tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11212899396732273992024-02-21T12:49:05.465-05:00G-Mans JourneyThe journey through life of the G-Man. His trials, tribulations, and how he rediscovers the Catholic Church.gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.comBlogger1678125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-10572584374773161882020-06-29T06:11:00.001-04:002020-06-29T06:11:44.643-04:00Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles Mass during the Day<div class="yiv9976189988bibleReadingsWrapper" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.3em;"><h4>Reading 1 <a class="yiv9976189988fbz_link" href="https://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/1093293/73927029/7002405_/www.usccb.org/bible/acts/12:1" rel="nofollow" style="color: #007965; text-decoration-line: none !important;" target="_blank">Acts 12:1-11</a></h4><div class="yiv9976189988poetry" style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em;"><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">In those days, King Herod laid hands upon some members of the Church to harm them.<br />He had James, the brother of John, killed by the sword,<br />and when he saw that this was pleasing to the Jews<br />he proceeded to arrest Peter also.<br />–It was the feast of Unleavened Bread.–<br />He had him taken into custody and put in prison<br />under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each.<br />He intended to bring him before the people after Passover.<br />Peter thus was being kept in prison,<br />but prayer by the Church was fervently being made<br />to God on his behalf.</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">On the very night before Herod was to bring him to trial,<br />Peter, secured by double chains,<br />was sleeping between two soldiers,<br />while outside the door guards kept watch on the prison.<br />Suddenly the angel of the Lord stood by him<br />and a light shone in the cell.<br />He tapped Peter on the side and awakened him, saying,<br />“Get up quickly.”<br />The chains fell from his wrists.<br />The angel said to him, “Put on your belt and your sandals.”<br />He did so.<br />Then he said to him, “Put on your cloak and follow me.”<br />So he followed him out,<br />not realizing that what was happening through the angel was real;<br />he thought he was seeing a vision.<br />They passed the first guard, then the second,<br />and came to the iron gate leading out to the city,<br />which opened for them by itself.<br />They emerged and made their way down an alley,<br />and suddenly the angel left him.<br />Then Peter recovered his senses and said,<br />“Now I know for certain<br />that the Lord sent his angel<br />and rescued me from the hand of Herod<br />and from all that the Jewish people had been expecting.”</p></div></div><div class="yiv9976189988bibleReadingsWrapper" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.3em;"><h4>Responsorial Psalm <a class="yiv9976189988fbz_link" href="https://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/1093293/73927029/7002405_/www.usccb.org/bible/psalms/34:2" rel="nofollow" style="color: #007965; text-decoration-line: none !important;" target="_blank">34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9</a></h4><div class="yiv9976189988poetry" style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em;"><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">R. (5)<strong style="color: inherit !important;"> The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.</strong><br />I will bless the LORD at all times;<br />his praise shall be ever in my mouth.<br />Let my soul glory in the LORD;<br />the lowly will hear me and be glad.<br />R. <strong style="color: inherit !important;">The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.</strong><br />Glorify the LORD with me,<br />let us together extol his name.<br />I sought the LORD, and he answered me<br />and delivered me from all my fears.<br />R. <strong style="color: inherit !important;">The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.</strong><br />Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,<br />and your faces may not blush with shame.<br />When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,<br />and from all his distress he saved him.<br />R. <strong style="color: inherit !important;">The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.</strong><br />The angel of the LORD encamps<br />around those who fear him, and delivers them.<br />Taste and see how good the LORD is;<br />blessed the man who takes refuge in him.<br />R. <strong style="color: inherit !important;">The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.</strong></p></div></div><div class="yiv9976189988bibleReadingsWrapper" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.3em;"><h4>Reading 2 <a class="yiv9976189988fbz_link" href="https://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/1093293/73927029/7002405_/www.usccb.org/bible/2timothy/4:6" rel="nofollow" style="color: #007965; text-decoration-line: none !important;" target="_blank">2 Tm 4:6-8, 17-18</a></h4><div class="yiv9976189988poetry" style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em;"><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">I, Paul, am already being poured out like a libation,<br />and the time of my departure is at hand.<br />I have competed well; I have finished the race;<br />I have kept the faith.<br />From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me,<br />which the Lord, the just judge,<br />will award to me on that day, and not only to me,<br />but to all who have longed for his appearance.</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">The Lord stood by me and gave me strength,<br />so that through me the proclamation might be completed<br />and all the Gentiles might hear it.<br />And I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.<br />The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat<br />and will bring me safe to his heavenly Kingdom.<br />To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.</p></div></div><div class="yiv9976189988bibleReadingsWrapper" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.3em;"><h4>Alleluia <a class="yiv9976189988fbz_link" href="https://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/1093293/73927029/7002405_/www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/16:18" rel="nofollow" style="color: #007965; text-decoration-line: none !important;" target="_blank">Mt 16:18</a></h4><div class="yiv9976189988poetry" style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em;"><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">R. <strong style="color: inherit !important;">Alleluia, alleluia.</strong><br />You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church,<br />and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.<br />R. <strong style="color: inherit !important;">Alleluia, alleluia.</strong></p></div></div><div class="yiv9976189988bibleReadingsWrapper" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.3em;"><h4>Gospel <a class="yiv9976189988fbz_link" href="https://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/1093293/73927029/7002405_/www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/16:13" rel="nofollow" style="color: #007965; text-decoration-line: none !important;" target="_blank">Mt 16:13-19</a></h4><div class="yiv9976189988poetry" style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em;"><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi<br />he asked his disciples,<br />“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”<br />They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah,<br />still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”<br />He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”<br />Simon Peter said in reply,<br />“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”<br />Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.<br />For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.<br />And so I say to you, you are Peter,<br />and upon this rock I will build my Church,<br />and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.<br />I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.<br />Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;<br />and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”</p></div></div>gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-49231764668852537812020-06-14T07:18:00.000-04:002020-06-14T07:18:01.756-04:00The Solemnity of Corpus Christi Year A, June 14, 2020-“The Eucharist. A Body broken for a broken People”From A Catholic Moment;<div><br /></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">INTRODUCTION</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">In an ever changing world, the Eucharist is a constant reminder of the great reality of God’s unchanging love (Mother Teresa).</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The mystery of the Eucharist is the mystery of the God who journeys with his people in their wilderness experience in order to lead them into the promised land. The Eucharist which is the last gift Christ gave to his followers is an imprint of his perpetual presence among them. Thus the Eucharist became, not just a meal to be shared but a pledge of his constant presence among his people and a seal of an eternal covenant.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The solemnity of Corpus Christi is an invitation to all to renew our love for Christ present in the Eucharist and to perpetuate his presence in the world by becoming what we receive.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">FIRST READING: Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The liberation of the Israelites from the Egypt of slavery did not carry with it a direct visa into the promised land. Knowing how stubborn the people are, God chose to subject them to a long period of suffering intended not as an arbitrary punishment but as a means to purify them and prepare them to be worthy of the promised land.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">Wandering in the desert for forty years was such a horrible experience for the people to the point that they even desired to go back to Egypt. It was a hard time filled with murmuring and rebellion against God and Moses. But above all, it was a moment that they experienced the extraordinary love of God in all its indices and varieties.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The book of Deuteronomy which is the fifth and the last book of the Torah contains series of instructions from Moses preparing them on how they should behave even as they drew closer to the promised land.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The passage today is meant to take them back to the memory lane so as to keep track of all the Lord has done for them for the past forty years:</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">“Remember how the Lord has guided you for forty years in the desert…”</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">‘Remember though He afflicted you but He provided manna for you, a food neither you nor your fathers knew about’</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">‘Remember and do not forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and out of slavery’</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">‘Remember how He saved you from the terrible desert with seraph serpents and scorpions’</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">‘Remember in the parched and waterless ground, He brought water for you from the flint of rock’</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">‘Just remember, and never you forget’</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">This litany of reminder may appear as an exaggerated emphasis, but in fact it expresses the type of audience that Moses was addressing to.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">In reference to today’s feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, the call to “Remember,” and “Do not forget,” refers to the gift of the manna which is a prototype of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is all about the memorial of Jesus’ self-gift at the Last Supper and on the Cross; a memorial that is reenacted and relived every moment it is celebrated.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">SECOND READING: 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The Jewish passover is dotted with the blessing of four cups which are presented as acts of blessing and thanksgiving for God’s promise of (Ex. 6:6-8) and the deliverance of his people from Egypt (Ex. 12-14). The blessing range from the first cup of sanctification (kaddush) to the last cup of praise and thanksgiving (hallel). In the passover meal, all who are present share in the bread and the cup. Thus Paul speaks of the One and true Bread as the Body of Christ. Though the body of Christ here refers to both the Eucharist bread and extensively as the mystical body of the Christ, the Church. Thus, the Eucharistic bread is the model of the Church’s unity.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">Paul’s emphasis on the Eucharist in reference to the community of faith was spurred by the ill-mannered and rude attitudes of some members of the community of Corinth with regards to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. So, Paul was trying to make them behave in the manner and likeness of Christ whom they share: “the cup of blessing is a sharing in the Blood of Christ, and the bread we break is a sharing in the Body of Christ.” There is no better language for Paul to express the true meaning of the Eucharist order than its reference to the unity of the Church: “Because there is one Bread, we who are many are one Body because we all partake of the one Bread” (1 Cor 10: -17). Thus, the Eucharist is a sacrament of unity.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">GOSPEL: John 6:51-58</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">This passage is the most detailed teaching on the Eucharistic in the whole of the New Testament. John who though did not record the Eucharistic meal of the last supper like the synoptic evangelists, offers the most detailed and comprehensive teaching about the Eucharist: “the living Bread that came down from Heaven”. In this verse, John links Jesus with the manna in the wilderness as mentioned in the First Reading.Thus Eucharistic like the manna presents the image of a God who feeds his people. The Israelites were fed with manna (a corruptible food) to sustain them on their journey into the promised land. The ‘new Israelites’, the people of the new and everlasting are fed with Christ present in body, soul and divinity in order to sustain them on their pilgrimage to heaven. The manna sustained the people during their wandering in the desert but eventually, they died. But Jesus the true manna from Heaven gives everlasting Life: “One who eats this Bread will live forever” (John 6:58). Hence, the participation of the believers in the body and blood of Christ seals their relationship with Christ and with one another.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">John who presents this page of the gospel affirms that the Eucharist is an indispensable sacrament of unity with Christ. It not only makes Christ present in the heart of the one who receives Him, but it is equally a pledge for eternal life: “I will raise him up on the last day” (v.54); and he will live forever” (v.58).</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">LIFE MESSAGE:</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">One of the most important rituals at the table of the Eucharist is the fraction of the bread. For communion to take place, the bread must be broken. Thus the Eucharist is the mystery of Christ who comes to us broken in order to heal our broken lives so that we too can become broken to heal the brokenness of others.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">Therefore the mystery we celebrate today does not call for high standard theological discourse. It is self-explanatory. It is simply a mystery of love made visible in the total self-giving of Christ to his people. He gave and gave and gave until there was nothing left to give again.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">In the Eucharist, his body is broken and his blood dripped and given to us so that we may live. In other words his body and blood nourish and sustain us.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">One of the emotional moments I experience during mass is whenever I have to break the bread. I always feel like shading tears. There I feel so great a mystery of God’s love; the mystery of total self-giving. And knowing how unworthy I am, I wonder why God has to allow himself to be broken by mere mortal like me. He says, ‘take and eat’, and I smash him and swallow. What more do I want from him? The thought of this mystery spurs me to always renew my love for him, and I ask; who else will take my time? Whom will I give my attention? Who is worthy of my life except him? How can I stop loving him? If I don’t make him my friend, of what use then is my life? What else will I gain in this life if I don’t give my life to him who first gave his life for me?</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">Let us not seek to understand the mystery of the body and blood of Christ aside the notion that it is the mystery of total self-giving born out of love.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">We do not deserve to eat him and yet he says, ‘take and eat.’</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">We do not merit to drink him and still he says, ‘take and drink’ for a covenant with you and for the remission of your sins.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">Certainly it is not for nothing that he gives us himself broken. We are called to relive the Eucharistic moment by offering ourselves as bread for others. He offered himself to us totally and unreservedly so that we may eat and be satisfied and have life in us. Therefore our Eucharistic communion in him and with him cannot be complete if we don’t offer ourselves as bread to our brothers and sisters. The same way we smash him in our mouth and savour the sweetness of his presence is the same way we must be smashed and savoured by our brothers and sisters especially those who are less privileged and the abandoned. Our bodies must be broken and be shared in the service of our brethren. When we truly receive Christ in us, we must be propelled into action of self giving to others too.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">We need to become Christ bearers: If we are communicants, we must also become Christ-bearers. By receiving him, we become a living tabernacle of his perpetual presence in the world, and like Mary, we must harbour him in the ‘womb of our souls’ with the duty of conveying him to others starting from our homes, then to our workplaces, in the Church and the society at large by living a life of love, mercy, forgiveness and sacrificial services.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">We need to be signs of communion too: We cannot commune with Christ while remaining agents of discord. Our bond with Christ should strengthen our bond with others. In communion we are attached to a chain of contact with Christ which must be extended to the other.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">So can we be courageous enough today to tell someone: ‘take, this is my body given for you. This is my blood shed for you.’ This is how we become what we receive. This is how the brokenness of Christ become our brokenness.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">O SACRAMENT MOST HOLY, O SACRAMENT DIVINE, ALL PRAISE AND ALL THANKSGIVING BE EVERY MOMENT THINE.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">PAX VOBIS!</span></div>gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-65344714863196725852020-06-14T07:11:00.002-04:002020-06-14T07:11:44.212-04:00Prayers for Today<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><font face="georgia"><i>I devoutly adore You, O hidden Deity, truly hidden beneath these appearances. My whole heart submits to You, and in contemplating You, it surrenders itself completely. Sight, touch, taste are all deceived in their judgment of You, but hearing suffices firmly to believe. Jesus, I trust in You.</i></font></span><div><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><font face="georgia"><i><br /></i></font></span></div><div><font face="georgia"><i style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">"Lord Jesus, our Savior, let us now come to you: Our hearts are cold; Lord, warm them with your selfless love. Our hearts are sinful; cleanse them with your precious blood. Our hearts are weak; strengthen them with your joyous Spirit. Our hearts are empty; fill them with your divine presence. Lord Jesus, our hearts are yours; possess them always and only for yourself. </span><font size="-1">(Prayer of Augustine, 354-430)</font><span style="font-size: 16px;">"</span></i></font></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><font face="georgia"><i><br /></i></font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><font face="georgia"><i>Lord Jesus, today I renew my faith in your true presence in the Eucharist. I believe you come down from heaven to be present in the host at every Mass and remain with me in the Tabernacle. You are the source of my hope. I long to be more united to you through this gift of yourself.</i></font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><font face="georgia"><i><br /></i></font></span></div><div><table cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; font-size: 13px; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><td class="yiv2569223480mailpoet_paragraph" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: normal;"><font face="georgia"><i style="background-color: white;">My Lord and my Sole Commander, I trust You with my life. I entrust to You my whole being, especially all things that tempt me to fear. Give me confidence in Your Divine Mercy and help me to rely upon You in all things without reserve. Jesus, I trust in You.<br /></i></font></td></tr></tbody></table></div>gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-860795038547459602020-06-14T07:07:00.000-04:002020-06-14T07:07:11.839-04:00Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ<div class="yiv1758454759bibleReadingsWrapper" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.3em;"><h4>Reading 1 <a class="yiv1758454759fbz_link" href="https://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/1093293/73927029/6983005_/www.usccb.org/bible/deuteronomy/8:2" rel="nofollow" style="color: #007965; text-decoration-line: none !important;" target="_blank">Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a</a></h4><div class="yiv1758454759poetry" style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em;"><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Moses said to the people:<br />"Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God,<br />has directed all your journeying in the desert,<br />so as to test you by affliction<br />and find out whether or not it was your intention<br />to keep his commandments.