knitternun

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Reading for Jan 31, 2008

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

January 31, June 1, October 1
Chapter 7: On Humility

The third degree of humility is that a person
for love of God
submit himself to his Superior in all obedience,
imitating the Lord, of whom the Apostle says,
"He became obedient even unto death."


Humility

Very Revd Dr Christopher Hancock, Dean of Bradford

http://chapel.jesus.cam.ac.uk/reading/sermons/humility.html

It is a very great pleasure to be invited to preach tonight. To be invited to Jesus [reference is to Jesus College, Cambridge University] once is generous, to be invited twice is stupendous, to be invited three times is positively miraculous! Some months ago I said I would speak on humility: it has seemed a poor idea ever since. For one virtue the church individually and corporately is reckoned by its critics to be most lacking is humility. As George Bernard Shaw declared, "The Church must learn humility, as well as teach it". In this season of Lent a certain honesty before failure, hesitancy before mystery, reticence in the realm of public morality and care about institutional integrity, would to most critics of the Church be worthy expressions of Christian Lenten penitence.

But the Church's difficulties don't end here. For the issue of humility isn't just about being humble; its being humble about the right things in the right way and at the right times. In G K Chesterton's famous words of caution, "What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has settled on the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself but undoubting about the truth. This has been exactly reversed."

So what of genuine Christian humility? That virtue hidden in the heart of the Christian God of suffering love and self-giving forgiveness, that's embodied in the life of His Son who, the ancient Christian hymn declares, "humbled himself and became obedient unto death even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:8). What can we say of this true humus in which the Christian virtues all take root and grow, this delightful aroma (to change the analogy) in a truly great person that sours when created artificially by the falsely 'umble, and yet overpowers empty vanity when it meets its living opposite? For God, the Bible makes clear, "opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6). So the wise disciple "humbles himself under the mighty hand of God" (1 Peter 5:6), and becomes the little child who is called "great in the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 18:4). For humility and the essence of Christian wisdom are close cousins in the spiritual life. As T S Eliot glimpsed, "The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility".

So what of this strange virtue of Christian humility?

First, it is more difficult to define than to depict. Like musical notation, it's better understood when performed than merely scored. It's a done thing not a defined thing. For meekness, gentle self-denial, self- deprecation, self-sacrifice, forgetfulness, low self-regard, or a high regard for others, don't really capture it. But see a great musician pause to enjoy a beginners poor efforts and pass an encouraging word, and you see and know humility. As one of the college staff said of one of Magdalene's great members in recent years, "He always had time for us". And of him how true G.K.Chesterton's words once again, "It is always the secure who are humble".

This leads to the second mark of Christian humility: it is always more interested in others than self. If genuine sympathy is clouded by the sin of self-centredness, how much more true humility. For humility acts to show another matters more. It makes room, gives space, attends with care. It doesn't take itself so seriously that it can't admit others do things better and roars with laughter when its faults appear. " Without humility there can be no humanity", it's sometimes said. It's true humility which opens its heart to others and unites others in that act. If pride dehumanises self and others: humility does the reverse. No wonder Charles Simeon, echoing Augustine, said the three essential virtues of the Christian ministry were "Humility, humility, humility".

But if humility is more interested in others than self, it is also, thirdly, more committed to truth than convenience, to truthfulness than spin, we might say. For humility isn't concerned to cover up. It takes the risk of honesty. It's unvarnished authenticity, not lacquered gilding. So some will always find it - or call it - naive and untutored, irresponsible and, condescendingly, ever-so endearing or sweet - but with the implication that the humble deserve to be! St Vincent de Paul linked humility and truth, though, in a way that makes it supreme. As he wrote, "The reason why God is so great a lover of humility is because he is the great lover of truth. Now humility is nothing but truth, while pride is nothing but lying". It's why the great scholar bows for truth. Bows before a sense of the unknown and admits his own limitations and limited knowledge.

But humility is not just about attitude, it is, as we've begun to see already, also about orientation. Supremely, it's more inclined to look up to others than down on them. It's more comfortable with the lowly that the great. It is, like Jonnny Wilkinson - or so he appears - genuinely amazed, if not embarrassed, by the plaudits and sits light to human praise. As Thomas Merton once wrote, "The humble man receives praise the way a clean window takes the light of the sun. The true and more intense the light is, the less you see of the glass". Pride reflects praise: humility absorbs it appreciatively and passes it on to others. If pride was the first sin, not surprisingly humility (for it's the most essential feature of wholesome and attractive living Christianity) is the last virtue to be sought, let alone won.

So what's this genuine Christian humility? How does it express itself? In being seen at work not wondered at; in being more interested in others than self; in being more committed to truth than convenience, to truthfulness than spin; in being more inclined to look up to others than down on them, and, like the incarnate Son of God, being more comfortable with the lowly that the great. But if humility is a done thing more than a said thing: it is more often a silent thing than a loud thing. It listens more than speaks. Because it's passionate for truth it doesn't need to be defensiven, seek self-justification, or win every argument no matter what. And because the humble can never know they are (for in the act of self- refection humility evaporates, like the shadow lost by turning), humility makes no attempt to project itself. It certainly makes no pretence of being humble, and, as St Francis de Sales said, it "scarcely ever utters words of humility". No, humility is Christian silence ennobled, and Christian presence embodied in all the glory of Christ-like servanthood and strength.

And, in this Lenten season it's well to recall that humility is, lastly, more akin to sacrifice than self-indulgence. We know it by its opposites. We see it in self-giving and promote, or preserve, it in humble prayer, energetic praise, and hard-working service. For Christian humility doesn't just happen, we affect it. In New Testament Greek it's expressed as much by an active verb as a passive noun. We work to be humble by humbling ourselves. We grow in humility by deliberate humiliation. We radiate humility when the cost is unimportant and the good brought to others all that matters. But that is no more than saying, "If you really want to know what humility is, look at Jesus Christ".

Humility. It's what gives a distinctive flavour to Christian religion and philosophy. As William Law's Serious Call to Devout and Holy Life concluded, "We may as well try to see without eyes or live without breath, as to live in the spirit of religion without humility." So, as he wrote,

Let every day be a day of humility; condescend to all the weaknesses and infirmities of your fellow-creatures, cover their frailties, love their excellences, encourage their virtues, relieve their wants, rejoice in their prosperities, compassionate their distress, receive their friendship, overlook their unkindness, forgive their malice, be a servant of servants, and condescend to do the lowliest of offices to the lowest of mankind.

That is Christian humility.

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Daily Meditation 01/31/08

Collect

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

A Collect for the Renewal of Life

God, the King eternal, who divides the day from the night and turns the shadow of death into the morning: Drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep your law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that, having done your will with cheerfulness while it was day, we may, when night comes, rejoice to give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/

AM Psalm 50; PM Psalm [59, 60] or 8, 84
Gen. 16:15-17:14; Heb. 10:1-10; John 5:30-47
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

Genesis 16:15-17:14. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham.

Abram was doing quite well, thank you. His was a contented and successful life. But the Lord God calls Abram to move from his country and leave everything behind. He chooses to walk before God, heeds this call, and follows the promise of the Lord. Abram's experience is so transformational that even his name changes to Abraham. It is only two letters, but it makes all the difference in the story of faith.


Faith is about engaging spiritual journey. We are to be sojourners. There may be obstacles that tempt us to be "sour-journers," but we are reminded that it is a holy quest. With us is a God who guides, shapes, and changes us.


A favorite saying in Spanish is: Caminante, no hay camino; se hace el camino al andar. It is translated: "Walker, there isn't one way; one makes the way by walking." Let us choose daily steps in God who prepares the way, leads our feet, accompanies us on the road, and blesses our conversion now and forever.


Conversion may occur in an instant, but the process of coming from sinfulness into a new life can be a long and arduous journey.
--Charles Colson (b. 1931)
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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Argyll and The Isles (Scotland)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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Praying for those attending General Convention, 2009: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/praygc
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Speaking to the Soul: http://www.episcopalcafe.com/

The monastery at Kildare

Daily Reading for January 31

“And who can describe in words the supreme beauty of this church, and the countless wonders of that minster—of that city as we may say, if it can rightly be called a city when it is surrounded by no circuit of walls? But because countless people come together in it, it earns the name ‘city’ from the gathering of crowds there. This city is supreme and metropolitan, in whose suburbs, which holy Brigit marked out with a precise boundary, is feared no mortal adversary nor onslaught of enemies. But it is the safest city of refuge, with all its external suburbs, in the whole land of the Irish for all fugitives. . . . And who can count the varied crowds and countless peoples flocking together from all provinces? Some come because of the abundance of feasts, others to obtain healing of their ailments, others to stare at the crowds; others bring great gifts and offerings to the celebration of holy Brigit’s birth.”

Thus the seventh-century Irishman Cogitosus praised Kildare. He was writing in a tradition, suffused with biblical conceptions of cities of refuge and the heavenly city, which presented the minsters of Ireland as places of safety, centrality, and popular resort as well as places of cult. The main centres of early Christian Ireland were indeed its monastic sites, and several of them have now yielded archaeological evidence for complex zoning of activities, including specialized craft production and industry, during the seventh to ninth centuries.

