Do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward. For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet ‘in a very little while, the one who is coming will come and will not delay; but my righteous one will live by faith. My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back.’ But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.(Hebrews 10:35-39; 11:1-3)
Meditation
According to the second aspect, the person who believes sees the world as having an origin, a course and an end. For, through faith, we believe that the ages have been prepared for the Word of Life; through faith, we believe that the seasons of the three laws - of nature, of written texts and of grace - succeed one another in a most orderly linear development; and, through faith, we believe that the world is to be brought to an end by a final act of realisation. Thus, one is aware of power in the first place, of providence in the second place and of the justice of the Supreme Principle in the third place.
According to the third aspect, the person who investigates by reasoning sees that certain things simply exist, that other things exist and live, but that other things exist and live and discern: the first of these is the lowest level, the second the middle level and the third the best level. And furthermore it is seen that certain things are only corporal and certain things partly corporal and partly spiritual; from this it follows that still other things are entirely spiritual and are better and more worthy than those found in either of the other groups. On the other hand, it is also seen that certain things are mutable and corruptible, as are mundane things, and that certain things are mutable and incorruptible, as are divine things: from this it follows that certain things are immutable and incorruptible, as are things beyond the divine. There is a natural development, therefore, from these visible things, towards a consideration of the power, wisdom and goodness of God, as the being, living and understanding, as the purely spiritual, incorruptible and unchangable.(Journey 1:12-13)
Musical Selection(John Michael Talbot)
Embrace discipline, my son From your youth, when you’re young You will find Wisdom with graying hair First you plow then you sow From your youth draw close Then await her bountiful harvest
For in cultivating her you will labor but little Soon you will eat her abundant fruit
Discipline, like her name She is not accessible to many, but few Put your feet in her fetters, your neck into her yoke Stoop your shoulders and carry her weight Afterward you will find rest in her Her fetters become your throne of support
For her yoke is easy, her burden light Take up your cross and follow For her yoke is easy and her burden is light
If you wish you can learn If you listen to God’s word So frequent the company of elders Let your feet wear away at their door Eager for Godly discourse Let no wise saying ever escape you
Reflect on the precepts of the Lord Let His commandments be your meditation
For His yoke is easy, His burden is light Take up His cross and follow For His yoke is easy and His burden is light
Then He’ll enlighten your mind Seek and you will find And the Wisdom you seek will be yours
September 14 (Feast of the Holy Cross)
Listen to me, my child, and acquire knowledge, and pay close attention to my words. I will impart discipline precisely and declare knowledge accurately. When the Lord created his works from the beginning, and, in making them, determined their boundaries, he arranged his works in an eternal order, and their dominion for all generations. They neither hunger nor grow weary, and they do not abandon their tasks. They do not crowd one another, and they never disobey his word. Then the Lord looked upon the earth, and filled it with his good things. With all kinds of living beings he covered its surface, and into it they must return.
The Lord created human beings out of earth, and makes them return to it again. He gave them a fixed number of days, but granted them authority over everything on the earth.
He endowed them with strength like his own, and made them in his own image. He put the fear of them in all living beings, and gave them dominion over beasts and birds. Discretion and tongue and eyes, ears and a mind for thinking he gave them. He filled them with knowledge and understanding, and showed them good and evil. He put the fear of him into their hearts to show them the majesty of his works. And they will praise his holy name, to proclaim the grandeur of his works. He bestowed knowledge upon them, and allotted to them the law of life. He established with them an eternal covenant, and revealed to them his decrees. Their eyes saw his glorious majesty, and their ears heard the glory of his voice.(Ecclesiasticus 16:24-30; 17:1-13)
Meditation
Modernity has been marked by an excessive anthropocentrism which today, under another guise, continues to stand in the way of shared understanding and of any effort to strengthen social bonds. The time has come to pay renewed attention to reality and the limits it imposes; this in turn is the condition for a more sound and fruitful development of individuals and society. An inadequate presentation of Christian anthropology gave rise to a wrong understanding of the relationship between human beings and the world. Often, what was handed on was a Promethean vision of mastery over the world, which gave the impression that the protection of nature was something that only the faint-hearted cared about. Instead, our “dominion” over the universe should be understood more properly in the sense of responsible stewardship.
