self-wlll in conflict with something else in any way?

This passage may be unpleasant to modern eyes. I have often noticed a sort of "Me First" attitude on the freeway, in the supermarket, every where. I notice all the ways I succumb to it. I am terrible at interrupting people, for instance, so eager am I to get a word in. At the same time, I think this passage can be taken to extremes that Father Benedict never meant. For example thinking all the time about what we did wrong. I think that is another form of self-will.

In what ways does Benedict define "fear of God"? He has told us to keep God in the forefront of our minds; remember God's commandments; keep ourselves from sin and the desires of the flesh; that God is always looking at us; to avoid wrong thoughts by praying constantly; to do God's will not our own.

Looking over that list, I am truly thankful Benedict wrote his rule which is a school. I can only pray that I am teachable enough to learn in this school.




Commentary by Sr Joan Chittister
http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html

Benedict makes two points clearly: First, we are capable of choosing for God in life. We are not trapped by an essential weakness that makes God knowable but not possible. Second, we are more than the body. Choosing God means having to concentrate on nourishing the soul rather than on sating the flesh, not because the flesh is bad but because the flesh is not enough to make the human fully human. To give ourselves entirely to the pleasures of the body may close us to beauties known only to the soul.

Humility lies in knowing who we are and what our lives are meant to garner. The irony of humility is that, if we have it, we know we are made for greatness, we are made for God.

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28/09/07

[PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A "MENU" FROM WHICH TO PICK AND CHOOSE ONE OR MORE MEDITATIONS. PLEASE DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE TO PRAY ALL OF IT. PLEASE THINK OF IT AS A BUFFET OF THE DIFFERENT FLAVORS OF CHRISTIANITY. IT IS HOPED THAT ALL WILL PRAY THE COLLECT, REFLECT ON THE DAY'S SCRIPTURES AND PRAY THE ANGLICAN CYCLE OF PRAYER. AFTER THAT, YOUR CHOICE. THANK YOU]




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

Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; 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/

AM Psalm 88; PM Psalm 91, 92
2 Kings 9:17-37; 1 Cor. 7:1-9; Matt. 6:7-15
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

2 Kings 9:17-37. In the territory of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel; the corpse of Jezebel shall be like dung on the field in the territory of Jezreel, so that no one can say, "This is Jezebel."

This may not be the most edifying of Bible verses, but it makes its point. Jezebel, the strong-willed, scheming, manipulative wife of the brave but disreputable King Ahab, is best known for the incident of Naboth's vineyard (1 Kings 21). Naboth refused to sell the king a vineyard his family had owned for generations. Jezebel taunted her husband as a weakling, then arranged for Naboth's murder and for the crown to take the vineyard. The prophet Elijah confronted the royal couple saying that where the dogs had licked up the blood of Naboth, they would also lick up Ahab's and Jezebel's blood. Ahab was soon killed in battle. Palace coups and intrigues followed, and Jezebel was slain, her blood splattered, and only her skull, feet, and the palms of her hands recovered.


We see that evil does not go unpunished; those who live by the sword die by the sword. It may not be pretty, but people-including heads of state-who lie and cheat, who pursue personal vendettas and make a mockery of justice and peace, will be held accountable.
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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of St. Andrew's, Dunkeld and Dunblane (Scotland)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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Speaking to the Soul: http://www.episcopalcafe.com/

Help us to live in peace

Daily Reading for September 28

Lord Jesus, in a dark hour you spoke of the gift of peace;
we beg that gift for ourselves,
that we may have the inner serenity that cannot be taken from us.
Then we may be messengers of your peace to a strife-torn world.
Give peace in our time, Lord.
Help us to live in peace.

We pray for those who are fighting—
injury, disfigurement, and death their constant companions,
nerves and bodies strained beyond endurance,
the streams of compassion drying up within them,
their only goal the destruction of the “enemy.”
Whatever the color of their skin—we pray for them.
Whatever the sound of their tongue—we pray for them.
Whatever the insignia they wear—we pray for them.
Give peace in our time, Lord.
Help us to live in peace.

