"A Tree Known by its Fruit" and "The Two Foundations"
1. A word or phrase that attracts me: "A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good" (vs. 45a); "who dug deeply" (vs. 48); and, "does not act" (vs. 49).
2. What I see or hear the Lord is showing or telling me: Come to Me, listen to My Words, and act on them.
"A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good." The only way I can truly be a good person is to come to Jesus, listen to His Words, and act on them. The Lord is showing me how very important it is for me to spend time with Him in prayer and reading His Holy Word every day. I need to nurture my relationship with Jesus and Mary. I need to abide in God's Word. "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." Colossians 3:16
"...who dug deeply." These words jumped out at me. All I can see, with the eyes of my heart, is Jesus standing at the very bottom of my soul, digging, tilling the soil, breaking up the hardness in my heart, reaching down into my memories, into my wounds, and filling in my brokenness with the love and healing of His Precious Blood, and the cleansing purity of His Holy Spirit, the Water of Life.
"...does not act." The Lord is telling me to come to Him, listen to His Words, and act on them. This is not easy, the acting part, when I would rather stay hiding in my shell. It's easy to act when I know it's God's will, and I'm filled with His Love, His Joy, and His Strength to do it. It's hard to act when my heart is not in the right place, and I am in need of forgiveness and healing. My actions need to be grounded and rooted in God's love, and in His Holy Word.
Jesus told Saint Faustina, "Give away everything at the first sign of a demand, even if they were the most necessary things. Do not ask for anything without consulting Me. Allow them to take away even what is due you - respect, your good name - let your spirit rise above all that. And so, set free from everything, rest close to My Heart, not allowing your peace to be disturbed by anything. My pupil, consider the words which I have spoken to you." (Diary, 1685)
Jesus told Saint Faustina not to ask for anything without consulting Him. I love Saint Faustina's intimate relationship with Jesus! Our Lord was asking her not to act before praying to Him first. The Lord is showing me that I can trust Him to guide me in prayer to know how to act according to His Will, His Word, and His Love!
3. What the Lord is asking me to be or do today, this week, or forever! - "I'm gonna sing when the Spirit says sing!...I'm gonna pray when the Spirit says pray!...I'm gonna love when the Spirit says love!...I'm gonna shout when the Spirit says shout!...and be happy all the day long!"
Luke 6: A Tree Known by Its Fruit.
43 “A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.
44 For every tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not pick figs from thornbushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles.
45 A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.
The Two Foundations.
46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I command?
47 I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, listens to my words, and acts on them.
48 That one is like a person building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when the flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built.
49 But the one who listens and does not act is like a person who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed.”
Showing posts with label Lectio Divina. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lectio Divina. Show all posts
Sunday, October 22, 2017
Lectio Divina Reflection for James 1:2-18
"The Value of Trials and Temptation," especially, "Perseverance in Trial"
1. A word or phrase that attracts me: "Consider it all joy...when you encounter various trials" (vs. 2); "a wave of the sea" (vs. 6); "all good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights." (vs. 17a); and, "He willed to give us birth by the word of truth" (vs. 18a)
2. What I see or hear the Lord showing or telling me: I don't need to be afraid of the storms in my life, because God is in the storms, directing them for my good. "Consider it all joy...when you encounter various trials." I love how God knows what is best for my soul. I need to have various trials to perfect my soul in love. Because my love is not perfect yet, and I'm still woefully learning how to be like Jesus, I need God to show me where I am lacking, and embrace His grace, while He painfully, but lovingly, purifies my soul. It is a joy to be so loved by God, that He is willing to take such careful measures now, to mold me through my trials, so that later my soul will be ready, full of love, perfected by God, to enter in that holy union with Him, of which my soul yearns for, and God calls me to.
"a wave of the sea." I have encountered this wave before. It was a wave of paralyzing fear that overwhelmed and washed over my soul. But I have learned that God is in those deep waters, and His perfect love casts out my fears. (1 John 4:18) It is OK to be a tiny pearl in a tiny clam shell in the sandy bottom of a very deep ocean, hidden in the dark. Psalm 139:12 says, "Darkness is not dark for you, and night shines as the day. Darkness and light are but one." You know, that I am there, Lord, and You are with me.
