CQOD: 08/26/06 -- Eckhart: doing vs. being

Christian Quotation of the Day

August 26, 2006Meditation:
    For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
    -- Hebrews 9:13-14 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    People should think less about what they ought to do and more about what they ought to be. If only their being were good, their works would shine forth brightly. Do not imagine that you can ground your salvation upon actions; it must rest on what you are. The ground upon which good character rests is the very same ground from which man’s work derives its value, namely, a mind wholly turned to God. Verily, if you were so minded, you might tread on a stone and it would be a more pious work than if you, simply for your own profit, were to receive the Body of the Lord and were wanting in spiritual detachment.
    ... Meister Eckhart (1260?-1327?)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, purge me from pursuit of dead works.

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CQOD: 08/25/06 -- Thomas à Kempis: temporal vs. eternal

Christian Quotation of the Day

August 25, 2006

Commemoration of John Owen, spiritual writer, 1683

Meditation:
    Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
    -- Matthew 19:21-22 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    For a small reward, a man will hurry away on a long journey; while for eternal life, many will hardly take a single step.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ, III.iii.

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, admonish my lethargy. Grant that I may be energetic on the causes of the Kingdom.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2004
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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 08/24/06 -- Lichtenberger: the overarching purposes of God

Christian Quotation of the Day

August 24, 2006

Feast of Bartholomew the Apostle

Meditation:
    The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes. In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard.
    -- Isaiah 7:17-20 (KJV)

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Quotation:
    How readily we assume that the Church is the only channel of divine action among men! Common sense tells us this assumption is wrong—and nothing in the Bible supports such a conclusion. Believing that God is the Lord of history, we believe that God is at work now in the development of industry and commerce throughout the world, in the experiments and researches of the scientists, in the deliberations of the United Nations, and in the course of events in Berlin and Havana, in Moscow and Peiping, and Detroit. One might say, then that He seems to be doing some very strange and contradictory things! But, though we cannot claim to know God’s purpose in all this, we do believe that God acts in all these circumstances. The revolutionary changes of our time are not all a mistake: they are not taking place without God.
    ... Arthur Lichtenberger, The Day is at Hand [1964]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You can be trusted with our futures.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2004
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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 08/23/06 -- de Caussade: perfection in common duties

Christian Quotation of the Day

August 23, 2006

Commemoration of Rose of Lima, Contemplative, 1617

Meditation:
    Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
    -- Romans 6:13 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    There is no one in the world who cannot arrive without difficulty at the most eminent perfection by fulfilling with love the obscure and common duties.
    ... J. P. de Caussade (1675-1751)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Father, make me ever mindful of the smallest of my duties, to Your glory.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2004
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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 08/22/06 -- Traherne: love alone is necessary

Christian Quotation of the Day

August 22, 2006Meditation:
    Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.
    -- 1 Peter 1:22-23 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    God is present by love alone. By love alone He is great and glorious. By love alone He liveth and feeleth in other persons. By love alone He enjoyeth all the creatures, by love alone He is pleasing to Himself, by love alone He is rich and blessed. O, why dost not thou by love alone seek to achieve all these, by love alone attain another self, by love alone live in others, by love attain thy glory? The same is shriveled up and buried in a grave that does not love. But that which does love wisely and truly is the joy and end of all the world, the King of Heaven and the friend of God, the shining light and temple of eternity, the brother of Jesus Christ, and one spirit with the Holy Ghost.
    ... Thomas Traherne (1637?-1674)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, correct my lack of love towards ____ and ____.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2004
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CQOD: 08/21/06 -- Hooker: the real presence

Christian Quotation of the Day

August 21, 2006Meditation:
    Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.
    -- 1 Corinthians 11:27-30 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    The real presence of Christ’s most precious Body and Blood is not to be sought for in the Sacrament, but in the worthy receiver of the Sacrament.
    ... Richard Hooker (1554?-1600)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, break open my heart to receive Your grace.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2004
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CQOD: 08/20/06 -- Bernard: accountable for what we have

Christian Quotation of the Day

August 20, 2006

Feast of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Teacher, 1153
Commemoration of William & Catherine Booth, Founders of the Salvation Army, 1912 & 1890

Meditation:
    For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
    -- Psalm 51:16-17 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    And now be careful to be found a wise and faithful servant, and communicate the heavenly bread to your fellow servants without envy or idleness. Do not take up the vain excuse of your rawness of inexperience which you may imagine or assume. For sterile modesty is never pleasing, nor that humility laudable which passes the bounds of reason. Attend to your work; drive out bashfulness by a sense of duty, and act as a master... But I am not sufficient for these things, you say. As if your offering were not accepted from what you have, and not from what you have not. Be prepared to answer for the single talent committed to your charge, and take no thought for the test... For he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. Give all, as assuredly you shall pay to the uttermost farthing; but of a truth out of what you have, not what you have not.
    ... St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Show me, Lord, my failures to give, and drive away my excuses from my mind and heart.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2004
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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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