We pray for all who have been broken in battle;
for those who weep and those who can no longer weep;
for those who feel the anguish
and for those who have lost the capacity to feel;
for all prisoners—and all prison guards;
for those who exist in war-torn lands
and for those who no longer have a homeland.
Give peace in our time, Lord.
Help us to live in peace.

We pray for all who stir up strife;
for all who make a profit out of the misery of others;
for all who are led into vice as they seek a momentary forgetfulness;
for all who believe that war is inevitable.
Give peace in our time, Lord.
Help us to live in peace.

The desire to press self-interest is deeply rooted in us.
We defend our attitudes when we should be ashamed of them.
We compare the noblest aspects of our own cause with the basest of that of our opponents.
We are reluctant to admit that our own selfish desires could contribute to the miseries of others.
Give peace in our time, Lord.
Help us to live in peace.

We bring to you particular needs....
and we remember those who have died....
Give peace in our time, Lord.
Help us to live in peace.

From The Daily Office Revised, in The Wideness of God’s Mercy: Litanies to Enlarge Our Prayer, revised edition, compiled and adapted by Jeffery W. Rowthorn. Copyright © 2007. Used by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, NY. www.churchpublishing.org

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Spiritual Practice of the Day http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/

Already we are immersed in one of the primary causes of violence — all violence — namely, dualistic thinking, the human compulsion to divide everything into adversarial opposites.
— Diarmuid O'Murchu in Poverty, Celibacy, and Obedience

To Practice This Thought: Think of one conflict in today's world; remove the crutch of dualistic thinking that is supporting it; then contemplate again the nature of the conflict.
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

Come, then, O beautiful soul. Since you know now that your desired Beloved lives hidden within your heart, strive to be really hidden with Him, and you will embrace Him within you and experience Him with loving affection.
St John of the Cross
Spiritual Canticle, 1.8
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Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

Abba Xanthias said, 'The thief was on the cross and he was justified by a single word; and Judas who was counted in the number jof the apostles lost all his labour in one single night and descended from heaven to hell. Therefore, let no-one boast of his good works, for all those who trust in themselves fall.'
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Baptism, the Way to Community

Baptism is more than a way to spiritual freedom. It also is the way to community. Baptising a person, whether child or adult, is receiving that person into the community of faith. Those who are reborn from above through baptism, and are called to live the life of sons and daughters of God, belong together as members of one spiritual family, the living body of Christ. When we baptise people, we welcome them into this family of God and offer them guidance, support, and formation, as they grow to the full maturity of the Christ-like life.
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis: http://www.tssf.org/textonly/principles.shtml

Joy

Tertiaries, rejoicing in the Lord always, show in our lives the grace and beauty of divine joy. We remember that they follow the Son of Man, who came eating and drinking, who loved the birds and the flowers, who blessed little children, who was a friend of tax collectors and sinners, and who sat at the tables of both the rich and the poor. We delight in fun and laughter, rejoicing in God's world, its beauty and its living creatures, calling nothing common or unclean. We mix freely with all people, ready to bind up the broken-hearted and to bring joy into the lives of others. We carry within them an inner peace and happiness which others may perceive, even if they do not know its source.
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Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/

Renewing Ourselves
September 28th, 2007
Friday’s Reflection

IT IS GOOD TO RENEW ourselves from time to time by closely examining the state of our souls, as if we had never done it before. For nothing tends more to the full assurance of faith than to keep ourselves by this means in humility and the exercise of all good works.

- John Wesley
A Longing for Holiness

From page 69 of A Longing for Holiness: Selected Writings of John Wesley edited by Keith Beasley-Topliffe. Copyright © 1997 by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html


St. John of the Cross

True spirituality is utterly countercultural because it's non-merchandisable, non-measurable, non-provable. It is precisely nothing. Who wants to be nothing in this world? This culture's goal is for us to be something, to be everything, "to win friends and influence people."

St. John of the Cross puts it this way: "In order to come to pleasure you have not, you must go by a way that you will enjoy not. To come to the knowledge that you have not, you must go by a way that you know not. To come to the possession that you have not, you must go by a way in which you possess not. To come to be what you are not, you must go by a way that you are not" (Ascent of Mount Carmel, I, 13, #10).

