DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS FOR JANUARY 2009

+A Meditation for the New Year in which we contemplate God’s Holy Will for us+

Bear, in the presence of God, to know thyself. Then seek to know for what God sent thee into the world; how thou hast fulfilled it; art thou yet what God willed thee to be; what yet lacketh unto thee; what is God’s will for thee now; what thing thou mayest now do, by His grace, to obtain His favour, and approve thyself unto Him. Say to Him: “Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God”, and He will say unto thy soul: “Fear not; I am thy salvation.” He will speak peace unto Thy soul; He will bear thee above things of sense, and praise of men, and things which perish in thy grasp, and give thee, if but afar off, some glimpse of His own unfading, unsetting, unperishing brightness and bliss and love.
[Dr.Edward Bouverie Pusey]

Every day we might attain we know not what; every day, it may be, loses or wins something of the brightness of the Resurrection. All we do or leave undone has its counterpart in the unseen world; and what then is life and what is the world, to that day, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of His glory? Forsake all, rather than forfeit your reward, rather than be set far off from Him when he cometh to order the guests that are bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
[Cardinal Manning]

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Bishop Anthony writes: Both Cardinal Manning and Dr. Pusey are urging us to seek through prayer and meditation, God’s Holy Will for us – why we are in this world and indeed what we could, every single day, achieve for good! What helpful passages these are, as we begin another year and continue on our Christian way. So God brings us to the beginning of another year with all its potential and all its opportunity to further the sanctification of our souls. But each day also offers all that same potential!
Think of this new year as an empty canvass which day by day we will fill in. There may be some black for any black thoughts  or deeds; there may be green for petty jealousies; there may be yellow for acts of spite; there will be plenty of grey for our mixed and lukewarm actions! But how many patches of white will we paint in every day? Let us strive this year with all our hearts and souls to do God’s Will and to love our neighbour as ourself. Above all, let us not be lukewarm! In a similar vein Cardinal Manning reminds us that habits form our character and our character forms our countenance. God made our features but each person makes his or her own countenance!

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Let us pray: Almighty God who hath brought Thy servants to the beginning of another year: pardon, we humbly beseech Thee, our transgressions in the past, and graciously abide with us all the days of our life. Through our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ, Thy Son. Amen

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And a Passing Thought

Everything of this world is sold at its price or exchanged for another equivalently priced. But the promise of life eternal is purchased at a bargain price!  [Saint Anthony of Egypt, Abbot]

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BLESSED BE THE HOLY NAME OF JESUS BY WHICH WE ARE REDEEMED!
BLESSED BE THE GREAT MOTHER OF GOD, MARY MOST HOLY!
BLESSED BE THE DIVINE AND ADORABLE TRINITY, NOW AND UNTO AGES OF AGES!

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He was in the world and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. But as many as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God.  [Saint John]

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