From The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society by John Blair (Oxford, 2005).
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Spiritual Practice of the Day http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/

Maybe one day we'll grow weary of whining and celebrate the rain, the manna, the half-filled glass of water, the little gifts from heaven that make each day bearable. Instead of cloaking ourselves in the armor of pessimism, maybe we'll concede that we are who we are: capricious, unfortune, wonderful, delicate, alive. Forgiven.
— Mark Collins in On the Road to Emmaus

To Practice This Thought: The next time you start complaining about your lot in life, don't listen.
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

We must have no confidence whatever in our own strength, but trust in His mercy - and until we do this all is weakness.
St. Teresa of Jesus
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Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

from http://www.balamandmonastery.org.lb/fathers/indexsayings2.htm

For Christians above all men are forbidden to correct the
stumblings of sinners by force...it is necessary to make a man
better not by force but by persuasion. We neither have autority
granted us by law to restrain sinners, nor, if it were, should we
know how to use it, since God gives the crown to those who are
kept from evil, not by force, but by choice.

St. John Chrysostom
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

The Joy of Being Like Others

At first sight, joy seems to be connected with being different. When you receive a compliment or win an award, you experience the joy of not being the same as others. You are faster, smarter, more beautiful, and it is that difference that brings you joy. But such joy is very temporary. True joy is hidden where we are the same as other people: fragile and mortal. It is the joy of belonging to the human race. It is the joy of being with others as a friend, a companion, a fellow traveler.

This is the joy of Jesus, who is Emmanuel: God-with-us.
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Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/

Your Merciful Love
January 31st, 2008
Thursday’s Reflection

LORD AND LIGHT of the world,
set our hearts on fire
so that we may pass your merciful love,
one to another,
throughout the world.
Amen.

- Hart Ford-Hodges
devozine Magazine

From devozine Magazine, November/December 2002. Copyright © 2002 by The Upper Room. 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

Things Hidden

Question of the day:
When have I stumbled and fallen “into the hands of the living God”?



The smallest of events can teach us everything, if we learn Who is doing them with us, through us and for us. But have no doubt: That is the total goal. We want law for the sake of order, obedience and “moral purity”; God and Paul want law for the sake of channeling us toward a realization of divine union, to force the honest person to stumble (see Romans 7:7-13—that’s really what it says!), and then “fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrew 10:31). Juridically, law is an end in itself, absolutely good and necessary for social order.

Spiritually, though, law is a means, not an end at all.

Why did Paul come to this so clearly? Because Paul himself was a man of the law. As he tells us in Philippians (3:6-8), he was a perfect Pharisee. “As far as the Law can make you perfect, I was faultless,” he says. Yet in the next line he admits that he was a mass-murderer. “How could such perfect religious observance still create hateful and violent men like me?” That was his transformative question, and for him it worked. This still needs to be the question for many religious groups today.

Then what is the law really for? It’s not to make God love you. That issue is already solved once and forever, and you are powerless to change it one direction or the other. The purpose of spiritual law is simply to sharpen our awareness about who we are and who God is, so that we can name our own insufficiency and, in that same movement, find God’s fullness.

from Things Hidden: Scripture as 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

How sublime the humility of God the most high!

Our exalted Savior lost nothing by his humility, but we gained very much. By it the Most High was not lowered, but the lowly were exalted. In order to carry out perfectly the work of our redemption, the Son of God, Creator of all flesh, condescended to be born of the Virgin's flesh in the way all true flesh is born.

God, our Maker, became a real human being born of a human being. He was wrapped in swaddling bands, confined in a narrow manger, circumcised on the eighth day, and carried by human hands to his own temple.

How gracious is the kindliness of God! How sublime the humility of God most high! As a tiny baby he was nursed by his mother, he the boundless God who had created her. As a little child he was carried to his own temple by his parents, he the great God who was prayed to in that temple by his holy people. And he also ordained the offering of a sacrifice for himself, he who had come sinless to be immolated for our betrayals. Reflect, then, on what you owe to the Most High who was humbled for your sake, your exalted Creator and humbled Redeemer.

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

DO YOU SEE YOUR CALLING?


"Separated unto the Gospel." Romans 1:1

Our calling is not primarily to be holy men and women, but to be proclaimers of the Gospel of God. The one thing that is all important is that the Gospel of God should be realized as the abiding Reality. Reality is not human goodness, nor holiness, nor heaven, nor hell; but Redemption; and the need to perceive this is the most vital need of the Christian worker to-day. As workers we have to get used to the revelation that Redemption is the only Reality. Personal holiness is an effect, not a cause, and if we place our faith in human goodness, in the effect of Redemption, we shall go under when the test comes.

Paul did not say he separated himself, but - "when it pleased God who separated me. . ." Paul had not a hypersensitive interest in his own character. As long as our eyes are upon our own personal whiteness we shall never get near the reality of Redemption. Workers break down because their desire is for their own whiteness, and not for God. "Don't ask me to come into contact with the rugged reality of Redemption on behalf of the filth of human life as it is; what I want is anything God can do for me to make me more desirable in my own eyes." To talk in that way is a sign that the reality of the Gospel of God has not begun to touch me; there is no reckless abandon to God. God cannot deliver me while my interest is merely in my own character. Paul is unconscious of himself, he is recklessly abandoned, separated by God for one purpose - to proclaim the Gospel of God (cf. Rom. 9:3.)
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/

January 31, June 1, October 1
Chapter 7: On Humility

The third degree of humility is that a person
for love of God
submit himself to his Superior in all obedience,
imitating the Lord, of whom the Apostle says,
"He became obedient even unto death."
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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.

St. Mark 10:17-27 (1/31) For Thursday of the 36th Week after
Pentecost (Thurs of 31st Week)

Worlds Apart: St. Mark 10:17-27 RSV, especially vs. 17: "Now as He was
going out on the road, one came running, and knelt before Him and asked
Him, 'Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?'"
How far apart this earnest man was from the Lord Jesus and the from the
journey upon which the Lord was embarked - toward Jerusalem, the
Passion, and the Cross! So intent was the Lord upon this goal that His
disciples were "amazed" as He pressed ahead (Mk. 10:32-34). The
earnestness of the unnamed man - to learn how to inherit eternal life -
is demonstrated in his unusual behavior: he ran rather than walked up to
the Lord Jesus. He knelt before One he considered to be a Rabbi (that
was not customary with Rabbis). He addressed the Lord in an unusual
way, one not practiced by either Jews or Greeks - when he called Him
"Good."

As the account unfolds, the gap between the Lord Jesus and the man
becomes more and more evident: to overcome the man's obsession with
"inheriting" eternal life, the Lord confronts him with an extreme demand
- to renounce all and follow Him to death (vs. 21). That demand reduces
the man to grief, and he walks away (vs. 22).

This petitioner believed that a finite, mortal man could rationally
understand how to inherit eternal life. The Lord knew better. The man
was deluded. He believed that God expects more than is revealed in the
Law for men to inherit eternal life (Deut. 30:19). The Lord Jesus, Who
actually gave the Law, reminded him that the Divine standard does not
change (Mk. 10:19). The man assumed that sinners, by their own effort,
could win eternal life. Christ our God knows that only He makes eternal
life possible (vs. 10:27). They were worlds apart.

The Lord Jesus' response when He was called "Good," reveals a basic
error in the man - the man believed Jesus could set the terms by which a
person inherits eternal life. The man believed that the person he saw
before him, the famous Rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth, as a man knew the
answer. The Lord's question and assertion, "Why do you call Me good?"
rejected the assumption that any human can be "good," for only God is
good (vs. 18). St. Hilary of Poitiers points out that the Lord "would
not have rejected the attribute of goodness if it had been attributed to
Him as God."1

The idea that human beings have the capacity to discover and take the
path to eternal life is inherent in most all of the world's religions,
but it is utterly foreign with respect to serving the true God. From
the first Divinely stated requirement for life (Gen. 2:17), to the
Apostolic declaration that "eternal life which was with the Father and
was manifested to us...is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ"
(1 Jn. 1:2,3), God alone reveals and extends the mystery of eternal life.

There is no esoteric knowledge for the earnest who desire eternal life.
Through His Holy People - Israel and the Church - God has revealed to
mankind "what is good; or what...the Lord require of thee...to do
justice, and love mercy, and be ready to walk with the Lord thy God"
(Micah 6:8). Still, the man who came to the Lord wrongfully sought a
human answer. This the Lord exposed by quoting the Law (Mk. 10:19). As
St. John adds: "I write no new commandment to you, but an old
commandment which you have had from the beginning" (1 Jn. 2:7).

The distance between the deluded man and the Lord Jesus was fully
revealed when Christ exposed his sin to him. Still, what the Lord
requires is for all (Mk. 8:34). Knowing the state of the man's heart,
the Lord placed this demand before him in unavoidable terms which he
could not rationalize. The man chose to turn away, for he knew he was
incapable of doing what he was told was required to obtain eternal
life. Sadly, he did not wait to hear the Gospel caveat: "With men it is
impossible; but not with God; for with God all things are possible" (Mk.
10:27)!

O Master...by the precepts which Thou teachest, save me Thine
undeserving servant....

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Reading for Jan 30, 2008

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

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."