We fear nothingness, of course. That's why we fear death, too. I suspect that death is the shocking realization that everything I thought was me, everything I held onto so desperately, was precisely nothing. The nothingness we fear so much is, in fact, the treasure that we long for. We long for the space where there is nothing to prove and nothing to protect; where I am who I am, and its enough. Spirituality teaches us how to get naked ahead of time, so God can make love to us as we really are.

from Letting Go: A Spirituality of Subtraction
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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

The martyrs suffered in Jesus' presence

The martyrs found themselves hard-pressed, beset by danger from violent storms of hatred in this world, a danger not so much to their bodies which, after all, they would have to part with sometime, but rather to their faith. If they were to give way, if they should succumb either to the harsh tortures of their persecutors or to love of this present life, they would forfeit the reward promised them by the God who had taken away all ground for fear. Not only had he said: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; he had also left them his own example. The precept he had enjoined on them he personally carried out, without attempting to evade the hands of those who scourged him, the blows of those who struck him, or the spittle of those who spat on him. Neither the crown of thorns pressed into his head nor the cross to which the soldiers nailed him encountered any resistance from him. None of these torments did he try to avoid. Though he himself was under no obligation to suffer them, he endured them for those who were, making his own person a remedy for the sick. And so the martyrs suffered, but they would certainly have failed the test without the presence of him who said: Know that I am with you always, until the end of time.

Augustine of Hippo
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Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/

THE "GO" OF UNCONDITIONAL IDENTIFICATION


"One thing thou lackest: . . come, take up the cross, and follow Me." Mark 10:21

The rich young ruler had the master passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our Lord never puts personal holiness to the fore when He calls a disciple; He puts absolute annihilation of my right to myself and identification with Himself - a relationship with Himself in which there is no other relationship. Luke 14:26 has nothing to do with salvation or sanctification, but with unconditional identification with Jesus Christ. Very few of us know the absolute "go" of abandonment to Jesus.

"Then Jesus beholding him loved him." The look of Jesus will mean a heart broken for ever from allegiance to any other person or thing. Has Jesus ever looked at you? The look of Jesus transforms and transfixes. Where you are "soft" with God is where the Lord has looked at you. If you are hard and vindictive, insistent on your own way, certain that the other person is more likely to be in the wrong than you are, it is an indication that there are whole tracts of your nature that have never been transformed by His gaze.

"One thing thou lackest . . ." The only "good thing" from Jesus Christ's point of view is union with Himself and nothing in between.

"Sell whatsoever thou hast . ." I must reduce myself until I am a mere conscious man, I must fundamentally renounce possessions of all kinds, not to save my soul (only one thing saves a man - absolute reliance upon Jesus Christ) - but in order to follow Jesus. "Come, and follow Me." And the road is the way He went.
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/

January 28, May 29, September 28
Chapter 7: On Humility

As for self-will,
we are forbidden to do our own will
by the Scripture, which says to us,
"Turn away from your own will" (Eccles. 18:30),
and likewise by the prayer in which we ask God
that His will be done in us.
And rightly are we taught not to do our own will
when we take heed to the warning of Scripture:
"There are ways which seem right,
but the ends of them plunge into the depths of hell" (Prov. 16:25);
and also when we tremble at what is said of the careless:
"They are corrupt and have become abominable in their will."

And as for the desires of the flesh,
let us believe with the Prophet that God is ever present to us,
when he says to the Lord,
"Every desire of mine is before You" (Ps. 37:10).

Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html

Benedict makes two points clearly: First, we are capable of choosing for God in life. We are not trapped by an essential weakness that makes God knowable but not possible. Second, we are more than the body. Choosing God means having to concentrate on nourishing the soul rather than on sating the flesh, not because the flesh is bad but because the flesh is not enough to make the human fully human. To give ourselves entirely to the pleasures of the body may close us to beauties known only to the soul.

Humility lies in knowing who we are and what our lives are meant to garner. The irony of humility is that, if we have it, we know we are made for greatness, we are made for God.
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Dynamis http://groups.yahoo.com/group/orthodoxdynamis/
Dynamis is a daily Bible meditation based upon the lectionary of the Holy Orthodox Church.

