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Psalm 91
"Whoever clings to me I will deliver; whoever knows my name I will set on high." (v. 14, NAB)
"Those who love me, I will deliver. I will protect those who know my name." (v. 14 NRSV)
"Because he loves me, says the Lord, I will rescue him. I will protect him for he acknowledges my name." (v. 14 NIV)
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
Hanging on His Words
Luke 19:45-48
"But they could find no way to accomplish their purpose because all the people were hanging on his words."
This says to me that the enemy cannot get in and accomplish his purpose if I am "hanging on his words." And that there is protection in the presence of others who are hanging on his words.
From Magnificat:
"The liturgy, faithfully celebrated, should be a long term course in heart-expansion, making us more and more capable of the totality of love that there is in the heart of Christ.
It is not the immediate feeling that is important; that may or may not come. What matters is that we should be, slowly and quietly, molded by this rehearsal for and anticipation of the worship of heaven. It is a schooling for paradise." (quoting Fr. Simon Tugwell, OP)
"But they could find no way to accomplish their purpose because all the people were hanging on his words."
This says to me that the enemy cannot get in and accomplish his purpose if I am "hanging on his words." And that there is protection in the presence of others who are hanging on his words.
From Magnificat:
"The liturgy, faithfully celebrated, should be a long term course in heart-expansion, making us more and more capable of the totality of love that there is in the heart of Christ.
It is not the immediate feeling that is important; that may or may not come. What matters is that we should be, slowly and quietly, molded by this rehearsal for and anticipation of the worship of heaven. It is a schooling for paradise." (quoting Fr. Simon Tugwell, OP)
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Mental Prayer
"Now for a man in the active life to give up his meditation is tantamount to throwing down his arms at the feet of the enemy. 'Short of a miracle,' says St. Alphonsus, 'a man who does not practice mental prayer will end up in mortal sin.' And St. Vincent de Paul tells us: 'A man without mental prayer is not good for anything; he cannot even renounce the slightest thing.'
Some authors quote St. Teresa as having said: 'Without mental prayer a person soon becomes either a brute or a devil. If you do not practice mental prayer, you don't need any devil to throw you into hell, you throw yourself in there of your own accord. On the contrary, give me the greatest of all sinners; if he practices mental prayer, be it only for fifteen minutes every day, he will be converted. If he perseveres, his eternal salvation is assured.'"
--from The Soul of the Apostolate, p. 82.
Some authors quote St. Teresa as having said: 'Without mental prayer a person soon becomes either a brute or a devil. If you do not practice mental prayer, you don't need any devil to throw you into hell, you throw yourself in there of your own accord. On the contrary, give me the greatest of all sinners; if he practices mental prayer, be it only for fifteen minutes every day, he will be converted. If he perseveres, his eternal salvation is assured.'"
--from The Soul of the Apostolate, p. 82.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Domine, ut videum
Luke 18:35-43
"There are times when the soul can experience obscurity and even blindness. The path that once seemed so clearly defined can become more difficult to make out. What was light and joy can turn to shadows. Sadness can then overtake the soul. This situation may often be the consequence of personal sins or a failure to correspond to grace: perhaps the dust we stir up as we walk - our miseries- forms an opaque cloud that cuts off the light from above. Another explanation is that the Lord may permit the onset of a period of obscurity as a means of purifying the soul, of increasing our humility and trust in him. When we experience this kind of trial everything demands more effort. That is only logical. These are times when the devil tries to plunge us more deeply into sadness and undermine our dedication.
No matter what its origin, what is a person to do in this quandary? The blind man of Jericho...has given us a wonderful lesson: we should go to the Lord all the more earnestly. He is always near. He hears our prayer. He will respond in his infinite mercy. Even when it may seem that he would pass us by, He is wholly conscious of our situation.
...Let us learn a lesson from the blind beggar: the greater our interior confusion, the more our difficulties on the way, so much the stronger should our prayers become.
...We may not know the reason, but we can be sure of the remedy. It is persevering prayer. When darkness surrounds us and our soul is blind and restless, we have to go to the Light, like Bartimaeus. Repeat, shout, cry out ever more strongly, 'Domine, ut videum!' Lord, that I may see. And daylight will dawn upon you, and you will be able to enjoy the brightness He grants you."
