Thursday, August 20, 2015

-
Exodus, Chapter 20, Verse 18-20
Now as all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the blast of the shofar and the mountain smoking, they became afraid and trembled. So they took up a position farther away and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we shall die.” Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid, for God has come only to test you and put the fear of him upon you so you do not sin.”

The Israelite's were afraid and preferred to have Moses mediate for them with God rather than having a real relationship with God.

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/bernard/loving_god/files/loving_god.jpg
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/bernard/loving_god.i.html
What is love? In his text On Loving God, St. Bernard surveys the four types of love that Christians experience as they grow in their relationship with God: loving one's self, selfish love, loving God as God, and loving one's self in God. St. Bernard reminds us that not only did God give us life, but He gave us Himself. For indeed, "God deserves to be loved very much, yea, boundlessly, because He loved us first, He infinite and we nothing, loved us, miserable sinners, with a love so great and so free." St. Bernard reminds us that we are indebted to God for his love and His sacrifice. Not only should we love God because it is what He deserves, but also because loving God does not go without reward. Loving God is to our advantage. The Lord rewards those who love Him with the blessed state of the heavenly Fatherland, where sorrow and sadness cannot enter. St. Bernard's medieval prose is poetic and full of clever imagery. His work is as beautiful as it is knowledgeable.

Emmalon Davis
CCEL Staff Writer


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Friday, December 31, 2021

-
Image
  Friday In the Octave of Christmas ST SYLVESTER-NEW YEARS EVE   Sirach, Chapter 2, Verse 15-17 15 Those who FEAR the Lord do not disobey his words; those who love him keep his ways. 16 Those who fear the Lord seek to please him; those who love him are filled with his law. 17 Those who fear the Lord prepare their hearts and humble themselves before him.   “Perfect love casts out all fear .” Many of us are conscious of our sins and failures. The older we get, the more we become aware that we have not measured up to what God had in mind for us from all eternity. We begin to worry about Judgment Day. Fear . Even when we are younger, if we have a good conscience, we worry over our sins. Remember that God loved us so much that he sent his Son to save us. Remember that Jesus gave his life for each of us personally. Remember that God is not like us: He loves us with an everlasting love. We need to realize this love of God so that it will cast out all fear from our hearts. We
Read more

Thirty Days with Mary-Day 26-September 9

-
Image
    30 Days of Women and Herbs – Frauendreissiger Mugwort   (Artemisia vulgaris) 2 Maccabees, Chapter 15, Verse 8 He urged his men not to  fear  the attack of the Gentiles, but mindful of the help they had received in the past from Heaven, to expect now the victory that would be given them by the Almighty.   As an old, retired military man it was common for us to say while we were loading our magazines with bullets, “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition." We knew that without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Optimists see steppingstones where pessimists see stumbling blocks.   Heavenly Intercession [1] "Stretching out his right hand, Jeremiah presented a gold sword to Judas. As he gave it to him, he said 'Accept this holy sword as a gift from God; with it you shall crush your adversaries.' " —2 Maccabees 15:15-16   Nicanor planned to slaughter the Jews on th
Read more

Saturday, July 6, 2024

-
Image
Saints, Feast, Family - Traditions passed down with Cooking, Crafting, & Caring  - July 6   Saint of the day: Saint Nazaria Ignacia March Mesa Patron Saint of Missionaries of the Crusade Vinny’s Corner ·           Roy Rogers King of Cowboys RIP 1998   Today Party like you are Capt. Kidd Capt. Kidd arrested 1699 Tomorrow Start   Let Freedom Ring: 40 Days to Freedom from the Devil [1]   July 7-August 15, 2024   It is right and good for us to prepare ourselves as her retainers in her battle with Satan from now until the Feast of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven Goal: Through acts of reparation, fasting, penance, charity, and prayer (both personal and sacramental) we call upon the power of God to release ourselves, our families, our parishes, our dioceses, and our nation from all demonic influence and oppression. Method :   Each day will be broken into prayer, reflection, and reparation. Reflection :  A reflection (rotating from Fr. Peckman, Fr. Altman & Fr. Heilman) will
Read more

Friday, August 26, 2022

-
Image
 Switch of Manliness Legacy OUR LADY OF CZESTOCHOWA   Acts, Chapter 10, verse 1-4 1 Now in Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Cohort called the Italica, 2 devout and God-fearing along with his whole household, who used to give alms generously to the Jewish people and pray to God constantly. 3 One afternoon about three o’clock, he saw plainly in a vision an angel of God come into him and say to him, “Cornelius.” 4 He looked intently at him and seized with FEAR , said, “What is it, sir?” He said to him, “Your prayers and almsgiving have ascended as a memorial offering before God.   Cornelius’ Cohort was an auxiliary unit of archers, men who are expert at hitting a mark or target.   Sin is the act of violating God's will. Sin can also be viewed as anything that violates the ideal relationship between an individual and God, or as any diversion from the ideal order for human living. To sin has been defined as "to miss the mark" to have a harden
Read more