It is good for me, Lord, that Thou hast humbled me, that I may learn Thy righteous judgements, and may cast away all haughtiness of heart and all presumption.
Thomas a Kempis

Humility is the secret of fellowship, and pride the secret of division.
Robert C. Chapman

Obedience is the road to freedom, humility the road to pleasure, unity the road to personality.
C.S. Lewis

The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God's estimate of his own life.
A.W. Tozer

Be desirous, my son, to do the will of another rather than thine own.
Thomas a Kempis

How great victory was that which Jonathon must have gained over himself, when he rejoiced to see David raised above him! He discerned the mind of God in David, and had so learned to delight in God, that he did not see in David one who was to outshine him, but another faithful man raised up for God and Israel.
Robert C. Chapman

God created the world out of nothing, and so long as we are nothing, He can make something out of us.
Martin Luther

After all, man knows very little, and may some day learn enough of his own ignorance to fall down and pray.
Henry Adams

Pride is at the bottom of a great many errors and corruptions, and even of many evil practices, which have a great show and appearance of humility.
Matthew Henry

Make mine kneeling, for thus I came to glory.
Oliver Cromwell, while looking at statues of great men.

The sufficiency of my merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient.
Augustine

Revival is a renewed conviction of sin and repentance, followed by an intense desire to live in obedience to God. It is giving up one's will to God in deep humility.
Charles Finney

Grant me prudence to avoid him that flattereth me, and to endure patiently him that contradicteth me.
Thomas a Kempis

Should you ask me what is the first thing in religion, I should reply that the first, second, and third thing therein is humility.
Augustine

Many ask good questions with a design rather to justify themselves than inform themselves, rather proudly to show what is good in them than humbly to see what is bad in them.
Matthew Henry

Humility is the proper estimate of oneself.
Charles Spurgeon

People who regard themselves as invalids rather than heroes will make excellent missionaries.
Daniel Fuller

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Daily Meditation 01/30/08

[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

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

AM Psalm 119:49-72; PM Psalm 49, [53]
Gen. 16:1-14; Heb. 9:15-28; John 5:19-29
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

John 5:19-29. The hour is coming.

The ancient world had a different understanding of time. There seems to have been tension about when "the hour was coming." Jesus says there is reason to pay attention and cause for concern, but the hour and time may not be the greatest issue.


"What time is it?" and "How much time do we have?" are the wrong questions. The crucial questions are "How do we use our time?" and "For whom is our time given?" Jesus says this matter is simple yet profound: judgment or resurrection. The teachings of Christ and the church portray "the hour" as a time of hope. The last chapter in the last book of the Bible summarizes these days as "healing among the nations." The final images in the Revelation to John are beautiful, lovely, and life-giving.


Furthermore, biblical Greek has two words for time: chronos and kairos. Chronos is tick, tick, tick. Kairos teaches that we also live in God's right time, blessed with an anointed hour, and walk toward the day of consummation. Kairos is the name of the spiritual encounter in prisons for inmates who are burdened with chronos. Their promise is also ours: believe in the completion of God's purpose and wait for the glory of Christ to come.
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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Argentina (Iglesia Anglicana del cono sur de America)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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Speaking to the Soul: http://www.episcopalcafe.com/

Humbly I adore thee

Daily Reading for January 30

Humbly I adore thee, Verity unseen,
Who thy glory hidest ’neath these shadows mean;
Lo, to thee surrendered, my whole heart is bowed,
Tranced as it beholds thee, shrined within the cloud.

Taste, and touch, and vision, to discern thee fail;
Faith, that comes by hearing, pierces through the veil.
I believe whate’er the Son of God hath told;
What the Truth hath spoken, that for truth I hold.

O memorial wondrous of the Lord’s own death;
Living Bread, that givest all thy creatures breath,
Grant my spirit ever by thy life may live,
To my taste thy sweetness never-failing give.

Jesus, whom now veiled, I by faith descry,
What my soul doth thirst for, do not, Lord, deny,
That thy face unveiled, I at last may see,
With the blissful vision blest, my God, of thee.

Thomas Aquinas, c. 1260; hymnal version, 1939. Hymn 204 in The Hymnal 1940 (Church Pension Fund, 1940).
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Spiritual Practice of the Day http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/

We must remind ourselves that, though our lives are small and our acts seem insignificant, we are generative elements of this universe, and we create meaning with each act that we perform or fail to perform.
— Kent Nerburn in Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace

To Practice This Thought: Discern the swirls of meaning emanating from one of your recent actions.
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

We have now, by God’s help, like good gardeners, to make these plants grow and to water them carefully so that they may produce flowers which shall send forth great fragrance to give refreshment to this Lord of ours.
St Teresa of Jesus
Life 11.6
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Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

from http://www.balamandmonastery.org.lb/fathers/indexsayings2.htm

While the Bridegroom tarried, they slumbered and slept:
Give ear, ye prudent, to our Lord's parable, for it is all light.
All of them slept, both the foolish and the wise --
Which signifies that the good and the wicked die until the
resurrection.
The same sleep comes upon the ten of them, which is as much as to
say,
That death is the same for all creation without distinction.
One was the sleep of the wise and of the foolish,
For one is death, both of the righteous and of sinners.
The good die, as the wise virgins slept;
And the bad die, as the foolish also slept.
Behold, all creation looketh for the coming of the Bridegroom,
Christ, Who cometh at the end with His angels.
But since He hath tarried, all generations slumber and sleep
With the sleep of death, while looking for when He cometh.

A Homily on the Ten Virgins by Mar Jacob, Bishop of Serugh
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Choosing Joy

Joy is what makes life worth living, but for many joy seems hard to find. They complain that their lives are sorrowful and depressing. What then brings the joy we so much desire? Are some people just lucky, while others have run out of luck? Strange as it may sound, we can choose joy. Two people can be part of the same event, but one may choose to live it quite differently than the other. One may choose to trust that what happened, painful as it may be, holds a promise. The other may choose despair and be destroyed by it.

What makes us human is precisely this freedom of choice.
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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/

Shape Me
January 30th, 2008
Wednesday’s Reflection

POTTER GOD,
shape me
and form me
into a vessel
holding your good news.
Amen.

- Alive Now

From p. 55 of Alive Now, September/October 2007. Copyright © 2007 by The Upper Room. 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

Things Hidden

Question of the day:
What prevents me from receiving the perfect gaze of God?



To have naked interface with the Ultimate Other is to know one’s self in one’s truest and deepest being. When you allow yourself to be perfectly received, totally gazed upon by the One who knows everything and receives everything, you are indestructible.

If you can learn how to receive the perfect gaze of the Other, to be mirrored by the Other, then the voices of the human crowd, even negative ones, have little power to hurt you. Best of all, as Meister Eckhart has been quoted, “the eyes with which you will look back at God will be the same eyes with which God first looked at you.”

Standing before one, accepting God literally allows you to be composed and gathered into one place. You can be in one place; you can be here, now. You stop always looking over there, for tomorrow’s happiness. Then, and always, “now is the favorable time, today is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

from Things Hidden: Scripture as 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

Devotion to prayer

The purpose of prayer is nothing other than to manifest God and self. And this manifestation of God and self leads to a state of perfect and true humility. For this humility is attained when the soul sees God and self. It is in this profound state of humility, and from it, that divine grace deepens and grows in the soul. The more divine grace deepens humility in the soul, the more divine grace can grow in this depth of humility. The more divine grace grows, the deeper the soul is grounded, and the more it is settled in a state of true humility. Through perseverance in true prayer, divine light and grace increase, and these always make the soul grow deep in humility as it reads, as has been said, the life of Jesus Christ, God and man. I cannot conceive anything greater than the manifestation of God and self. But this discovery, that is, this manifestation of God and self, is the lot only of those legitimate sons and daughters of God who have devoted themselves to true prayer.

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

THE DILEMMA OF OBEDIENCE


"And Samuel feared to shew Eli the vision." 1 Samuel 3:15

God never speaks to us in startling ways, but in ways that are easy to misunderstand, and we say, "I wonder if that is God's voice?" Isaiah said that the Lord spake to him "with a strong hand," that is, by the pressure of circumstances. Nothing touches our lives but it is God Himself speaking. Do we discern His hand or only mere occurrence?

Get into the habit of saying, "Speak, Lord," and life will become a romance. Every time circumstances press, say, "Speak, Lord"; make time to listen. Chastening is more than a means of discipline, it is meant to get me to the place of saying, "Speak, Lord." Recall the time when God did speak to you. Have you forgotten what He said? Was it Luke 11:13, or was it 1 Thess. 5:23? As we listen, our ear gets acute, and, like Jesus, we shall hear God all the time.

Shall I tell my "Eli" what God has shown to me? That is where the dilemma of obedience comes in. We disobey God by becoming amateur providences - I must shield "Eli," the best people we know. God did not tell Samuel to tell Eli; he had to decide that for himself. God's call to you may hurt your "Eli;" but if you try to prevent the suffering in another life, it will prove an obstruction between your soul and God. It is at your own peril that you prevent the cutting off of the right hand or the plucking out of the eye.

Never ask the advice of another about anything God makes you decide before Him. If you ask advice, you will nearly always side with Satan. "Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood."
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/

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."
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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.

St. Mark 10:11-16 (1/30) For Wed of the 36th Week after
Pentecost (Wed of 31st Week)

Becoming Little Children: St. Mark 10:11-16, especially vs. 15:
"...whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will
by no means enter it." In this verse, the Lord declares what is
required to have life in Him: if we would have Him take us in His arms,
lay His hands on us, and bless us (vs. 16), we must, before all else,
convert and "become as little children" (Mt. 18:3). In today's Gospel,
the Lord reveals how one may be transformed within to become an
untainted child, handed over to Him and touched by Him (vs. 13). To be
a child again within ourselves, it necessary to strip away all that has
grown up in us to prevent our from coming in innocence to Him (vs. 14).
For what could be of more worth than to receive His blessing and the
laying on of His hands (vs. 16)!