<br />He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger,<br />and then fed you with manna,<br />a food unknown to you and your fathers,<br />in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live,<br />but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">"Do not forget the LORD, your God,<br />who brought you out of the land of Egypt,<br />that place of slavery;<br />who guided you through the vast and terrible desert<br />with its saraph serpents and scorpions,<br />its parched and waterless ground;<br />who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock<br />and fed you in the desert with manna,<br />a food unknown to your fathers."</p></div></div><div class="yiv1758454759bibleReadingsWrapper" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.3em;"><h4>Responsorial Psalm <a class="yiv1758454759fbz_link" href="https://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/1093293/73927029/6983005_/www.usccb.org/bible/psalms/147:12" rel="nofollow" style="color: #007965; text-decoration-line: none !important;" target="_blank">Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20</a></h4><div class="yiv1758454759poetry" style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em;"><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">R. (12) <strong style="color: inherit !important;">Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.</strong><br />or:<br />R. <strong style="color: inherit !important;">Alleluia.</strong><br />Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;<br />praise your God, O Zion.<br />For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;<br />he has blessed your children within you.<br />R. <strong style="color: inherit !important;">Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.</strong><br />or:<br />R. <strong style="color: inherit !important;"> Alleluia.</strong><br />He has granted peace in your borders;<br />with the best of wheat he fills you.<br />He sends forth his command to the earth;<br />swiftly runs his word!<br />R. <strong style="color: inherit !important;">Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.</strong><br />or:<br />R. <strong style="color: inherit !important;">Alleluia.</strong><br />He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,<br />his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.<br />He has not done thus for any other nation;<br />his ordinances he has not made known to them. Alleluia.<br />R. <strong style="color: inherit !important;">Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.</strong><br />or:<br />R. <strong style="color: inherit !important;">Alleluia.</strong></p></div></div><div class="yiv1758454759bibleReadingsWrapper" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.3em;"><h4>Reading 2 <a class="yiv1758454759fbz_link" href="https://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/1093293/73927029/6983005_/www.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/10:16" rel="nofollow" style="color: #007965; text-decoration-line: none !important;" target="_blank">1 Cor 10:16-17</a></h4><div class="yiv1758454759poetry" style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em;"><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Brothers and sisters:<br />The cup of blessing that we bless,<br />is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?<br />The bread that we break,<br />is it not a participation in the body of Christ?<br />Because the loaf of bread is one,<br />we, though many, are one body,<br />for we all partake of the one loaf.</p><div class="yiv1758454759bibleReadingsWrapper" style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em;"><h4>Sequence </h4><div class="yiv1758454759poetry" style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em;"><div style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em;"><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Lauda Sion</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Laud, O Zion, your salvation,<br />Laud with hymns of exultation,<br />Christ, your king and shepherd true:</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Bring him all the praise you know,<br />He is more than you bestow.<br />Never can you reach his due.</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Special theme for glad thanksgiving<br />Is the quick’ning and the living<br />Bread today before you set:</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">From his hands of old partaken,<br />As we know, by faith unshaken,<br />Where the Twelve at supper met.</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Full and clear ring out your chanting,<br />Joy nor sweetest grace be wanting,<br />From your heart let praises burst:</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">For today the feast is holden,<br />When the institution olden<br />Of that supper was rehearsed.</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Here the new law’s new oblation,<br />By the new king’s revelation,<br />Ends the form of ancient rite:</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Now the new the old effaces,<br />Truth away the shadow chases,<br />Light dispels the gloom of night.</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">What he did at supper seated,<br />Christ ordained to be repeated,<br />His memorial ne’er to cease:</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">And his rule for guidance taking,<br />Bread and wine we hallow, making<br />Thus our sacrifice of peace.</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">This the truth each Christian learns,<br />Bread into his flesh he turns,<br />To his precious blood the wine:</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Sight has fail’d, nor thought conceives,<br />But a dauntless faith believes,<br />Resting on a pow’r divine.</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Here beneath these signs are hidden<br />Priceless things to sense forbidden;<br />Signs, not things are all we see:</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Blood is poured and flesh is broken,<br />Yet in either wondrous token<br />Christ entire we know to be.</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Whoso of this food partakes,<br />Does not rend the Lord nor breaks;<br />Christ is whole to all that taste:</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Thousands are, as one, receivers,<br />One, as thousands of believers,<br />Eats of him who cannot waste.</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Bad and good the feast are sharing,<br />Of what divers dooms preparing,<br />Endless death, or endless life.</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Life to these, to those damnation,<br />See how like participation<br />Is with unlike issues rife.</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">When the sacrament is broken,<br />Doubt not, but believe ‘tis spoken,<br />That each sever’d outward token<br />doth the very whole contain.</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Nought the precious gift divides,<br />Breaking but the sign betides<br />Jesus still the same abides,<br />still unbroken does remain.</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;"><em>The shorter form of the sequence begins here.</em></p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Lo! the angel’s food is given<br />To the pilgrim who has striven;<br />see the children’s bread from heaven,<br />which on dogs may not be spent.</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Truth the ancient types fulfilling,<br />Isaac bound, a victim willing,<br />Paschal lamb, its lifeblood spilling,<br />manna to the fathers sent.</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Very bread, good shepherd, tend us,<br />Jesu, of your love befriend us,<br />You refresh us, you defend us,<br />Your eternal goodness send us<br />In the land of life to see.</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">You who all things can and know,<br />Who on earth such food bestow,<br />Grant us with your saints, though lowest,<br />Where the heav’nly feast you show,<br />Fellow heirs and guests to be. Amen. Alleluia.</p></div></div></div></div></div><div class="yiv1758454759bibleReadingsWrapper" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.3em;"><h4>Alleluia <a class="yiv1758454759fbz_link" href="https://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/1093293/73927029/6983005_/www.usccb.org/bible/john/6:51" rel="nofollow" style="color: #007965; text-decoration-line: none !important;" target="_blank">Jn 6:51</a></h4><div class="yiv1758454759poetry" style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em;"><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">R. <strong style="color: inherit !important;">Alleluia, alleluia.</strong><br />I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord;<br />whoever eats this bread will live forever.<br />R. <strong style="color: inherit !important;">Alleluia, alleluia.</strong></p></div></div><div class="yiv1758454759bibleReadingsWrapper" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.3em;"><h4>Gospel <a class="yiv1758454759fbz_link" href="https://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/1093293/73927029/6983005_/www.usccb.org/bible/john/6:51" rel="nofollow" style="color: #007965; text-decoration-line: none !important;" target="_blank">Jn 6:51-58</a></h4><div class="yiv1758454759poetry" style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em;"><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:<br />"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;<br />whoever eats this bread will live forever;<br />and the bread that I will give<br />is my flesh for the life of the world."</p><p style="font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0.7em 0px; max-width: 600px; padding: 0px; width: 557.625px;">The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,<br />"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"<br />Jesus said to them,<br />"Amen, amen, I say to you,<br />unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,<br />you do not have life within you.<br />Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood<br />has eternal life,<br />and I will raise him on the last day.<br />For my flesh is true food,<br />and my blood is true drink.<br />Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood<br />remains in me and I in him.<br />Just as the living Father sent me<br />and I have life because of the Father,<br />so also the one who feeds on me<br />will have life because of me.<br />This is the bread that came down from heaven.<br />Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,<br />whoever eats this bread will live forever."</p></div></div>gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-86718924929340126062020-06-07T06:39:00.000-04:002020-06-07T06:39:15.145-04:00Some Prayers<i style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><font face="arial">Father, Son and Holy Spirit, help me to know You and to love You. Help me to discover the love You share within Your own divine life. In that discovery, help me to also love others with Your heart. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I trust in You.</font></i><div><i style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><font face="arial"><br /></font></i></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><i><font face="arial">Lord Jesus, I believe in you. I believe you have called me to the faith and to share that faith. I trust that you will fill me with your spirit of courage and truth so that I might faithfully assimilate and transmit the faith. I love you. I want to love you more with my prayer and with my life, and so grow in the unity of the love you share with your Father and the Holy Spirit.</font></i></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><i><font face="arial"><br /></font></i></span></div><div><table cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; color: #1d2228; font-size: 13px; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><td class="yiv7940073987mailpoet_paragraph" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: normal;"><i style="background-color: white;"><font face="arial">Blessed Mother, please pray for me now and at the hour of my death. Dear Jesus, I desire that my heart be always prepared for the moment when You call me to Yourself. May all I do in this life become a preparation for that moment of passing, and may I receive in this hour an abundance of Your Mercy. Lord, please also give me the grace to help prepare others for this sacred hour and to pray for them fervently when that time comes. Jesus, I trust in You.</font></i></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><i style="background-color: #ebeaea; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></i></div>gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-5091696445101986742020-06-07T06:36:00.001-04:002020-06-07T06:36:31.944-04:00Reflection for TodayReflection is taken from A Catholic Moment;<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">“A God that can be explained is not a God that you should worship.” This was told as the response of an Indian guru to a young man who once pestered on him to explain the existence of God.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The doctrine of the Holy Trinity as a mystery full of meaning is a nourishment for those who are concerned with living the life of the Holy Trinity. But it is also a source of confusion and loss for those who wish to have a logical conclusion of 1+1+1=1. The revelation of God is his self communication to his creatures; the communication of his love. This revelation is made evident in the three identical moments of creation, redemption and sanctification of creation.These moments perfectly reveal the concrete expression the Triune God. But the identity of this God is not meant to be a mathematical conundrum, nor a philosophical deductive and inductive analysis. It is a mystery of a perfect God, a perfect unity, a perfect love and perfect communion of undivided three Persons in one God.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The liturgy today calls us to contemplate this unfathomable richness of God and to live it as an enriching experience of faith translated in our daily contact with others.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">FIRST READING: 34:4.6.8-9</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The hebrew tetragrammaton YHWH is a name of God held in the Jewish orthodoxy as too sacred to be pronounced by mortals. Such attitude was developed as a result of the unimaginable works wrought by God that generated an esteem awe as well as an exaltation of his holiness and omnipotence against the gods of other pegan nations.Thus, the people preferred the use of Adonai (my Lord) which translates in the septuagint as ‘Kyrios’ when addressing Him in prayers.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">But today, the author of the Book of Exodus narrates the revelation of God not in the purported image of a transcendental non relational and ‘a not worthy to be called YHWH’, but a God who revealed Himself to Moses as a personal God in relationship with his people. This is why the author underlines the fundamental elements align his relationship with his people (merciful, gracious, and loving) as the intrinsic character of this God. It is the image God revealed of Himself to Moses as he (Moses) climbed Sinai to meet Him again with two tables of stone meant to replace the first one. We recall that Moses had shattered the first tables of stone given by God when he came down from Sinai and found Aaron and the people dancing around a golden calf as their God (Ex. 32:19). This second tables of stone is meant to reaffirm the commandments already given by God in Exodus 20 and to serve as a symbol of God’s renewed covenant with his people.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The rewriting of the commandments on a new stone describes how eternally merciful God is towards his people. He never stops forgiving and loving them. In fact addressing Himself as Adonai (the only name the people are comfortable to use) in the text shows how God desired to be closer to his people.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">MESSAGE</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">Our God is never tired of us. We can’t just imagine how often He desires to be closer to us and longs that we come back to Him. Today, He asked Moses to bring a new stone. Yes His wish is to rewrite his love, his grace and his forgiveness on a new stone which is our heart. We just need to allow the old stone to shatter in order to obtain the new stone. He does not expect us to love Him the same way He loves us, but He just want us to love Him not for His sake but for our sake.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />SECOND READING: 2 Corinthians 13:11-13</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">St. Paul has this strong passion for a community life as an indispensable dimension of the faith and an engine force for the spreading of the gospel. That is why he is always concerned when individual weaknesses begin to crop up in the community which he sees as a threat to the strength of the community life.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">Today he presents the Trinity to the community of Corinth as a model to look up to in building their bond of communion through accepting one another and living in peace.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">And by using the trinitarian formula of blessing: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you” , the Apostle did not only remind the Corinthians of their duty to emulate the Holy Trinity, he equally reminded them that their faith and identity as Christians is build on the foundation of the Trinity. Notice that Paul attached a ‘qualifying identity’ to each of the three persons of the Holy Trinity:</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">1</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ…” The greek ‘charis’ for grace refers to a patron but also as one possessing the virtue of generosity. Jesus is ‘Patron’ of the Christian community, the head of the body the Church whose salvific mission can only be described as an act of generosity.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">2</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">. Paul used the greek ‘agape’ in reference to the “love of God the Father.” It affirms the unselfish love which the Father lavished on the world by offering his only begotten Son.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">3</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">. “And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Paul employs the Greek ‘koinonia’ (followship or communion) with reference to the Third Person of the Holy Trinity; the bond of communion of the Father and the Son, and as a uniting force of the christian community.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">GOSPEL: John 3:16-18</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">This passage of the Gospel of John is one of the most famous, most cherished and most memorized and quoted passages of the bible. It identifies love as an intrinsic character of God and as the purpose of Jesus’s mission.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">John reiterates the message of Exodus of a God who counted more on his love than on the fidelity of his people towards him. He forgave and renewed his covenant with them mediated by the tablets of the Law. John affirms that the revelation of this God attained its ‘summum punctum’ (apex) in the person of his Son who by mediating between the Father and his people replaced the tablets of the Law. He became a pledge of God’s love and forgiveness who chose not to condemn but to save. John further underlined that this salvation is a free choice. Anyone who believes in the One sent by God is saved; and anyone who rejects the One sent by God simply rejects the love lavished by God. And to reject love is to reject God who is love and the consequence of rejecting God is self condemnation.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">LIFE MESSAGE:</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The doctrine of the Holy Trinity should not be approached just with the aim of enlightenment but rather should be a lived experience of all about a God who wished to reveal Himself to His people out of love. This revelation of God to His people has only one purpose, and that is, the salvation of His people. Thus the doctrine of Trinity teaches that this salvation cannot be attained if man does not live the life of the “Holy Trinity”. By this we mean that the Holy Trinity is indispensably the only model of the people of God.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The modern society has been so influential with its ‘I-and-I’ principle of unbridled individualism; an ‘i-sm’ ideology that puts the individual in opposition to the community, and the world constructed around and from the stand-point of the ‘I’. Yet the proponents of such ideology tend to forget that the ‘I-and-I’ principle reduces the human person. On the contrary, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity challenges us to adopt the ‘I-and-God-and-Neighbor’ principle. I am a complete human person insofar as I live in a relationship of love with God and with others.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The other here must not have identity. It is not ‘selectional’. It is not racial, neither is it tribal. It is only the other.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">Meanwhile, as Christians we are called today not just to celebrate the Holy Trinity but to live the Holy Trinity. It is useless to give a deep seated explanation of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity if we are not disposed to allow the life of the Holy Trinity to permeate us and influence our way of living. We must admit that we are divided. Humanity has been torn apart. There is immeasurable hatred, man’s inhumanity against the other, the claim of superiority and superimposition over others. Today we cannot lay claim of perfect union. Relationships are tearing apart. Divorce is the order of the day. Family crises keep flaming. Communities are in apathy. Nations are against nations. Kingdoms are falling apart. Religions are hostile to each other. Even in Christendom, there is a heinous division. The secular world is constantly increasing its wave of war and terrorism. Is that the life of the Holy Trinity? Certainly not! We must acknowledge that each one of us is not living right. We must accept our limitedness. We must begin to move away from the world of ‘the self’ towards the world of ‘with others’. We must break the walls of the ‘I’ in order to see the beauty of life. We must look at the Holy Trinity today as the only model which will open us to accept one another as children of the same Father having one common ‘eternal origin’ and not this temporal geographical origin that is just accidental. We need to begin to appreciate the life of communion and love. In doing so, we can then hit our chest and say that we are living in conformity with the Holy Trinity, and our life, our communities and our world will take a different dimension. It is not easy to love and to live in unity but is not impossible. It is only achievable if we are godly. We must break away from and renounce the worldly principles and turn to the divine principles. It is our vocation.