Friday, September 28, 2007
The Holy Prophet Baruch
Kellia: Jeremiah 16:1-13 Epistle: Ephesians
6:18-24 Gospel: St. Luke 6:17-23

Signs For Awakening VI ~ Abstinence From Joy: Jeremiah 16:1-13 LXX,
especially vs. 9: "For thus saith the Lord God of Israel; Behold, I will
make to cease out of this place before your eyes, and in your days the
voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom,
and the voice of the bride." This portion of Jeremiah is a shock to
contemplate, since God's directives to the Prophet serve only further to
isolate him socially from friends and neighbors. God effectively turns
Jeremiah into an isolated, lonely figure withdrawn from all the normal
events and joys of life. He is not to marry. He is not to "rejoice
with those who rejoice, [nor] weep with those who weep" (Rom. 12:15).
Rather, he is to pour all his energy and attention to the message of
judgment for which he is so well-known, and, if he is challenged about
the unrelenting message that he has as a God-given task, then he is to
repeat the same message yet again: "ye walk every one after the lusts of
your own evil heart, so as not to hearken to Me, therefore I will cast
you off from the good land into a land which neither ye nor your fathers
have known; and ye shall serve there other gods, who shall have no mercy
upon you" (Jer. 16:12,13).

Why does God require celibacy and isolation of some of His
servants? Why are some called by the Lord to undertake the monastic way
or step out of the mainstream in other ways? Why are some called to
serve as clergy and yet restrained from marrying and having families?
Why may none who are called to the Episcopacy be married? God's basic
reason will be found in this passage. Essentially, the Lord calls some
to the celibate way so that they may focus their energies solely on
ministry, and, thus, serve as an icon to the rest of the People of God
that they may consider how they live and may best serve our only, good
Lord and Master.

Notice the wording of the text when God directed Jeremiah not to marry:
"And thou shalt not take a wife, saith the Lord God of Israel, and there
shall be no son born to thee, nor daughter in this place'" (vs. 1,2).
He was forbidden to marry. Celibacy became a Divine vocation. The word
came from the Lord. Of course, Jeremiah was free not to obey, but he
freely submitted himself to God. Hence, while marriage is man's natural
state (Gen. 1:28; Deut. 7:14) and a joy given by God for life and
celebration (Jn. 2:1-10), yet for Jeremiah, the Lord gave another path.
Monastics and the unmarried clergy are called of God not to marry, and
their way of life should be seen primarily as a Divine vocation. The
response seals the call.

Jeremiah's call to separation from typical social relationships went
beyond a vocation to celibacy. It further embraced the unusual
requirement to withdraw from weeping with mourners or celebrating the
joys of everyday life (Jer. 16:5-9). God had a special purpose for his
life. He wanted all of Jeremiah's energies dedicated to proclaiming His
word to His People. Jeremiah was to be "as My mouth" (Jer. 15:19)
everywhere and at all times, He was to turn from life's special
occasions and expectations so that all his energy could be devoted
solely to God's word. The message that the Lord was withdrawing His
"peace from this people" (Jer 16:5) was urgent: "they shall die of
grievous death; they shall not be lamented, nor buried" (vs. 4).

The disaster coming to God's ancient people was grave. Separating
Jeremiah from life's usual activities freed him to show God's People,
through the Lord's eyes, their delusions, their sins, and their need for
repentance (vss. 10-13). May our compassionate God grant each of us
such illumination and repentance while we still are in this brief life,
consigning to oblivion "all those things which have proceeded from the
weakness of our mortal nature."

Grant, O Lord, in Thy love and mercy, that we may complete the remaining
time of our life in peace and repentance, having a good defense before
Thy dread Judgment Seat.

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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Reading for January 26, May 25 September 26

January 26, May 27, September 26
Chapter 7: On Humility

The first degree of humility, then,
is that a person keep the fear of God before his eyes
and beware of ever forgetting it.
Let him be ever mindful of all that God has commanded;
let his thoughts constantly recur
to the hell-fire which will burn for their sins
those who despise God,
and to the life everlasting which is prepared
for those who fear Him.
Let him keep himself at every moment from sins and vices,
whether of the mind, the tongue, the hands, the feet,
or the self-will,
and check also the desires of the flesh.

