Monday 7 January
2013
First reading
1
John 3:22-4:6
Whatever we ask God,
we shall receive,
because we keep his commandments
and live the kind of life that he wants.
His commandments are these:
that we believe in the name of his Son
Jesus Christ
and that we love one another
as he told us to.
Whoever keeps his commandments
lives in God and God lives in him.
We know that he lives in us
by the Spirit that he has given us.
It is not every spirit, my dear people,
that you can trust;
test them, to see if they come from God,
there are many false prophets, now, in
the world.
You can tell the spirits that come from
God by this:
every spirit which acknowledges that
Jesus the Christ has come in the flesh
is from God;
but any spirit which will not say this
of Jesus
is not from God,
but is the spirit of Antichrist,
whose coming you were warned about.
Well, now he is here, in the world.
Children,
you have already overcome these false
prophets,
because you are from God and you have in
you
one who is greater than anyone in this
world;
as for them, they are of the world,
and so they speak the language of the
world
and the world listens to them.
But we are children of God,
and those who know God listen to us;
those who are not of God refuse to
listen to us.
This is how we can tell
the spirit of truth from the spirit of
falsehood.
We do not, of course, receive in
prayer everything we ask. God can only give us what is in
accordance with his will. His will will bring about our good only and his
glory. He always provides for his children. We need to be true children. We
must believe with all our hearts the truth about Jesus, that he is truly God
and truly man. This is difficult for us. We may believe he is truly God, but do
we believe that he was truly man with all the limitations of a human being.
(This is to come in the flesh). The only
difference between him and any other human being is that he always kept the
commandments of his Father, God. He did not sin. He never missed the mark. To
keep the commandments of the Lord, is to love. Love will fulfil all
commandments. We cannot be selective in our love. We have to love all and
practice justice to all and live in peace with all. We have to test our own
motives and those of others. We can easily deceive ourselves. Are out motives
purely directed to the glory of God? Our actions in the course of time reveal
our motives.
Psalm
Psalm
2:7-8,10-11
I will give you the nations for your
heritage.
The Lord said to me: ‘You are my Son.
It is I who have begotten you this day.
Ask and I shall bequeath you the
nations,
put the ends of the earth in your
possession.
I will give you the nations for your
heritage.
Now, O kings, understand,
take warning, rulers of the earth;
serve the Lord with awe
and trembling, pay him your homage.
I will give you the nations for your
heritage.
____________________
Gospel
Acclamation
Mt4:16
Alleluia, alleluia!
The people that lived in darkness
has seen a great light;
on those who dwell in the land and
shadow of death
a light has dawned.
Alleluia!
Gospel
Matthew
4:12-17,23-25
Hearing that John had been arrested,
Jesus went back to Galilee, and leaving Nazareth he went and settled in
Capernaum, a lakeside town on the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali. In this way
the prophecy of Isaiah was to be fulfilled:
‘Land of Zebulun! Land of Naphtali!
Way of the sea on the far side of
Jordan,
Galilee of the nations!
The people that lived in darkness has
seen a great light;
on those who dwell in the land and
shadow of death
a light has dawned.’
From that moment Jesus began his
preaching with the message, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at
hand.’
He
went round the whole of Galilee teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the
Good News of the kingdom and curing all kinds of diseases and sickness among
the people. His fame spread throughout Syria, and those who were suffering from
diseases and painful complaints of one kind or another, the possessed,
epileptics, the paralysed, were all brought to him, and he cured them. Large
crowds followed him, coming from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judaea and
Transjordania.
The light shines
Where is Jesus today? Has he entered your life? Have
you experienced what the crowds experienced?
“Those who follow me will not walk in darkness but will have the light
of life”. Have you changed your ways of thinking? Are you looking for Jesus? He
can be found today just as in those days. He must first be found in prayer, the
prayer that searches for him. He is found, not in temples but in your own
heart. “Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God”. We will ‘see’
him now if we search with a sincere heart. We will then find him in his Word. Our
eyes will then be opened to find him in others and serve him there. We will
receive his healing as the people in Galilee and
become channels of his blessings for others. Is life for you an experience of
Jesus?
Tuesday 8
January 2013
Readings at Mass
First reading
1
John 4:7-10
My dear people,
let us love one another
since love comes from God
and everyone who loves is begotten by
God and knows God.
Anyone who fails to love can never have
known God,
because God is love.
God’s love for us was revealed
when God sent into the world his only
Son
so that we could have life through him;
this is the love I mean:
not our love for God,
but God’s love for us when he sent his
Son
to be the sacrifice that takes our sins
away.
