SPIRITUAL EXCERCISES & RSV BIBLE EXTRACTS - WEEK 154
STARTS THURSDAY 6th JANUARY 2011
THE GLORY OF ‘MARIAN HOLINESS OF LIFE’
III. SHARING GOD’S GLORY WITH OUR BLESSED LADY
Weekly message No. 150 (8th January 1987).
Our Lady’s gratitude and our response to her guidance.
“Dear children! I desire to thank you for every response to the messages. Especially, dear children, thank you for all the sacrifices and prayers which you have presented to me. Dear children, I desire to keep on giving you still further messages, only not every Thursday, dear children, but on each 25th in the month. The time has come when what my Lord desired has been fulfilled. Now I will give you less messages, but I am still with you. Therefore, dear children, I beseech you, listen to my messages and live them, so I can guide you.
Dear children, thank you for having responded to my call.”
PRACTICAL:
This week offer your Rosary each day in gratitude for Our Lady’s messages.
Thursday: Building on rock.
Matthew 7:24-29.
24“Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; 25and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; 27and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it.” 28And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
Friday: St Paul’s prayer of thanksgiving for the Colossians.
Colossians 1:3-6.
3We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have for all the saints, 5because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel 6which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing--so among yourselves, from the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth.
Friday: Cf. Ephesians 1:15-16.
15For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
Saturday: Blessed are those who listen to the heavenly instructions.
Proverbs 8:32-36.
32And now, my sons, listen to me: happy are those who keep my ways. 33Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. 34Happy is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. 35For he who finds me finds life and obtains favour from the LORD; 36but he who misses me injures himself; all who hate me love death.
Saturday: Cf. Proverbs 8:6-7.
6Hear, for I will speak noble things, and from my lips will come what is right; 7for my mouth will utter truth; wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
Saturday: Cf. Proverbs 22:17-19.
17Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your mind to my knowledge; 18for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips. 19That your trust may be in the LORD, I have made them known to you today, even to you.
Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 14:20-21.
20Blessed is the man who meditates on wisdom and who reasons intelligently. 21He who reflects in his mind on her ways will also ponder her secrets.
Sunday: Cf. Wisdom 6:17-20.
17The beginning of wisdom is the most sincere desire for instruction, and concern for instruction is love of her, 18and love of her is the keeping of her laws, and giving heed to her laws is assurance of immortality, 19and immortality brings one near to God; 20so the desire for wisdom leads to a kingdom.
Monday: Listening to the messenger is listening to God who sent the messenger.
Luke 10:16.
16“He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
Monday: Cf. John 13:20.
20“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives any one whom I send receives me; and he who receives me receives him who sent me.”
Tuesday: The example of Jesus at Nazareth.
Luke 2:41-52.
41Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. 42And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom; 43and when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, 44but supposing him to be in the company they went a day's journey, and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances; 45and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him. 46After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions; 47and all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers 48And when they saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously.” 49And he said to them, “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” 50And they did not understand the saying which he spoke to them. 51And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. 52And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and man.
Wednesday: Accepting the message as God’s message, even when it may bring suffering.
1 Thessalonians 2:13-16.
13And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. 14For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus which are in Judea; for you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, 15who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all men 16by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they may be saved--so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God's wrath has come upon them at last!
Wednesday: Cf. Luke 2:34-35.
34And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against 35(and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.”