--from In Conversation With God, vol.5, pp.489-490
"There are times when the soul can experience obscurity and even blindness. The path that once seemed so clearly defined can become more difficult to make out. What was light and joy can turn to shadows. Sadness can then overtake the soul. This situation may often be the consequence of personal sins or a failure to correspond to grace: perhaps the dust we stir up as we walk - our miseries- forms an opaque cloud that cuts off the light from above. Another explanation is that the Lord may permit the onset of a period of obscurity as a means of purifying the soul, of increasing our humility and trust in him. When we experience this kind of trial everything demands more effort. That is only logical. These are times when the devil tries to plunge us more deeply into sadness and undermine our dedication.
No matter what its origin, what is a person to do in this quandary? The blind man of Jericho...has given us a wonderful lesson: we should go to the Lord all the more earnestly. He is always near. He hears our prayer. He will respond in his infinite mercy. Even when it may seem that he would pass us by, He is wholly conscious of our situation.
...Let us learn a lesson from the blind beggar: the greater our interior confusion, the more our difficulties on the way, so much the stronger should our prayers become.
...We may not know the reason, but we can be sure of the remedy. It is persevering prayer. When darkness surrounds us and our soul is blind and restless, we have to go to the Light, like Bartimaeus. Repeat, shout, cry out ever more strongly, 'Domine, ut videum!' Lord, that I may see. And daylight will dawn upon you, and you will be able to enjoy the brightness He grants you."
--from In Conversation With God, vol.5, pp.489-490
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Union of Will
"The first and most important result of the unitive power of love is the perfect union of man's will with the will of God. As love develops, it so empties the soul of everything opposed to the divine will, so impels it to love and desire only that which God Himself loves and desires, that little by little, the weak human will becomes fully conformed and united to the divine will of God; the two wills are made into one, namely, into the will of God, which...is likewise the will of the soul. (John of the Cross, Ascent of Mt. Carmel, 11,3)... Captivated by love for God, the soul has, for His sake, entirely renounced its own will; it has voluntarily lost in Him all desire, all inclination; and now, the loss has become the greatest of all gains, because the soul finds its will, now entirely transformed in the divine will of God. Could one hope for a more advantageous exchange? St John of the Cross writes: 'The state of this divine union consists in the soul's total transformation, according to the will, in the will of God.'(Ascent, I, 11,2)
...St Teresa of Jesus writes: This is the union which I have desired all my life; it is for this that I continually beg Our Lord; it is this which is most genuine and safest.( Interior Castle V,3)...Actually, the essence of sanctity consists solely in this union, whereas mystical graces are only a means toward its attainment, a very precious means, because a more rapid one, but always a means and not an end. The end consists solely in perfect conformity of one's own will with the will of God."
--from Divine Intimacy, pp.1094-5
...St Teresa of Jesus writes: This is the union which I have desired all my life; it is for this that I continually beg Our Lord; it is this which is most genuine and safest.( Interior Castle V,3)...Actually, the essence of sanctity consists solely in this union, whereas mystical graces are only a means toward its attainment, a very precious means, because a more rapid one, but always a means and not an end. The end consists solely in perfect conformity of one's own will with the will of God."
--from Divine Intimacy, pp.1094-5
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Strong Love
"If our love is perfect, it has this quality of leading us to forget our own pleasure in order to please Him whom we love; it has the power to make us accept our trials with joy and take the bitter with the sweet, knowing that to be His Majesty's will (St Teresa of Jesus, Foundations 5) Evidently, a love like this cannot be the fruit of our own human nature, which has a repugnance for suffering; it cannot be acquired, for it greatly surpasses the capacity of our nature, so poor and weak. God alone can infuse it little by little into souls who allow Him to guide them by the narrow way of interior purification. Yes, in aridity, in solitude of heart, in the privation of all light and consolation, the Holy Spirit enkindles in them this flame of charity, a flame which invades them increasingly as it finds them well disposed, that is, purified of everything contrary to love. When all resistances have been overcome, all dross eliminated, the flame of love will blaze up irresistibly and give to the soul the strength of a giant."
