Lectio Divina with Fr. Lawrence
Amos 7:14-15
Read
Amos answered Amaziah, “I am not a prophet, nor do I belong to a company of prophets. I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores. The LORD took me from following the flock, and said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.' Now hear the word of the LORD!"
Meditate
Biographical information about the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures tends to be somewhat limited. Amos, on the other hand, provides us with some information about his activity before the Lord called him to deliver the Word of the Lord to the people of Israel. First, he disassociates himself from the prophets who serve King Jeroboam, for he knows them to be corrupt men who deliver a message that is false and to misleading. Then, Amos tells us who he was before the Lord called him; namely, a shepherd and a tree surgeon. Indeed, God can choose anyone to be a messenger no matter how low on the social status register they may be.
Pray
Lord God, your prophets carried your Word with them into every encounter in their lives. You call me to do the same. Give me the strength to change my life before I try to change others’ lives. Open my ears to hear your word before I open my mouth to proclaim it.
Contemplate…
Daily Thought from the Saints
"We must pray literally without ceasing— without ceasing—in every occurrence and employment of our lives . . . that prayer of the heart which is independent of place or situation, or which is rather a habit of lifting up the heart to God as in a constant communication with Him."
— St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Daily Scripture Verse
"Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
John 14:6
Daily Meditation
"Among the various indications that make the holiness of God known to men, the most convincing sign is the holiness of men, who are sanctified by the divine indwelling . . . In teaching us the words, ‘hallowed be Thy name,’ our Lord also bids us, when we pray, to ask that God may be glorified by our lives. The sense of the prayer is this: ‘Grant us so to live, that all men may glorify Thee through us.’ God is sanctified or hallowed in the minds of other men through us, to the extent that we are sanctified by Him. Hence when we say: ‘hallowed be Thy name,’ we pray, as Cyprian remarks, that God’s name may be hallowed in us. Following the lead of Christ, who says: ‘Be holy, because I am holy,’ we beg that we, who have been sanctified in Baptism, may persevere in the state in which we began. Furthermore we pray daily to be sanctified in order that we, who daily fall, may wash away our sins by a constant process of purification."
— St. Thomas Aquinas
Daily Catholic Wisdom
To live without a Faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for Truth, that is not living but existing.
—Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati
from a letter to his friend Isidoro Bonini
A Prayer from Notre Dame University
Rev. Brendan J. McAleer, C.S.C.
Lord Jesus, you know that at times we can feel paralyzed by our own evil thoughts or from the fear, anxiety, or shame that comes from our own sinfulness. Help us, Jesus, to rise and walk away from the sins that paralyze us. Give us the strength and courage to walk away from any evil thought or habit that we harbor this day. Help us know that you have given authority to forgive sins because you desire our healing even more than we desire it ourselves. May we always reverence you with awe and admiration for all you have done for us. Amen.