God is love. Then if we know what
love is then we may have some idea of who God is. In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul
describes love. He is then describing God. Holiness is to be like God. We are
all called to holiness. All those who believe in Jesus can love, because he
gives us the life of God. This is what makes Jesus unique. He alone is able to
give the life of God to us, because he alone is God. The more we believe, the
more we become like Jesus. Jesus is the human manifestation of the God who is
love.
Psalm
Psalm
71:1-4,7-8
All nations shall fall prostrate before
you, O Lord.
O God, give your judgement to the king,
to a king’s son your justice,
that he may judge your people in justice
and your poor in right judgement.
All nations shall fall prostrate before
you, O Lord.
May the mountains bring forth peace for
the people
and the hills, justice.
May he defend the poor of the people
and save the children of the needy.
All nations shall fall prostrate before
you, O Lord.
In his days justice shall flourish
and peace till the moon fails.
He shall rule from sea to sea,
from the Great River to earth’s bounds.
All nations shall fall prostrate before
you, O Lord.
____________________
Gospel
Acclamation
cf.Mt4:23
Alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus proclaimed the Good News of the
kingdom
and cured all kinds of diseases among
the people.
Alleluia!
____________________
Gospel
Mark
6:34-44
As Jesus stepped ashore he saw a large
crowd; and he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a
shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length. By now it was
getting very late, and his disciples came up to him and said, ‘This is a lonely
place and it is getting very late, So send them away, and they can go to the
farms and villages round about, to buy themselves something to eat.’ He
replied, ‘Give them something to eat yourselves.’ They answered, ‘Are we to go
and spend two hundred denarii on bread for them to eat?’ How many loaves have
you?’ he asked ‘Go and see.’ And when they had found out they said, ‘Five, and
two fish.’ Then he ordered them to get all the people together in groups on the
green grass, and they sat down on the ground in squares of hundreds and
fifties. Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to
heaven and said the blessing; then he broke the loaves and handed them to his
disciples to distribute among the people. He also shared out the two fish among
them all. They all ate as much as they wanted. They collected twelve basketfuls
of scraps of bread and pieces of fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered
five thousand men.
Jesus bread for life
Life
means growth. To grow we need food. We need balanced growth. To think only of
this world is to be unbalanced. We live by every Word that comes from the mouth
of God. He is the source of our life and existence. We need Jesus in our life.
He is the Word of God made man. He gives us real food which brings us to
eternal life. He is the Bread of Life. He gives us himself in the union of
intimate friendship. With him comes life in all its abundance, peace, his peace
not as the world gives it, a joy which is complete. With him comes the strength
to bear all things and to yield abundant fruit. How do we receive Jesus, food
of eternal life? It is by sitting at his feet and listening to him day by day.
Prayer is the secret of meeting Jesus.
Wednesday 9
January 2013
Readings at Mass
First reading
1
John 4:11-18
My dear people,
since God has loved us so much,
we too should love one another.
No one has ever seen God;
but as long as we love one another
God will live in us
and his love will be complete in us.
We can know that we are living in him
and he is living in us
because he lets us share his Spirit.
We ourselves saw and we testify
that the Father sent his Son
as saviour of the world.
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the
Son of God,
God lives in him, and he in God.
We ourselves have known and put our
faith in
God’s love towards ourselves.
God is love
and anyone who lives in love lives in
God,
and God lives in him.
Love will come to its perfection in us
when we can face the day of Judgement
without fear;
because even in this world
we have become as he is.
In love there can be no fear,
but fear is driven out by perfect love:
because to fear is to expect punishment,
and anyone who is afraid is still
imperfect in love.
No one has ever seen God but
through the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, we know that God loves each of with an
infinite love. We need to respond to him and the only true response to love is
to love in return. Jesus is our model. He is God’s Son, loved infinitely by his
Father and he responds. When he became a man, he responded to God in a human
way. He is our model of how to respond to God’s love. God’s love for each of us
is the fundamental truth of our life. Love is the origin of everything we are.
There is no fear in love. If we still fear God, then we are imperfect in our
love. God will never punish us in anger or revenge. However, we punish
ourselves by our sins, because sin is to cut ourselves of from life and from
love. However, God’s love is a purifying love as all true love is. Parents’
love for their children is a purifying love. We should desire that kind of
love. To the children it may feel hard at times.
Psalm
Psalm
71:1-2,10-13
All nations shall fall prostrate before
you, O Lord.
O God, give your judgement to the king,
to a king’s son your justice,
that he may judge your people in justice
and your poor in right judgement.
All nations shall fall prostrate before
you, O Lord.
The kings of Tarshish and the sea coasts
shall pay him tribute.
The kings of Sheba and Seba
shall bring him gifts.