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">PRAYER</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">We pray with saint Catherine of Siena saying: “You, O eternal Trinity, are a deep Sea, into which the deeper I enter the more I find, and the more I find the more I seek; the soul cannot be satiated in Your abyss, for she continually hungers after You, the eternal Trinity… Clothe me, clothe me with You, O! Eternal Truth!”</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">PAX VOBIS!</span></div><div><div class="adthrive-ad adthrive-content adthrive-content-1" data-google-query-id="CO37ks3A7-kCFUZAAQodaLEPUA" id="AdThrive_Content_1_desktop" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 0; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; overflow: visible !important; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div>gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-85744123282109468232020-06-07T06:32:00.003-04:002020-06-07T06:32:53.646-04:00Sunday 7 June 2020 The Most Holy Trinity<table class="each" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin-top: 2em; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><th align="left">First reading</th></tr><tr><th align="right">Exodus 34:4-6,8-9 <a href="https://universalis.com/usa/mass.htm#copyright">©</a></th></tr></tbody></table><h4 style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">'Lord, Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion'</h4><div class="p" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">With the two tablets of stone in his hands, Moses went up the mountain of Sinai in the early morning as the Lord had commanded him. And the Lord descended in the form of a cloud, and Moses stood with him there.</div><div class="pi" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify; text-indent: 1em;"> He called on the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness.’ And Moses bowed down to the ground at once and worshipped. ‘If I have indeed won your favour, Lord,’ he said ‘let my Lord come with us, I beg. True, they are a headstrong people, but forgive us our faults and our sins, and adopt us as your heritage.’</div><hr class="shortrule" style="background-color: white; margin-top: 1em; width: 105.797px;" /><table class="each" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin-top: 2em; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><th align="left">Responsorial Psalm</th><th align="right">Daniel 3:52-56 <a href="https://universalis.com/usa/mass.htm#copyright">©</a></th></tr></tbody></table><div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;"><i>To you glory and praise for evermore.</i></div><div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">You are blest, Lord God of our fathers.</div><div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;"><i>To you glory and praise for evermore.</i></div><div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">Blest your glorious holy name.</div><div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;"><i>To you glory and praise for evermore.</i></div><div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">You are blest in the temple of your glory.</div><div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;"><i>To you glory and praise for evermore.</i></div><div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">You are blest on the throne of your kingdom.</div><div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;"><i>To you glory and praise for evermore.</i></div><div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">You are blest who gaze into the depths.</div><div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;"><i>To you glory and praise for evermore.</i></div><div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">You are blest in the firmament of heaven.</div><div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;"><i>To you glory and praise for evermore.</i></div><hr class="shortrule" style="background-color: white; margin-top: 1em; width: 105.797px;" /><table class="each" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin-top: 2em; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><th align="left">Second reading</th></tr><tr><th align="right">2 Corinthians 13:11-13 <a href="https://universalis.com/usa/mass.htm#copyright">©</a></th></tr></tbody></table><h4 style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">The grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit</h4><div class="p" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Brothers, we wish you happiness; try to grow perfect; help one another. Be united; live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.</div><div class="pi" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify; text-indent: 1em;"> Greet one another with the holy kiss. All the saints send you greetings.</div><div class="pi" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify; text-indent: 1em;"> The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.</div><hr class="shortrule" style="background-color: white; margin-top: 1em; width: 105.797px;" /><table class="each" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin-top: 2em; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><th align="left">Gospel Acclamation</th><th align="right">cf.Rv1:8</th></tr></tbody></table><div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">Alleluia, alleluia!</div><div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;</div><div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">the God who is, who was, and who is to come.</div><div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">Alleluia!</div><hr class="shortrule" style="background-color: white; margin-top: 1em; width: 105.797px;" /><table class="each" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin-top: 2em; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><th align="left">Gospel</th><th align="right">John 3:16-18 <a href="https://universalis.com/usa/mass.htm#copyright">©</a></th></tr></tbody></table><h4 style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">God sent his Son so that through him the world might be saved</h4><div class="p" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Jesus said to Nicodemus:</div><div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son,</div><div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost</div><div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">but may have eternal life.</div><div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">For God sent his Son into the world</div><div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">not to condemn the world,</div><div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">but so that through him the world might be saved.</div><div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">No one who believes in him will be condemned;</div><div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already,</div><div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">because he has refused to believe in the name of God’s only Son.’</div>gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-78092596985016309462020-05-31T06:32:00.001-04:002020-05-31T06:32:31.049-04:00Prayers for Today<i style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><font face="arial">Lord, send forth Your Spirit in my life and set me on fire with the Gifts of Your Spirit. Holy Spirit, I invite You to take possession of my soul. Come Holy Spirit, come and transform my life. Holy Spirit, I trust in You.</font></i><div><i style="background-color: #ebeaea; font-size: 16px;"><font face="arial"><br /></font></i></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><i><font face="arial">Today, Lord, we celebrate the gift of your Holy Spirit to the Church, which you won for us through your patient suffering on the cross. I believe and trust in his power to make me a better apostle of your Kingdom, to bring fervor where I have grown tepid, to instill detachment where I have become too indulgent, and to perfect the innocence of my baptism, which leaves my soul more pure and worthy to serve and honor you each day.</font></i></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><font face="arial"><br /></font></span></div><div><i style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><font face="arial">Lord, help me to entrust to You all suffering. Help me to have hope in You and to fix my gaze upon Your Cross during the most troubled times of life. Use me Lord, and use my suffering as a source of my holiness and for the upbuilding of Your Church in holiness. Jesus, I trust in You.</font></i></div>gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-90502040233574243532020-05-31T06:29:00.000-04:002020-05-31T06:29:09.409-04:00Reflection for Today<p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">INTRODUCTION</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The term ‘Pentecost’ is derivative of the Greek terminology Πεντηκοστή (Pentecoste) which simply means ‘fiftieth’. In its religious usage, it is originally the Jewish festival of Shavuot; seven weeks after the Passover celebration of which the name ‘festival of the weeks’ come from: “You shall count seven weeks…and you will celebrate the feast of the weeks (Deuteronomy 16: 9-10). It is an agricultural festival, the festival of the ‘first fruits’ and the offering of the first bunch of wheat. It however reminds us of the historical event of the gift of the law at Mount Sinai. Thus Shavuot is the conclusion, the end of the Passover festivities. It is in fact to give Israel the ‘Law’ that God made him come out of Egypt since a true law must be lived in freedom and true freedom consist in accepting to follow the Law of God (Fr. A. Kadavil).<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Pentecost for Christians is the completion of the Easter season after fifty days of contemplation of the mystery of the resurrection. But it equally reveals the face of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity (the Holy Spirit) and manifests his operative power as He initiates the third moment of the tripartite moments of the revelation of God.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />It indeed happened as a strange event. It is the event of wind and fire. The sound of the wind stirred up the whole of Jerusalem and set its inhabitants in confusion and in uproar. Those who felt they were strangers to God eventually discovered they were no more strangers because the Spirit spoke their languages. They felt the heat as the fire of the Spirit was burning in the Apostles. That is Pentecost, and that is what we celebrate today.The Apostles who were in quarantine of fear have been set free. The Spirit blows again today. The situation of our world gripped by fear and living in the hiding will surely return normalcy. The Psalmist sings it as a praise. God sends his Spirit to renew the face of the earth.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">FIRST READING: Acts 2:1-11<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />THE WAVE OF THE SPIRIT AND THE TONGUE OF FIRE</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The use of natural elements such as water, fire, air and earth was very common in the cosmogony (the origin of things) of the ancient world and the conclusions were often mythological. For example, most of the Persian, Babylonian, Greek and Asian thoughts conceived those natural elements as deities or the manifestation of the deities. Meanwhile, the interaction of these cultures and philosophies with the ancient Hebrews left a traceable mark in the biblical tradition. Many passages of the Old Testament describe the revelation of God as being accompanied by fire, cloud and even breeze (Ex. 3:2-3; 13: 21; 14:24; 19:18; 40:38; Nb. 9:15-16; 14:14; Dt. 1:33; 4:12.15.30; 5:4.22; 9:10; 10:4; Neh. 9:9.22; 1 Kgs. 19:12; Ps. 10:39; 76:14; Is. 4:5). The New Testament recorded few pages of such revelation; the transfiguration of Christ at Mount Tabor (Mt.17:1-13) and in the Apocalypse of St. John (Rev.1:4-8; 10:1 etc).<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">THE EXTRAORDINARY WING OF THE SPIRIT</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Luke describes the coming of the Spirit as that of a rush of a mighty wind. What is so extraordinary about the wind since people in that environment were used to the rushing wind? It was the of the Spirit sending message to every corner of Jerusalem and to the people of the world in their own languages, summoning them to the great event of the manifestation of the Spirit in the upper room.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The people responded to the invitation. And Luke counted the number of the invitees as coming from sixteen different geographical regions representing the people on the face of the earth. The wave of the Spirit invited them to witness the miracle of tongues that set the people free from the old age confusion of tongues caused by the same God at the event of the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11). Those who were once scattered in Babel now gathered in Jerusalem. The Babel of division came to meet the Pentecost of unity whereby they no longer admire their tower of pride but instead the wonders of God. The old man of Babel, the man of pride is now intoxicated by the Spirit of God.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />This outpouring of the Holy Spirit became a creation of a new world, the perfect completion of God’s creative, redemptive and sanctifying work. The Spirit hovered over the disciples whose faith at this point was still ‘shapeless’ like the shapeless world of Genesis 1:2. Yes, they received a new life in the Spirit, just like the first moment when God breathed life in man (Gen. 2:7), and their ‘bones’ which were dead in fear was fleshed up by the Spirit as in the days of Ezekiel (37:9-10).<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">THE UNCONTROLLABLE POWER OF THE SPIRIT</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The wine of the Pentecost made the disciples to be dazed in the Spirit. It was a new wine pressed from the ‘True Vine’ who is Christ (Jn 15:5).Those who did not taste it felt it was an alcohol. St. Cyril of Jerusalem puts it beautifully that those who thought that the Apostles were drunk at Pentecost (Acts 2:13) were correct in their observation, but they mistook their drunkenness as coming from alcoholic. This wine of the Spirit was so strong that they were uncontrollably intoxicated. It was a sober intoxication that destroyed sin and brought about new life in the Spirit. It loosened them from memory loss and made them recall all that the Lord taught them. The tongues of fire loosened their tongues of speech. The heat of the fire boiled their heart to an unimaginable degree of courage. The door that locked them away for fear of those who killed their master became an access door leading them to the people. The Spirit concluded their period of retreat and empowered them for mission. They came out well recharged. And instead of speaking incoherently in fear, they rather spoke in languages that people from every part of the world were able to understand, the language of love and faith in God made manifest in the person of Christ.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">SECOND READING: I Cor 12:3-7, 12-13</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The second reading is the message of Paul to the Christians of Corinth reminding them that faith in Christ is made possible through the power of the the Holy Spirit Who enriches the Church with varieties of gifts.These gifts are activated in every believer by the same Spirit uniquely for the service of the community and not for the glorification of the individuals.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Secondly, Paul insists that these gifts of the Spirit, ‘Charisma’ are equal and serve the same purpose which is the edification of the Church.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Evidently, this letter is meant to criticize the pride of action going on in the community of Corinth. The existing tendency was such that claims one gift as superior to the other. Those who had the gift of prophesy or gift of healing felt themselves more relevant in the community than those who probably had the gift of teaching. And using the analogy of the body, the Apostle underlines that every gift is indispensable (the body will certainly lose its complete nature if it is deprived of the hand, and the leg can never be called hand nor replace it).<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Finally, St. Paul clarifies that the Spirit is never partial in the dispensation of his gifts. He blows wherever He wants and to whoever He wants. Thus, whether Jew or Gentile, they all drink from the same fountain of the Spirit.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />GOSPEL: John 20:19-23</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The Gospel gives us an account of what the French people call an “avant-goût”. It is a foretaste of the great event of Pentecost. The risen Lord anticipated the coming of the Holy Spirit, the completion of the three great moments of divine revelation. Standing before his Apostles who were gradually shrinking away in fear, He breathed upon them saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” This was meant to sustain them to see the day of Pentecost, and to remind them that the Holy Spirit that will eventually come will be the gift of the Father to them and in his name. John conjugates the power of the Spirit as indispensably linked to the mission of the disciples when he says:“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />It suggests that the sacramental confession is a search for the Holy Spirit, because sin has the power to put the soul to death and it is only the breath of the Spirit that can restore this life through reconciliation with God. It is equally a reminder to the Apostles that though the redemptive work has been completed on the wood of the cross which was meant to cancel the gap between man and God, but then individual weaknesses will always crucify people on the wood of sin. However, the coming of the Holy Spirit is to keep sanctifying creation already redeemed.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">LIFE MESSAGE<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />1. THE WIND OF THE SPIRIT STILL BLOWS</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The Pentecost makes us to understand that the workings of the Spirit can come like the rush of a mighty wind (Acts 2:2) that immediately produced an effect on the disciples.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />We have often longed for the immediacy of the action of the Spirit in our rough situations, and instead of the cool breeze of his presence, we get hot air that keeps suffocating us. We can identify the hot air when we are weighed down by sickness and old age thinking of how to survive them. It blows real hot when we lack Job opportunities and means of survival. What of shattered relationships and divided families? What of when we watch people deny us our rights and treat us as less human and kill us? Yes it’s damn hot. It is hotter when the fear of death creeps in. The message of Pentecost is a message of hope. The Apostles were not breathing a good air. They were suffocating in fear. They faced dangers and threats, but they were hopeful. They kept the faith and their constancy in prayer activated the power from above that released the rush of a mighty wind. Let us not lose hope when it blows hot because heaven has a reservoir of refreshing wind that will restore our suffocating situation. Whichever way it has been, we can be assured that there is a life changing Spirit that blows today.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />2. <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">DO NOT ALLOW THE FIRE TO DISAPPEAR</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The fire of the Spirit was a new baptism received by the disciples on this day. It was a fire that purified and empowered them for the mission because they cooperated with it. We have all received the Spirit through the sacraments of baptism and its fullness in the sacrament of confirmation and it is made available to us in all the sacraments. How active is the Spirit in our lives? We must be sure of the fact that the Spirit like fire can purify and also destroy. It purifies us when we are dispose to cooperate with Him. He builts us. He empowers us and makes us ablaze with the power of God. But it becomes destructive when we abuse the grace and opportunities that God gives to us through constant submission to sin and inability to accept our faults and to change.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Let us make effort to keep the fire of the Spirit burning because that’s the only way we can be identified as the followers of Christ in the midst the world of differences. Yes people gathered because they noticed something from the disciples, they noticed miraculous tongues of fire.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">PRAYING WITH THE SEQUENCE</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Come, O Holy Spirit, come! From Your bright and blissful Home Rays of healing light impart. Come, Father of the poor, Source of gifts that will endure Light of ev’ry human heart.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />You of all consolers best, Of the soul most kindly Guest, Quick’ning courage do bestow.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />In hard labor You are rest, In the heat You refresh best, And solace give in our woe.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />O most blessed Light divine, Let Your radiance in us shine, And our inmost being fill.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Nothing good by man is thought, Nothing right by him is wrought, When he spurns Your gracious Will.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Cleanse our souls from sinful stain, Lave our dryness with Your rain, Heal our wounds and mend our way.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Bend the stubborn heart and will, Melt the frozen, warm the chill, Guide the steps that go astray.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />On the faithful who in You, Trust with childlike piety, Deign Your sevenfold gift to send.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Give them virtue’s rich increase, Saving grace to die in peace, Give them joys that never end. Amen. Alleluia.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">PAX VOBIS!</span></p><div class="adthrive-ad adthrive-content adthrive-content-1" data-google-query-id="COLtjILy3ekCFZyRwAodW3MD0g" id="AdThrive_Content_1_desktop" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 0; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; overflow: visible !important; text-align: center;"><br /></div>gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-51410963000944226522020-05-31T06:25:00.000-04:002020-05-31T06:25:51.240-04:00Sunday, May 31 Pentecost Sunday - Solemnity<table class="each" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin-top: 2em; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><th align="left">First reading</th><th align="right">Acts 2:1-11 <a href="https://universalis.com/usa/mass.htm#copyright">©</a></th></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4 style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak</h4>
