Monastic Lectionary of the Divine Office,
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| Jan_Van_Ruysbroeck We behold that which we are, and we are that which we behold. |
The Blessed John of Ruysbroeck (1293 or 1294 – 2 December 1381), "the Admirable" also known as John Ruusbroec, Jan van Ruusbroec or Jan van Ruysbroeck, was one of the Flemish mystics of the medieval Catholic Church.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Ruysbroeck
TWENTY-NINTH
WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
FRIDAY 23rd. October
2015
First Reading
Jeremiah 22:10-30
Responsory Lam 2:1
How
the Lord
in his anger
has brought
darkness on the daughter
of
Zion! + From
heaven to earth
he has cast
down the honour of Israel.
V.
On the day
of his anger
he has remembered
his footstool no
more.
+ From
heaven
...
Second Reading
From
The Seven Steps in
the Ladder of Spiritual Love by Jan
van Ruysbroeck
The first fruit which springs from good
will is voluntary poverty. Those who are poor of their own will live free and
without care for all earthly goods that are not needful. For like a wise
merchant, they have traded earth for heaven, and followed the saying of the
Lord, that one cannot serve God and the kingdom of the world. They have left
all that can be possessed with earthly love, and purchased voluntary poverty.
This is the field in which they have found the kingdom of God; for blessed are the poor in spirit: theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of God is love and charity, and the
practice of all good works; whence comes it that those who are thus poor in
spirit are generous, pitiful, kind, mild, truthful and honest toward all who
are in need of them, so that they may bear witness before the tribunal of God
that with the bounty bestowed on them by God, they wrought works of mercy. For
among earthly things they have nothing of their own, but all that they have is
common to God and to his household.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, who
possess nothing transitory; for they have followed Christ. They shall be
rewarded in virtues a hundredfold, and shall look forward to the glory of God
and life everlasting.
But rash and foolish are the covetous,
for they give heaven for earth, which earth they know that they must shortly
lose. The poor in spirit scale the skies; the covetous are plunged into hell;
and when the camel shall pass through the needle's eye, then shall the covetous
enter into heaven. And even though they live poor in earthly things, if they
choose not God before all and die in their avarice, doubtless they shall
perish.
The covetous prefer the husk to the
kernel, the shell to the yolk. Those who cleave to gold and love earthly goods
eat poison that brings death, and drink the water of eternal sorrow. The more
they drink, the more they thirst; the more they own, the more they long for. Though
they have much, they are not satisfied; they want everything they see that is
another's; and all they have seems to them as nothing. Scarce anyone loves
them, for the covetous deserve no love. They are much like the devil's claws;
for what they grasp they cannot let go, and they guard what they have won by
fraud until they die. Then indeed they lose all and straightway the pangs of
hell take hold on them; for they are the image of hell which is not sated by
what it seizes, and though it possesses many, is none the better. All that it
seizes it holds fast and yet ever gapes for its hellish guests.
Wherefore beware of avarice, which is the
root of all sin and evil.
Responsory 1 Tm 6:9-10.8
People who long to be rich fall into temptations and snares, and many senseless and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. + The love of money is the root of all evil.
V. As long as we have food and clothing, let us rest content. + The love of ...
COMMENT:
Encountered the SEVEN Steps of Ladder Spiritual raised my eyes to the passing association, The TEN Mystic Ladder.
No surprise then to the Link: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/john_cross/dark_night.viii.xix.html?highlight=seven,steps#fnf_viii.xix-p1.1
Saint John of the
Cross
10 steps 0f
the mystic ladder of Divine love
CHAPTER XIX
Begins to explain the ten steps231 of the mystic ladder of Divine love, according to Saint Bernard and
Saint Thomas. The first five are here treated.
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