Tuesday, July 16, 2024

-
Image
Eat Something with Spinach today   OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL   Isaiah, Chapter 7, Verse 3-6 3 Then the LORD said to Isaiah: Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the fuller’s field, 4 and say to him: Take care you remain calm and do not fear ; do not let your courage fail before these two stumps of smoldering brands, the blazing anger of Rezin and the Arameans and of the son of Remaliah— 5 because Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has planned evil against you. They say, 6 “Let us go up against Judah, tear it apart, make it our own by force, and appoint the son of Tabeel king there .   These verses contain a series of oracles and narratives, all closely related to the Syro-Ephraimite war of 735–732 B.C. Several passages feature three children whose symbolic names refer to the Lord’s purposes: Shear-jashub, Emmanuel, and Maher-shalal-hash-baz. Judah and its Davidic dynasty should trust Go
Read more

Monday, October 3, 2022

-
Image
 Monday Night at the Movies Luis Bunuel, Simon of the Desert, 1965 SAINT MOTHER THEODORE GUERIN   Hebrews, Chapter 12, Verse 21 Indeed, so FEARFUL was the spectacle that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.”   Moses was the heir apparent to the throne of Egypt in his youth. As a member of the Egyptian court, he would have seen many fearful spectacles yet imagine what it must have been like to have been a witness of God descending on Mount Sinai to give the law. He was terrified and trembling. Again, now imagine if Moses was somehow resurrected and was able to walk into an ordinary catholic church that has a very modest Blessed Sacrament Chapel. Do you think his reaction would be any different than the first time he encountered the living God?  Be Still and Know that I am God [1]   On the evening of October 1995, John Paul II was scheduled to greet the seminarians at Saint Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore. It had been a very full day that began with a Mass at Oriole Park in Camden Y
Read more

Monday, July 15, 2024

-
Image
  Saints, Feast, Family - Traditions passed down with Cooking, Crafting, & Caring  - July 15   Saint of the day: Saint Vladimir of Kiev Monday- Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, Bishop ST. SWITHUN Monday Night at the Movies Raffaello Matarazzo, The White Angel, 1955. Deuteronomy, Chapter 31, Verse 8 It is the LORD who goes before you; he will be with you and will never fail you or forsake you. So do not FEAR or be dismayed.”   For as the heavens are high above the earth, so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.   The Lord our God calls us to His service. This is the message of St. Therese of Lisieux that we are all called, and we should have great confidence and humility seeking to bring the kingdom in small ways and asking our Lord to multiply our efforts.  The greatest way we can bring about the Kingdom is in our own families. This is the reason Pope Francis made such efforts to attend the family symposium in Philadelphia in 2015. Yes, families
Read more

Thursday, July 18, 2024

-
Image
 Drink Beer Try the Chimay Saints, Feast, Family - Traditions passed down with Cooking, Crafting, & Caring  - July 18   Saint of the day: Saint Arnulf of Metz Patron Saint of Beer When I was stationed in Belgium me and my family were not told in advance when staying in the temporary quarters not to drink the water; as a result we were all very sick due to the water was tainted; we should have drank the beer. ST. CAMILIUS DE LELLIS -Nelson Mandela Day-St. Ann Day 2 Deuteronomy, Chapter 32, Verse 26-27 26 I said: I will make an end of them and blot out their name from human memory, 27 had I not FEARED the provocation by the enemy, that their foes might misunderstand, and say, “Our own hand won the victory; the LORD had nothing to do with any of it.”   Meditate on the humility of Saint Joseph this day; ask for his assistance and special protection.   Prayer to St. Joseph.   O most chaste Joseph, who, by thy purity and other exalted virtues, wast worthy to be c
Read more

Friday, July 12, 2024

-
Image
  Saints, Feast, Family - Traditions passed down with Cooking, Crafting, & Caring  - July 12   Saint of the day: Saint Veronica Patron Saint of the images; laundry workers, pictures, photos, photographers NIC’s Corner- What was the Physicality of Christ like? Here is what I got from Co-pilot: In the tapestry of Jesus Christ’s life, His teachings, miracles, and spiritual legacy are threads that have woven a history-changing narrative. Yet, among these divine aspects, the humble profession of carpentry attributed to Jesus during His time on Earth offers a unique perspective on His human experience.   According to biblical references, Jesus was indeed a carpenter.  Mark 6:3 explicitly asks, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” This direct association with carpentry provides a rare glimpse into Jesus’s day-to-day life before His public ministry began . [1]   Carpentry
Read more

Thursday, May 27, 2021

-
Image
  Auxilium Christianorum - Praying for Persecuted Priests Monday, May 24 is the Feast of Mary Mother of the Church. It is also the Feast of  Mary Help of Christians  (Auxilium Christianorum). Please consider joining this Auxilium Christianorum family to pray daily for our holy and courageous persecuted priests. The Church teaches us that it is divided into the  Church Triumphant  (which includes the members of the Church in heaven), the  Church Suffering  (this includes the members of the Church in purgatory), and the  Church Militant  (this refers to those members of the Church who are alive in this world). Because we are part of the Church Militant, we are in a spiritual warfare and this spiritual warfare requires that we recognize, as Saint Paul teaches us "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places." ( Ephesians 6:12 ) The me
Read more