Forest: praying for enemies

Sunday, August 24, 2025
    Feast of Bartholomew the Apostle
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.”
    —Matthew 5:43-45 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In praying for enemies, we are not hurling holy thoughts at them or petitioning God to make them into copies of ourselves. Rather we are bringing our enemies into that part of ourselves that is deepest and most vulnerable. We are begging God for the good of those whom, at other times, we wished ill or wished to harm. In praying for enemies, we are asking God to use us for the well-being of those we fear.
    ... Jim Forest (1941-2022), Loving Our Enemies, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2014, p. 98 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 5:43-45; Luke 6:27-29; Rom. 12:14,20-21; 1 Pet. 3:9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me to pray for my enemies. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Brother Lawrence: continually praying

Saturday, August 23, 2025
    Commemoration of Rose of Lima, Contemplative, 1617
Meditation:
    Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
    —Isaiah 55:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In order to form a habit of conversing with God continually, and referring all we do to Him, we must first apply to Him with some diligence; but that after a little care we should find His love inwardly excite us to it without any difficulty.
    ... Brother Lawrence (c.1605-1691), The Practice of the Presence of God, New York, Revell, 1895, Second Conversation, p. 10 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 55:6; Ps. 4:3; 32:6; 119:150-151; Matt. 28:20; Acts 17:27-28; 2 Cor. 6:2; Eph. 1:22-23
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You hear me when I call to You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Stewart: missions not adjunct

Friday, August 22, 2025
Meditation:
    Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).
    —John 1:40-42 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The one reason for missions is Christ. He only is the motive, God’s presence in Him the one sufficient cause.
    The fact is, belief in missions and belief in Christ stand and fall together... The concern for world evangelization is not something tacked on to a man’s personal Christianity, which he may take or leave as he chooses. It is rooted in the character of the God who has come to us in Jesus. Thus, it can never be the province of a few enthusiasts, a sideline or a specialty of those who happen to have a bent that way. It is the distinctive mark of being a Christian.
    ... James S. Stewart (1896-1990), Thine is the Kingdom, Edinburgh: St. Andrews Press, 1956, p. 14-15 (see the book)
    See also John 1:40-42; Luke 2:17-18; John 4:28-29; Acts 2:38; 4:19-20; 8:12; 11:20-21; 1 John 1:3
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people’s hearts overflow with the good news. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Underhill: the eyes of love

Thursday, August 21, 2025
Meditation:
    “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.”
    —Mark 14:6-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    All things are perceived in the light of charity, and hence under the aspect of beauty; for beauty is simply Reality seen with the eyes of love.
    ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), Mysticism, Doubleday, 1911, p. 206 (see the book)
    See also Mark 14:3-9; Matt. 26:6-13; Mark 10:21; 1 Cor. 13
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your love lightens all my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bernard: feed the sheep

Wednesday, August 20, 2025
    Feast of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Teacher, 1153
    Commemoration of William & Catherine Booth, Founders of the Salvation Army, 1912 & 1890
Meditation:
    When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?”
    “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
    Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
    —John 21:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    To preach the Gospel is to feed the sheep. Do the work of an evangelist, and you have done the work of a shepherd.
    ... Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), On Consideration, tr. George Lewis, Clarendon Press, 1908, IV.iii.6, p. 104 (see the book)
    See also John 21:15-17; Ps. 89:15; Isa. 40:11; Matt. 4:23; 28:18-20; Acts 5:20; 10:36; Rom. 1:16-17; Gal. 3:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, place Your Gospel in my mouth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Lewis: likeness to Christ

Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Meditation:
    “Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
    —Mark 6:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Our imitation of God in this life—that is, our willed imitation, as distinct from any of the likenesses which He has impressed upon our natures or our states—must be an imitation of God Incarnate: our model is the Jesus, not only of Calvary, but of the workshop, the roads, the crowds, the clamorous demands and surly oppositions, the lack of all peace and privacy, the interruptions. For this, so strangely unlike anything we can attribute to the Divine life in itself, is apparently not only like, but is, the Divine life operating under human conditions.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Four Loves, London: Geoffrey Bles, 1960, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1960, p. 6 (see the book)
    See also Mark 6:3; 1 Cor. 15:48-49; Phil. 2:5-7; 2 Thess. 3:10; Heb. 2:17; 4:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are one of us; make me like You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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van Ruysbroeck: compassion

Monday, August 18, 2025
Meditation:
“For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
    and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”
    —Hosea 6:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Compassion is an inward movement of the heart, stirred by pity for the bodily and ghostly griefs of all men. This compassion makes a man suffer with Christ in His passion; for he who is compassionate marks the wherefore of His pains and the way of His resignation; of His love, His wounds, His tenderness; of His grief and His nobleness; of the disgrace, the misery, and the shame He endured; of the way in which He was despised; of His crown; of the nails; of His mercifulness; of His destruction and dying in patience. These manifold and unheard-of sorrows of Christ, our Saviour and our Bridegroom, move all kindly men to pity and compassion with Christ.
    ... Jan van Ruysbroeck (1293-1381), Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, I.xviii (see the book)
    See also Hos. 6:6; Isa. 40:11; 42:3; 53:4; 63:7-9; Matt. 8:2-3; 9:36; 14:14; Mark 6:34; 2 Cor. 8:9; Heb. 4:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart that loves mercy. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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