<div class="p" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">
When Pentecost day came round, they had all met in one room, when suddenly they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak foreign languages as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech.</div>
<div class="pi" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify; text-indent: 1em;">
Now there were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven, and at this sound they all assembled, each one bewildered to hear these men speaking his own language. They were amazed and astonished. ‘Surely’ they said ‘all these men speaking are Galileans? How does it happen that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; people from Mesopotamia, Judaea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya round Cyrene; as well as visitors from Rome – Jews and proselytes alike – Cretans and Arabs; we hear them preaching in our own language about the marvels of God.’</div>
<hr class="shortrule" style="background-color: white; margin-top: 1em; width: 105.797px;" />
<table class="each" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin-top: 2em; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><th align="left">Responsorial Psalm</th></tr>
<tr><th align="right">Psalm 103(104):1,24,29-31,34 <a href="https://universalis.com/usa/mass.htm#copyright">©</a></th></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<i>Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.</i></div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<b>or</b></div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<i>Alleluia!</i></div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Bless the Lord, my soul!</div>
<div class="vi" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -2em;">
Lord God, how great you are,</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
How many are your works, O Lord!</div>
<div class="vi" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -2em;">
The earth is full of your riches.</div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<i>Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.</i></div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<b>or</b></div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<i>Alleluia!</i></div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
You take back your spirit, they die,</div>
<div class="vi" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -2em;">
returning to the dust from which they came.</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
You send forth your spirit, they are created;</div>
<div class="vi" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -2em;">
and you renew the face of the earth.</div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<i>Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.</i></div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<b>or</b></div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<i>Alleluia!</i></div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
May the glory of the Lord last for ever!</div>
<div class="vi" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -2em;">
May the Lord rejoice in his works!</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
May my thoughts be pleasing to him.</div>
<div class="vi" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -2em;">
I find my joy in the Lord.</div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<i>Send forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.</i></div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<b>or</b></div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<i>Alleluia!</i></div>
<hr class="shortrule" style="background-color: white; margin-top: 1em; width: 105.797px;" />
<table class="each" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin-top: 2em; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><th align="left">Second reading</th></tr>
<tr><th align="right">1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13 <a href="https://universalis.com/usa/mass.htm#copyright">©</a></th></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4 style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">
In the one Spirit we were all baptised</h4>
<div class="p" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">
No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ unless he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.</div>
<div class="pi" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify; text-indent: 1em;">
There is a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit; there are all sorts of service to be done, but always to the same Lord; working in all sorts of different ways in different people, it is the same God who is working in all of them. The particular way in which the Spirit is given to each person is for a good purpose.</div>
<div class="pi" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify; text-indent: 1em;">
Just as a human body, though it is made up of many parts, is a single unit because all these parts, though many, make one body, so it is with Christ. In the one Spirit we were all baptised, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as citizens, and one Spirit was given to us all to drink.</div>
<table class="each" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin-top: 2em; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><th align="left">Sequence</th><th align="right"></th></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4 style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">
Veni, sancte Spiritus</h4>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Holy Spirit, Lord of Light,</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
From the clear celestial height</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Thy pure beaming radiance give.</div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Come, thou Father of the poor,</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Come with treasures which endure</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Come, thou light of all that live!</div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Thou, of all consolers best,</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Thou, the soul’s delightful guest,</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Dost refreshing peace bestow</div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Thou in toil art comfort sweet</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Pleasant coolness in the heat</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Solace in the midst of woe.</div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Light immortal, light divine,</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Visit thou these hearts of thine,</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
And our inmost being fill:</div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
If thou take thy grace away,</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Nothing pure in man will stay</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
All his good is turned to ill.</div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Heal our wounds, our strength renew</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
On our dryness pour thy dew</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Wash the stains of guilt away:</div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Bend the stubborn heart and will</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Melt the frozen, warm the chill</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Guide the steps that go astray.</div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Thou, on us who evermore</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Thee confess and thee adore,</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
With thy sevenfold gifts descend:</div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Give us comfort when we die</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Give us life with thee on high</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Give us joys that never end.</div>
<hr class="shortrule" style="background-color: white; margin-top: 1em; width: 105.797px;" />
<table class="each" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin-top: 2em; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><th align="left">Gospel Acclamation</th><th align="right"></th></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Alleluia, alleluia!</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
and kindle in them the fire of your love.</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Alleluia!</div>
<hr class="shortrule" style="background-color: white; margin-top: 1em; width: 105.797px;" />
<table class="each" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin-top: 2em; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><th align="left">Gospel</th><th align="right">John 20:19-23 <a href="https://universalis.com/usa/mass.htm#copyright">©</a></th></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4 style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">
As the Father sent me, so am I sending you: receive the Holy Spirit</h4>
<div class="p" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">
In the evening of the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you’, and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.</div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
‘As the Father sent me,</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
so am I sending you.’</div>
<div class="p gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; text-align: justify;">
After saying this he breathed on them and said:</div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
‘Receive the Holy Spirit.</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
For those whose sins you forgive,</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
they are forgiven;</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
for those whose sins you retain,</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
they are retained.’</div>
gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-76391913254921210372020-05-24T06:34:00.000-04:002020-05-24T06:34:46.006-04:00So is Your Church Open Well I guess as the world removes itself from the lock down due to the Corona Virus has your church opened up? Here in Ontario in Canada we have an opening for masses in drive up fashion so basically mass in parking lot. I have seen a couple of churches trying this or at least offering the Eucharist after their mass on the internet.<br />
But for those in other countries where churches are open how is it down and are you confident enough to go back. I see some churches where rows of pews are shut down and seating is marked out to keep social distancing rules. I have also seen almost same as before lock down where it is one big bunch of people.<br />
I do immensely miss going to mass but have no idea when to go back because of my medical issues I am a candidate to get this virus and be in deep trouble. I also don't understand that up until now we were basically isolated from each other to prevent or reduce spread of the virus and now almost everything back to normal. Hopefully we see some kind of decent plan for mass upcoming here in Ontario but I for one will be extremely cautious in going forward about going back but I do hope that day will come as I miss being with our Lord at mass. Take care and God Bless.gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-16431421270545421962020-05-24T06:24:00.001-04:002020-05-24T06:24:33.732-04:00Prayers for Today<table cellpadding="0" style="background-color: #ebeaea; border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="yiv7230525049mailpoet_paragraph" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: normal;"><i>Lord, I do find that my life is filled with many ups, downs, twists and turns. There are joys and sorrows, moments of confusion and clarity. In all things, help me to continually say “Yes” to Your plan. Jesus, I trust in You.<br /></i><table cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="yiv7230525049mailpoet_paragraph" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: normal;"><i>Lord, I do find that my life is filled with many ups, downs, twists and turns. There are joys and sorrows, moments of confusion and clarity. In all things, help me to continually say “Yes” to Your plan. Jesus, I trust in You.<br /></i><table cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="yiv6990776570mailpoet_paragraph" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.4px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: normal;"><i>Lord, I love You and desire to be loved by You. I know my love is far from perfect. Lord, help me to seek You more intimately and to encounter You in the most intimate of ways. May my spirit be filled with a longing for You, and as I meet You may I gaze upon Your glory and splendor. May I truly become “lost” in my deep admiration of You, my God. Jesus, I trust in You.</i></td></tr>
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gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-79708613415213904962020-05-24T06:21:00.001-04:002020-05-24T06:21:15.907-04:00Reflection for TodayTaken from <a href="https://www.acatholic.org/" target="_blank">A Catholic Moment;</a><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The end of Easter Season is very close as we could see it even from our directions. The Ascension of the Lord into heaven opens another important moment meant to perfect the Easter festivity; the Pentecost. The Pentecost not only concludes the Pascal mystery that reaches its “summum punctum” at Easter, but it equally perpetuates it. It is the ourpouring of the Holy Spirit that made it possible for the apostles to remember (anamnesis).</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">Thus the message we could derive from the readings of today is, “waiting in prayer.”</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">This is evidently underlined in the first reading. The second reading reports it differently as Peter invites his audience to suffer only for the sake of the Lord while waiting in patience for his manifestation in glory. And the gospel presents Jesus and his apostles waiting in prayer before his imminent passion.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">We too must wait and watch in prayer.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">FIRST READING: Acts 1: 12-14</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The first reading reports the return of the disciples from mount Olivet where they went to see their Master off for his glorious journey into heaven. It reminds us the Old Testament account of Elisha that accompanied Elijah his master to Jericho where he was taken in the whirlwind to heaven by a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:1-14).</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">Thus, the return of the disciples to the upper room was the beginning of their Pentecost retreat. It was meant to be a period of incubation, waiting to be hatched by the power of the Holy Spirit, the only force capable of breaking them away from the shell of fear and timidity.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The passage refers to the humble beginning of the Church; the Church in prayer before her public mission. It is the very first time that it was reported in the scripture that the apostles with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus devoted themselves in prayer.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">WHY MARY THE MOTHER OF JESUS?</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The emphasis made by Luke, the author of the Acts of the Apostles about Mary the mother of Jesus was not just to mark her presence or exalt her as the mother of Jesus, but it was an effort to emphasize her presence as an indispensable instrument in the life of the early Church. Thus, it is the passage from which the Church drew most her inspiration in affirming the centrality of Mary in the life of the Church (Mother of the Church).</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">WHY THE WOMEN?</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">Unlike the other evangelists, Luke had this particular attention in women and children in his narratives. His accounts featured a wide variety of personages, men and women, and also more open to the gentile world. He underlined in several passages the role played by women in the public ministry of Jesus. At this phase of the life of the Church, he still mentions the presence of women as a way to signal their place in the Body of Christ, the Church and as partakers of the mission that will be born on the day of Pentecost.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">PRAYER</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">Luke was very clear about the agenda for the gathering in the upper room. He underlined prayer as a preparatory activity towards the Pentecost in order that they may have a clear understanding of the directives of the Holy Spirit when He comes.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">This passage is the inspirational source for what we have today as Pentecost novena.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">SECOND READING: 1 Peter 4:13-16</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">Driving is made easy, enjoyable and faster when the road is smooth. But the moment one comes across a rough road, he suffers to roll the vehicle. However, the irony is that one on a smooth road is more exposed to accident because of the temptation of going on a high speed. On the contrary, the one who drives on the rough road carefully makes sure that his vehicle does not suffer damages. This could be analogous to faith experience. Sometimes when life is smooth, faith may suffer banality because one may be carried away forgetting that smoothness carries risks. On the other hand, faith lived amidst challenges could weigh hard, but with applied patience it is sure and safer. Suffering is an existential reality inevitably imprinted in the life of man. But when this man is connected to his God through faith, he often expect that it should be the end of his suffering. And if this expectation is not met, the faith suffers.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">This is the pastoral challenge that Peter deals with in today’s epistle. The Jewish converts to Christianity had the challenge of giving up many of the long-cherished traditions of their fathers that made their Jewish friends to desert them. And for the Gentile converts, embracing christianity was indeed a real struggle, a breaking away from a life they were very much used to. But then Peter reminds them that their interior struggle and suffering of any sort must be for the sake of righteousness. For suffering as a murderer, a thief, a wrong-doer, a mischief-maker has no link in the passion of Christ who suffered for the sake of righteousness. And if they have to suffer for the sake of Christ, then it should be a privilege and a thing of joy: “Rejoice, to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ. Whoever is made to suffer as a Christian should not be ashamed but should glorify God because of the Name.” </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">God in Jesus identifies with us in our human conditions. We are never left alone. And when we suffer for his sake or when we embrace the challenges that come our way with faith and constancy in him, then he allows us to undergo a process of purgation which is a necessary means to our salvation. Let our suffering therefore be just and in righteousness, for it is only then that it will be identified with the suffering of Christ. It is only then that it becomes salvific.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">GOSPEL: John 17:1-11</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">Today’s Gospel gives us the first part of Jesus’ solemn prayer at the Last Supper. John presents it not just as a prayer but also as an account of a mission accomplished. It is a passage popularly described as the High priestly prayer of Jesus.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The “Birkat Kohanim” is a priestly blessing described by the Torah as reserved only to Aaron and his sons (the priestly lineage). But then it is Yahweh himself who dictates the formula for the blessing: “This is how you must bless the Israelites. You will say: May Yahweh bless you and keep you. May Yahweh let his face shine on you and be gracious to you. May Yahweh show you his face and bring you peace.”This is how they must call down my name on the Israelites, and then I shall bless them.’ (Nb 6:23-27).</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">John closes Jesus’s last moment with his Apostles with this episode of solemn priestly benediction. He presides as High Priest, offering himself first of all as victim for the sins of the world, and intercedes for his disciples, the 12 new tribes of Israel through whom the new people of Israel will be born just as the high priest interceded for people of the 12 tribes of Israel.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The first part of the prayer is centred on Jesus who asks the Father to cloth him with the eternal glory he shared with him from the beginning as a remuneration of his faithfulness to the mission accomplished. He equally consecrates himself to the Father as an eternal offering, a perfect victim for the redemption of the world.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">In the second part of the Prayer, Jesus petitions the Father to bless his apostles because they acknowledged his divine sonship and accepted his Word. He contrasts the identity of his apostles with the world. The world in this context means not accepting Jesus as the Son of God and not believing in the Word of God.