--from Divine Intimacy, pp. 1088-1089
--from Divine Intimacy, pp. 1088-1089
Monday, November 8, 2010
Increase Our Faith
Luke 17:1-6
"Faith is to believe without understanding, without seeing. God has blessed us with the gift of our intellect, and up to a point we understand many things about ourselves and the world around us. However, when you begin to move deeper into faith, something strange happens.
You have been walking in the sunshine of your intellect. God has helped you and encouraged you to use it. Then...God plunges you into the night. He says, 'Put your head in your heart and believe! For now there is no answer. I am the answer. You won't see me in the dark. You will have to follow me in faith, without knowing. Arise and believe!'
There is a tremendous secret in God's ways if we follow him across that dark night...There will be a moment...he will appear. He will just be there."
--from Magnificat, p. 116, by Catherine de Hueck Doherty.
"The soul, famished and athirst for God, seeks Him without respite, 'for being in darkness, it feels itself to be without Him and to be dying for love of Him' (John of the Cross, Dark Night II, 13, 8) Love makes the soul impatient to find the Lord, and seeks Him with great solicitude...
Oh, if you too were so solicitous in seeking your God!...Why then, do you go about the world, not in quest of God, but of yourself but of creatures?...Do not resist the divine invitations; open your heart wide to the purifying action of the Holy Spirit; He alone can finally disengage you from all earthly cares and solicitude."
--from Divine Intimacy, pp. 1082-1083
"Faith is to believe without understanding, without seeing. God has blessed us with the gift of our intellect, and up to a point we understand many things about ourselves and the world around us. However, when you begin to move deeper into faith, something strange happens.
You have been walking in the sunshine of your intellect. God has helped you and encouraged you to use it. Then...God plunges you into the night. He says, 'Put your head in your heart and believe! For now there is no answer. I am the answer. You won't see me in the dark. You will have to follow me in faith, without knowing. Arise and believe!'
There is a tremendous secret in God's ways if we follow him across that dark night...There will be a moment...he will appear. He will just be there."
--from Magnificat, p. 116, by Catherine de Hueck Doherty.
"The soul, famished and athirst for God, seeks Him without respite, 'for being in darkness, it feels itself to be without Him and to be dying for love of Him' (John of the Cross, Dark Night II, 13, 8) Love makes the soul impatient to find the Lord, and seeks Him with great solicitude...
Oh, if you too were so solicitous in seeking your God!...Why then, do you go about the world, not in quest of God, but of yourself but of creatures?...Do not resist the divine invitations; open your heart wide to the purifying action of the Holy Spirit; He alone can finally disengage you from all earthly cares and solicitude."
--from Divine Intimacy, pp. 1082-1083
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Thy Will Be Done
Luke 15:1-10
"Unite yourself to the agonizing Jesus: lean upon Him, and in Him you will find the necessary strength to accept and to resist. Keeping your eyes fixed upon Jesus Crucified, who has reconciled and united the human race to His divine Father by His passion and death, you will understand ever more perfectly that union with God 'consists not in refreshment and in consolations and spiritual feelings, but in a living death of the Cross, both as to sense and as to spirit ; that is, both inwardly and outwardly' (John of the Cross, Ascent II, 7,11)"
--from Divine Intimacy #354, p. 1071
"Unite yourself to the agonizing Jesus: lean upon Him, and in Him you will find the necessary strength to accept and to resist. Keeping your eyes fixed upon Jesus Crucified, who has reconciled and united the human race to His divine Father by His passion and death, you will understand ever more perfectly that union with God 'consists not in refreshment and in consolations and spiritual feelings, but in a living death of the Cross, both as to sense and as to spirit ; that is, both inwardly and outwardly' (John of the Cross, Ascent II, 7,11)"
--from Divine Intimacy #354, p. 1071
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Why Carry the Cross?
Luke 14:25-33
"Seeing its wretchedness so clearly, the soul senses the infinite distance separating it from God; and, while desiring even more to be united to Him, it realizes that it is farther from Him than ever, absolutely incapable of bridging the chasm that divides them....If many souls are not convinced of this, thinking that they are able, of themselves to do something to advance toward God and holiness, it is because they have not yet been enlightened as to the depths of their own nothingness.