"all good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights." I was driving from my aunt and uncle's home to my daughter's dorm room in Savannah, Georgia, to evacuate her ahead of Hurricane Irma. I was thinking about a conversation I had with my spiritual director before driving to Georgia. I said that it was so humbling to know that nothing good comes from me, that everything good comes from Jesus and Mary, and that they are already perfect in love.
When I say things like that, the response is always something like, "but God created you out of the goodness of His Heart!" It reminds me of Genesis 1:31a, after God created Adam and Eve, "God looked at everything He had made, and he found it very good." I realized that I needed to see myself through God's eyes of love, and not to cling so much to my own understanding. The Father of lights above is the author of, "all good giving and every perfect gift." Maybe, just maybe, God gives and sees love and goodness in my soul, that He is perfecting there. And since, "He willed to give us birth by the word of truth," my soul rejoices in being created by the very breath of God, in all His Holiness, Goodness, Righteousness, and Love!
3. What the Lord is asking me to be or to do today, this week, or forever! ...to cherish being His daughter, and to know His awesome love for me.
James 1:
Perseverance in Trial.
2
Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials,
3
for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
4
And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5
But if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and he will be given it.
6
But he should ask in faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed about by the wind.
7
For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord,
8
since he is a man of two minds, unstable in all his ways.
9
The brother in lowly circumstances should take pride in his high standing,
10
and the rich one in his lowliness, for he will pass away “like the flower of the field.”
11
For the sun comes up with its scorching heat and dries up the grass, its flower droops, and the beauty of its appearance vanishes. So will the rich person fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
Temptation.
12
Blessed is the man who perseveres in temptation, for when he has been proved he will receive the crown of life that he promised to those who love him.
13
No one experiencing temptation should say, “I am being tempted by God”; for God is not subject to temptation to evil, and he himself tempts no one.
14
Rather, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
15
Then desire conceives and brings forth sin, and when sin reaches maturity it gives birth to death.
16
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers:
17
all good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change.
18
He willed to give us birth by the word of truth that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
1. A word or phrase that attracts me: "Consider it all joy...when you encounter various trials" (vs. 2); "a wave of the sea" (vs. 6); "all good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights." (vs. 17a); and, "He willed to give us birth by the word of truth" (vs. 18a)
2. What I see or hear the Lord showing or telling me: I don't need to be afraid of the storms in my life, because God is in the storms, directing them for my good. "Consider it all joy...when you encounter various trials." I love how God knows what is best for my soul. I need to have various trials to perfect my soul in love. Because my love is not perfect yet, and I'm still woefully learning how to be like Jesus, I need God to show me where I am lacking, and embrace His grace, while He painfully, but lovingly, purifies my soul. It is a joy to be so loved by God, that He is willing to take such careful measures now, to mold me through my trials, so that later my soul will be ready, full of love, perfected by God, to enter in that holy union with Him, of which my soul yearns for, and God calls me to.
"a wave of the sea." I have encountered this wave before. It was a wave of paralyzing fear that overwhelmed and washed over my soul. But I have learned that God is in those deep waters, and His perfect love casts out my fears. (1 John 4:18) It is OK to be a tiny pearl in a tiny clam shell in the sandy bottom of a very deep ocean, hidden in the dark. Psalm 139:12 says, "Darkness is not dark for you, and night shines as the day. Darkness and light are but one." You know, that I am there, Lord, and You are with me.
"all good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights." I was driving from my aunt and uncle's home to my daughter's dorm room in Savannah, Georgia, to evacuate her ahead of Hurricane Irma. I was thinking about a conversation I had with my spiritual director before driving to Georgia. I said that it was so humbling to know that nothing good comes from me, that everything good comes from Jesus and Mary, and that they are already perfect in love.