Some thoughts:

"Fear of God" is one of those phrases that has not stood the test of time. At least, IMO. I suspect "fear" has morphed from a word that back in ancient days was full of positive connotations into a word that in our modern era has only negative meanings. "God is love," I've heard people say. "What is there to fear?"

"Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom" or so it says in either Proverbs of Ecclesiastes. But what does this mean? Obviously it's a concept important to St. Benedict. What does "fear of God" look like or mean to you?

For me, this concept is played out near the end of the Book of Job. If ever a person had a right to complain, it's Job, robbed of family, everything that gave meaning to his life in order to serve as plaything of the devil. There's Job, sitting on his ash heap, hurling question after question at God. What does Job discover? Not specific answers to his questions but rather The Answer. Confronted with the living God, all Job's questions melt away because God is Answer, to be in God's presence is Answer. Job's response is adoration, confession, worship.

"Fear of God", it seems to me, must be a short-hand expression to sum up such complicated concepts such as awe of God, recognition of ourselves as creatures, recognition of God as Creator, realization that worms that we are, He loves us which ought to make us re-think calling ourselves worms.


Commentary by Sr Joan Chittister
http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html

The very consciousness of God in time is central to Benedict's perception of the spiritual life. Benedict's position is both shocking and simple: being sinless is not enough. Being steeped in the mind of God is most important. While we restrain ourselves from harsh speech and bad actions and demands of the flesh and pride of soul, what is most vital to the fanning of the spiritual fire is to become aware that the God we seek is aware of us. Sanctity, in other words, is not a matter of moral athletics. Sanctity is a conscious relationship with the conscious but invisible God. The theology is an enlivening and liberating one: It is not a matter, the posture implies, of our becoming good enough to gain the God who is somewhere outside of us. It is a matter of gaining the God within, the love of Whom impels us to good.

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26/09/07

[PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A "MENU" FROM WHICH TO PICK AND CHOOSE ONE OR MORE MEDITATIONS. PLEASE DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE TO PRAY ALL OF IT. PLEASE THINK OF IT AS A BUFFET OF THE DIFFERENT FLAVORS OF CHRISTIANITY. IT IS HOPED THAT ALL WILL PRAY THE COLLECT, REFLECT ON THE DAY'S SCRIPTURES AND PRAY THE ANGLICAN CYCLE OF PRAYER. AFTER THAT, YOUR CHOICE. THANK YOU]




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

Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Lord and Father, our King and God, by your grace the Church was enriched by the great learning and eloquent preaching of you servant Lancelot Andrewes, but even more by his example of biblical and liturgical prayer: Conform our lives, like his, to the image of Christ, that our hearts may love you, our minds serve you, and our lips proclaim the greatness of your mercy; 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 119:97-120; PM Psalm 81, 82
2 Kings 6:1-23; 1 Cor. 5:9-6:8; Matt. 5:38-48
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

Psalm 81. Hear, O my people, and I will admonish you.

September is almost gone. The leaves, whose colors used to be at their peak right about now, are, these days (thanks to global warming), still a mix of green with the brilliant reds and oranges. The hills seem to be listening for something; there are voices in the forest that are there at no other time of year.


The glory of this season is new for me every year; I never tire of it or cease to listen to the forest voices with rapt attention. I understand how people invest nature with God-like attributes and find the divine in tree, river, mountain, rock. Bound as I am to a God outside of nature, one I call the Creator of the natural world, I have to set that world in a context that also includes history and community. The God of Israel speaks in all three, and we ignore any one at our peril.


We "people of the Book" have usually focused on the history and the community, and frequently forgotten our groundedness in, and our duty to, the natural world. But that time is over: our very survival on this planet now depends on our listening to the God beyond nature reminding us that we were given this world to tend and care for, not exploit and degrade. Let us pray that it is not too late to hear his voice in the autumn woods.
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Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm

Lancelot Andrewes:
Psalm 63:1-8 or 34:1-8
1 Timothy 2:1-7a; Luke 11:1-4


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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Springfield (United States)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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Speaking to the Soul: http://www.episcopalcafe.com/

Save us when we fall

Daily Reading for September 26 • Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, 1626

Lord Jesus, you have faced temptation,
you know how difficult it can be to distinguish
between vision and mirage, between truth and falsehood.
Lord, help us when we are tempted:
And save us when we fall.

