THE WAY OF PURIFICATION ... AFTER CONVERSION...Variety in the Spiritual Life... Pray
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Posted:Jun 21, 2007 5:23 pm
Last Updated:Apr 28, 2024 7:26 am 2354 Views
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THE WAY OF PURIFICATION
AFTER CONVERSION
CHAPTER 35
Variety in the Spiritual Life
PRAY,
O Holy Ghost, my God and Sanctifier, grant me light to see how I can make my daily life more fruitful in doing good. Let me not fall into a rut and stay there. Life is a glorious opportunity to do great things–to become more like You, my God, by the good and love which I can give to others. Help me see more ways of increasing the good in my daily life. Give me the unselfishness and strength to do good for Your sake. Amen
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My
Daily
Bread
CONFRATERNETY
OF THE
PRECIOUS
BLOOD
Book 1 ‒ The Way of Purification
Part 2 ‒ After Conversion
Page 67-69
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THE WAY OF PURIFICATION... AFTER CONVERSION... Variety in the Spiritual Life... Think
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Posted:Jun 21, 2007 5:18 pm
Last Updated:Jun 21, 2007 5:20 pm 2334 Views
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THE WAY OF PURIFICATION
AFTER CONVERSION
CHAPTER 35
Variety in the Spiritual Life
THINK,
It is so easy to fall into a routine and stick to it. Many go on day after day, doing the same old things in the same old way. Variety makes life interesting, yet too few have the ambition and energy to put variety into their daily lives. In prayer, I shall try to learn various methods in case I should need them to avoid the dullness of routine. I can read the lives of the saints and see where I may make a few changes in my own spiritual life. My spiritual director ca give me ideas on how to freshen my zeal for God’s glory and for the help of my neighbor.
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My
Daily
Bread
CONFRATERNETY
OF THE
PRECIOUS
BLOOD
Book 1 ‒ The Way of Purification
Part 2 ‒ After Conversion
Page 67-69
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0
Comments
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THE WAY OF PURIFICATION ... AFTER CONVERSION... Variety in the Spiritual Life
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Posted:Jun 21, 2007 5:09 pm
Last Updated:Aug 24, 2007 2:38 am 2354 Views
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THE WAY OF PURIFICATION
AFTER CONVERSION
CHAPTER 35
Variety in the Spiritual Life
CHRIST, My , not everyone can make use of the same spiritual exercises. One devotion suits this person, while another suits that person. At times a change of spiritual exercise will do you good. Some devotions will help on ordinary days, and others will be more helpful on holy days. You may need one type of spiritual activity in time of temptations and another in time of peace. A man likes certain thoughts when he is sad, but in time of spiritual joy, he prefers other thoughts.
2. Variety in your spiritual life will help you live a richer life and holier one. Make your spiritual goals and your resolutions according to the spirit of the different seasons of the church calendar. Plan your interior life as one who is eager to give Me better service. Live as one who looks forward to Heaven.
3. Think of death as the gateway to Heaven. Learn to look upon your earthly life as a great opportunity to make a worthy preparation for Heaven. If I have not called you yet, consider that it is because you are not yet well enough prepared to receive the heavenly glory which is being reserve for you. Then plan how to prepare yourself for that heavenly reward. Never forget the words: “Blessed is that servant whom the Lord shall find watching when He comes. Indeed, I tell you, He will place him over all His possessions!”
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My
Daily
Bread
CONFRATERNETY
OF THE
PRECIOUS
BLOOD
Book 1 ‒ The Way of Purification
Part 2 ‒ After Conversion
Page 67-69
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0
Comments
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Mark 11:11-25... Jesus Curses a Fig Tree... Reflect
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Posted:Jun 20, 2007 6:24 am
Last Updated:Jun 20, 2007 4:15 pm 2633 Views
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Mark 11:11-25... Jesus Curses a Fig Tree... Reflect…
In our gospel reading, we hear Jesus promise: “All that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.” This statement of Jesus is pretty sweeping. But it is true? What if two sincere believers ask for opposite things in the same time, how can their prayer be answered?
God will give us whatever we wants, asking in prayer–what we truly want, not what we say we want or even think we want. God listen to the heart, not to the lips. He knows, too, how limited is our understanding and knowledge. He sees our truest desires and know how they can best be fulfilled. And this is what he grants.
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365 Days with the Lord
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Mark 11:11-25... Jesus Curses a Fig Tree
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Posted:Jun 20, 2007 6:16 am
Last Updated:Jun 20, 2007 4:15 pm 3072 Views
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Mark 11:11-25
Jesus Curses a Fig Tree
[Jesus] entered Jerusalem and went into the temple area. He looked around at everything and, since it was already late, went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
The next day as they were leaving Bethany he was hungry. Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, he went over to see if he could find anything on it. When he reached it he found nothing but leaves; it was not the time for figs. And he said to it in reply, “May no one ever eat of your fruit again!” And his disciples heard it…
Early in the morning, as they were walking along, they saw the fig tree, withered to its roots. Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
Jesus said to them in reply, “Have faith in God. Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him. Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer; believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours. When you stand to pray, forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance, so that your heavenly Father may turn forgive you your transgressions.”