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">This passage of the gospel of John is known as the longest prayer of Jesus in all the four gospels. It offers two key dimensions of prayer:</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">Prayer as a thanksgiving: Jesus began first by acknowledging his submissiveness to the Father who alone can glory him, and further glorified the Father just like in the Hallowed be your name of the traditional “Pater Noster”</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">Prayer of petition: Jesus showed this to be the inferior part of prayer. It is a request to God that asks him to fulfill a need. It is a prayer that acknowledges God as a provident Father in whom all things depend. Here Jesus begs his Father to bless those he has given him. From this particular dimension of prayer, he demonstrated one of the attitudes of prayer; ‘the prayer of intercession.’ It is a prayer of mediation; standing for and on behalf of the other.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">LIFE MESSAGE</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">1</span><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">. PRAYER AS SOUL OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The best motto for any believer should be “in everything, prayer.” Prayer is not only an act but it is a way of life. It is an expression of our ‘belongingness’ to the Father. It is the breath of the spirit and soul of the christian life. Just like an automobile requires an energy generating element in order to move, the life of a believer remains static without prayer.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">Jesus teaches us today of the need to renew our prayer life by always lifting our eyes to heaven. When John says Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven, it signifies something more than just an attitude of prayer. It is a pointer to those who believe that their life must transcend beyond this world, and that it is only through their constant gaze on the Father that they will be able to defeat the ‘world’.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">2. </span><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">OUR LIFE IS MEANT TO GLORIFY GOD</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">Prayer is an expression of our being, and our being is a being from God. Thus, our life has no meaning apart from the one it derives from its Owner.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">Jesus said, “I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world.” In other words, I have lived the way you wanted that I should live. There is no other way to glorify the Father than through the type of life we live. When we live the life of integrity, we are glorifying the Father. When we are honest and truthful in our dealings with other, we glorify the Father. And when we refuse to close our eyes in pretence from seeing those wounded by life or shut our ears from the cry of the poor or allow our hearts to feel their pain and our hands to come to their aid, then we glorify the Father.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">INVITATION TO PRAYER</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">As today Mark’s the end of the one week celebration of the fifth anniversary of the Encyclical Letter “Laudato Si” of the Holy Father Pope Francis’ we are invited to pray. “All is connected” is the beautiful theme that guided the one week reflection in which the Holy Father asks us, “What type of world do we wish to leave behind for those who will come after us, to the kids who are growing up?” And he invites us to an urgent need of responding to the ecological crisis, the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor who could wait no longer. We must take care of creation, gift of our good God, the Creator.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">The viral epidemic we are suffering today, the global warming and other harms are as a result of greedy and frivolous attitude of man towards his God, his fellow man and the rest of creation.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;">Let us renew our intention and transform our approach in order to promote an integral ecology.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 700;">Maranatha, come oh Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />PAX VOBIS!</span>gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-14617993411989061272020-05-24T06:17:00.001-04:002020-05-24T06:17:22.890-04:00 Seventh Sunday of Easter May 24 2020 <div class="cs_control CS_Element_Textblock" id="cs_control_3684" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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Reading 1<a href="http://cms.usccb.org/bible/acts/1:12" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px; color: #008061; float: right; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; letter-spacing: 1.2px; line-height: normal; margin: 1px 0px 0px; outline: none; padding: 1px 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-transform: uppercase;">ACTS 1:12-14</a></h4>
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After Jesus had been taken up to heaven the apostles<br style="font-size: 12px;" />returned to Jerusalem<br style="font-size: 12px;" />from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />a sabbath day’s journey away.</div>
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When they entered the city<br style="font-size: 12px;" />they went to the upper room where they were staying,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />Peter and John and James and Andrew,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />and Judas son of James.<br style="font-size: 12px;" />All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />together with some women,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.</div>
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Responsorial Psalm<a href="http://cms.usccb.org/bible/psalms/27:1" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px; color: #008061; float: right; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; letter-spacing: 1.2px; line-height: normal; margin: 1px 0px 0px; outline: none; padding: 1px 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-transform: uppercase;">PS 27:1, 4, 7-8</a></h4>
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R. (13) <span style="border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700 !important; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.</span><br style="font-size: 12px;" />or:<br style="font-size: 12px;" />R. <span style="border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700 !important; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Alleluia.</span><br style="font-size: 12px;" />The LORD is my light and my salvation;<br style="font-size: 12px;" />whom should I fear?<br style="font-size: 12px;" />The LORD is my life’s refuge;<br style="font-size: 12px;" />of whom should I be afraid?<br style="font-size: 12px;" />R. <span style="border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700 !important; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.</span><br style="font-size: 12px;" />or:<br style="font-size: 12px;" />R. <span style="border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700 !important; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Alleluia.</span><br style="font-size: 12px;" />One thing I ask of the LORD;<br style="font-size: 12px;" />this I seek:<br style="font-size: 12px;" />To dwell in the house of the LORD<br style="font-size: 12px;" />all the days of my life,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />That I may gaze on the loveliness of the LORD<br style="font-size: 12px;" />and contemplate his temple.<br style="font-size: 12px;" />R. <span style="border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700 !important; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.</span><br style="font-size: 12px;" />or:<br style="font-size: 12px;" />R. <span style="border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700 !important; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Alleluia.</span><br style="font-size: 12px;" />Hear, O Lord, the sound of my call;<br style="font-size: 12px;" />have pity on me, and answer me.<br style="font-size: 12px;" />Of you my heart speaks; you my glance seeks.<br style="font-size: 12px;" />R. <span style="border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700 !important; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.</span><br style="font-size: 12px;" />or:<br style="font-size: 12px;" />R. <span style="border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700 !important; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Alleluia.</span></div>
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Reading 2<a href="http://cms.usccb.org/bible/1peter/4:13" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px; color: #008061; float: right; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; letter-spacing: 1.2px; line-height: normal; margin: 1px 0px 0px; outline: none; padding: 1px 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-transform: uppercase;">1 PT 4:13-16</a></h4>
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Beloved:<br style="font-size: 12px;" />Rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />so that when his glory is revealed<br style="font-size: 12px;" />you may also rejoice exultantly.<br style="font-size: 12px;" />If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.<br style="font-size: 12px;" />But let no one among you be made to suffer<br style="font-size: 12px;" />as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as an intriguer.<br style="font-size: 12px;" />But whoever is made to suffer as a Christian should not be ashamed<br style="font-size: 12px;" />but glorify God because of the name.</div>
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Alleluia<a href="http://cms.usccb.org/bible/john/14:18" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px; color: #008061; float: right; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; letter-spacing: 1.2px; line-height: normal; margin: 1px 0px 0px; outline: none; padding: 1px 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-transform: uppercase;">JN 14:18</a></h4>
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R. <span style="border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700 !important; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Alleluia, alleluia.</span><br style="font-size: 12px;" />I will not leave you orphans, says the Lord.<br style="font-size: 12px;" />I will come back to you, and your hearts will rejoice.<br style="font-size: 12px;" />R. <span style="border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700 !important; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Alleluia, alleluia.</span></div>
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Gospel<a href="http://cms.usccb.org/bible/john/17:1" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px; color: #008061; float: right; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; letter-spacing: 1.2px; line-height: normal; margin: 1px 0px 0px; outline: none; padding: 1px 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-transform: uppercase;">JN 17:1-11A</a></h4>
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Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />“Father, the hour has come.<br style="font-size: 12px;" />Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />just as you gave him authority over all people,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.<br style="font-size: 12px;" />Now this is eternal life,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />that they should know you, the only true God,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.<br style="font-size: 12px;" />I glorified you on earth<br style="font-size: 12px;" />by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.<br style="font-size: 12px;" />Now glorify me, Father, with you,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />with the glory that I had with you before the world began.</div>
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“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.<br style="font-size: 12px;" />They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />and they have kept your word.<br style="font-size: 12px;" />Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />because the words you gave to me I have given to them,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />and they have believed that you sent me.<br style="font-size: 12px;" />I pray for them.<br style="font-size: 12px;" />I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours<br style="font-size: 12px;" />and everything of yours is mine,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />and I have been glorified in them.<br style="font-size: 12px;" />And now I will no longer be in the world,<br style="font-size: 12px;" />but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.”</div>
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gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-19483556808942493602020-05-17T07:10:00.003-04:002020-05-17T07:10:38.032-04:00Prayers for Today<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Come
Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the
fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And
You shall renew the face of the earth. </span><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">O, God, who by the light
of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that
by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His
consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen. Jesus, I trust in You.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></i>"O God, you are the unsearchable abyss of peace, the ineffable sea of
love, the fountain of blessings and the bestower of affection, who sends
peace to those who receive it. Open to us this day the sea of your love
and water us with abundant streams from the riches of your grace and
from the most sweet springs of your kindness. Make us children of
quietness and heirs of peace; enkindle in us the fire of your love; sow
in us your fear; strengthen our weakness by your power; bind us closely
to you and to each other in our firm and indissoluble bond of unity."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> <span style="color: black;"><strong></strong>Lord, as I begin this
prayer, I offer you my whole self: my thoughts, desires, decisions,
actions, hopes, fears, weaknesses, failures and petty successes. I open
my entire being to you, aware that you know everything already. I’m
certain of your mercy and of the purifying power of your penetrating,
loving gaze.</span></span>gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-66853888953450937092020-05-17T07:06:00.000-04:002020-05-17T07:06:33.666-04:00Reflection for TodayFrom A Catholic Moment;<br />
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">INTRODUCTION</strong><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />We have all lived this year’s Lent as a complete desert experience, and the Easter season in total restriction with no possibility of liturgical gathering. Now the Easter light is gradually going off, yet we still feel the Lenten desert experience within us.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Can there still be a new perspective to our hope? The Gospel reading today says yes. Jesus says he cannot leave his own like orphans. The experience of Pentecost which is the height of Easter season is a dawn of a new hope. Jesus promises to send the Paraclete whose role is not just to revive our hope but to plead on our behalf.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The promise is an official inauguration of the dawn of a new era meant to complete the tripartite moments of revelation of the Three Persons in the Blessed Trinity (creation, redemption and sanctification); consubstantially One and present in every single moment of the history of salvation, yet each distinguishable in relation to these moments.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Thus as we approach the feast of Pentecost, the Church invites us to celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit as a lived experience. And as many hearts are cold and many hopes are lost, and as darkness and forlorn seem to curb our daily living, indeed we need the Holy Spirit, the comforter to be in our company (Jn 14:17). The light of his presence will certainly brighten the future and revive lost hopes.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">FIRST READING: Acts 8:5-8</strong><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The martyrdom of Stephen (deacon and first Christian martyr) was the beginning of a bloody persecution of the Church that lasted for more than two centuries before the edit of emperor Constantine that legalized christianity as the religion of the empire (edit of Milan 313 AD).<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The chapter 7 of the Acts of the Apostles which ended with the story of the martyrdom of Stephen equally opened the history page of Saul, the famous zealous persecutor of the Church. The outbreak of a bitter persecution caused the Christians in Jerusalem to scatter and with the Apostles taking refuge within the country districts of Judaea and Samaria thus fulfilling the words of the risen Lord:”You are to be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem, but throughout Judea and Samaria, yes even to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).”<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Today’s narrative of the mission of Philip (one of the newly chosen deacons) featured within the same pericope of the outbreak of persecution, tells the story of the first fruits of the gospel sown outside the city of Jerusalem. The proclamation of the gospel in this ‘pagan’ land was accompanied by exorcism and healing, both of which testify the power of the gospel; the expulsion of evil and the implantation of good. The seed of the gospel sown could not possibly grow unless it is watered by the Holy Spirit. This was the reason why the Apostles Peter and John went down to Samaria, and through the laying on of hands, the inhabitants received the Holy Spirit.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">MESSAGE</strong>:<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />1. Hence we bear the Spirit of God in us, we are protagonists of the Word regardless of our status. The first Christian martyr was Stephen, the deacon, and today the first to sow the seed of the Word outside Jerusalem is Philip, the deacon. Those who were originally chosen to the service of charity eventually became bearers of the Word. We mustn’t belong to the college of the Apostles before we know that we are called to testify Christ, in other words, we mustn’t be ordained ministers in order to proclaim the Word. How do we participate in making Christ known? In which way do we contribute towards the spreading of the seed of the kingdom?<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />2. Sometimes God uses difficult moments to manifest his glorious power. Indeed the persecution was a bitter experience for the disciples, but it equally caused the spread of the gospel. The Apostles did not give up. One of the best attitudes everyone of us should put on in this life is never to give up in doing good. When it is dark in ‘your Jerusalem, surely if you persist, your light will shine in Samaria.’ Do not give up.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">SECOND READING: I Pt 3:15-18</strong><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The power of God is so marvellous that it operates even in the midst of impossible situations. It is difficult to imagine how the Word continued to spread even when constantly choked. The answer is the Holy Spirit. Through the action of the Holy Spirit, God kept his own in the midst of persecutions. Peter exalts the Christians today to always reverence God even when their suffering increases for the sake of the gospel. He enjoins them never to be resentful against their persecutors insisting that their gentleness and steadfastness in witnessing to Christ will be a source of downfall and shame to their enemies. Finally, he invites them to see their suffering as a participation in the suffering of Christ who reconciled humanity with God through suffering.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">GOSPEL: John 14:15-21</strong><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The gospel page today is a continuation of the discourse of Jesus as we saw last sunday. John accounts that the gathering at the upper room cannot be dismissed without Jesus’s solemn promise to his disciples to send them the Paraclete. The Koine Greek Parakletos refers to one who helps in the law court. And its usage in Hebrew transcription refers to one who advocates before God’s court (generally associated with the role angels and prophets) or as presented in the Septuagint (Greek version of the Old Testament) as comforter. It is used by Jesus today for the first time in John’s gospel to show the the identity and role of the Holy Spirit (advocate, helper, intercessor, mediator). Though Jesus is the advocate of mankind before the Father (1 Jn 2:1) and during his life time on earth, he offered intercessory prayers on behalf of his people, but since he will not be physically present with his disciples, he promises the gift of the Holy Spirit who will not only inaugurate another moment in the history of salvation but will also perpetuate the mission of the Christ.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">LIFE MESSAGE:</strong><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />1<span> </span><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">JESUS THINKS ABOUT US</strong><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />John presents Jesus as indeed a true friend who is not just concerned with the now of his disciples but also their future: “I will not leave you like orphans.” <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />With this we learn that we are never alone in our sufferings and pains and trials and even death. Jesus walks with us daily and shields us from the works of the Evil One.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />2 HE MAKES HIS HOLY SPIRIT AVAILABLE FOR ALL</strong><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit is not selective. He does not discriminate. Just like we saw in the first reading, the Holy Spirit received in Jerusalem is the same received in Samaria. The Power of God does not respect borders. It breaks through every land and in every people. But let us know that we can cause this Spirit to be ‘selective and discriminatory’ through our actions that are repulsive and incompatible with his presence. When we do not have the Spirit then we are living for nothing. He is the “Pneuma” (the breath) that sustains our divine life. Therefore, we must always be open to the action of the Spirit, who alone can fruitify our lives.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />3 IF YOU LOVE ME</strong>…<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />All of us are beneficiaries of the fraternal love of Christ. He makes his grace available to all. But there is a price we have to pay if we must continue to enjoy his friendship. He says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Most of us are often tempted to say, “He understands that we are human and that we are weak. Of course, Jesus understands us perfectly well, and has always been merciful. But one day, we may not have the opportunity for his mercy. If we truly love him, we must first recognize that the same habitual sin is not compatible with him, and never for any reason give excuses for our weaknesses.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />If we love him, we must renew our lives daily in holiness by transforming our weaknesses and characters. Let us say no to ‘I am human’ syndrome for it impedes us from spiritual growth.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">PRAYER</strong></div>