St. John Chrysostom points out that "the soul of a little child is pure
from all the passions." Though we show "him the queen with a diadem, he
prefers her not to his mother clad in rags...and nothing more than
necessary things doth he seek." Furthermore, "The young child is not
grieved at what we are grieved, as at the loss of money and such things
as that, and he doth not rejoice again at what we rejoice, namely, at
these temporal things." The Lord's injunction to become as little
children is given so that we "by choice should practice these things,
which young children have naturally."1 The secret of being little
children lies in recovering our natural, God-given virtues.

Notice that this passage clearly states that children did not come to
the Lord "on their own account." They were "brought to Him" (vs. 13).
To be "brought to Him" one needs "good" parents who can bring us to
Christ. Thus, if we are not borne in the arms of our Mother the Church,
then we shall pursue the virtues of the world - which are not virtues.
Instead, we shall depend on our imperfect, rational minds, and we shall
be led astray. To have good Fathers - which we require - St. Nil Sorsky
declares that the Holy Fathers who followed the Apostles must be the
"main guide for those who wish to be saved and...attain Christian
perfection."2

The Lord sharply corrected His as-yet-unillumined disciples when they
prevented children from coming to Him (vs. 13). Following His example,
let us countermand in ourselves whatever prevents our coming to Him as
innocents (vs. 14). Acquiring pure, simple, natural virtues requires
diligent work directed against all that arises from the sinful self, the
world, and the devils - the attractions that suggest that we should
indulge ourselves. As Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos reminds us: "when
a person struggles to subject his body to his soul and his soul to God,
the virtues of body and soul are produced."3 Let us begin this work, of
restraining and retraining.

Consider: the Lord's desire that "little children" come to Him (vs. 14)
is truly a positive prompting to cultivate those godly virtues that the
Church reveals. Metropolitan Hierotheos provides us with some obvious
starting points: "Self-control and love rid us of impassioned thoughts.
By controlling anger and desire we quickly do away with evil thoughts.
Vigils also contribute a great deal....Let us receive everything with a
good thought. Even if everything is ugly, let us receive it with
equanimity, and then God will right the anomalies of things."4

Every newly awakened Christian who addresses the negative and positive
work spoken of above, discovers the monumental task of coming to Christ
as a little child. Let us not imagine that we can accomplish purity of
life and holiness in our own strength. That fatal delusion will
eventually plunge us into certain despair. Rather, let us be dependent
upon the Church to bring us to Christ, and there learn to receive the
touch of the Lord Jesus' hand, His healing, and His blessing (vs. 16).
The Church gives us birth and helps us put on the new man. St. Gregory
Palamas says, "the deified saints...are engendered by God, God gave them
the power to become children of God."

Burn Thou the thorns of all my transgressions, cleanse my soul, and
hallow my thoughts.5

Monday, January 28, 2008

Daily Meditation 01/28/08

[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

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


Almighty God, you have enriched your Church with the singular learning and holiness of your servant Thomas Aquinas: Enlighten us more and more, we pray, by the disciplined thinking and teaching of Christian scholars, and deepen our devotion by the example of saintly lives; 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 41, 52; PM Psalm 44
Gen. 14:(1-7)8-24; Heb. 8:1-13; John 4:43-54
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

John 4:43-54....a prophet has no honor in the prophet's own country.

I knew persons who traveled to South Africa in the 1970s. Upon their return, awkward comments about the conditions there included "It's not so bad" and "It's a complex matter." As a person whose people have lived with injustice, I wondered.


In the early 1980s I heard that certain American church leaders were dismayed about an Anglican bishop in South Africa who had wild and crazy ideas about the future of that nation. I wondered again. I felt sad, frustrated, and helpless. My parish priest counseled me and quoted this part of the Bible to me. He was a white man who had had a cross burned on his front lawn by a hate group in the 1960s. Persons speaking God's truth are often lone voices in the wilderness. In 1994, I heard a celebrated--and vindicated--Desmond Tutu address the General Convention of the Episcopal Church.


Perhaps it takes decades of listening, striving, and waiting to recognize a prophet. Jesus the prophet had only a few years among witnesses. But he left a legacy of signs and wonders for those who believed in the healing power of the Lord. May we have faith in our day to seek and serve Christ in all persons.
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Today we remember:
http://www.satucket.com/lectionary

St. Thomas Aquinas:
Psalm 37:3-6,32-33 or 119:97-104
Wisdom 7:7-14; Matthew 13:47-52
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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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Speaking to the Soul: http://www.episcopalcafe.com/

Thomistic synthesis

Daily Reading for January 28 • Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Friar, 1274

Though involved in numerous ecclesiastical and civil affairs, Thomas Aquinas was primarily a theological thinker and writer. The only comparable figure in previous church history is Augustine, and Aquinas quotes his distinguished predecessor more frequently than any other of the Fathers. But unlike Augustine, Aquinas was a systematizer with a neat, orderly mind that delighted in logical and dialectical coherence. Aiding him in this architectonic ideal was the newly rediscovered Aristotle, whose precision of definition and syllogistic distinctions provided Aquinas with the philosophical instrument he needed for his theological construction. Thus in Aquinas both Augustine and Aristotle meet, and the synthesis added an astonishing brilliance to such perennial problems as the relation of revelation and reason.

There are two distinct lines of development in Christian theology. One comes out of the Hebrew-Christian tradition and the other from the Greco-Roman philosophy and culture. The so-called Thomistic synthesis brought the two into functional coexistence.

From Readings in Christian Thought, edited by Hugh T. Kerr (Abingdon, 1983).
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Spiritual Practice of the Day http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/

Lama Tsongkhapa suggested that instead of jealousy we try to cultivate the habit of extracting joy from the good things we see in others. He commented that by rejoicing in a good quality or situation that we perceive in others, we share in the joy of having it ourselves.
— Glenn H. Mullin in Gems of Wisdom from the Seventh Dalai Lama

To Practice This Thought: Identify and celebrate someone else's best qualities.
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

Those who are able to shut themselves up within this little heaven of the soul, wherein dwells the Maker of heaven and earth, may be sure that they will come without fail to drink of the water of the fountain.
St Teresa of Jesus
Way 20.5
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Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

from http://www.balamandmonastery.org.lb/fathers/indexsayings2.htm

Do all in your power not to fall, for the strong athlete should
not fall. But if you do fall, get up again at once and continue
the contest. Even if you fall a thousand times because of the
withdrawal of God's grace, rise up again each time, and keep on
doing this until the day of your death. For it is written, 'If a
righteous man falls down seven times' - that is, repeatedly
throughout his life - 'seven times shall he rise again' [Prov.
24:16].

John of Karpathos
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Forgiving in the Name of God

We are all wounded people. Who wounds us? Often those whom we love and those who love us. When we feel rejected, abandoned, abused, manipulated, or violated, it is mostly by people very close to us: our parents, our friends, our spouses, our lovers, our children, our neighbors, our teachers, our pastors. Those who love us wound us too. That's the tragedy of our lives. This is what makes forgiveness from the heart so difficult. It is precisely our hearts that are wounded. We cry out, "You, who I expected to be there for me, you have abandoned me. How can I ever forgive you for that?"

Forgiveness often seems impossible, but nothing is impossible for God. The God who lives within us will give us the grace to go beyond our wounded selves and say, "In the Name of God you are forgiven." Let's pray for that grace.
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Weekly Reflection from the Merton Institute

This afternoon I suddenly saw the meaning of my American destiny -- one of those moments when many unrelated pieces of one's life and thought fall into place in a great unity towards which one has been growing.

My destiny is indeed to be an American -- not just an American of the United States. We are only on the fringe of the true America. I can never be satisfied with this only partial reality that is almost nothing at all, that is so little that it is like a few words written in chalk on a blackboard, easily rubbed out.

I have never so keenly felt the impermanence of what is now regarded as American because it is North American and the elements of stability and permanence which are in South America. Deeper roots, Indian roots. The Spanish, Portuguese, Negro roots also. The shallow English roots are not deep enough. The tree will fall.

To be an American of the Andes -- containing in myself also Kentucky and New York. But New York is not, and never will be, really America. America is much bigger and deeper and more complex than that -- America is still an undiscovered continent.

Thomas Merton. A Search for Solitude. Edited by Lawrence S. Cunningham (San Francisco, HarperSanFrancisco, 1996): 168.

Thought for the Day

My vocation is American -- to see and to understand and to have in myself the life and the roots and the belief and the destiny and the orientation of the whole hemisphere -- as an expression of something of God, of Christ, that the world has not yet found out -- something that is only now, after hundreds of years, coming to maturity!

...[T]o be oneself a whole hemisphere and to help the hemisphere to realize its own destiny.

A Search for Solitude: 168-169
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis: http://www.tssf.org/textonly/principles.shtml

Day Twenty Eight - The Third Note -

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/

On Holy Ground
January 28th, 2008
Monday’s Reflection

WHAT DO WE EXPECT in our spirituality? God loves us and comforts us. But God also challenges and directs us. God changes us, if we allow it; and change is never easy. When Moses stood on holy ground, the experience was frightening and life changing.

- Paul E. Stroble
You Gave Me a Wide Place: Holy Places in Our Lives

From p. 34 of You Gave Me a Wide Place by Paul E. Stroble. Copyright © 2006 by the author. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Scripture Reading

When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai.