When I say things like that, the response is always something like, "but God created you out of the goodness of His Heart!" It reminds me of Genesis 1:31a, after God created Adam and Eve, "God looked at everything He had made, and he found it very good." I realized that I needed to see myself through God's eyes of love, and not to cling so much to my own understanding. The Father of lights above is the author of, "all good giving and every perfect gift." Maybe, just maybe, God gives and sees love and goodness in my soul, that He is perfecting there. And since, "He willed to give us birth by the word of truth," my soul rejoices in being created by the very breath of God, in all His Holiness, Goodness, Righteousness, and Love!
3. What the Lord is asking me to be or to do today, this week, or forever! ...to cherish being His daughter, and to know His awesome love for me.
James 1:
Perseverance in Trial.
2
Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials,
3
for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
4
And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5
But if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and he will be given it.
6
But he should ask in faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed about by the wind.
7
For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord,
8
since he is a man of two minds, unstable in all his ways.
9
The brother in lowly circumstances should take pride in his high standing,
10
and the rich one in his lowliness, for he will pass away “like the flower of the field.”
11
For the sun comes up with its scorching heat and dries up the grass, its flower droops, and the beauty of its appearance vanishes. So will the rich person fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
Temptation.
12
Blessed is the man who perseveres in temptation, for when he has been proved he will receive the crown of life that he promised to those who love him.
13
No one experiencing temptation should say, “I am being tempted by God”; for God is not subject to temptation to evil, and he himself tempts no one.
14
Rather, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
15
Then desire conceives and brings forth sin, and when sin reaches maturity it gives birth to death.
16
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers:
17
all good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change.
18
He willed to give us birth by the word of truth that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
Sunday, March 12, 2017
Lectio Divina (Sacred Reading)
Structure of Lectio Divina Prayer Meeting:
Meditating on Scripture (Opening and Closing prayers taken from
“Vision – Praying Scripture in a Contemporary Way”, by Mark Link, S.J.)
Opening
prayer:
Father, you created me
and put me on earth for a purpose.
Jesus, you died for me
and called me to complete your work.
Holy Spirit, you help me
to carry out the work
for which I was created and called.
In your presence and name –
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit –
I begin my meditation.
May all my thoughts and inspirations
have their origin in you
and be directed to your glory.
Light candle and read John 8:12 and
following prayer:
[Jesus said,]
“I am the light of the world…
Whoever follows me
will have the light of life
and will never walk in darkness.”
Lord Jesus, you said,
that where two or three
come together in your name,
you are there with them.
The light of this candle
symbolizes your presence among us.
And, Lord Jesus,
where you are, there, too,
are the Father and the Holy Spirit.
And so we begin our meeting
in the presence and the name
of the Father,
the Son,
and the Holy Spirit.
Praise the Lord with a Holy Spirit song
and a Psalm song
Lectio Divina
1. 1st Reader reads the
Scripture very
slowly 2 times. Silence for 1-2
minutes. Each person shares just a word or phrase that attracts
them. [It is perfectly fine to say, "Pass," at anytime during
the prayer meeting if you do not wish to say anything when it is your
turn. If someone passes, we will all pray the, "Our
Father," prayer together, and move on to the next
person.]
2. 2nd Reader reads the
Scripture very
slowly. Silence for 2-3
minutes. Each person shares how they HEAR God's Word speaking to them,
personally, or how they SEE God's Word touching just their own life.
3. 3rd Reader reads the
Scripture very
slowly. Silence for 2-3
minutes. Each person prays out loud in response to God’s Word, promising
Him to do what they think God is asking them to DO today, or this week, or
forever!
Call to
Mission (Closing prayer) –
read the following prayerfully:
We conclude our meeting
by listening to Jesus say to us
what he said to his disciples
in his Sermon on the Mount:
“You are like light for the whole world.
A city built on a hill cannot be hid.
No one lights a lamp
and puts it under a bowl;
instead he puts it on the lampstand,
where it gives light
for everyone in the house.
In the same way
your light must shine before people,
so that they will see
the good things you do
and praise your Father in heaven.”
(Matthew 5:14-16)
Blow out candle and say:
The light of this candle
is now extinguished.
But the light of Christ in each of us
must continue to shine in our lives.
Toward this end we pray together
The Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father…”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)