Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119)
Joshua 24:1-13 In this era of instant messaging and a huge and complex information highway vying constantly for our attention, it is easy to ignore our own history and the history of God’s connection with humankind. Yet it is the telling of stories and learning from our ancestors’ challenges and joys that give depth and substance to the heart of any culture, any family or the life of any individual. When I know the back story of any given situation, including society’s present aversion to ‘righteousness’ and ‘obedience’, I am able to make more informed choices when walking through life alone or in the company of others. Then I am ready to ‘present [myself] before God’ and lean into the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the context of the reality of my life today. How do the experiences of God’s faithful men and women throughout the ages inform my decisions and my commitments today? Teach us, Lord, how we fit into history. Give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love endures forever. (Psalm 136) Grace is nothing else but a certain beginning of glory within us. St. Thomas Aquinas www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca Soli gloriam dei.
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Deuteronomy 34:1-12 Adoration: Lord God, I trust you with my life and with my death... Intercession: Lord God, help ________ trust you with his/her life and death ... Moses was not perfect, but he was a mighty leader who never wavered from turning off the path to talk to God, whether in a burning bush, a pillar of cloud or the Tent of Presence. Clearly Moses trusted God, in spite of complaining bitterly about his life’s assignment of leading the unruly Israelites across the desert to the Promised Land. After all the time, effort and anguish he had spent in his mighty leadership role, it was obvious to everyone that Moses, of all people, should be one of the first to reach –and enjoy – the group’s final destination. Yet God arranged that Moses pass away from this life before reaching the Promised Land himself, and be buried in an unmarked and long-forgotten grave. By human standards, what a tragic and depressing conclusion to a noble life! By God’s vision, what a perfect end to an amazing and inspiring life journey! To this day, the deeds of Moses, not confined to a gravesite with a museum, but ever fresh in the liveliness of scripture and the Judeo-Christian tradition, inspire and inform millions of people daily. Am I willing to trust the Lord as uncompromisingly as Moses with my life and death? Lord God, help me, help my sister, my brother, to trust you with our our lives and our deaths. I love you, Lord, my strength. (Psalm 18:1) Hold your eyes on God and leave the doing to him. That is all the doing you have to worry about. St. Jane Frances de Chantal www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca Soli gloriam dei. . Deuteronomy 4:32-40 & Deuteronomy 6:4-13 The precepts or the principles of God are not the natural law of humankind that dictate ‘survival of the fittest’ or ‘more is always better’. Faithfulness, sacrifice and humility are precepts at the root of God’s commandments that are diametrically opposed to the more commonly held societal views of personal comfort, security and control. Fundamental to all of God’s precepts and commandments is the deep mercy Father God extends to each of his beloved sons and daughters. It is when this holy mercy is received and given that God’s precepts and commandments are ‘kept’. Before I think, speak and act today, will I take a moment to consider ‘the road less taken’, the thought, word or action that ‘keeps’ God’s mercy flowing? Christ Jesus, help me keep the precepts and commandments of God. I love you, Lord, my strength. (Psalm 18:1) Hold your eyes on God and leave the doing to him. That is all the doing you have to worry about. St. Jane frances de Chantal www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca Soli gloriam dei. Holy Spirit, help me not calculate the dangers but count the cost of entering into your mercy...8/9/2017 Numbers 13:1-14:45 Rather than focusing on the gifts God held out to them – a land flowing with milk and honey, with clusters of grapes that were so heavy it took two men to shoulder the load - ten of twelve Hebrew spies calculated the dangers of entering the Promised Land and halted the progress of their people. Two men, Caleb and Hosea (Joshua) instead counted the cost of entering into the mercy God promised his people. When I, like the ten spies, calculate all the elements of the dangers I am facing, I mill around with resources and uncertainty at the gate to mercy, and lose sight of the gifts of any given passage of my life. Jesus invited us to take into account the cost of the journey ahead so that we would be prepared to walk forward into his promises of grace. Counting the costs beyond resources and relationships, that are the true costs of time (commitment), energy (suffering) and practising prayer and thanksgiving in all things (spiritual fitness), I am propelled forward into the surprising mercy of God. Where am I really headed on my journey? Am I marking time as I calculate the dangers, or am I walking forward into the promises and the un-calculable love of God? Holy Spirit, help me not calculate the dangers but count the cost of entering into your mercy. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. (Psalm 51:2) We must sow seed, not hoard it. St. Dominic www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca Soli 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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