- Exodus 24:15-16, NIV
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html

Things Hidden

Question of the day:
What deep experiences have transformed you?



This marvelous anthology of books and letters called the Bible is all for the sake of astonishment! It’s for divine transformation (theosis), not intellectual or “small self” coziness.

The genius of the biblical revelation is that we will come to God through what I’m going to call the “actual,” the here and now, or quite simply what is.

God is always given, incarnate in every moment and present to those who know how to be present themselves.

Let’s state it clearly: One great idea of the biblical revelation is that God is manifest in the ordinary, in the actual, in the daily, in the now, in the concrete incarnations of life. That’s opposed to God holding out for the pure, the spiritual, the right idea or the ideal anything. This is why Jesus stands religion on its head!

That is why I say it is our experiences that transform us if we are willing to experience our experiences all the way through.

“God comes disguised as our Life” (a wonderful line I learned from my dear friend and colleague, Paul D’Arcy).

from Things Hidden
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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 cross exemplifies every virtue

Why did the Son of God have to suffer for us? There was a great need, and it can be considered in a twofold way: in the first place, as a remedy for sin, and secondly, as an example of how to act.

It is a remedy, for, in the face of all the evils which we incur on the account of our sins, we have found relief through the passion of Christ. Yet, it is no less an example, for the passion of Christ completely suffices to fashion our lives. Whoever wishes to live perfectly should do nothing but disdain what Christ disdained on the cross and desire what he desired, for the cross exemplifies every virtue.

If you seek the example of love: Greater love than this no man has, than to lay down his life for his friends. Such a man was Christ on the cross. And if he gave his life for us, then it should not be difficult to bear whatever hardships arise for his sake.

Thomas Aquinas, O.P.
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Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/

BUT IT IS HARDLY CREDIBLE THAT ONE COULD SO PERSECUTE JESUS!


"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" Acts 26:14

Am I set on my own way for God? We are never free from this snare until we are brought into the experience of the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire. Obstinacy and self-will will always stab Jesus Christ. It may hurt no one else, but it wounds His Spirit. Whenever we are obstinate and self-willed and set upon our own ambitions, we are hurting Jesus. Every time we stand on our rights and insist that this is what we intend to do, we are persecuting Jesus. Whenever we stand on our dignity we systematically vex and grieve His Spirit; and when the knowledge comes home that it is Jesus Whom we have been persecuting all the time, it is the most crushing revelation there could be.

Is the word of God tremendously keen to me as I hand it on to you, or does my life give the lie to the things I profess to teach? I may teach sanctification and yet exhibit the spirit of Satan, the spirit that persecutes Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus is conscious of one thing only - a perfect oneness with the Father, and He says, "Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." All I do ought to be founded on a perfect oneness with Him, not on a self-willed determination to be godly. This will mean that I can be easily put upon, easily over-reached, easily ignored; but if I submit to it for His sake, I prevent Jesus Christ being persecuted.
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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).
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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.

St. Mark 9:42-10:1 (1/28) For Mon of the 31st Week after Pentecost
(Mon of the 31st Week)

Trial, Temptation, and Sacrifice: St. Mark 9:42-10:1, especially vs. 49:
"For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be
seasoned with salt." The entire reading for today confronts Christ's
Disciple with the "demanding" side of the life in Christ. Effectively,
the Lord Jesus admonitions in this lesson are a manual for martyrs, and
should be received in that vein.

"Eternal life" demands uncompromising purity and faithfulness. Purity
and faithfulness are what God requires as a condition for saving us from
the fires of hell "that shall never be quenched" (vss. 43,45). Truly,
painful choices are sure to confront us - if not today, sooner or
later. Moments and events will force us to decide, whether "...the
sufferings of this present life are...worthy to be compared with the
glory that shall be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18).

The demands listed in this reading are those that the three holy youths
confronted in the burning fiery furnace (Dan. 3:16-18). Notice that the
Lord Jesus uses the identical language that the Apostle Peter employs
when he refers to "fiery trials" (1 Pet.1:7; 4:12). St. Peter asks:
Will we stand with Christ whatever the cost? Will we be healed of sin
despite the pain of the treatment? Will we trust that God is faithful
to His word? Will we be faithful in our words and deeds?

These verses makes clear that it is a disservice to Christians and
non-Christians alike to suggest that the life in Christ will be free of
trial, temptation, and sacrifice. Still, the good news is that the Lord
is "faithful, Who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what .you are
able, but with the temptation will also make a way to escape, that you
may be able to bear it" (1 Cor. 10:13).

To maintain oneself in the face of the demands of Christ Jesus, we must
set boundaries. Since trial and temptation are certain, it is mandatory
to make preparations for addressing them. Having boundaries helps us in
meeting assaults against our faith, attacks that constantly besiege the
edges of our integrity. Boundaries help keep temptations out of the
depths of our hearts.

The alcoholic keeps liquor out of the house. The sexually tempted keeps
a covenant with his eyes and guards his every thought (Job 31:1). St.
Theophylact of Ochrid says bluntly: "the Lord exhorts those to whom
offense is given to guard themselves against those who are always ready
to offend and to tempt. Whether it be your foot, hand, or eye, which
cause you to fall, which means, even if it is one of your closest
friends or relatives, in close relationship to you either by kinship or
by necessity who causes you to fall, cut him off, that is, reject that
friendship or kinship to him."1 Such choices involve wrenching soul
pain, like amputation without anesthesia.
How does one prepare for inevitable pain and fire? The boundary around
one's life helps with many of the day to day choices. The technique is
simple: by-pass the doorways that lead to choices that we know will
certainly spell defeat.

Of course the enemy has a way of slipping past our boundaries and
pressing his fiery trials deeper! Graciously, the Lord warns us, expect
that "...everyone will be seasoned with fire." He prophesies such
trials for our lives (Mk. 9:49). Those who are practiced in small,
undramatic acts of faithfulness are much more likely to survive when the
harder tests by fire come along.

The Lord, His Prophets, and His Apostles operated in a culture that used
salt to ratify agreements. Hence, salt served to symbolize fidelity and
constancy. When the Lord Jesus says, "every sacrifice will be seasoned
with salt," He means that genuine sacrifice must be inseparable from
fidelity and constancy. The only way to be ready for fire is to be
well-disciplined in fidelity, a gift of the Holy Spirit given to the
earnest and faithful Christian. Hence, the Lord also connects our
having the salt of constancy with our having "peace with one another"
(vs. 50).

O Lord... lead me in the right path, because of mine enemies. (Ps. 26:13
LXX)

Friday, January 25, 2008

Reading for Jan 25, 2008

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

January 25, May 26, September 25
Chapter 7: On Humility

Holy Scripture, brethren, cries out to us, saying,
"Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled,
and he who humbles himself shall be exalted" (Luke 14:11).
In saying this it shows us
that all exaltation is a kind of pride,
against which the Prophet proves himself to be on guard
when he says,
"Lord, my heart is not exalted,
nor are mine eyes lifted up;
neither have I walked in great matters,
nor in wonders above me."
But how has he acted?
"Rather have I been of humble mind
than exalting myself;
as a weaned child on its mother's breast,
so You solace my soul" (Ps. 130:1-2).

Hence, brethren,
if we wish to reach the very highest point of humility
and to arrive speedily at that heavenly exaltation
to which ascent is made through the humility of this present life,
we must
by our ascending actions
erect the ladder Jacob saw in his dream,
on which Angels appeared to him descending and ascending.
By that descent and ascent
we must surely understand nothing else than this,
that we descend by self-exaltation and ascend by humility.
And the ladder thus set up is our life in the would,
which the Lord raises up to heaven if our heart is humbled.
For we call our body and soul the sides of the ladder,
and into these sides our divine vocation has inserted
the different steps of humility and discipline we must climb.

Some Thoughts

I feel as if I am back at chap 7 All Too Soon. Anyone else feel this way? Anyone else feel this way? I certainly find this section inspiring, but at the same time I remember how often I've failed. The most humble we can be, I think, is when we want Jesus above everything else. Which is easy enough to say but at the same time, I have to ask myself how often do I want Jesus above everything else? When are the times when I don't? What events, considerations pull me away from Him?

We are but human when all's said and done. a Franciscan of my acquaintance told me once that we are just stable muck. I replied "Maybe we are stable muck, but we are **redeemed** stable muck!"

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Daily Meditation 01/25/08

[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

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ's glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

O God, by the preaching of your apostle Paul you have caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: Grant, we pray, that we, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may show ourselves thankful to you by following his holy teaching; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/

AM Psalm 31; PM Psalm 35
Gen. 11:27-12:8; Heb. 7:1-17; John 4:16-26
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

Acts 26:9-21. Why are you persecuting me?

The rock group R.E.M. has a song called, "Everybody Hurts." On several levels it is a painful reminder that suffering is a part of life. To live in this world is to hurt. To inflict hurt on someone is a double hurt, for that person and oneself.


Saul hurt people. He rationalized persecution of those who differed from his views by invoking God's Name. Then Saul encountered the Lord Christ. His personal hurt became a source of healing among nations. Note that even his name changed to Paul. The vulnerable personality traits that made him a rabid terrorist are curiously similar to the characteristics that allowed him to become an effective missionary. All hurts become sources of healing and grace.


Let our hurts be healed. Let goofs become grace. Let persecutions of any kind be converted into a perfect work in the name of Christ.