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Almighty and Eternal God who through the regenerating power of baptism has been pleased to confer on us heavenly life, grant we pray that through the outpouring of your Spirit, we may be empowered for the gospel and aspire for the life of immortality. Amen.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">PAX VOBIS!</strong></div>
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<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div>
gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-83611211261742027152020-05-17T06:57:00.002-04:002020-05-17T06:57:49.489-04:006th Sunday of Easter Sunday 17 May 2020 <table class="each" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin-top: 2em; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><th align="left">First reading</th></tr>
<tr><th align="right">Acts 8:5-8,14-17 <a href="https://universalis.com/usa/mass.htm#copyright">©</a></th></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4 style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">
They laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit</h4>
<div class="p" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">
Philip went to a Samaritan town and proclaimed the Christ to them. The people united in welcoming the message Philip preached, either because they had heard of the miracles he worked or because they saw them for themselves. There were, for example, unclean spirits that came shrieking out of many who were possessed, and several paralytics and cripples were cured. As a result there was great rejoicing in that town.</div>
<div class="pi" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify; text-indent: 1em;">
When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, and they went down there, and prayed for the Samaritans to receive the Holy Spirit, for as yet he had not come down on any of them: they had only been baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.</div>
<hr class="shortrule" style="background-color: white; margin-top: 1em; width: 106.188px;" />
<table class="each" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin-top: 2em; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><th align="left">Responsorial Psalm</th></tr>
<tr><th align="right">Psalm 65(66):1-7,16,20 <a href="https://universalis.com/usa/mass.htm#copyright">©</a></th></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<i>Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.</i></div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<b>or</b></div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<i>Alleluia!</i></div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Cry out with joy to God all the earth,</div>
<div class="vi" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -2em;">
O sing to the glory of his name.</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
O render him glorious praise.</div>
<div class="vi" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -2em;">
Say to God: ‘How tremendous your deeds!</div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<i>Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.</i></div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<b>or</b></div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<i>Alleluia!</i></div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
‘Before you all the earth shall bow;</div>
<div class="vi" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -2em;">
shall sing to you, sing to your name!’</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Come and see the works of God,</div>
<div class="vi" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -2em;">
tremendous his deeds among men.</div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<i>Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.</i></div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<b>or</b></div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<i>Alleluia!</i></div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
He turned the sea into dry land,</div>
<div class="vi" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -2em;">
they passed through the river dry-shod.</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Let our joy then be in him;</div>
<div class="vi" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -2em;">
he rules for ever by his might.</div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<i>Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.</i></div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<b>or</b></div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<i>Alleluia!</i></div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Come and hear, all who fear God.</div>
<div class="vi" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -2em;">
I will tell what he did for my soul:</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Blessed be God who did not reject my prayer</div>
<div class="vi" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -2em;">
nor withhold his love from me.</div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<i>Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.</i></div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<b>or</b></div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
<i>Alleluia!</i></div>
<hr class="shortrule" style="background-color: white; margin-top: 1em; width: 106.188px;" />
<table class="each" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin-top: 2em; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><th align="left">Second reading</th><th align="right">1 Peter 3:15-18 <a href="https://universalis.com/usa/mass.htm#copyright">©</a></th></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4 style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">
In the body he was put to death, in the spirit he was raised to life</h4>
<div class="p" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">
Reverence the Lord Christ in your hearts, and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have. But give it with courtesy and respect and with a clear conscience, so that those who slander you when you are living a good life in Christ may be proved wrong in the accusations that they bring. And if it is the will of God that you should suffer, it is better to suffer for doing right than for doing wrong.</div>
<div class="pi" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify; text-indent: 1em;">
Why, Christ himself, innocent though he was, had died once for sins, died for the guilty, to lead us to God. In the body he was put to death, in the spirit he was raised to life.</div>
<hr class="shortrule" style="background-color: white; margin-top: 1em; width: 106.188px;" />
<table class="each" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin-top: 2em; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><th align="left">Gospel Acclamation</th><th align="right">Jn14:23</th></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Alleluia, alleluia!</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Jesus said: ‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word,</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
and my Father will love him,</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
and we shall come to him.’</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Alleluia!</div>
<hr class="shortrule" style="background-color: white; margin-top: 1em; width: 106.188px;" />
<table class="each" style="background-color: white; color: black; margin-top: 2em; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><th align="left">Gospel</th><th align="right">John 14:15-21 <a href="https://universalis.com/usa/mass.htm#copyright">©</a></th></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4 style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">
I shall ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate</h4>
<div class="p" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">
Jesus said to his disciples:</div>
<div class="v gb" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
‘If you love me you will keep my commandments.</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
I shall ask the Father,</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
and he will give you another Advocate</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
to be with you for ever,</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
that Spirit of truth</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
whom the world can never receive</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
since it neither sees nor knows him;</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
but you know him,</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
because he is with you, he is in you.</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
I will not leave you orphans;</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
I will come back to you.</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
In a short time the world will no longer see me;</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
but you will see me,</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
because I live and you will live.</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
On that day you will understand that I am in my Father</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
and you in me and I in you.</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
Anybody who receives my commandments and keeps them</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
will be one who loves me;</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
and anybody who loves me will be loved by my Father,</div>
<div class="v" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;">
and I shall love him and show myself to him.’</div>
gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-75433473383884510002020-05-11T06:08:00.002-04:002020-05-11T06:08:58.865-04:00Remember you are made for heaven, says Pope FrancisFrom The Catholic News Agency,<br />
<br />
<span class="noticia_byline">Vatican City, May 10, 2020 / 05:30 am MT (<a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/" target="_self">CNA</a>)</span>.- We must always remember that we are made for heaven, Pope Francis said in his Regina Coeli address Sunday.<br />
Speaking in the library of the Apostolic Palace due to the
coronavirus pandemic, the pope said May 10: “God is in love with us. We
are his children. And for us He has prepared the most worthy and
beautiful place: paradise.” <br />
“Let us not forget: the dwelling place that awaits us is paradise.
Here we are passing through. We are made for heaven, for eternal life,
to live forever.”<br />
In his reflection before the Regina Coeli, the pope focused on
Sunday’s Gospel reading, John 14:1-12, in which Jesus addresses his
disciples at the Last Supper.<br />
He said: “At such a dramatic moment Jesus began by saying: ‘Do not
let your hearts be troubled.’ He says this to us too in the dramas of
life. But how can we make sure that our hearts are not troubled?”<br />
He explained that Jesus offers two remedies for our turmoil. The first is an invitation to us to have faith in him.<br />
“He knows that in life, the worst anxiety, turmoil, comes from the
feeling of not being able to cope, from feeling alone and without
reference points before what happens,” he said.
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“This anxiety, in which difficulty is added to difficulty, cannot be
overcome alone. That is why Jesus asks us to have faith in Him, that is,
not to lean on ourselves, but on Him. Because liberation from anguish
passes through trust.”<br />
The Pope said that Jesus’ second remedy is expressed in his words “In
my Father’s house there are many dwelling places … I am going to
prepare a place for you” (John 14:2).<br />
“This is what Jesus did for us: He reserved us a place in heaven,” he
said. “He took upon Himself our humanity to take it beyond death, to a
new place, in heaven, so that where He is, we might be there also.”<br />
He continued: “Forever: it’s something we can't even imagine now. But
it is even more beautiful to think that this forever will be all in
joy, in full communion with God and with others, without any more tears,
without rancor, without division and upheaval.”<br />
“But how to reach Paradise? What is the way? Here is the decisive
phrase of Jesus. Today he says: ‘I am the way’ [John 14:6]. To ascend to
heaven, the way is Jesus: it is to have a living relationship with Him,
to imitate Him in love, to follow in His footsteps.”<br />
He urged Christians to ask themselves which way they were following.<br />
“There are ways that do not lead to heaven: the ways of worldliness,
the ways of self-assertion, the ways of selfish power,” he said.<br />
“And there is the way of Jesus, the way of humble love, of prayer, of
meekness, of trust, of service to others. It is to go ahead every day
asking: ‘Jesus, what do you think of my choice? What would you do in
this situation, with these people?’”<br />
“It will do us good to ask Jesus, who is the way, the directions for
heaven. May Our Lady, Queen of Heaven, help us to follow Jesus, who
opened heaven for us.”<br />
After reciting the Regina Coeli, the pope recalled two anniversaries.<br />
The first was the 70th anniversary on May 9 of the Schuman
Declaration, which led to the creation of the European Coal and Steel
Community.
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“It inspired the process of European integration,” he said, “enabling
the reconciliation of the peoples of the continent after the Second
World War and the long period of stability and peace from which we
benefit today.”<br />
“The spirit of the Schuman Declaration cannot fail to inspire all
those with responsibilities in the European Union, called upon to face
the social and economic consequences of the pandemic in a spirit of
harmony and cooperation.”<br />
The second anniversary was that of St. John Paul’s first visit to
Africa 40 years ago. Francis said that on May 10, 1980, the Polish pope
“gave voice to the cry of the people of the Sahel, harshly tried by
drought.”<br />
He praised an initiative by young people to plant a million trees in
the Sahel region, forming a “Great Green Wall” to combat the effects of
desertification.<br />
“I hope that many will follow the example of solidarity of these young people,” he said.<br />
The pope also noted that May 10 is Mother’s Day in many countries.<br />
He said: “I want to remember all mothers with gratitude and
affection, entrusting them to the protection of Mary, our heavenly
Mother. My thoughts also go out to the mothers who have passed to the
other life and accompany us from heaven.”<br />
He then called for a moment of silent prayer for mothers.<br />
He concluded: “I wish everyone a good Sunday. Please don’t forget to pray for me. Have a good lunch and goodbye for now.”<br />
Afterwards, he offered his blessing while overlooking an almost empty St. Peter’s Square. gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-384980396201200212020-05-10T05:29:00.002-04:002020-05-10T05:29:30.731-04:00Prayers for Today<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">My Lord and my Savior, I say “Yes” to
You this day and accept You into my life as my Lord and Savior. I thank
You for the gift of Baptism which began my life of grace and I renew my
choice to follow You, this day, so that You may enter more fully into
my life. As You enter into my life, please offer me to the Father in
Heaven. May all my actions be directed by You so that I may be an
eternal offering with You, dear Jesus. Jesus, I trust in You.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span>"Lord Jesus, you fill us with the joy of your saving presence and you
give us the hope of everlasting life with the Father in Heaven. Show me
the Father that I may know and glorify him more fully."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="color: black;">Lord, thank you for allowing me to spend
this time with you. There are things in life, Lord, that attract me, but
you attract me more. I hope in you, and I love you. Maybe I don’t
really understand what it means to love, and maybe I don’t love the way I
should, but I do love you.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lord, I believe that greatness is
found only in Your holy Will. Help me to set aside my own ideas and
agendas so that I may seek only that which is in Your perfect Heart.
Help me to humbly embrace every small sacrifice You ask of me, and to
have courage to do those things which seem to be beyond my ability. May
I listen to You and respond generously to whatever You say. Jesus, I
trust in You</span></span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></i>gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-62543094121817676802020-05-10T05:25:00.002-04:002020-05-10T05:25:52.198-04:00Reflections for the 5th Sunday of Easter May 10, 2020Taken from <a href="https://www.acatholic.org/" target="_blank">A Catholic Moment</a>;<br />
<br />
INTRODUCTION<br />The readings of today explain to us the difficult
path of faith that we must all walk before we get to our final
destination. Our challenges will not only come from outside but also
from among our brethren. This is the challenge the Apostles dealt with
in the First reading. But then, it is through our perseverance in faith
and by making Jesus our fundamental option in life that we will be able
to stand when trouble grows. This is the message of the Second reading.
The Gospel is Jesus’s assurance to us that when our heart quakes in
troubles, he is always there to console us and to fill us with the hope
of looking ahead to the Eternal Home he has prepared for us in the house
of the Father. Thus, the challenges in this life cannot stop those who
have placed their focus on Christ; the Way, the Truth and the Life.<br /><br />FIRST READING : Acts 6:1-7<br />The
First reading of the Second Sunday of Easter (Acts 2:42-47) gave us an
account of the interior life of the early Church, a life of love and
sharing without differences. And on this Fifth Sunday of Easter, the
First reading tells us that this life that was once lived in peace and
unity is gradually gaining and internal crises. These two different
moments simply reveal to us the inhabiting tendency of man. It is almost
impossible to love without having a moment of challenges. But then, a
true love is one that survives challenges. A love that survives
challenges does not count differences. But when individual differences
mount pressure over love, then race, tribe and language becomes obvious.
This is the situation that almost overtook the early community.<br />The
Greek-speaking widows complained that the Aramaic-speaking
food-ministers were short-changing them at meals in favor of the
Aramaic-speaking widows.<br />This problem was resolved peacefully by the Apostles based on two pillars:<br />The
power of the Holy Spirit that was still at work. It was the Spirit that
‘enwisdomised’ them to come up with the institution of seven men with
the fullness of the Spirit: “Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon,
Parmenas and Nicolaus of Antioch.”<br />Secondly, the power of community
life. It is in the spirit of community living that the Apostles convoked
the gathering, and the same community Spirit that made them not to
believe that they can do it all. Service must not be monopolized but has
to be distributed.<br />More interestingly, the men chosen were Greeks.
It simply tells us that if the Greek members of the community have
problem, the Church believes that they have capable men among them that
can resolve their problems.<br />The choice of these men which was crowned
with a solemn imposition of hand is an accent to the ancient rite of
consecration. It suggests that their service is not just a human
institution, but a divine service. This is the origin of the Church’s
order of the diaconate.<br /><br />SECOND READING: 1 Peter 2:4-9<br />The
discourse of Peter gives us a view of the Church as a spiritual edifice
built from “living stones” upon the “Living Cornerstone of Christ” (I Pt
2:4-5).<br />The concept of cornerstone also known as the foundation
stone is the first stone set in building construction which determines
the position of the entire structure. Peter parallels Jesus to
Cornerstone by making reference to the Hallel Psalm 118 about the stone
rejected by the builders which eventually became the cornerstone. This
was a direct speech against those who rejected the Messiahship of Jesus
and his centrality in their lives. They will stumble and fall, all those
who reject him, but for those who have made him the foundation of their
lives, they will not be put to shame. Peter labelled the identity of
the new community of believers with the title and emblem of the
believing Israel of the Old Testament: “a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people who are no longer subjects
to darkness because the Cornerstone is their foundation.<br />Peter’s
message is alive and active. Our lives must be founded on Christ. He is
the only sure foundation that can keep us standing without crashing in
the midst of the vicissitudes of this life.<br /><br />GOSPEL: John 14:1-12<br />Today’s
Gospel chapter is part of the five last discourses of Jesus sometimes
referred to as the farewell message. The setting of these five great
discourses is the Last Supper. On the Chapter 13 of John’s Gospel, after
the heroic service of the washing of the feet of his disciples, Jesus
opened up to them about his imminent betrayal and death. It was indeed a
breaking news which came with an unexpected tune: “I tell you this now
before it happens…”(Jn. 13:19). They were sparked into fear that their
Master was leaving. And of course they did not understand where he was
going which prompted the question of Peter: “Lord where are you going?”
