The Daily Decalogue

1) Only for today, I will seek to live the live the whole day positively without wishing to solve the problems of my life all at once.

2) Only for today, I will take the greatest care of my appearance: I will dress modestly; I will not raise my voice; I will be courteous in my behaviour; I will not criticize anyone; I will not claim to improve or to discipline anyone except myself.

3) Only for today, I will be happy in the certainty that I was created to be happy, not only in the other world but also in this one.

4) Only for today, I will adapt to circumstances, without requiring all circumstances to be adapted to my own wishes.

5) Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul.

6) Only for today, I will do one good deed and not tell anyone about it.

7) Only for today, I will do at least one thing I do not like doing; and if my feelings are hurt, I will make sure that no one notices.

8) Only for today, I will make a plan for myself: I may not follow it to the letter, but I will make it. And I will be on guard against two evils: hastiness and indecision.

9) Only for today, I will firmly believe, despite appearances, that the good Providence of God cares for me as no one else who exists in this world.

10) Only for today, I will have no fears. In particular, I will not be afraid to enjoy what is beautiful and to believe in goodness. Indeed, for 12 hours I can certainly do what might cause me consternation were I to believe I had to do it all my life.

By Pope John XXIII

To conclude: here is an all-embracing resolution: "I want to be kind, today and always, to everyone". In this way, we can put Pope John's hope for every Christian into practice

Every believer in this world must be a spark of light, a core of love, life-giving leaven in the mass: and the more he is so, the more he will live, in his innermost depths, in communion with God.

Law or Gospel?

I've not been blogging for a while. Came upon some thoughts about my quest to learn to read passages like Sermon on the Mount and thought I'd blog it, only to notice that that was in fact the topic of my last blog. That's not to say I've not been reflecting and learning other cool stuff, especially in my current class on 'A Theology of Weakness: Thinking Biblically about Suffering', with Marva Dawn. She has given us lots to mull on and it has also led me to some of her other writings. Yet when once again, I find the Lord leading me to deeper insight on how we should read the Word. This is tremendously encouraging for me to know that He understands the depth of my struggles with regards to this topic and is extremely patient to teach me, leading me step by step. The quotation below is taken from Marva's book entitled, 'I'm Lonely, Lord - HOW LONG? : Meditation on the Psalms'. Here goes...

This intentionality has significant implication for the way in which we read the Scriptures. We can choose to read them as law or as gospel - as our objectives for the day, which we must reach or as our goal for the direction of our lives, the way in which we are learning to move.
If we read exhortations such as to "put on compassion" as law, we are crushed by our failure, for it is impossible for us to put on compassion perfectly. If we see those same promptings as gospel invitations, then to be compassionate is our goal; it orients the direction in which we move through our days, but it is not the day's objective, which we will have failed to meet if we don't get there by tonight. Our day's objectives might include doing acts of compassion, like caring for a sick neighbour or giving more money and more of ourselves away to help the poor, but these are simply movements toward the goal of being yielded to God who forms us into compassionate people.

(Dawn, Marva. I'm Lonely, Lord - HOW LONG? : Meditation on the Psalms. Revised ed. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998. p 26.)

Thus the gospel invitation is for us to become more Christlike and know where we should set our direction. Ultimately my faith is in the Lord to bring me to the final destination, as I constantly depend upon Him and learn to cooperate with His Spirit to choose and move with Him in the direction set out in the Word. It's a direction for me to grow in to, rather than a mark I must hit everyday, or ever in this lifetime. So instead of looking at it as hit or miss, I can see it as a process of growth. Moreover it is not about hitting the mark once or twice, today, but rather that I would grow in this virtue, becoming more and more like Christ, and with the hope that I might one day find that it has become my 'natural' response - if not here, then at least in eternity. Thus we are not Christians because we have proven ourselves to be a compassionate person, but rather, being a Christian, the Lord invites us to allow Him to mould us and help us grow in His likeness. I have to resist my tendency to measure my spiritual walk as something to be achieved, or constantly keeping count of the times I've 'missed', as if to say that this is how God views me and my walk with Him.