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365 Days with the Lord
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Luke 1:39-56... Mary Visit Elizabeth... Reflect
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Posted:Jun 19, 2007 6:17 pm
Last Updated:Apr 28, 2024 7:26 am 2370 Views
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Luke 1:39-56... Mary Visit Elizabeth... Reflect…
In the first two chapters of Luke’s gospel, we are presented with two announcements of birth: one to Zechariah concerning the future birth of his , John the Baptist, and one to Mary, concerning the birth of Jesus. Since both are asked to male tremendous act of faith by accepting the angel’s extraordinary statements, we expect that both will rise to the occasion and express their wholehearted availability to God’s plans for them. Unfortunately, the angel’s words are too much for Zechariah. To have a in his and his wife’s old age is judge impossible, and he balks at such a prospect. He reacts with suspicious doubt: “How shall I know this?” Mary’s reaction is quite different. What she is being asked to believe is even more incredible, for whoever heard of a virgin remaining a virgin through pregnancy and birth? Yet, she unhesitatingly takes the angel at his word. She believes everything he says to her, although it makes no sense on the natural level. She does not understand how such impossibilities can become possible because God makes them so, but she accepts that it can be so.
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365 Days with the Lord
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Luke 1:39-56 ... Mary Visit Elizabeth
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Posted:Jun 19, 2007 5:54 pm
Last Updated:Apr 28, 2024 7:26 am 2332 Views
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Luke 1:39-56
Mary Visit Elizabeth
During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reach my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”
And Mary said:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness;
behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed.
The Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is from age to age;
to those who fear him.
He has shown might with his arms;
dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart.
He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones
but lifted up the lowly.
The hungry he has filled with good things;
the rich he has sent away empty.
He has help Israel his servant;
remembering his mercy.
According to his promise to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.
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365 Days with the Lord
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Mark 10:32-45... Ambition of James and John... Reflect
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Posted:Jun 18, 2007 6:18 pm
Last Updated:Apr 28, 2024 7:26 am 2307 Views
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Mark 10:32-45... Ambition of James and John... Reflect…
“Whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.” When a person can be said to be a “great” person, surely it is because, among other qualities, such a person has emotional maturity. And emotional maturity, according to psychologist, is the direct result of self-gift, of disinterested service. This is how psychologist Morton Kelsey puts it:
“Emotional maturity,” he writes, “only begins to take place in us when we become more interested in giving of ourselves than in just receiving…
“ need and desire to be loved and held. They are interested only in themselves. This is a natural stage of development. To pass from childhood and childishness to adulthood, however, requires a shift from merely receiving loving and understanding to giving caring concern to others. The essential mark of a mature adult is the ability to give love, expecting nothing in return. Until we can give love and understanding–without any strings attached–we still remain emotional no matter how physically or intellectually grow up we are” (Set Your Hearts on the Greatest Gift. Living the Art of Christian Love, pp. 15-16 ).
Those who deliberately choose to serve others grow as persons. They reach greatness before God and before their fellow humans. They are also deeply happy.
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365 Days with the Lord
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Mark 10:32-45... Ambition of James and John
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Posted:Jun 18, 2007 6:10 pm
Last Updated:Jun 18, 2007 6:11 pm 2350 Views
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Mark 10:32-45
Ambition of James and John
[Jesus and his disciples] were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of [his disciples]. They were amazed and those who followed were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him. “Behold, we are going to Jerusalem, and the of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise.”
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
He replied, “What do you wish [me] to do for you?”
They answered him, “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.”
Jesus said to them, “you do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”
They said to him, “We can.”
Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.
Jesus summoned them and said to them, “You know that those who are recognized make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
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365 Days with the Lord
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Mark 10:28-31... Hundredfold Reward ... Reflect…
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Posted:Jun 17, 2007 10:58 pm
Last Updated:Jun 17, 2007 11:01 pm 2348 Views
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Mark 10:28-31... Hundredfold Reward... Reflect…
The gospel reading has been more or less monopolized by monks and nuns in the course of the centuries. This was no doubt inevitable since the religious men and women of the Church, those who belong to the so-called “consecrated” life, renounce all personal property for the sake of imitating more closely Christ poor. And they do receive the hundredfold in this life in terms of shared property and spiritual brothers and sisters in the congregation to which they belong. Nothing in this goes counter to the promise given here by Jesus.
However, it is doubtful that Jesus would mean to restrict his promise to the religious only. Already we see a first fulfillment of his promise in the primitive Church. According to the description given us by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles, “There was no needy person among them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need” (Acts 4:34-35 ). Consequently, at least those who were formerly needy had literally much more property, by becoming Christians, than they had before.
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365 Days with the Lord
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