(V.36). It was Peter’s question in chap. 13 that introduces us into the
chap. 14 of today’s Gospel.<br />Like the eyes of a mother bent on looking
on the depressed faces of her kids, Jesus was deeply moved by the
present condition of his Apostles. And while feeling their fears and
loneliness, he mustered like a mother, “Do not let your hearts be
troubled; Believe in God and believe in Me. In my Father’s house there
are many places to live in. I am going now to prepare a place for you.”<br />In
fact unlike the chapters 15, 16 and 17 which were continuous unilateral
discourse of Jesus, John presented the chapters 13 and 14 as a
dialogue. Gripped in confusion, fear, and uncertainties, the Apostles
asked questions for clarification. The answer of Jesus to Peter wasn’t
enough to clear their confusion. So Thomas did not hesitate to ask,
“Lord we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?
Philip was not left out in the series as he insisted, “Lord show us the
Father and then we shall be satisfied?”<br />The questions of Thomas and
Phillip respectively gave birth to the affirmation on the identity of
Jesus that would later become great theological pillars for the Church
to combat the heretics that will question the Divinity of Jesus. Jesus
did not just reveal himself in both responses as the only Way to the
Father, the Divine Truth, and the only source of Life, he equally
affirmed his Consubstantial identity with the Father (the Father is in
me and I am in the Father).The doctrine of ‘Consubstantiality’ will
become the apex of the dogmatic affirmation in the Nicean Creed
revolving around the mystery of the Trinity.<br />John captures this
discourse of Jesus on the Last Supper both as an adieu message for his
imminent death as well as an anticipation of the pre-ascension message.
And to give accent to its connection with a Pentecost experience, John
adds in the subsequent verses, “I shall ask the Father and he will give
you another Paraclet to be with you for ever” (Jn. 14:16).<br /><br />A MESSAGE TO THE JEWISH CONVERTS TO CHRISTIANITY<br />The
first century Jewish converts to christianity did not have it smooth.
They struggled to keep their feet on the ground as many of their
‘fanatic’ Jewish brothers made life difficult for them not just for
adhering to christianism but also because of their interaction with the
Gentiles. Gradually they found themselves cast out from the synagogues.
It is easy to imagine how they felt like strangers among their own
people. Probably it is in the heat of this difficulty that John
addressed this message of consolation. It is typical of a pastoral
letter telling them not to let their hearts to be troubled, but to
persevere in faith. The promise of many rooms to his disciples in his
Father’s house became a viable message for John to comfort the suffering
church that even though they may be driven out from the homes made of
hands, God has homes prepared for them in heaven. It is just enough to
keep their focus in the Eternal Homeland as a reward for their
perseverance in suffering for the sake of faith.<br /><br />LIFE MESSAGE<br />1. THE WORLD OF TROUBLES<br />Those
who journey along with the Lord should not only expect a rosy side of
life. They must always prepare to stumble over disappointments, heavy
loads of problems and lots of threat from the world. It will come in
such a manner that they would even be made to believe that the Lord has
abandoned them.<br />Each one of us is a living witness of how our faith
has wrestled with difficult times. And we have often been beaten and
defeated. ‘God where are you’ is still a question we are so familiar
with. It is a question our world is asking to date. Everything appears
as if God has finally said adieu to his people. But the Gospel of John
this day is a positive response to the preoccupations of those who trust
in God. Jesus is aware of our troubles. He knows how we feel. He was
the first to taste every bitter side of life before us. He knew
persecution, rejection, betrayal, hunger, thirst, poverty, loneliness,
nakedness etc. And from his faithfulness he tells us, ‘Let your hearts
not be troubled; believe in God, believe in me.’<br />Is it still possible
to trust and hold firm when we feel life is unjust to us? It is humanly
difficult. But if we understand that as long as we live in flesh and
blood it is inevitable to escape for troubles then we will find solace
in his Word: “I am going to prepare a place for you…I will come back to
take you with me, so that where I am, you too will be.” Troubles will
never be over until we are over from this life. But it is only our
perseverance that will win for us the Eternal Homeland.<br /><br />2. THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE<br />THE
WAY: There are certainly different ways we can employ in order to
achieve anything we in this life. But for that Highest Good (God), Jesus
says that we have only one way. ‘I am the way’ is an emphatic
pronouncement signifying that besides him there is no other. He’s the
only means through which we can reach the Father. There is no other
shortcut or track road to the Father. Those who walk through him shall
never miss their way to the Father.<br /><br />THE TRUTH: Jesus is the total
revelation of the invisible God. He is everything we need to know about
the Father. The men of this world are attracted to empty philosophy and
acquisition of contingent truth about reality. Jesus simply tells us,
‘If you don’t have me, you are empty of the truth. I am everything you
need to know and acquire. The experience of St. Augustine of Hippo
testifies how empty man without God could be, even with all his
knowledge. His encounter with the Lord showed that his search for truth
and happiness in sciences and friendship with the world was indeed an
empty adventure. And he exclaimed at last: ‘O Eternal beauty, how did I
discover you so late…You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our
heart is restless until it rests in you.’<br /><br />THE LIFE: Jesus had
earlier told Mary and Martha “I am the resurrection and the life” (Jn
11:25). Today he drags our attention towards something we probably do
not often think about. He simply tells us, ‘what you have is not life
but a shadow of life.’ We often spend time decorating this life while
thinking less of the real life. This life has a span. It will surely
end. Jesus tells us, ‘if you have me you have the real life that will
know no end. Yes, I am everything you need and nothing more.’<br />
PRAYER<br />
Keep us aclose to you Lord, so that we may learn how to hold on to
you in the days of troubles, and without slipping away from you, bring
us at last to that room that belongs to each one of us in your Father’s
house. Amen.<br />
PAX VOBIS!gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-31234031620822996122020-05-10T05:23:00.001-04:002020-05-10T05:23:33.569-04:005th Sunday of Easter<table class="each" style="width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><th align="left">First reading</th><th align="right">Acts 6:1-7 <a href="https://www.universalis.com/-400/mass.htm#copyright">©</a></th></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">
They elected seven men full of the Holy Spirit</h4>
<div class="p">
About this time, when the number of disciples was
increasing, the Hellenists made a complaint against the Hebrews: in the
daily distribution their own widows were being overlooked. So the Twelve
called a full meeting of the disciples and addressed them, ‘It would
not be right for us to neglect the word of God so as to give out food;
you, brothers, must select from among yourselves seven men of good
reputation, filled with the Spirit and with wisdom; we will hand over
this duty to them, and continue to devote ourselves to prayer and to the
service of the word.’ The whole assembly approved of this proposal and
elected Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, together
with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus of
Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these to the apostles, who
prayed and laid their hands on them.</div>
<div class="pi">
The word of the Lord continued to spread: the number
of disciples in Jerusalem was greatly increased, and a large group of
priests made their submission to the faith.</div>
<hr class="shortrule" />
<table class="each" style="width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><th align="left">Responsorial Psalm</th></tr>
<tr><th align="right">Psalm 32(33):1-2,4-5,18-19 <a href="https://www.universalis.com/-400/mass.htm#copyright">©</a></th></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="v">
<i>May your love be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you.</i></div>
<div class="v">
<b>or</b></div>
<div class="v">
<i>Alleluia!</i></div>
<div class="v gb">
Ring out your joy to the Lord, O you just;</div>
<div class="vi">
for praise is fitting for loyal hearts.</div>
<div class="v">
Give thanks to the Lord upon the harp,</div>
<div class="vi">
with a ten-stringed lute sing him songs.</div>
<div class="v gb">
<i>May your love be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you.</i></div>
<div class="v">
<b>or</b></div>
<div class="v">
<i>Alleluia!</i></div>
<div class="v gb">
For the word of the Lord is faithful</div>
<div class="vi">
and all his works to be trusted.</div>
<div class="v">
The Lord loves justice and right</div>
<div class="vi">
and fills the earth with his love.</div>
<div class="v gb">
<i>May your love be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you.</i></div>
<div class="v">
<b>or</b></div>
<div class="v">
<i>Alleluia!</i></div>
<div class="v gb">
The Lord looks on those who revere him,</div>
<div class="vi">
on those who hope in his love,</div>
<div class="v">
to rescue their souls from death,</div>
<div class="vi">
to keep them alive in famine.</div>
<div class="v gb">
<i>May your love be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you.</i></div>
<div class="v">
<b>or</b></div>
<div class="v">
<i>Alleluia!</i></div>
<hr class="shortrule" />
<table class="each" style="width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><th align="left">Second reading</th><th align="right">1 Peter 2:4-9 <a href="https://www.universalis.com/-400/mass.htm#copyright">©</a></th></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">
Christ is the living stone, chosen by God and precious to him</h4>
<div class="p">
The Lord is the living stone, rejected by men but chosen
by God and precious to him; set yourselves close to him so that you too,
the holy priesthood that offers the spiritual sacrifices which Jesus
Christ has made acceptable to God, may be living stones making a
spiritual house. As scripture says: <i>See how I lay in Zion a precious cornerstone that I have chosen and the man who rests his trust on it will not be disappointed.</i>
That means that for you who are believers, it is precious; but for
unbelievers, the stone rejected by the builders has proved to be the
keystone, a stone to stumble over, a rock to bring men down. They
stumble over it because they do not believe in the word; it was the fate
in store for them.</div>
<div class="pi">
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a
consecrated nation, a people set apart to sing the praises of God who
called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.</div>
<hr class="shortrule" />
<table class="each" style="width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><th align="left">Gospel Acclamation</th><th align="right">Jn14:6</th></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="v">
Alleluia, alleluia!</div>
<div class="v">
Jesus said: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.</div>
<div class="v">
No one can come to the Father except through me.’</div>
<div class="v">
Alleluia!</div>
<hr class="shortrule" />
<table class="each" style="width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><th align="left">Gospel</th><th align="right">John 14:1-12 <a href="https://www.universalis.com/-400/mass.htm#copyright">©</a></th></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life</h4>
<div class="p">
Jesus said to his disciples:</div>
<div class="v gb">
‘Do not let your hearts be troubled.</div>
<div class="v">
Trust in God still, and trust in me.</div>
<div class="v">
There are many rooms in my Father’s house;</div>
<div class="v">
if there were not, I should have told you.</div>
<div class="v">
I am going now to prepare a place for you,</div>
<div class="v">
and after I have gone and prepared you a place,</div>
<div class="v">
I shall return to take you with me;</div>
<div class="v">
so that where I am</div>
<div class="v">
you may be too.</div>
<div class="v">
You know the way to the place where I am going.’</div>
<div class="p gb">
Thomas said, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus said:</div>
<div class="v gb">
‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.</div>
<div class="v">
No one can come to the Father except through me.</div>
<div class="v">
If you know me, you know my Father too.</div>
<div class="v">
From this moment you know him and have seen him.’</div>
<div class="p gb">
Philip said, ‘Lord, let us see the Father and then we
shall be satisfied.’ ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip,’ said
Jesus to him ‘and you still do not know me?</div>
<div class="v gb">
‘To have seen me is to have seen the Father,</div>
<div class="v">
so how can you say, “Let us see the Father”?</div>
<div class="v">
Do you not believe</div>
<div class="v">
that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?</div>
<div class="v">
The words I say to you I do not speak as from myself:</div>
<div class="v">
it is the Father, living in me, who is doing this work.</div>
<div class="v">
You must believe me when I say</div>
<div class="v">
that I am in the Father and the Father is in me;</div>
<div class="v">
believe it on the evidence of this work, if for no other reason.</div>
<div class="v">
I tell you most solemnly,</div>
<div class="v">
whoever believes in me</div>
<div class="v">
will perform the same works as I do myself,</div>
<div class="v">
he will perform even greater works,</div>
<div class="v">
because I am going to the Father.’</div>
gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-88112848577766116742020-05-03T07:17:00.000-04:002020-05-03T07:17:07.711-04:00Are we There YetSo here we are about what 6 weeks into restrictions on movement and social distancing. Now we are getting close here in Ontario to opening up slowly. Caution in the mix so we do not have a major relapse and have to lock down again.<br />
Makes sense but yet many protest and complain their rights are violated and everything should be available as this is the freedoms we were guaranteed. I interpret those freedoms we have is to give me the freedom with government aid in times like this that my right to life and health is predominate not my right to go play a pick up game in basketball or sit in a cafe with 50 other people and spread a deadly virus. Maybe I am wrong I don't know any more. We here in Ontario and Canada have been given great political leadership throughout this process and a lot of transparencies as opposed to our friends in the United States. But now we are drifting into politics and that is not what I want to touch on.<br />
I have been lucky to see how many parishes have quickly picked up the pieces and gotten on top of this with virtual mass and prayers etc. Our Hungarian parish has the Sunday Mass on every Sunday on top of all the Easter Masses. Also since they are run by Jesuits every night there is the examen and reflection in front of the Holy Eucharist. It really has been great and to his credit the Priest at the Hungarian parish has brought other parish events and groups online. So really we are in touch continually in parish life.<br />
One of the local parishes has mass every Sunday and also a weekly update note and on Facebook the Daily Gospel is put up. The parish we attend has mass Sunday in Polish and English and daily mass alternating daily in language and a rosary.<br />
Now only thing that irritated me here was again the money request on Facebook our parish started a fund raising drive as out of no where he needed $30000. Now I am not naive I know they have operational expenses etc. But our Hungarian parish and the other parish I sometimes attend have been discreet in money request not over the top. This is right up there with what I called was the Ransom Mass in the winter where instead of a homily we were made to fill out the donation forms for the parish. Really getting too much. There is a proper way to do this.<br />
Certainly makes we wonder what is important to the parish priest his flock or their pocket book and I am certainly considering when churches reopen where I will be attending mass.<br />
Yes as I said they need support but every parish is discreet and respectful as there are many among us not working and have no income and are worried about rent food survival. The other parishes have been discreet and asked quietly in a note if you have the ability. Also the Hungarian and English parishes have also provided phone numbers for any kind of assistance one might require through this. To me this is how it should be.<br />
We are far from normal let us not rush and let us not push for donations but push to help and prayer for people to get through this. We will never I think get back to normal but we have to stay the course right now. Take care stay safe and God Bless!gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-47295322051660222062020-05-03T06:58:00.000-04:002020-05-03T06:58:02.626-04:00Prayers for Today<table cellpadding="0" style="background-color: #ebeaea; border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; color: #1d2228; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="yiv7845461568mailpoet_paragraph" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 22.4px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Holy Spirit, please open my ears to the Voice of the Good Shepherd and my mind to all that He speaks. My precious Lord Jesus, You are my Shepherd, I choose, this day, to follow Your voice when You speak, and to do so with complete trust and abandon. I love You, my Lord, and I thank you for loving me with such tender and intimate care. Jesus, my Good Shepherd, I trust in You.<br /><br />"Lord Jesus, you always lead me in the way of true peace and safety. May I never doubt your care nor stray from your ways. Keep me safe in the shelter of your presence."<br /><br />Lord Jesus, thank you so much for your generosity and patience in being with me today. My only desire is to please you. My heart longs to be flooded with your grace so that I may fully accomplish your will in my life.<br /><br />Lord, I pray that You will show me who You wish me to pray for. Place on my heart this desire. Help me to be faithful in my intercession and to trust in the power of that prayer. Here and now I offer (think of a person) to You. And I especially offer this person to the Immaculate Heart of Your Mother for her perfect prayers. Mother Mary, pray for us. Jesus, I trust in You.</span><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-13814379403641459892020-05-03T06:52:00.002-04:002020-05-03T06:52:39.212-04:00Reflections for the Fourth Sunday of EasterTaken from <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en.html" target="_blank">Vatican News</a>;<br />
<br />
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Reflections for the IV Sunday of Easter</h1>
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Fr. Antony Kadavil reflects and comments on the readings of the fourth Sunday of Easter, also called Good Shepherd Sunday. On this Day, the Church marks the World Day of Vocations.</div>
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<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">(Acts 2:14, 36-41; 1Pt 2:20b-25; Jn 10:1-10)</u> </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Introduction: </u></span>Today is called <u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Good Shepherd </u>Sunday, and, appropriately, this day is also the <u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">World Day of Prayer for Vocations</u><i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">.</i> Today, the Church calls us to reflect on the meaning of God's call for each of us and to pray for vocations to the priesthood, the diaconate, and the consecrated life, because the entire Christian community shares the responsibility for fostering vocations.<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span>Both the Old and New Testaments use the image of a Shepherd and His flock to describe the unique relationship of God with Israel and Christ with Christians.</div>
