SPIRITUAL EXCERCISES & RSV BIBLE EXTRACTS - WEEK 129
STARTS THURSDAY 15th JULY 2010
THE FRUITS OF “MARIAN HOLINESS OF LIFE”
Weekly message No. 124 (10th July 1986).
4. ‘Holiness’ through a life of love.
“Dear children! Today I am calling you to holiness. Without holiness you cannot live. Therefore, with love overcome every sin and with love overcome all the difficulties which are coming to you. Dear children, I beseech you to live love within yourselves. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
PRACTICAL:
Whatever you do this week, motivate it by love (love of God and neighbour).
Thursday: Being a true disciple by doing God’s will.
Matthew 7:21-23.
21Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’
Friday: Christian living perfected by love.
Colossians 3:12-15.
12Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, 13forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.
Saturday: We are chosen by God to lead a holy life in love.
Ephesians 4:1-2.
1I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love.
Sunday: May the Lord confirm our hearts in holiness.
1 Thessalonians 3:11-13.
11Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you; 12and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all men, as we do to you, 13so that he may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
Sunday: Cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:3.
3For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from unchastity.
Monday: We are called to be holy in all our activity.
1 Peter 1:14-16.
14As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15but as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; 16since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
Tuesday: Leading a holy life by keeping God’s commandments, by loving God and neighbour.
Leviticus 19:1-2.
1And the LORD said to Moses, 2“Say to all the congregation of the people of Israel, You shall be holy; for I the LORD your God am holy.”
Tuesday: Leviticus 15-18.
18If a man lies with a woman and has an emission of semen, both of them shall bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the evening.
Wednesday: Seeking peace with all people and the holiness of life without which we can never see the Lord.
Hebrews 12:14-15.
14Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15See to it that no one fail to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” spring up and cause trouble, and by it the many become defiled.