If we are, then, utterly unworthy of God...it is equally true that God Himself, in His merciful love, has desired to bridge the distance that separates Him from us. He has stooped down to us to the point of clothing us with His divine Life and calling us to intimacy. What is impossible to our misery is entirely possible to the omnipotence and infinite mercy of God. He wills to do this work in us, yet He wants us to realize that it is His work alone.
In those moments when the soul is tempted to despair of attaining to God and eternal salvation, it must remain firm in unshakable hope, However justifiable may be its mistrust of itself and all its efforts, there is even more reason to await all from God, whose love and goodness infinitely surpass its poverty and its expectation. In this way the desolation of the night of the spirit will achieve its end -- that of establishing the soul in deep humility, in a purer and more perfect hope, because now the soul trusts only in the merciful love of God."
--from Divine Intimacy, #353, pp. 1065-1066
"Seeing its wretchedness so clearly, the soul senses the infinite distance separating it from God; and, while desiring even more to be united to Him, it realizes that it is farther from Him than ever, absolutely incapable of bridging the chasm that divides them....If many souls are not convinced of this, thinking that they are able, of themselves to do something to advance toward God and holiness, it is because they have not yet been enlightened as to the depths of their own nothingness.
If we are, then, utterly unworthy of God...it is equally true that God Himself, in His merciful love, has desired to bridge the distance that separates Him from us. He has stooped down to us to the point of clothing us with His divine Life and calling us to intimacy. What is impossible to our misery is entirely possible to the omnipotence and infinite mercy of God. He wills to do this work in us, yet He wants us to realize that it is His work alone.
In those moments when the soul is tempted to despair of attaining to God and eternal salvation, it must remain firm in unshakable hope, However justifiable may be its mistrust of itself and all its efforts, there is even more reason to await all from God, whose love and goodness infinitely surpass its poverty and its expectation. In this way the desolation of the night of the spirit will achieve its end -- that of establishing the soul in deep humility, in a purer and more perfect hope, because now the soul trusts only in the merciful love of God."
--from Divine Intimacy, #353, pp. 1065-1066
Monday, November 1, 2010
Why not I?
Feast of All Saints
"We want to become saints, but in the easiest way possible, without effort, without fatigue or violence to ourselves; we should like to practice virtue, but only to a certain point, only when it does not ask for great sacrifice, or to go too much against the grain. And so it happens that when faced with acts of virtue which exact greater self-renunciation, or the acceptance of difficult and repugnant things, such as quelling the resentments of self-love, renouncing an attempt to make our opinion prevail, submitting ourselves and meekly condescending to one who is opposed to us, very often - if not always - we refuse, thinking it unnecessary to go to such lengths.
Yet our progress in holiness depends precisely upon these acts which we hesitate to make; without them we shall always lead a mediocre life, we shall always remain on the same level, if indeed we do not lose ground. Let us beg the saints whom we honor today to help us overcome our laziness, our lassitude, our cowardice; let us ask those who have gone before us in the arduous way of sanctity to obtain for us the strength to follow them. 'If such as these [have attained to sanctity], why not I?' (St. Augustine).
God offers us the grace which He gave to the saints; but alas! what is lacking is our correspondence with it."
--from Divine Intimacy, "384, pp. 1165-1166
"We want to become saints, but in the easiest way possible, without effort, without fatigue or violence to ourselves; we should like to practice virtue, but only to a certain point, only when it does not ask for great sacrifice, or to go too much against the grain. And so it happens that when faced with acts of virtue which exact greater self-renunciation, or the acceptance of difficult and repugnant things, such as quelling the resentments of self-love, renouncing an attempt to make our opinion prevail, submitting ourselves and meekly condescending to one who is opposed to us, very often - if not always - we refuse, thinking it unnecessary to go to such lengths.
Yet our progress in holiness depends precisely upon these acts which we hesitate to make; without them we shall always lead a mediocre life, we shall always remain on the same level, if indeed we do not lose ground. Let us beg the saints whom we honor today to help us overcome our laziness, our lassitude, our cowardice; let us ask those who have gone before us in the arduous way of sanctity to obtain for us the strength to follow them. 'If such as these [have attained to sanctity], why not I?' (St. Augustine).
God offers us the grace which He gave to the saints; but alas! what is lacking is our correspondence with it."
--from Divine Intimacy, "384, pp. 1165-1166
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