When suffering is inevitable, the Christian puts it to good use. There is a wonderful compensation by which physical evil, if humbly accepted, conquers moral evil. It purifies the soul, spurs it on and detaches it. Finally, acting as a sacrament acts, it effects a mysterious union between the faithful soul and the suffering Christ.
--Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (d. 1955)
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Today we remember:
http://www.satucket.com/lectionary

Conversion of St. Paul:
AM Psalm 19; Isaiah 45:18-25; Philppians 3:4b-11
PM Psalm 119:89-112; Ecclesiasticus 39:1-10; Acts 9:1-22
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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Antananarivo (Indian Ocean)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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Speaking to the Soul: http://www.episcopalcafe.com/

Prayer for unity

Daily Reading for January 25 • The Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle

We have come together in the presence of Almighty God to pray for the recovery of the unity of Christ’s Church, and for the renewal of our common life in Jesus Christ in whom we are all made one.

Silence

Let us give heed to the words of Holy Scripture which set forth God’s will and purpose for the unity of his Church.

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
Lord, write your word in our hearts:
That we may know and do your will.

“There is one body, and one Spirit, as there is also one hope held out in God’s call to you; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
Lord, write your word in our hearts:
That we may know and do your will.

“For Christ is like a single body with its many limbs and organs which, many as they are, together make up one body. For indeed we were all brought into one body by baptism, in the one Spirit, whether we are Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and that one Holy Spirit was poured out for all of us to drink.”
Lord, write your word in our hearts:
That we may know and do your will.

“But it is not for these alone that I pray, but for those also who through their words put their faith in me; may they all be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, so also may they be in us, that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
Lord, write your word in our hearts:
That we may know and do your will. Amen.

A litany for The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity from Prayers for Today’s Church, quoted in The Wideness of God’s Mercy: Litanies to Enlarge Our Prayer, revised and updated edition, compiled and adapted by Jeffery Rowthorn with W. Alfred Tisdale. 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/

You can heartfully evoke the Billy Joel mantra: "I love you just the way you are."
— Dean Sluyter in Why the Chicken Crossed the Road and Other Hidden Enlightenment Teachings from the Buddha to Bebop to Mother Goose

To Practice This Thought: Create a mantra from another song lyric.
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

There are times when we are wearied with travelling, and the Lord grants our faculties tranquillity and our soul quiet, and while they are in that state, He gives us a clear understanding of the nature of the gifts he bestows on those whom He brings to His kingdom.
St Teresa of Jesus
Way, 30.6
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Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

from http://www.balamandmonastery.org.lb/fathers/indexsayings2.htm

No one on this earth can avoid affliction; and although the
afflictions which the Lord sends are not great, men imagine them
beyond their strength and are crushed by them. This is because
they will not humble their souls and commit themselves to the will
of God. But the Lord Himself guides with His grace those who are
given over to God's will, and they bear all things with fortitude
for the sake of God Whom they have so loved and with Whom they are
glorified for ever. It is impossible to escape tribulation in this
world but the man who is giver over to the will of God bears
tribulation easily, seeing it but putting his trust in the Lord,
and so his tribulations pass.

Archimandrite Sophrony
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Receiving Forgiveness

There are two sides to forgiveness: giving and receiving. Although at first sight giving seems to be harder, it often appears that we are not able to offer forgiveness to others because we have not been able fully to receive it. Only as people who have accepted forgiveness can we find the inner freedom to give it. Why is receiving forgiveness so difficult? It is very hard to say, "Without your forgiveness I am still bound to what happened between us. Only you can set me free." That requires not only a confession that we have hurt somebody but also the humility to acknowledge our dependency on others. Only when we can receive forgiveness can we give it.
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis: http://www.tssf.org/textonly/principles.shtml

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/

Focused on God
January 25th, 2008
Friday’s Reflection

WHEN WE PRAY on behalf of another, we are creating a space for God to use that life as is most appropriate, according to God’s light, not ours. Because of our shared nature with God, in this space our life becomes God’s life: God’s tears, God’s offering, God’s power. We should set God free to work his mysterious love in ways that we should not care to seek to know, if we are rightly focused on God.

- Maggie Ross
“The Space of Prayer”
Weavings Journal

From p. 43 of Weavings Journal, July/August 2007. Copyright © 2007 by The Upper Room. 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

Conversion

Question of the day:
When has a breakdown lead you to a breakthrough?



There are four descriptions of poverty in the Scriptures. First, there's poverty as sin, emptiness, the poverty of people who are dead inside. That obviously is not the poverty that Scripture idealizes. And yet it does play a part in the whole pattern of salvation. Sin and grace are related. In a certain sense the only way we really understand salvation, grace, and freedom, is by understanding their opposites. That's why the great saints are, invariably, converted sinners.

When you finally have to eat and taste your own hard-heartedness, your own emptiness, selfishness and all the rest, then you open up to grace. That is the pattern in all our lives. That's why it was such a grace in my hermitage year when I was able, at last—even as a male and a German—to weep over my sins and to feel tremendous sadness at my own silliness and stupidity.

I think all of us have to confront ourselves as poor people in that way. And that's why many of our greatest moments of grace follow upon, sometimes, our greatest sins. We are hard-hearted and closed-minded for years, then comes the moment of vulnerability and mercy. We break down and break through.

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

aul's conversion

Herein is Saint Paul's conversion memorable: that it was a triumph over the enemy. When Almighty God would convert the world, opening the door of faith to the Gentiles, who was the chosen preacher of this mystery? Not one of Christ's first followers. To show his power, he put forth his hand into the very midst of the persecutors of his Son, and seized upon the most strenuous among them. The prayer of a dying man, Stephen, is the token and occasion of that triumph which he had reserved for himself. His strength is made perfect in weakness.

It was a triumph over the enemies of Christ; but it was also an expressive emblem of the nature of God's general dealings with the race of man. What are we all but rebels against God and enemies of the truth? Who then could so appropriately fulfill the purpose of him who came to call sinners to repentance, as one who esteemed himself the least of the apostles, that was not meet to be called an apostle, because he had persecuted the Church of God? When Almighty God in his infinite mercy purposed to form a people to himself out of the heathen, as vessels for this glory, first he chose the instrument of this his purpose as a brand from the burning, to be a type of the rest.

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

LEAVE ROOM FOR GOD


"But when it pleased God. . ." Galatians 1:15

As workers for God we have to learn to make room for God - to give God "elbow room." We calculate and estimate, and say that this and that will happen, and we forget to make room for God to come in as He chooses. Would we be surprised if God came into our meeting or into our preaching in a way we had never looked for Him to come? Do not look for God to come in any particular way, but look for Him. That is the way to make room for Him. Expect Him to come, but do not expect Him only in a certain way. However much we may know God, the great lesson to learn is that at any minute He may break in. We are apt to over look this element of surprise, yet God never works in any other way. All of a sudden God meets the life - "When it was the good pleasure of God. . ."

Keep your life so constant in its contact with God that His surprising power may break out on the right hand and on the left. Always be in a state of expectancy, and see that you leave room for God to come in as He likes.
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/

January 25, May 26, September 25
Chapter 7: On Humility

Holy Scripture, brethren, cries out to us, saying,
"Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled,
and he who humbles himself shall be exalted" (Luke 14:11).
In saying this it shows us
that all exaltation is a kind of pride,
against which the Prophet proves himself to be on guard
when he says,
"Lord, my heart is not exalted,
nor are mine eyes lifted up;
neither have I walked in great matters,
nor in wonders above me."
But how has he acted?
"Rather have I been of humble mind
than exalting myself;
as a weaned child on its mother's breast,
so You solace my soul" (Ps. 130:1-2).

Hence, brethren,
if we wish to reach the very highest point of humility
and to arrive speedily at that heavenly exaltation
to which ascent is made through the humility of this present life,
we must
by our ascending actions
erect the ladder Jacob saw in his dream,
on which Angels appeared to him descending and ascending.
By that descent and ascent
we must surely understand nothing else than this,
that we descend by self-exaltation and ascend by humility.
And the ladder thus set up is our life in the would,
which the Lord raises up to heaven if our heart is humbled.
For we call our body and soul the sides of the ladder,
and into these sides our divine vocation has inserted
the different steps of humility and discipline we must climb.
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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.

St. John 10:9-16 (1/25) Gospel for Holy Hierarchs
(Gregory the Theologian, et. al.)

Three Images: St. John 10:9-17, especially vss. 9, 11, 17:"I Am the
door....I Am the good shepherd....My Father loves Me...." In today's
Gospel, the Lord Jesus presents Himself not in abstract words nor
convoluted phrases but in three simple, earthly images, easily
understood by thoughtful people in every culture and society. The
images are at once profound invitations and solemn warnings. They
convey all the essential elements of the life-giving Gospel of our
Faith, the great good that is in Christ, and the clear and present
dangers of turning away from Him.

When the Lord Jesus declares, "I Am the door" (vs. 9), He indicates that
He is the exclusive gateway for reaching God. In traveling to earthly
destinations, we may pass through many gateways or doors onto various
roads or paths by which to cross a city or to reach another part of the
country; but to enter any space walled off from entrance, only a door
provides access. In today's passage, the enclosure to which the Lord
refers is a sheepfold, a pen for holding and protecting a flock (Jn.
10:1). With this image, our Lord Jesus discloses that entrance into
Divine safety, shelter, and care is through Him: whoever "enters by Me,
he will be saved, and...find pasture" (Jn. 10:9).