Neglecting to monitor the harm done to nature and the environmental impact of our decisions is only the most striking sign of a disregard for the message contained in the structures of nature itself. When we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities – to offer just a few examples – it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself; everything is connected. Once the human being declares independence from reality and behaves with absolute dominion, the very foundations of our life begin to crumble, for “instead of carrying out his role as a cooperator with God in the work of creation, man sets himself up in place of God and thus ends up provoking a rebellion on the part of nature”. (LS 3:116,117)
Musical Selection
Creating God Your fingers trace The bold designs of farthest space Let sun and moon and stars and light And what lies hidden praise Your might
Sustaining God Your hands uphold Earth's myst'ries known or yet untold Let water's fragile blend with air Enabling life proclaim Your care
Redeeming God Your arms embrace All now despised for creed or race Let peace descending like a dove Make known on earth Your healing love
Indwelling God Your gospel claims One family with a billion names Let ev'ry life be touched by grace Until we praise You face to face
September 15
I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.(Ephesians 3:14b-21)
Meditation
This consideration extends outwards according to the sevenfold condition of created things, which is the sevenfold testimony of divine power and goodness, that being the origin, magnitude, multitude, physical appearance, the fullness, the operation and the order of all things. The origin of things, according to their creation, distinction and embellishment and as much as it deals with the works of the six days of creation, speaks of the divine power which produced all things from nothing, the divine wisdom which clearly distinguishes one thing from another and the divine goodness which generously adorns all things. Magnitude is concerned with the length, breadth and depth of things, according to their excellence which extends far and wide and deeply, as can be seen in the diffusion of light. This, together with the effect of their most interior, continual and diffuse activity, as can be seen in the activity of fire, manifestly shows the extent of the power, wisdom and goodness of the Triune God Who, in all things,exists as unconstrained power, presence and essence. The multitude of things, according to their general, special and individual diversity, in substance, in form or figure, and efficacious beyond human understanding, manifestly suggests and shows the immensity of the three conditions in God, as previously described. Physical appearance is in accordance with the lights, forms and colors of simple, mixed and even composite bodies, whether celestial and mineral, stone and metal, plant and animal, also evidently proclaims these three things. The fullness of things - according to which matter is full of forms due to the seminal reasons, form is full of power due to active potential, power is full of effects due to its efficiency - manifestly declares this thing once more. The manifold activity of those things which are either natural, or artificial, or moral, due to their most extensive variety, show the immensity of His power, art and goodness, which for all things is "the cause of existence, the rationality for understanding and the way of living". Order figures out the duration, situation and influence - that is, by what is before and what is after, what is superior and what is inferior, what is noble and what is less noble, it clearly suggests the primacy, sublimity and dignity of the First Principle, as far as it regards the infinity of His power; furthermore,the order of divine laws, precepts and judgments in the book of Scripture clearly suggests the immensity of His wisdom; lastly, the order of divine sacraments, rewards and punishments in the body of the Church clearly shows the immensity of His goodness. In this way, order itself leads us by the hand to the First and Supreme, the Most
Powerful, the Most Wise and the Best.(Journey 1:14)
Musical Selection(John Michael Talbot)
God chose us in his Son To be his adopted children
Praised be the God and Father For our Lord Jesus Christ Who has bestowed on us in Christ Every spiritual blessing in the heavens
God chose us in him Before the world began To be holy And blameless in his sight
He predestined us To be his adopted sons through Jesus Christ Such was his will and pleasure That all might praise the glorious favor He has bestowed on us in his beloved
In him and through his blood We have been redeemed And our sins forgiven So immeasurably generous Is God's favor to us
God has given us the wisdom To understand fully the mystery The plan he was pleased To decree in Christ A plan to be carried In Christ, in the fulness of time To bring all things into one in him In the heavens and on earth
Glory to the Father And to the Son And to the Holy Spirit
As it was in the beginning Is now And will be for ever Amen