Help us in the Church —
When we confuse absence of conflict with the peace of God.
When we equate the shaping of ecclesiastical structures with serving you in the world.
When we imagine that our task is to preserve rather than to put at risk.
When we behave as though your presence in life were a past event
rather than a contemporary encounter.
Lord, help us when we are tempted:
And save us when we fall.

Help us in the world —
When we use meaningless chatter to avoid real dialogue.
When we allow the image presented by the media
to blind us to the substance that lies behind it.
When we confuse privilege with responsibility
and claim rights when we should be acknowledging duties.
When we allow high-sounding reasons to cover evil actions.
Lord, help us when we are tempted:
And save us when we fall.

We pray for our families and our friends
and hold them before you in our thoughts....
We especially pray for any who may be under particular pressures and stress at this time....
Lord, help us when we are tempted:
And save us when we fall.

Lord Jesus, you have passed through the test of suffering
and are able to help those who are meeting their test now.
We pray for all who suffer....
We especially pray for those who suffer through their own folly
or the folly or malice of others....
Lord, help us when we are tempted:
And save us when we fall.

Before the throne of God, where we may find mercy and timely help,
we remember those who have departed this life....
Dying, Christ broke the power of sin and death
that we might enter with him into the life eternal.
Lord, help us when we are tempted:
And save us when we fall. Amen.

From The Daily Office Revised, in The Wideness of God’s Mercy: Litanies to Enlarge Our Prayer, revised edition, compiled and adapted by Jeffery W. Rowthorn. Copyright © 2007. Used by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, NY. www.churchpublishing.org

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Spiritual Practice of the Day http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/

A woman once described a friend of hers as being such a keen listener that even the trees leaned toward her, as if they were speaking their innermost secrets into her listening ears.
— Linda Hogan in Dwellings

To Practice This Thought: Go outside and listen to some trees.

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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

Be sure that the Lord will never forsake those who love Him when they run risks solely for His sake.
St Teresa of Jesus
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Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

It was said of Abba Silvanus that at Scetis he had a dijsciple called Mark whose obedience was great. He was a scribe. The old man loved him because of his obedience. He had eleven other disciples who were hurt because he loved him more than them. When they knew this, the elders were sorry about it and they came one day to him to reproach him about it. Taking them with him, he went to knock at each cell, saying, 'Brother so and so, come here; I need you,' but none of them came immediately. Coming to Mark's cell, he knocked and said, 'Mark.' Hearing the old man's voice, he jumped up immediately and the old man sent him off to serve and said to the elders, 'Fathers, where are the other brothers?' Then he went into Mark's cell and picked up his book and noticed that he had begun to write the letter 'omega' ["w"] but when he had heard the old man, he had not finished writing it. Then the elders said, 'Truly, abba, he whom you love, we love too and God loves him.'
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Baptism, a Rite of Passage

Baptism is a rite of passage. The Jewish people passed through the Red Sea to the Promised Land in the great exodus. Jesus himself wanted to make this exodus by passing through suffering and death into the house of his heavenly Father. This was his baptism. He asked his disciples and now asks us us: "Can you ... be baptised with the baptism with which I shall be baptised?" (Mark 10:38). When the apostle Paul, therefore, speaks about our baptism, he calls it a baptism into Jesus' death (Romans 6:4).

To be baptised means to make the passage with the people of Israel and with Jesus from slavery to freedom and from death to new life. It is a commitment to a life in and through Jesus.
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis: http://www.tssf.org/textonly/principles.shtml

Day Twenty Six - The Second Note, cont'd

Therefore, we seek to love all those to whom we are bound by ties of family or friendship. Our love for them increases as their love for Christ grows deeper. We have a special love and affection for members of the Third Order, praying for each other individually and seeking to grow in that love. We are on our guard against anything which might injure this love, and we seek reconciliation with those from whom we are estranged. We seek the same love for those with whom we have little natural affinity, for this kind of love is not a welling up of emotion, but is a bond founded in our common union with Christ.
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Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/

Where There Is Love
September 26th, 2007
Wednesday’s Reflection

WHERE THERE IS LOVE and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.
Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor vexation.
Where there is poverty with joy, there is neither greed nor avarice.
Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt.
Where the fear of the Lord stands guard, there the enemy finds no entry.
Where there is mercy and moderation, there is neither indulgence nor harshness.