A century ago, a traveler in the Middle East reported meeting a shepherd
with a flock. As the two men talked, the shepherd indicated the fold
where he kept his flock during the night - an enclosure where his sheep
were safe from predators. It consisted of four walls with one opening,
for passing in and out. The traveler noted that there was no door or
gate across the opening, the shepherd answered, "I am the door; I lay
down across the opening after I have brought in my flock." Furthermore,
the shepherd declared that none of his sheep crossed over him during the
night, and no wolf would come in, being deterred by his body lying
across the entry way.1
The prevailing image throughout today's passage is the Good Shepherd.
The Lord even names Himself thus twice (vss. 11,14). St. John
Chrysostom points out that by this image our Lord "speaketh concerning
the Passion," thereby especially underscoring His Self-sacrifice for
"the salvation of the world."2 In addition through this image, the Lord
Jesus calls on you and me to consider the bond between Himself and us -
His flock, the Church. Each of our relationships with Him is very
personal and special to Him. You are His own. He will not flee when
you or any of us are under duress (vs. 12), something demonstrated
repeatedly throughout history. He is continuously present: "lo, I Am
with you always, even to the end of the age." (Mt. 28:20).

This presence of the Lord is reassuring: He always "sees the wolf
coming," long before we are aware of the enemy's advance (Jn. 10:12).
Knowing us intimately (vs. 14), He is able to awaken us early to the
spiritual dangers coming upon us and rouse us to prayer - if we will.
Thus He prepares us for Satan's assaults, so that we may be ready. How
is it that He is able to have such foresight and to communicate with us
when danger lurks? Do not forget that in Christ Jesus we are touching
God Who created and ever protects us, in the past, now, and forever.

In the closing verses of the passage, our Lord Jesus directs attention
to His Divine nature: "as the Father knows Me, even so I know the
Father...." (vs. 15). The Good Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ Who is
ever with us - through Whom we have access to God the Father - sees and
understands our condition better than we do ourselves. He is our
guarantee that there is nothing to "hinder us from being
saved....Nothing, unless we ourselves revolt from Him...," as St. John
Chrysostom says.3 What better assurance do we need than to know that we
belong to God Who even laid "down [His] life for the sheep" (vs. 15),
and took "it again" (vs. 17), and watches over us?

O Thou, Good Shepherd of Thy People, grant us to hear Thy voice and to
follow where Thou dost lead, for with Thy Father and the Holy Spirit,
Thou art our God unto all ages

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Reading for Jan 24, 2008

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


January 24, May 25, September 24
Chapter 6: On the Spirit of Silence

Let us do what the Prophet says:
"I said, 'I will guard my ways,
that I may not sin with my tongue.
I have set a guard to my mouth.'
I was mute and was humbled,
and kept silence even from good things" (Ps. 38:2-3).
Here the Prophet shows
that if the spirit of silence ought to lead us at times
to refrain even from good speech,
so much the more ought the punishment for sin
make us avoid evil words.

Therefore, since the spirit of silence is so important,
permission to speak should rarely be granted
even to perfect disciples,
even though it be for good, holy edifying conversation;
for it is written,
"In much speaking you will not escape sin" (Prov. 10:19),
and in another place,
"Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Prov. 18:21).

For speaking and teaching belong to the mistress;
the disciple's part is to be silent and to listen.
And for that reason
if anything has to be asked of the Superior,
it should be asked
with all the humility and submission inspired by reverence.

But as for coarse jests and idle words
or words that move to laughter,
these we condemn everywhere with a perpetual ban,
and for such conversation
we do not permit a disciple to open her mouth.


Some Thoughts:

The very first thing that comes to my head is how much I long for silence. There is noise everywhere and it just plain grates. And the world seems to have only gotten noiser since i was born in 1950.

This one of those passages which I would imagine some readers might find archaic. In a society or perhaps it is world-wide which claims that I have as much right to express my opinion as you, it must come as a shock that Benedict is not interested in our opinions, feelings, issues. He would have us get over our fine selves and care only about the opinions, feeling and issues of the Lord.

Note that we are to refrain from "even good speech." "permission to speak should rarely be granted even to perfect disciples, even though it be for good, holy edifying conversation" Not that I am any example, but what might this mean? We are accustomed to hashing things out with others be it family, friends, therapists, email lists... . Sometimes I don't even know what I think until I say it to someone else. Or type it to a list. Do you have that experience?

Communication is ingrained in us. Look at the shelves in the self-help section. All those books about more effective communication. It's easy to understand why Benedict would place a ban on coarse jests and idle words. Words that move to laughter" is perhaps harder to understand, because surely laughter is a good thing. Perhaps the question is at what do we laugh? And why? Laughter from joy is one thing, laughter at the expense of another or in our own self-aggrandizement is another.

What is the first sentence of the Prologue? "Listen to the precepts of your master." It takes silence to do that. Benedict would have us communicate with God first and foremost above all.

At least, that's what I think. What do you think?

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Daily Meditation 01/24/08

[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

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ's glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Gracious God, we thank you for calling Florence Li Tim-Oi, much beloved daughter, to be the first woman to exercise the office of a priest in our Communion: By the grace of your Spirit inspire us to follow her example, serving your people with patience and happiness all our days, and witnessing in every circumstance to our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the same Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/

AM Psalm 37:1-18; PM Psalm 37:19-42
Gen. 11:1-9; Heb. 6:13-20; John 4:1-15
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

Genesis 11:1-9. Let us make a name for ourselves.

The movie Babel deals with violence, disaster, and tragedy. It also addresses the need for greater human understanding. The pain felt around the world is starkly portrayed, but there is yet a ray of hope. In order to comprehend, listening is required.


The movie is not quite like the Genesis story of the Tower of Babel. Human pride permeates the biblical account. It is about myopic competition and egotistical priorities. These faults lead to a cracking of human unity. Lack of understanding ensues because no one listens. Communication falls apart. Division creeps in. Instead of a tower, walls are built that separate people.


Today the Anglican communion celebrates one brave soul who did not give up when faced with walls, Florence Li Tim-Oi. In 1944, she was ordained the first woman priest in our part of the body of Christ. There were afflictions and struggles, but Florence remained faithful in breaking down barriers. Let us bless the Lord for servants who overcome by understanding, listening, and affirming all the people of God.
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Today we remember:
http://www.satucket.com/lectionary

Ordination of Florence Li Tim-Oi
Psalm 116:1-2
Galatians 3:23-28; Luke 10:1-9
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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Missionary Diocese of Angola (South Africa)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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Speaking to the Soul: http://www.episcopalcafe.com/

Ministry transformed

Daily Reading for January 24 • Ordination of Florence Li Tim-Oi, First Woman Priest in the Anglican Communion, 1944

The first woman priest in the Anglican Communion was not an American. In a curious parallel to the seating of Elizabeth Dyer in the House of Deputies in 1946, the upheaval of wartime had also made possible the 1944 ordination of Florence Li Tim-Oi by Ronald O. Hall, the bishop of Hong Kong, to provide priestly ministrations to Chinese Americans under the Japanese occupation. When word of the ordination reached England, Bishop Hall was roundly denounced and Li Tim-Oi agreed to suspend her sacramental ministry to protect Hall from punitive action. Her subsequent disappearance throughout the years China was closed to the West made it easy for the Anglican Communion to resist dealing with the implications of her ordination, but Li Tim-Oi’s ordination reminds us that the issue was by no means an American invention of the 1960s. In fact, women’s ordination to the priesthood had been urged by women’s rights activists on both sides of the Atlantic since the turn of the century, and was first alluded to in a Lambeth Conference report of 1920. . . .

On February 11, 1989, before a jubilant crowd of eight thousand people in the Hynes Auditorium in Boston, Barbara Clementine Harris was consecrated suffragan bishop of the most populous diocese in the American church. . . . Everything about the service testified to the fact that the old order was changing. The preacher was Harris’s mentor, Paul Washington, rector of the Church of the Advocate which had hosted the Philadelphia ordinations fifteen years earlier. Joining Bishop Harris around the altar to concelebrate the Eucharist were Florence Li Tim-Oi, the first Anglican woman ordained to the priesthood in 1944, and Carter Heyward, one of the Philadelphia Eleven. . . . A woman had become a bishop, and the episcopacy had been transformed: no longer a male preserve, it had become an image of human leadership within a community of diverse men and women united in Christ’s service.

From New Wine: The Story of Women Transforming Leadership and Power in the Episcopal Church by Pamela W. Darling (Cowley Publications, 1994).

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

Great dreams contain inexhaustible truths, and orient us, like runes, toward our futures. One hesitates to try to explain them; one wants to dance them, act them out in living gestures. The more we put ourselves into a great dream, the more we get back. Great dreams are wells that never run dry.
— Michael Grosso in Soulmaker

To Practice This Thought: Follow through on something started in one of your night dreams — call someone you met in the dream or visit a place seen there.
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

The spirit of God, insofar as it is hidden in the veins of the soul, is like soft refreshing water which satisfies the thirst of the spirit.
St John of the Cross
Living Flame, 3.8
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Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

from http://www.balamandmonastery.org.lb/fathers/indexsayings2.htm

The evil one cannot comprehend the joy we receive from the
spiritual life; for this reason he is jealous of us, he envies us
and sets traps for us, and we become grieved and fall. We must
struggle, because without struggles we do not obtain virtues.

