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Friday, November 14, 2014

Whoever Loses

Minute Meditations
Prioritize Your Time
Let’s make sure we have our priorities straight—with Jesus, family, and work, in that order. If we love Jesus, we must spend quality time with Him. Eliminate excuses and ask yourself what is really important.
— from Joyful Witness
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St. Gertrude the Great
(1256?-1302)

Gertrude, a Benedictine nun in Helfta, Saxony, was one of the great mystics of the 13th century. Together with her friend and teacher St. Mechtild, she practiced a spirituality called "nuptial mysticism," that is, she came to see herself as the bride of Christ. Her spiritual life was a deeply personal union with Jesus and his Sacred Heart, leading her into the very life of the Trinity. But this was no individualistic piety. Gertrude lived the rhythm of the liturgy, where she found Christ. In the liturgy and in Scripture, she found the themes and images to enrich and express her piety. There was no clash between her personal prayer life and the liturgy.

Comment:

Gertrude's life is another reminder that the heart of the Christian life is prayer: private and liturgical, ordinary or mystical, always personal.
Quote:

"Lord, you have granted me your secret friendship by opening the sacred ark of your divinity, your deified heart, to me in so many ways as to be the source of all my happiness; sometimes imparting it freely, sometimes as a special mark of our mutual friendship. You have so often melted my soul with your loving caresses that, if I did not know the abyss of your overflowing condescensions, I should be amazed were I told that even your Blessed Mother had been chosen to receive such extraordinary marks of tenderness and affection" (Adapted from The Life and Revelations of Saint Gertrude).
Patron Saint of:

West Indies

Saint of the Day
Lives, Lessons and Feast
By Leonard Foley, O.F.M.; revised by Pat McCloskey, O.F.M.
 
 
 
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Presence
My soul longs for your presence, Lord.
When I turn my thoughts to you,
I find peace and contentment.
Freedom
Lord, grant me the grace to be free from the excesses of this life.
Let me not get caught up with the desire for wealth.
Keep my heart and mind free to love and serve you.
Consciousness
In God's loving presence I unwind the past day, starting from now and looking back, moment by moment.
I gather in all the goodness and light, in gratitude.
I attend to the shadows and what they say to me, seeking healing, courage, forgiveness.
 
The Word of God
 
Reading 1 2 jn 4-9
 
[Chosen Lady:]
I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth
just as we were commanded by the Father.
But now, Lady, I ask you,
not as though I were writing a new commandment
but the one we have had from the beginning:
let us love one another.
For this is love, that we walk according to his commandments;
this is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning,
in which you should walk.

Many deceivers have gone out into the world,
those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh;
such is the deceitful one and the antichrist.
Look to yourselves that you do not lose what we worked for
but may receive a full recompense.
Anyone who is so “progressive”
as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God;
whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son.

Responsorial Psalm ps 119:1, 2, 10, 11, 17, 18

R. (1b) Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Blessed are they whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
With all my heart I seek you;
let me not stray from your commands.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Within my heart I treasure your promise,
that I may not sin against you.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Be good to your servant, that I may live
and keep your words.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Open my eyes, that I may consider
the wonders of your law.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!

Gospel lk 17:26-37

Jesus said to his disciples:
“As it was in the days of Noah,
so it will be in the days of the Son of Man;
they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage up to the day
that Noah entered the ark,
and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot:
they were eating, drinking, buying,
selling, planting, building;
on the day when Lot left Sodom,
fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all.
So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
On that day, someone who is on the housetop
and whose belongings are in the house
must not go down to get them,
and likewise one in the field
must not return to what was left behind.
Remember the wife of Lot.
Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it,
but whoever loses it will save it.
I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed;
one will be taken, the other left.
And there will be two women grinding meal together;
one will be taken, the other left.”
They said to him in reply, “Where, Lord?”
He said to them, “Where the body is,
there also the vultures will gather.”
 
Conversation
Jesus, You always welcomed little children when you walked on this earth. Teach me to have a childlike trust in you. To live in the knowledge that You will never abandon me.
Conclusion
I thank God for these few moments we have spent alone together and for any insights I may have been given concerning the text.
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Catholic Meditations

