Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119)
Jeremiah 31:1-7 In God’s timing a ‘wilderness’ - a time of void when inter-and inner-personal interactions are minimal or dry –often comes after a period of frenetic activity. Without an understanding of the faithful and immutable love of God, such a wilderness can easily become a ‘dark night of the soul’, and I can enter into despair and acedia (sloth). Then the ‘devil like a prowling lion’ finds me easy prey. But when I remember the everlasting love of God, even in the wilderness, the Lord can ‘appear to me from far away’ when I seek true rest for my soul. It is often only in the wilderness that I fervently seek deep rest –and find God’s Grace. When I am in the wilderness will I remember to seek rest for my soul in the love and faithfulness of God? Holy Spirit of God, help me find Grace in the wilderness. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. (Jeremiah 31:3) What ! Do you wish to know your Lord’s meaning in this thing? Know it well, love was his meaning. Who reveals it to you? Love. What did he reveal to you? Love. Why does he reveal it to you? For Love. Julian of Norwich www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca & Gospel Mystery of the Day on Facebook Soli ad gloriam Dei
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Matthew 14, 22-36 Walking with Jesus is always challenging and often surprising. Peter believed in his Master and said by word and deed that he would follow him. He even offered to join Jesus as he walked across a stormy sea ... and within the first few steps looked down and began to sink. Like Peter, I too have stepped out to follow Jesus ... and too often look away from Christ, to figure out the next steps for myself in this world of precarious and shifting circumstances. But as much as I keep my eyes on Jesus, and have faith in his ways through life, that much I am able to follow him through the storms and ‘walk on the waves’ of life. Today will I focus on the waves beneath my feet or shall I concentrate on the will to believe in the will of God? Christ Jesus, teach me to walk through the storms of life with you. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:12) What ! Do you wish to know your Lord’s meaning in this thing? Know it well, love was his meaning. Who reveals it to you? Love. What did he reveal to you? Love. Why does he reveal it to you? For Love. Julian of Norwich www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca & Gospel Mystery of the Day on Facebook Soli ad gloriam Dei
Mark 9. 2-10 Like Peter, in the ‘mountain top’ moments of life, when I know beyond the shadows who Jesus is, it is easy to believe in his amazing love and care for me and for all of humanity. And like Peter, it is when I come down from the mountain, into the humdrum world of ordinary things that it is most challenging to remember that Jesus is the Lord of life and calls me to love with all of its liveliness and light. How do I live out on the bottom of the mountain, what I have seen at the top? By listening to the beloved Son of God. Jesus, too, lived through the common toils of ‘ordinary’ days, and coaches us continually as we follow him to be ‘joyful in hope’ and to generously pour out our lives for others. What is Jesus telling me about my life today? Holy Spirit of God, help me listen to your Beloved Son. You will do well to be attentive to [this prophetic message] as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. (2 Pete 1:19) What ! Do you wish to know your Lord’s meaning in this thing? Know it well, love was his meaning. Who reveals it to you? Love. What did he reveal to you? Love. Why does he reveal it to you? For Love. Julian of Norwich www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca & Gospel Mystery of the Day on Facebook Soli ad gloriam Dei Jeremiah 26: 11-24 The history of the church is filled with stories like those of Jeremiah and John the Baptist and Jesus, of individuals who chose to unswervingly bear witness to the truth and love of God. Fort the most part, all true heroes of human history were individuals of such courageous integrity, most of whom were very verbal about their firm faith in God. Do I align my life, and my words, with this company of saints ... in my home, my work, in the market place? Am I courageous enough to say with Jeremiah, “But as for me, here I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you...for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.”? Holy Spirit of God, help me speak your word without compromise. Rescue me from sinking in the mire. (Psalm 69: 1-2) Proclaim the Gospel at all times; use words only when necessary. Saint Francis www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca & Gospel Mystery of the Day on Facebook Soli ad gloriam Dei Matthew 13:54-58 It is my own assumptions and expectations, that lead to my misunderstanding, if not dismissal, of God’s words. Like the people from Jesus’ home town, my own preconceived notions and self-talk can make so much noise that I cannot ‘see’ past my own prejudices about an individual, particularly someone familiar to me, and cannot hear any Word the Lord may be speaking through them to me. Similarly if I am convinced that my own expectations and vision of the God’s servants is the correct one, like the people of Nazareth who dismissed Jesus, I may miss anyone who comes to me in the Name of the Lord, simply because they do not match my own image of God. Am I willing to suspend my own assumptions and expectations, my own prejudices and visions, in order to open my heart to the coming of the Holy Spirit of God in another person? Holy Spirit, help me hear your voice without prejudice. O that today you would listen to his voice! Harden not your hearts as in the provocation, as in the day when your ancestors tempted me. (Psalm 95:7-9) To become a friend of Jesus, is to become a friend of the excluded. As we learn to be a friend of the excluded, we enter to into this amazing relationship, that is friendship with God. Jean Vanier 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
March 2024
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