Elder Ieronymos of Aegina
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Community, a Quality of the Heart

The word community has many connotations, some positive, some negative. Community can make us think of a safe togetherness, shared meals, common goals, and joyful celebrations. It also can call forth images of sectarian exclusivity, in-group language, self-satisfied isolation, and romantic naivete. However, community is first of all a quality of the heart. It grows from the spiritual knowledge that we are alive not for ourselves but for one another. Community is the fruit of our capacity to make the interests of others more important than our own (see Philippians 2:4). The question, therefore, is not "How can we make community?" but "How can we develop and nurture giving hearts?"
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis: http://www.tssf.org/textonly/principles.shtml

Day Twenty Four - The First Note, cont'd

The faults that we see in others are the subject of prayer rather than of criticism. We take care to cast out the beam from our own eye before offering to remove the speck from another's. We are ready to accept the lowest place when asked, and to volunteer to take it. Nevertheless, when asked to undertake work of which we feel unworthy or incapable, we do not shrink from it on the grounds of humility, but confidently attempt it through the power that is made perfect in weakness.
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Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/

Offering Our Gifts
January 24th, 2008
Thursday’s Reflection

WORK IS ONE ASPECT of a full human life, but it is not a whole life. We need to think about work, not in isolation but as part of a whole way to live. … For most of us, our work will not be written on our tombstones or remembered by friends after we are gone. But work is important. Work is a way of offering our gifts to others and to God.

- Nancy Pineda-Madrid and Angela Fernández
“Work”
Way to Live: Christian Practices for Teens

From p. 124 of Way to Live: Christian Practices for Teens, edited by Dorothy C. Bass and Don C. Richter. Copyright © 2002 by the editors. 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

Conversion

Question of the day:
What conversion are you being invited into right now?



I hope that we will have the courage to stop rewarding and confirming peoples egos and calling morality ministry and Church. I hope that we will have lower expectations of leadership and the institution and therefore less need to rebel against it or unnecessarily depend upon it. After all, as the poet Rilke put it, “There is no place on earth that isn’t looking for you. You must change your life.” The Church cannot make that happen. It can only announce its possibility and offer its Risen Life as leaven and salt. I always wonder why such a glorious power and privilege is not enough! It is more than I ever hoped for or will ever do! Many people are upset with the Church because they expected too much from it.

More than anything else I hope that we will be a people who have entered into mercy and allow others to enter. I once saw God’s mercy as patient, benevolent tolerance, a form of forgiveness. Now it has become an understanding, a loving allowing, a willing “breaking of the rules” by the One who made the rule, a wink and a smile, a firm and joyful taking of the hand—while we clutch at our sins and gaze at God in desire and disbelief.

from The Great Themes of Scripture
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From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/dsteelman/tradition/sources.htm

Our neighbors are like our Maker

To have a Christian love for our neighbors is to love God in them, or them in God; it is to cherish God alone for his own sake, and his creatures for love of him. When we look upon our neighbors, created in the image and likeness of God, should we not say to each other: "Look at these people he has made—are they not like their Maker?" Should we not be drawn irresistibly toward them, embrace them, and be moved to tears for love of them? Should we not call down upon them a hundred thousand blessings? And why? For love of them? No indeed, since we cannot be sure whether, of themselves, they are worthy of love or hate. Then why? For love of God, who created them in his own image and likeness, and so capable of sharing in his goodness, grace, and glory; for love of God, I say, unto whom they exist, from whom they exist, through whom they exist, in whom they exist, for whom they exist, and whom they resemble in a very special manner.

This is why divine love not only repeatedly commands us to love our neighbors, but also itself produces this love and pours it out into our hearts, since they bear its own image and likeness; for just as we are the image of God, so our holy love for one another is the true image of our heavenly love for God.

Francis de Sales
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Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/

THE OVERMASTERING DIRECTION


"I have appeared unto thee for this purpose." Acts 26:16

The vision Paul had on the road to Damascus was no passing emotion, but a vision that had very clear and emphatic directions for him, and he says, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision." Our Lord said, in effect, to Paul - Your whole life is to be overmastered by Me; you are to have no end, no aim, and no purpose but Mine. "I have chosen him."

When we are born again we all have visions, if we are spiritual at all, of what Jesus wants us to be, and the great thing is to learn not to be disobedient to the vision, not to say that it cannot be attained. It is not sufficient to know that God has redeemed the world, and to know that the Holy Spirit can make all that Jesus did effectual in me; I must have the basis of a personal relationship to Him. Paul was not given a message or a doctrine to proclaim, he was brought into a vivid, personal, overmastering relationship to Jesus Christ. Verse 16 is immensely commanding - "to make thee a minister and a witness." There is nothing there apart from the personal relationship. Paul was devoted to a Person not to a cause. He was absolutely Jesus Christ's, he saw nothing else, he lived for nothing else. "For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified."
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/


January 24, May 25, September 24
Chapter 6: On the Spirit of Silence

Let us do what the Prophet says:
"I said, 'I will guard my ways,
that I may not sin with my tongue.
I have set a guard to my mouth.'
I was mute and was humbled,
and kept silence even from good things" (Ps. 38:2-3).
Here the Prophet shows
that if the spirit of silence ought to lead us at times
to refrain even from good speech,
so much the more ought the punishment for sin
make us avoid evil words.

Therefore, since the spirit of silence is so important,
permission to speak should rarely be granted
even to perfect disciples,
even though it be for good, holy edifying conversation;
for it is written,
"In much speaking you will not escape sin" (Prov. 10:19),
and in another place,
"Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Prov. 18:21).

For speaking and teaching belong to the mistress;
the disciple's part is to be silent and to listen.
And for that reason
if anything has to be asked of the Superior,
it should be asked
with all the humility and submission inspired by reverence.

But as for coarse jests and idle words
or words that move to laughter,
these we condemn everywhere with a perpetual ban,
and for such conversation
we do not permit a disciple to open her mouth.
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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.

The Heights of Humility: St. Mark 9:33-41, especially vss. 35, 36: "And
He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, 'If any one desires
to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.' Then He took
a little child and set him in the midst of them." Earlier in his
Gospel, St. Mark records the Lord Jesus' stringent requirements for
being united to Him - taking up your cross and following Him (8:34-38).
In the present passage, the Lord reveals other dimensions of taking up
the cross through self-denial and service to others. St. Theophylact of
Ochrid shows how the Lord connects the question of being honored by
Christ and simultaneously humbling yourself: "The Lord does not forbid
us to desire to become His favorites, for He wants us to desire
advancement in the spiritual life. But He does not want us to grasp for
honors and privileges, but rather to reach the heights by humility."1
In this vein, God forbid we belittle anyone of low estate, education,
position, or language! Especially, let us defer to those who simply
serve the Lord with little deeds of kindness and love.

Observe how the Savior develops His teaching concerning humility.
First, He states the attitude required: "to be first, he shall be last
of all and servant of all" (Mk. 9:35). Then, He dramatizes this by
setting a child among us (vs. 36). Tradition identifies this child as
St. Ignatius of Antioch, who, years later, went into the Arena with
lions joyfully embracing death in his humility. Thus, that child, grown
and become Bishop, would die for Christ just as Christ died for us all.

Without question, our Lord chose to be "last of all and servant of all"
(vs. 35) as His life in the flesh manifests. In His birth He "made
Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant" (Phil. 2:7),
entering human society as a member of the lowest class, taking His first
breath in a cave used to shelter livestock, fleeing as a refugee,
growing up unknown in a carpenter's shop, accepting "a baptism of
repentance for the remission of sins" (Mk. 1:4,9) - thus making Himself
"Who knew no sin to be sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21). His associates were
the outcasts of society: "many tax collectors and sinners also sat
together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they
followed Him" (Mk. 2:15). In the end, He was executed with common
criminals, "one on His right and the other on His left" (Mk. 15:27).

Observe how Gregory the Great reveals Christ's use of the humility of
the Cross to benefit us in attaining humility: "since it is competent
for Divine Power not only to make good things out of nothing, but also
to refashion them from the evils that the devil had committed, the
humility of God appeared among men as a remedy against this wound
inflicted by the proud devil, so that those who had fallen through
imitation of their haughty enemy might rise by the example of their
humbled Creator."2 Bear your every cross as did the Lord - whether you
afflict your body by abstinence, meet your neighbor's need with
compassion, or suffer wrongs on behalf of others.

As for being last of all, St. Gregory warns those who hold position of
honor and distinction in the Body of Christ: "there are many in the
Church who scorn to be little ones and they do not cease to be great in
their own sight in place of humility....they claim their heavenly
country - and yet they do not love it."3 It is as Archimandrite
Sophrony Sakharov declares: "God...set no limits for any of us on the
spiritual plane....We are called to eternal life in the Kingdom of our
Father Which is in heaven;"4 yet, as the Lord states, "entry into the
Kingdom inevitably entails suffering. Many decline the Father's gift of
love precisely because the utmost effort is required...." Do not fear
the life in Christ, which you have accepted. Be a little child of your
Father, and, at the same time, establish yourself with the prodigal son:
"I...am no longer worthy to be called your son" (Lk. 15:21). Thus, if
God wills, let Him raise you however He will to the heights by humility.

O Christ God, Thou hast dwelt in a cave, and a manger did receive Thee:
Glory to Thy condescension, O Thou only Lover of mankind Who hast
revealed to us the heights of humility.