Meditation: Luke 17:26-37

View NAB Reading at USCCB.org
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32nd Week in Ordinary Time
So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed. (Luke 17:30)
Imagine that you just got married to the man or woman of your dreams. Soon afterward, you have to leave on a long business trip. You love your job and look forward to the meetings you will have with your clients. Your company sends you to a nice location, and you look forward to some sightseeing in your spare time. You’re staying at a comfortable hotel with a good restaurant. And yet as much as you are enjoying the trip, you still long to get back home to your beloved.
This analogy can help us to deal with Jesus’ words about his final coming. We too are away on a kind of business trip, with the job of helping to build the kingdom of God. It’s good work, and it’s very rewarding. But we still can’t wait to get home to the Lord, the one place where we most belong!
The only difference in this analogy is the element of surprise. We don’t know the day or the hour when our life’s journey will end. And when it does, we won’t have any time to pack extra bags! So while we are finding great value in our work for the Lord, a part of us should always be ready to greet him whenever he comes again.
So how do we keep our focus on Jesus as we do our work here on earth?  Not by being so other-worldly minded that we ignore everything here below! For whether we spend our days working on a construction site or praying in a monastery, we have the opportunity to glorify the Lord. It’s a matter of perspective.
Here’s one way to keep a good perspective: remember that no matter what your job is, you aren’t just doing a chore. You are cooperating with God in the task of getting the world ready for Jesus’ return. You are providing for your family. You are giving your coworkers the witness of a life conformed to the teachings of Christ. You are glorifying God, not just earning a paycheck!
“Lord, I long to see you face-to-face! Help me to see you and love you in everyone I meet today.”

2 John 4-9; Psalm 119:1-2, 10-11, 17-18

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my2cents:
From today's 1st Scripture:
Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh; such is the deceitful one and the antichrist.
From the Psalm:
Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord.
Last night as we left our Ultreya/reception of new cursillistas, my brother in law Pablo who is in RCIA said he was listening to Jeff Cavins talk about "the end times" and how Catholics shouldn't follow those thoughts.  Ours is a different perspective.  I've sat among protestants that ponder and wonder about the "End Times" and talk about the "rapture" and "tribulations".  They come up with theories about how things will be and they've even made a movie about it and is often terms spoken about in normal conversations.  I told Pablo that those thoughts are not what we understand as Catholics, take it from those who put together the bible by the Holy Spirit, those silly Catholics, I mean, what do they know!? RIGHT? LOL.    Now how can we add to it?  How can we pick at it?  This is a danger.  Keep with me;  because I'm leading to progressivism.  Always old and modern schisms (divisions) among the church that are populated and promulgated (openly declared) by the antichrist.  The biggest problem with the "left behind" thoughts is that it supposes that the antichrist will suddenly appear and will have the mark of the beast.  According to these thoughts there are hebrew writings that make even the Monster Energy Drink the mark of the beast, the devil.  I say this because a coworker showed me a video on them demonstrating all the peculiar markings that we are buying.  I digress.  The so called "anti-christ" is not this one person that will appear in the end times, that antichrist has been around since the beginning of time, feeding Eve an apple, and feeding us today temptations.  The mark of the beast is well known, especially that of Mammon, the god of money, because I'm about to ask you what you are buying into, with your money, time, and talents.  No need to wonder who will be "left behind" because I will tell you who is being left behind, all of those around you whom you have not introduced to Christ JESUS.  And for you not doing so, might actually leave YOU BEHIND.  Jesus brings up the wife of Lot, who looked behind to what was left behind, where was her heart?  That is the question.  This is what is boiling down to right here and right now.  Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it.  Nowadays people are trying to preserve their lives, cover themelves, protect themselves from "the man", try staying healthy, staying away from GMO's while their soul is rotting away.  FOOLS.  What is more important?  What moths can rot or what is eternal?  Yesterday the boss told a salesman to forget everything he was stressing about, because the salesman was about to quit, even handing me his truck keys and cell phone.  The boss said "do what I do, just think of it all as worthless worldly things....your pride is choking you...WHERE IS YOUR FAITH!", but the man left anyways.  You see, this is what it is boiling down to.  Are "your" problems greater than God?  Is your "trouble" so great that you can not see Jesus asking you to surrender to Him?  Can it be that He appears to help and we can't look up to take His hand?  Yes.  It is VERY possible to be fooled by the antichrist, the devil.  It is VERY possible to turn over your life to a false peace.  Yet, it is VERY POSSIBLE that Christ is calling you today to see things through His eyes, His love.  This is to say, once you've experienced Christ Jesus in your life, there is No Looking Back and much less, there is no TURNING Back.  He who looks back is not fit for the Kingdom.  That is to say, you trust in Him, the Holy Spirit.  Last night my wife made all sorts of food to share at Ultreya.  We did not know we would be joined by ultreyas from out of town, and it was barely enough.  As we drove home I said "that was the Holy Spirit guiding you to make all them meals".  This is the life of not questioning God.  You just do what His Kingdom is requiring.  To love by following.  Following the commandments.  Following Jesus the Christ no matter where He goes
Because Where He is, is where I want to be

adrian