- Francis of Assisi
“The Admonitions of Francis”
What About God? Now That You’re Off to College

From pages 48-49 of The Riches of Simplicity: Selected Writings of Francis and Clare edited by Keith Beasley-Topliffe. Copyright © 1998 by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/.
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html


Spiritual Spectators

Western civilization has had such victory in terms of science, technology—the outer world—because we are able to objectify everything. But the price we've paid is our state of alienation. We're over here apart from it. We analyze the world as an object over there.

Once consciousness surrenders to that subject/object split, quite frankly, prayer becomes very difficult, if not next to impossible. Prayer is a unitive experience. Yet for us prayer has sometimes become confused with mere inner "awarenesses"—me analyzing my own inner states and feelings about God. Those of us who were raised in religious contexts, for example, are often inclined to give a value judgment to everything and to ourselves. That's the guilt middle-class folks have. We have it because we are alienated from our own souls. We're standing over here, apart from ourselves, analyzing: "Is it good, better, best? Is it venial sin, is it mortal sin?"

When you're in that stance of analyzing the self, you're a spectator and thus necessarily divided from your own soul. Maybe that's why Jesus said, "Do not judge and you will not be judged" (Matthew 7:1). Our judgments separate us, alienate us and, therefore, condemn us.

from Letting Go: A Spirituality of Subtraction
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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

Eyes only for the sick

As soon as Jesus crossed the threshold he saw Peter's mother-in-law lying ill in bed with a fever. On entering the house he immediately saw what he had come for. He was not interested in the comfort the house itself could offer, nor the crowds awaiting his arrival, nor the formal welcome prepared for him, nor the assembled household. Still less did he look for any outward signs of preparation for his reception. All he had eyes for was the spectacle of a sick woman, lying there consumed with a raging fever. At a glance he saw her desperate plight, and at once stretched out his hands to perform their divine work of healing; nor would he sit down to satisfy his human needs before he had made it possible for the stricken woman to rise up and serve her God. So he took her by the hand, and the fever left her. Here you see how fever loosens its grip on a person whose hand is held by Christ's; no sickness can stand its ground in the face of the very source of health. Where the Lord of life has entered, there is no room for death.

Peter Chrysologus
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Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/

THE UNBLAMEABLE ATTITUDE


"If . . thou rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee. . . ." Matthew 5:23

If when you come to the altar, there you remember that your brother has anything against you, not - If you rake up something by a morbid sensitiveness, but - "If thou rememberest," that is, if it is brought to your conscious mind by the Spirit of God: "first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." Never object to the intense sensitiveness of the Spirit of God in you when He is educating you down to the scruple.

"First be reconciled to thy brother . . ." Our Lord's direction is simple, "first be reconciled." Go back the way you came, go the way indicated to you by the conviction given at the altar; have an attitude of mind and a temper of soul to the one who has something against you that makes reconciliation as natural as breathing. Jesus does not mention the other person, He says - you go. There is no question of your rights. The stamp of the saint is that he can waive his own rights and obey the Lord Jesus.

"And then come and offer thy gift." The process is clearly marked. First, the heroic spirit of self-sacrifice, then the sudden checking by the sensitiveness of the Holy Spirit, and the stoppage at the point of conviction, then the way of obedience to the word of God, constructing an unblameable attitude of mind and temper to the one with whom you have been in the wrong; then the glad, simple, unhindered offering of your gift to God.
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/

January 26, May 27, September 26
Chapter 7: On Humility

The first degree of humility, then,
is that a person keep the fear of God before his eyes
and beware of ever forgetting it.
Let him be ever mindful of all that God has commanded;
let his thoughts constantly recur
to the hell-fire which will burn for their sins
those who despise God,
and to the life everlasting which is prepared
for those who fear Him.
Let him keep himself at every moment from sins and vices,
whether of the mind, the tongue, the hands, the feet,
or the self-will,
and check also the desires of the flesh.



Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html

The very consciousness of God in time is central to Benedict's perception of the spiritual life. Benedict's position is both shocking and simple: being sinless is not enough. Being steeped in the mind of God is most important. While we restrain ourselves from harsh speech and bad actions and demands of the flesh and pride of soul, what is most vital to the fanning of the spiritual fire is to become aware that the God we seek is aware of us. Sanctity, in other words, is not a matter of moral athletics. Sanctity is a conscious relationship with the conscious but invisible God. The theology is an enlivening and liberating one: It is not a matter, the posture implies, of our becoming good enough to gain the God who is somewhere outside of us. It is a matter of gaining the God within, the love of Whom impels us to good.
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Dynamis http://groups.yahoo.com/group/orthodoxdynamis/
Dynamis is a daily Bible meditation based upon the lectionary of the Holy Orthodox Church.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007 Repose of the Apostle & Evangelist John
the Theologian
2nd Vespers John: 1 John 4:11-16 Epistle: 1 John 4:12-19 Gospel:
John 19:25-27; 21:24-25

1 John 4:11-16, especially vs.16: "And we have known and believed the
love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love
dwelleth in God, and God in him." This last verse, along with the first
from the present passage, often evokes two striking reactions. The
first response to saying "God loves us" may prompt the thought within
ourselves or others, "Not me, I am not worthy of God's love." The
second reaction, related to the first, may be couched in such a
statement as, "That's all well and good for St. John to say, but I have
little basis for knowing and believing that God loves me, so how can I
love all the unlovable people I have to deal with?"

Significant answers to these two questions are embedded in all that St.
John says here.
The word "so" in verse 11 reminds us of the entire Gospel, especially
the Birth, Passion, and the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. How
much does God love our miserable race and you? He became one of us! He
defeated death by dying and, only then, by rising from the dead! Jesus
is an icon of God's love gleaming in history forever. Do you want to
know whether and how much God loves you? Consider what is in that
little "so"! See the Apostle vault over the objection that "No man hath
seen God at any time" (vs. 12). So what? The experience of live
witnesses testifies to tangible, objective evidence of knowing God's
love directly (1 Jn. 1:1-2).

After the first part of verse 12, and continuing to the end of verse 15,
the Beloved Disciple speaks on behalf of all the Apostles of Christ with
the pronoun "we." But, he includes us who are in living communion with
the Apostles in his "we." Why else have icons of the Apostles in our
churches? Why else does the Priest ask Christ to "have mercy upon
us...through the intercessions of...the holy, glorious, and all-laudable
Apostles"? They are among us!

At this point, St. John poses the crucial qualification: "If we love one
another" (vss. 11,12). It is a challenge; it is a sine qua non; for
without loving others you will not know and believe in "the love that
God hath to us," the "God [Who] is love," the possibility of dwelling in
love and of God dwelling in you (vs. 18). To do so you must work at
fulfilling the qualification. Bluntly, repeatedly, you have to ask God
to help you love others and make the effort yourself. Then substantial
things occur: "God dwelleth in" you as He does in all who accept the
Apostles' witness (vs. 12). You have "His love...perfected in" you, as
it is throughout the Church. The words, "is perfected," refer to an
ongoing process, not an instantly accomplished act of God. God is going
to be working with you, completing you as He always intended you to be.

Take hold of the conviction that you and all who accept the Apostolic
witness "dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His
Spirit" (vs. 13). In Chrismation, every Orthodox Christian receives
"the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit." He is in you, whether or not
you hear and obey Him. His presence in you can strengthen you to affirm
with the Apostles, "we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the
Son to be the Savior of the world" (vs. 14).

What follows then? You will know and believe in yourself, as
experience, existentially, what the Apostles know and believe, that
"Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in
him, and he in God" (vs. 15). Life will change for you the moment you
regularly make continuous effort to"love one another" (vs. 12), work
with the Spirit within you (vs. 13), witness by your life that Jesus is
"the Savior of the world" (vs. 14), and confess "that Jesus is the Son
of God" (vs. 15). You will know, and believe that, unworthy as you are,
God loves you, dwells in you, and that you can love the unlovable.

O Holy indwelling Spirit, enable me to grasp Christ, lay hold of Him,
and say, "I will never let Thee go; and do Thou, O Savior, remit my sins
for Thy tender mercy's sake."

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