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<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Homily starter anecdote: Moses, the shepherd-leader:</u></span><u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </u>The Jews had a lovely legend to explain why God chose Moses to be the leader of His people. "When Moses was feeding the sheep of his father-in-law in the wilderness, a young lamb ran away. Moses followed it until it reached a ravine, where it found a well to drink from. When Moses got up to it, he said: `I did not know that you ran away because you were thirsty. Now you must be weary.' He took the lamb on his shoulders and carried it back. Then God said: `Because you have shown pity in leading back one of a flock belonging to another man, you shall lead my flock Israel.” The most beautiful and meaningful comment on the life and the legacy of our late Holy Father, Pope St. John Paul II, was made by the famous televangelist, Billy Graham. In a TV interview, he said: “He lived like his Master, the Good Shepherd, and he died like his Master, the Good Shepherd.” In today’s Gospel, Jesus claims that he is the Good Shepherd and explains what he does for his sheep. <i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">(</i><a href="http://frtonyshomilies.com/" rel="external nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; color: #660099; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;"><i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">http://frtonyshomilies.com/</i></a><i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">).</i></div>
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<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Scripture lessons summarized:</u></span> The <u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">first reading</u> is taken from St. Peter’s first sermon, given on Pentecost. Here, he exhorts his listeners, Jewish people gathered for the Feast of Weeks – the "Sabbath" of the seven weeks that have elapsed since Passover -- to know beyond any doubt that the One they have allowed to be crucified is the true Shepherd, whom God has made both Lord and Messiah. Peter then proclaims that the proper response to the Good News about Jesus is to repent and be baptized “in the name of Jesus Christ,” and thus to become members of the Good Shepherd’s flock. Through the Sacrament of Baptism, they will receive forgiveness for their sins. <u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Responsorial Psalm</u> (Ps 23), introduces Yahweh as the Good Shepherd of Israel and describes all of the things the Lord does for us, His sheep, in providing for our needs. <u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The second reading, </u>taken from Peter’s First Letter to the Church, continues the "shepherd” imagery. Peter encourages the suffering Christians to follow in footsteps of their shepherd (“suffering servant”), and to remember that they have been claimed by him. Peter also explains how Jesus, the innocent sufferer, was a model of patience and trust in God, and he reminds us that it is Jesus’ suffering which has enabled us to become more fully children of God. <u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In </u>today<u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’s Gospel,</u> two brief parables about sheep reveal Jesus as our unique means to salvation. He is the selfless, caring “<u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">shepherd</u>” who provides protection and life itself, and he is the "<u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">sheep gate,</u>" the one gateway to eternal life. </div>
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<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The first reading (Acts 2:14a, 36-41), explained</u>:</span> This text gives us a summary of the whole Gospel message, telling us Who Jesus is, how he saves us, and how we should respond. Peter tells the people: “<i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">You crucified your God and Messiah, but he has risen from death and offers you forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”</i> The conclusion of the sermon sums up the whole <i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">kerygma</i> in a single Christological formula: <i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">"God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus Whom you crucified."</i> The titles "Lord" and "Christ” have great significance. "Lord" was a title reserved for God alone. When early Christians realized that God had been made flesh in the person of Jesus, they dared to give him this Divine title. "Christ" is the Greek form of the Hebrew word "Messiah," meaning the "anointed one,” or "King." He is the long-awaited successor to King David, and the fulfillment of all the hopes based on David’s glorious reign. </div>
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<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The second reading: 1 Peter 2:20b-25 explained:</u></span><u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </u>The "shepherd" reference in the last verse of this reading from Peter’s epistle links it to the day's Gospel. <i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. For <u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">you had gone astray like sheep</u>, but now you have <u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">returned to the Shepherd</u>, the guardian of your souls” (vv. 24-25).</i> Peter then makes three contrasts in this part of his epistle: a) between what Jesus suffered and his surprising responses: "...<i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">insulted, he returned no insult;" "when he suffered, he did not threaten"(v. 23); </i>b) between Jesus and us: HE bore OUR sins; by HIS wounds WE are healed (v. 24); c) between our former lost condition and our graced present state.</div>
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<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Gospel exegesis:</u></span> <span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The context:</u></span> Jesus was not talking to his followers. He was addressing the Pharisees. They were accusing him of being from the devil because he had healed a blind man on the Sabbath. His response was that he was the Good Shepherd. He was not like the hired hands who collected their pay for watching the sheep but abandoned the sheep in their time of need because these hired men didn’t really care about the sheep. So, the Pharisees knew <i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">exactly</i> what Jesus meant Jesus <u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">was claiming to be God</u>! They also knew he was contrasting himself to them — the hired hands entrusted with the care of God’s people but caring only for themselves.</div>
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<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Yahweh, the Good Shepherd.</u></span><u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </u>For a long time, the Jewish people had used the Good Shepherd image for God. The usage goes all the way back to Genesis 49:24, which says that Joseph was saved "<i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">By the power of the mighty one of Jacob, by <u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the Shepherd</u>, the Rock of Israel, the God of your father</i> ..." Such imagery was used by Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Zechariah, and of course by David in his Psalms. The psalmist addresses Yahweh as his Shepherd. Psalm 23:1 “<i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Lord is <u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">my Shepherd</u>; nothing shall I want</i>.” (Compare also Psalms 77:20, 79:13, 97:7). <i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">"He is our God, and <u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand</u>"</i> (Ps.95:7). <i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Like a shepherd,</u> He feeds His flock; in His arms He gathers the lambs, carrying them in His bosom, and leading the ewes with care</i>” (Isaiah 40:11). Ezekiel foretells what the Messiah will do as Good Shepherd. <i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I myself will tend My sheep</u> …I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak”</i> (Ezekiel 34: 15-16). In short, God is the ultimate Shepherd of the people, providing guidance, sustenance and protection (Psalm 23), and He intends their Kings and other leaders to be their shepherds as well.</div>
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<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Good Shepherd image in the New Testament:</u></span><u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </u>In Palestine, the word "shepherd" was a synonym for selfless love, sincerity, commitment, and sacrificial service. Hence, Jesus selects it as the most fitting term to denote his life and mission (Mt 2:6, 9:36, 18:12-14, 26:31; Mk 6:34, 14:27; Lk 12:32, 15:4; I Pt 2:25, 5:2-4; Heb 13:20). The prophets pointed out the main duties of the Good Shepherd: 1) The Good Shepherd leads the sheep to the pasture, provides them with food and water and protects them. In Palestine, the shepherd went in front and the sheep followed behind. 2) He guarded them, not allowing them to get lost in the desert or become victims of robbers and wild animals - preventive vigilance. 3) He went in search of the lost ones and healed their wounds - protective vigilance. 4) He was ready to surrender his life for his sheep - redemptive vigilance.</div>
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<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The first parable in </u>today<u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’s Gospel:</u></span><u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </u>The first part of today’s Gospel contrasts Jesus, the true Shepherd, with fake shepherds, thieves and robbers. Jesus gives us warning against false shepherds and false teachers in his Church. Jesus' love and concern for each of us must be accepted with trust and serenity because he alone is our Shepherd, and no one else deserves our undivided commitment. As a true Shepherd, he leads his sheep, giving them the food and protection only Jesus, the Good Shepherd, can provide, and he protects us and leads us to true happiness. </div>
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<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The second parable.</u></span><u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </u>During the time of Jesus in the land of Palestine, the shepherds would bring the sheep down from the hills in the evening to protect them at night when the wolves and mountain lions were hunting their prey. At night, the shepherds would gather their sheep together and lead them into large pens or sheepfolds which had five-foot-high stone walls. The shepherds put the prickly briars along the top of the wall to prevent the mountain lions and wolves from jumping over it. Now, the doorway was about two feet wide, a narrow space in the front wall facing a fire of wood lit outside at night. The shepherd himself would sleep there in the small opening of the stone wall facing the burning fire with his club and staff. If any mountain lion came, the shepherd would fight it off with his weapons, his short stocky club or his long-pointed staff. Thus, literally and actually, the shepherd himself was the door.</div>
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In this parable Jesus compares himself to the <u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Shepherd</u> and to the <u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Gate</u>. The first title represents His ownership because Shepherd is the true owner of the sheep. The second title represents His leadership. Jesus is the Gate, the only Way in or out. He is the One Mediator between God and mankind. All must go through Him, through His Church, in order to arrive in Heaven.<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span>By identifying Himself with the sheep-gate, Jesus gives the assurance that whoever enters the pen through Him will be safe and well cared-for. Jesus is the living Door to His Father’s house and Father’s family, the Door into the Father’s safety and into the fullness of life. It is through Jesus, the Door, that we come into the sheepfold where we are protected from the wolves of life. There is safety and security in being a Christian. There is a spiritual, emotional and psychological security and safety when we live within Jesus and his Church, within the protectiveness of Christ, Christian friends and a Christian family.</div>
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<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Life Messages: </u>1) <u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">We need to be good shepherds and good leaders</u>:</span> Everyone who is entrusted with the care of others is a shepherd. Hence, pastors, parents, teachers, doctors, nurses, government officials, and caregivers, among others, are all shepherds. We become good shepherds by loving those entrusted to us, praying for them, spending our time, talents and blessings for their welfare, and guarding them from physical and spiritual dangers. Parents must be especially careful of their duties toward their children, giving them good example and sound religious instruction. Above all, parents should pray for their children and, by living according to sound Christian moral principles, show their children how to do the same.</div>
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<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">2) <u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">We need to be good sheep in the fold of Jesus, the Good Shepherd</u>:</span> Our local parish is our sheepfold, and our pastors are our shepherds. Jesus is the High Priest, the Bishops are the successors of the Apostles, the pastors are their helpers and the parishioners are the sheep. Hence, as the good sheep of the parish, parishioners are expected to a)<u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Hear and follow the voice of our shepherds</u> through their homilies, Bible classes, counseling and advice. b<u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">) Receive the spiritual food given by our pastors</u> by regular participation in the Holy Mass, by frequenting the Sacraments and by participating in prayer services, renewal programs and missions as far as we are able to do so. c) <u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Cooperate with our pastors</u> by giving them positive suggestions for the welfare of the parish, by encouraging them in their duties, by offering them loving correcting and constructive criticism when they are found misbehaving or failing in their duties and, always, by praying for them.<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span>d) <u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Participate actively in the work</u> of various councils, ministries and parish associations.</div>
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<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">3) <u style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">We need to pray for good pastors and vocations.</u></span> The Church uses this year’s <i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">World Day of Prayer for Vocations </i>to encourage vocations to the ministerial priesthood, the diaconate and the consecrated life. All Christians need to share in the responsibility of fostering these vocations:<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span>a) The faith community must continuously pray for vocations both in the Church and in their families. b) Since good priests, deacons and people embracing the consecrated life come from good Christian families, all Christian parents need to live their faith in Christ on a daily basis by leading exemplary lives as parents and by fostering good relationships with, and among, their children. c) Parents need to respect and encourage a child who shows an interest in becoming a priest or deacon or of entering upon a consecrated life. Parents need to encourage their children, including their teenagers and young adults, to participate actively in the children’s and youth activities in the parish, like Sunday school, children’s clubs, and youth associations. They also need to encourage and actively support them in becoming altar servants, gift-bearers, lectors and ministers of hospitality. On this <i style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">World Day of Prayer for Vocations</i>, let us begin, or continue, especially in these most stressful times in and for the Church, local and universal, to pray earnestly for continued conversion and perseverance in the Faith for our bishops, priests, deacons, those living a consecrated life, and all of the laity, for we are One Body and what one member suffers, all suffer. (Fr. Antony Kadavil)</div>
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gman59http://www.blogger.com/profile/02248524336583337104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1121289939673227399.post-5060242403948899342020-05-03T06:49:00.002-04:002020-05-03T06:49:29.792-04:00Fourth Sunday of Easter<div style="color: #232b4b; font-family: primaryFont, secondaryFont, Verdana, Raleway, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.3em; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 2em;">
<img alt="4th Sunday of Easter, Year A. GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY MASS PRAYERS ..." height="225" src="https://i2.wp.com/www.catholicsstrivingforholiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Good-shepherd-sunday.jpg?resize=640%2C360&ssl=1" width="400" /></div>
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<b style="font-size: 1.3em;">Acts of the Apostles</b><span style="display: inline-block; font-family: secondaryFont, Verdana, Raleway, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.7em;"><b> 2,14.36-41.</b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 3em;">T</span>hen Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed: "You who are Jews, indeed all of you staying in Jerusalem. Let this be known to you, and listen to my words.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Therefore let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified."</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles, "What are we to do, my brothers?"</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Peter (said) to them, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call."</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation."</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand persons were added that day.</td></tr>
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<b>Psalms</b><span style="display: inline-block; font-family: secondaryFont, Verdana, Raleway, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.7em;"><b> 23(22),1-3a.3b-4.5.6.</b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 3em;">T</span>he LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">In verdant pastures he gives me repose;</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">beside restful waters he leads me;</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">he refreshes my soul. </td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">He guides me in right paths</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">for His names's sake.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Even though I walk in the dark valley</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">I fear no evil; for you are at my side</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">with your rod and your staff</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">that give me courage.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">You spread the table before me</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">in the sight of my foes;</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">You anoint my head with oil;</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">my cup overflows.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Only goodness and kindness follow me</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">all the days of my life;</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">for years to come.</td></tr>
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<b>First Letter of Peter</b><span style="display: inline-block; font-family: secondaryFont, Verdana, Raleway, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.7em;"><b> 2,20-25.</b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 3em;">B</span>ut what credit is there if you are patient when beaten for doing wrong? But if you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">"He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth."</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten; instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.</td></tr>
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<b>Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John</b><span style="display: inline-block; font-family: secondaryFont, Verdana, Raleway, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.7em;"><b> 10,1-10.</b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 3em;">J</span>esus said: "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers."</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Although Jesus used this figure of speech, they did not realize what he was trying to tell them.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">So Jesus said again, "Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">All who came (before me) are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #232b4b; font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly."<br /></td></tr>
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