SPIRITUAL EXCERCISES & RSV BIBLE EXTRACTS - WEEK 135
STARTS THURSDAY 26th AUGUST 2010
THE FRUITS OF “MARIAN HOLINESS OF LIFE”
Weekly message No. 130 (21st August 1986).
10. Understanding Our Lady’s love for us.
“Dear children! I thank you for the love which you are showing me. You know, dear children, that I love you immeasurably and daily I pray the Lord to help you to understand the love which I am showing you. Therefore, you, dear children, pray, pray, pray!”
PRACTICAL:
This week pray each day with special devotion the ‘Prayer of Dedication to Mary,’ dictated by Our Lady to Jelena (Handbook p.188; or Prayer leaflet).
Thursday: Brotherly love and reconciliation.
Matthew 5:20-26.
20For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 21“You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.’ 22But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be liable to the hell of fire. 23So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison; 26truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny.”
Friday: Mary the Mother of beautiful love.
(Knox translation as in the Handbook p.7l)
Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 24:24-31.
23All this is the book of the covenant of the Most High God, the law which Moses commanded us as an inheritance for the congregations of Jacob.
(No verse 24) 25It fills men with wisdom, like the Pishon, and like the Tigris at the time of the first fruits. 26It makes them full of understanding, like the Euphrates, and like the Jordan at harvest time. 27It makes instruction shine forth like light, like the Gihon at the time of vintage. 28Just as the first man did not know her perfectly, the last one has not fathomed her; 29for her thought is more abundant than the sea, and her counsel deeper than the great abyss. 30I went forth like a canal from a river and like a water channel into a garden. 31I said, “I will water my orchard and drench my garden plot;” and lo, my canal became a river, and my river became a sea.
(Latin Vulgate-Knox translation, see Handbook p.7l)
(Knox translation as in the Handbook, page 71) Based on some Greek texts and the Latin Vulgate – which gives us a beautiful portrayal of Mary, the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, the Seat of Wisdom, the “Mother of beautiful love.”
“It is I that give birth to (I am the Mother of) all noble loving, all reverence, all true knowledge, and holy gift of hope. From me comes every grace of faithful observance, from me all promise of life and vigour. Hither turn your steps, all you that have learned to long for me; take your fill of the increase I yield. Never was honey so sweet as the influence I inspire, never honey-comb as the gift I bring; mine is the renown that endures, age after age. Eat of this fruit, and you will yet hunger for more; drink of this wine, and your thirst for it is still unquenched. He who listens to me will never be disappointed; he who reads my lesson aright will find in it life eternal.”
Saturday: God’s everlasting love is revealed to us through Mary’s love for us. Jeremiah 31:3.
3The LORD appeared to him from afar. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
Sunday: God’s faithful love for his people shines through Mary’s love for us.
Hosea 11:1-9.
1When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals, and burning incense to idols. 3Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. 4I led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one, who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them. 5They shall return to the land of Egypt, and Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. 6The sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates, and devour them in their fortresses. 7My people are bent on turning away from me; so they are appointed to the yoke, and none shall remove it. 8How can I give you up, O Ephraim! How can I hand you over, O Israel! How can I make you like Admah! How can I treat you like Zeboiim! My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender. 9I will not execute my fierce anger, I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come to destroy.
Monday: The song of one who loves very much.
Song of Songs 2:1-7.
1I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. 2As a lily among brambles, so is my love among maidens. 3As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. 4He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. 5Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples; for I am sick with love. 6O that his left hand were under my head, and that his right hand embraced me! 7I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the hinds of the field, that you stir not up nor awaken love until it please.
Tuesday: Wisdom is like the love of Mary, the ‘Seat of Wisdom.’
Wisdom 8:1-4.
1She reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and she orders all things well. 2I loved her and sought her from my youth, and I desired to take her for my bride, and I became enamoured of her beauty. 3She glorifies her noble birth by living with God, and the Lord of all loves her. 4For she is an initiate in the knowledge of God, and an associate in his works.
Wednesday: Understanding Our Lady’s love.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
4Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; 5it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. 7Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.