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What does covetousness mean? Today, we launch into the ninth commandment, which deals with carnal concupiscence. This commandment addresses the tension between the “flesh” and the “spirit.” Fr. Mike emphasizes that purity of heart and temperance are crucial to overcoming lust of the flesh. The more we obey God, the more our hearts see others as God sees them. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2514-2519.
Click on link: https://youtu.be/67oGpP38NlA?si=hsgHH7QsoCcoxiGP
Together with Fr. Mike, we unpack the joint mission of God’s Word and the Spirit in the Old and New Testaments. Fr. Mike emphasizes the Spirit’s role in creation, the theophanies, and the Law. We conclude today’s reflection with an examination of the prefiguration of the Church in the exile of the people of God in the Old Testament. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 702-710.
Click on the link to play video: https://youtu.be/3p6lOex_HYY
Clare of Assisi fought for the “privilege of poverty” because she knew that if she failed to be dependent on others, she would ultimately fail to be dependent on God. Had she sought a nice, clean, fresh, minty type of God in heaven, she might have opted for more autonomy. But she believed that God has come among us and revealed to us, in the poverty of being human, how to live united in love, to God and to another. She realized that only the poor and humble can share in the poor and humble love of God. Clare’s path to God through the depths of poverty impels us to admit that real relationship with God requires true humble humanity. Only when we come to the truth of who we are (and who we are not) as poor persons can we come to that place of vulnerability in our lives where God can enter in. Only then can we know what it means to be a human person embedded in a world of goodness.
— from the book Clare of Assisi: A Heart Full of Love
by Ilia Delio, OSF
//Franciscan Media//
Hearing the Call of Destiny
John the Baptist did not spend time away in the desert just to be one with nature—he was led there by the Spirit of God to prepare for his mission in life. He may have been surprised by where he ended up!
THIS WEEK’S GOSEPL IS LUKE 3:1-6
What if he had resisted God’s urging to go out into the wilderness? Who would have baptized Jesus in the Jordan river?
In order to fulfill the unique calling for each of our lives, we need to follow the example of John—to allow God to lead us.
Watch today’s reflection to discover the key word we sometimes forget that is essential to hearing God in our day-to-day lives!
Franciscan evangelical life strives to live in this mystery more deeply through a life of unceasing prayer. God is to descend and take on flesh anew in our lives through the indwelling Spirit that joins us to Christ and expresses itself in the body of the believer. Prayer is the breath of the Spirit within us, the Spirit who brought about the Incarnation of the Word of God and who continues to incarnate the Word in our lives. The one Spirit who joins together the Father and Word in love brings us finite creatures into this infinite relationship of love. Because the one Spirit is sent by the one Christ, the fullness of Christ is the fullness of love that is the work of Spirit. The Spirit not only forms one to Christ but brings all into unity in Christ.
— from the book Franciscan Prayer
//Franciscan Media//
Power cannot, in itself, be bad. It simply needs to be realigned and redefined as something larger than domination or force. Rather than stating that power is bad, the Bible reveals the paradox of power. If the Holy Spirit is power, then power has to be good, not something that is always the result of ambition or greed. In fact, a truly spiritual woman, a truly whole man, is a very powerful person. In people like Moses, Jesus, and Paul, we can assume that it was precisely their powerful egos that God used, built on, and transformed, but did not dismiss. If we do not name the good meaning of power, we will invariably be content with the bad, or we will avoid our powerful vocation.
— from the book Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality by Richard Rohr, OFM
//Franciscan Media//
“O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.”
— St. Augustine
//Catholic Company//
“Just as in one man there is one soul and one body, yet many members; even so the Catholic Church is one body, having many members. The soul that quickens this body is the Holy Spirit; and therefore in the Creed after confessing our belief in the Holy Spirit, we are bid to believe in the Holy Catholic Church.”
— St. Thomas Aquinas
//Catholic Company//