Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119)
Hebrews 13:15-21 On my own, I can become ‘fairly good’ but have no hope of completing everything good on my own. As the years fly by, I engage in all kinds of ‘good’ things – projects, professions, and practices –and realize that given the uncertainties of life, I will leave most good things only partially done by virtue of the complexities of the people and times I am dealing with, and my own mortality. Indeed, the real ‘goods’ of life – Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-discipline –are the only elements of life that can be completed in this life or the next. It is in allowing God to complete these in me, no matter how painful the pruning soul and body that is required, that my life’s journey will amount to ‘everything good’. Am I working with or against God as he completes everything good in me? Father God, complete me in everything good. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long. (Psalm 23:6) Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone's face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come. Henri Nouwen www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca & Gospel Mystery of the Day on Facebook Soli ad gloriam Dei
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Hebrews 13:1-8 There is so much loneliness in the world! Whether I am living or working in isolation, rubbing shoulders on a crowded street or sitting in a family room, waves of loneliness can drown me at anytime, making me question my very existence. All it takes to break through this loneliness is the connecting and hospitable regard of someone who welcomes me, if even for a moment, into their heart. Responding hospitably to the glance of strangers, to prisoners of all kinds, to those being tortured by traumatic circumstances, and to our close family members often requires the special graces of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Am I willing to open my eyes and my heart to the deep loneliness in the people around me and be hospitable to them, welcoming them into my heart no matter how briefly? Am I prepared to entertain the angels in our midst? Holy Spirit, help me be hospitable to all. “Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!” Your face, Lord, do I seek. Do not hide your face from me. (Psalm 27:8,9) To be lonely is to feel unwanted and unloved and therefore unlovable. Loneliness is a taste of death. No wonder some people who are desperately lonely lose themselves in mental illness or violence to forget the inner pain. Jean Vanier in Becoming Human www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca & Gospel Mystery of the Day on Facebook Soli ad gloriam Dei Hebrews 12: 18-24 Under the old agreement with Abraham and Moses, God’s relationship with humankind was full of concrete manifestations of overwhelming power: blazing fire, darkness and gloom, tempests and terrifying words. With the new covenant, brokered by the incarnation, the death, and the resurrection of Christ Jesus, we became more aware of the deep faith, hope and love that are the foundation stones of a fulfilled relationship with God, that is built with forgiveness and mercy. Represented by ‘heavenly Jerusalem’, the city of the living God, this new covenant, this new relationship with God, is more accessible, even ubiquitous, more joyous and more life-giving than the fire and brimstone encounters with the divine on mountaintops of past ages. We live in a privileged season of salvation history. Will I studiously and committedly live into this age of the covenant of Christ? Will I ponder and proclaim God’s steadfast love at all times, in all places? Holy Spirit, help me live into the fulfilled covenant of Christ Jesus. We ponder your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple. (Psalm 48:4) Where there is no love, put love -- and you will find love.. St. John of the Cross www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca & Gospel Mystery of the Day on Facebook Soli ad gloriam Dei Hebrews 12:4-15 As followers of Jesus, we are always in training –training to be like Jesus in heart, mind, soul and strength. When I undergo troubles and trials, it is easy to focus on my hardships and so lose sight of the disciplinary (not punishing!) benefits that training by trials has for my being. Like so much of society today I would rather run the other way when pain or uncertainty arise, and continue on in my pursuit of secure and comfortable happiness at all times, at all costs. But when like and athlete I endure, rather than run away from my troubles, my being strengthens and I become more able to ‘run the race set before me’. How am I to endure the difficult trials of my training? The writer of Hebrews tells [me] to lift up my drooping hands, strengthen my weak knees and make straight paths for my feet so that the parts of me that are lame or kinked by sin can be healed. Christ Jesus, help me endure trials for the sake of discipline. But I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and that you strengthen your brothers. (Luke 22:32) The endurance of darkness is the preparation for great light. St. John of the Cross www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca & Gospel Mystery of the Day on Facebook Soli ad gloriam Dei Gospel Mystery of the Day Tuesday, February 5, 2018
Good Morning! Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119) Hebrews 12:1-4 When trials of life come along, it is ‘normal’ to grow weary and lose heart and so to fall prey to despair and revenge or even acedia*. But Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith showed us a different way. ‘For the joy that was set before him’, Jesus not only endured the hostility of the fickle crowds of Judea, and a tortuous death on a cross, but he was also able to disregard and rise above its shame. My own cross of rejection, abuse, and abandonment is no less real for me than Jesus’ Roman cross was for him. Will I fight my cross every step of the way or fall under its weight face-first into the mud of desolation, breathe in the muck of despair and vent towards others with denial or derision? Or will I look to Jesus and learn from him how to consider the joy before me and endure all kinds of hardship? Holy Spirit, help me consider Jesus so I might not grow weary and lose heart. * Acedia can be defined as the dulling of, and disengagement from, the essence of life. See: The Noonday Devil: Acedia, the Unnamed Evil of Our Times. By Jean-Charles Nault, O.S.B. Ignatius Press Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. (1 Corinthians 13: 7) The endurance of darkness is the preparation for great light. St. John of the Cross www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca & Gospel Mystery of the Day on Facebook Soli ad gloriam Dei |
AuthorBeverly Illauq lives in Kemptville, Ontario, where she greets each morning by seeking the Gospel Mystery of the Day - the Word of the Lord for direct and practical application to the specific challenges & joys of the day. Archives
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