A
Amiciel
Guest
Sharing this reflection from today’s Euchalette, 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 17, 2016, p.4:July 17, 2016 - Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Collect (Opening Prayer):
“Show favor, O Lord, to your servants
and mercifully increase the gifts of your grace,
that, made fervent in hope, faith and charity,
they may be ever watchful in keeping your commands.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reign with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.”
Today’s Scripture readings and reflection:
usccb.org/bible/reflections/
ymlp232.net/archive_gbmbuqgjgu.php
www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2016-07-17
"ACTION AND CONTEMPLATION,TWO WAYS TO MEET GOD"
"Nowadays technology and competition force people to be more active and creative. In many cases, it is a question of survival. All this entails the danger that man may live a superficial life, even a noisy and agitated life . . . with the consequent loss of the sense of direction” in one’s own existence and of history as a whole. It is action for the sake of action, or profi t, or pleasure. Soul-less activism, without a superior meaning.
But present-day “super-activism” is in many respects a reaction to centuries of “super-inactivism” which has delayed the progress of society in many ways. Problems were left unsolved and simply referred to “higher authorities,” namely, God and the Saints. It cannot be denied that a spurious religious feeling has occasionally been an easy excuse for inaction and degrading fatalism. Unfortunately, such a wrong concept of religiosity is not quite dead yet . . . .
A proper and healthy balance between these two extremes has to be found. **Genuine Christian faith, rooted in the teaching and example of Jesus Christ, can provide the necessary overall perspective and motivation.**This “solution” entails much more than just finding room for prayer in our lives and harmonizing it with our activity. It is a matter of not letting ourselves be suffocated by earthly, temporal concerns, but of being open to the beyond, to transcendent values - to God and a life of communion with Him and our fellowmen; a communion that begins in this life and continues beyond death.
(Pls read on for continuation of thought.)