Before him all kings shall fall
prostrate,
all nations shall serve him.
All nations shall fall prostrate before
you, O Lord.
For he shall save the poor when they cry
and the needy who are helpless.
He will have pity on the weak
and save the lives of the poor.
All nations shall fall prostrate before
you, O Lord.
____________________
Gospel
Acclamation
Lk4:17
Alleluia, alleluia!
The Lord has sent me to bring the good
news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives.
Alleluia!
____________________
Gospel
Mark
6:45-52
After the five thousand had eaten and
were filled, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to
Bethsaida, while he himself sent the crowd away. After saying goodbye to them
he went off into the hills to pray. When evening came, the boat was far out on
the lake, and he was alone on the land. He could see they were worn out with
rowing, for the wind was against them; and about the fourth watch of the night
he came towards them, walking on the lake. He was going to pass them by, but
when they saw him walking on the lake they thought it was a ghost and cried
out; for they had all seen him and were terrified. But he at once spoke to
them, and said, ‘Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid.’ Then he got into the boat
with them, and the wind dropped. They were utterly and completely dumbfounded,
because they had not seen what the miracle of the loaves meant; their minds
were closed.
Jesus walks on our
waters
John tells us that the people
having seen his miracle of the bread wanted to make Jesus king. Was this
another temptation for Jesus? He was popular, people would follow him, and he
would be a force to be reckoned with. But he knew ‘providing bread’ was not the
Father’s plan and he goes alone to pray to his Father. He gives Jesus the
strength to offer men the true food which is his message of obedience to God.
Maybe the wind being against the disciples and their struggling are symbols of
the Church finding it difficult to keep on course and not be swayed by worldly
ambitions. But Jesus comes to the disciples and us walking on the lake like Yahweh
God passing over the waters. It is only if by keeping our eyes on Jesus that we
reach the shore. Are your eyes always on him?
Thursday 10
January 2013
First reading
1
John 4:19-5:4
We are to love,
because God loved us first.
Anyone who says, ‘I love God’,
and hates his brother,
is a liar,
since a man who does not love the
brother that he can see
cannot love God, whom he has never seen.
So this is the commandment that he has
given us,
that anyone who loves God must also love
his brother.
Whoever believes that Jesus is the
Christ
has been begotten by God;
and whoever loves the Father that begot
him
loves the child whom he begets.
We can be sure that we love God’s
children
if we love God himself and do what he
has commanded us;
this is what loving God is –
keeping his commandments;
and his commandments are not difficult,
because anyone who has been begotten by
God
has already overcome the world;
this is the victory over the world –
our faith.
The Father’s personal love for each
of us brought us into existence. This is the fundamental truth of our existence.
His love is a committed love and everlasting. His love wants to make us
children in his Only begotten Son so that we are his created children alongside
his only begotten Son from all eternity. We respond to this love like Jesus
did. we love and obey our Father in everything. We must then love all whom he
loves and includes everyone in the human race, regardless of their virtue or
vice, race or creed.
Psalm
Psalm
71:1-2,14-15,17
All nations shall fall prostrate before
you, O Lord.
O God, give your judgement to the king,
to a king’s son your justice,
that he may judge your people in justice
and your poor in right judgement.
All nations shall fall prostrate before
you, O Lord.
From oppression he will rescue their
lives,
to him their blood is dear.
(Long may he live,
may the gold of Sheba be given him.)
They shall pray for him without ceasing
and bless him all the day.
All nations shall fall prostrate before
you, O Lord.
May his name be blessed for ever
and endure like the sun.
Every tribe shall be blessed in him,
all nations bless his name.
All nations shall fall prostrate before
you, O Lord.
____________________
cf.1Tim3:16
Alleluia, alleluia!
Glory to you, O Christ,
proclaimed to the pagans;
glory to you, O Christ,
believed in by the world.
Alleluia!
____________________
Gospel
Luke
4:14-22
Jesus, with the power of the Spirit in
him, returned to Galilee; and his reputation spread throughout the countryside.
He taught in their synagogues and everyone praised him.
He
came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on
the sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read and they handed him the
scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it
is written:
The spirit of the Lord has been given to
me,
for he has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring the good news to
the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives
and to the blind new sight,
to set the downtrodden free,
to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.
He then rolled up the scroll, gave it
back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on
him. Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even
as you listen.’ And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the
gracious words that came from his lips.
Baptised in the Spirit
Son of God became man completely. He didn’t just appear
as a man. He emptied himself of his divinity and was born a slave in human
form. As man he struggled in every way like you and me. He had no divine
charmed life. Before his Jordan
experience he was a sinless man in intimate union with God but had not received
the Spirit to preach and do mighty works of Salvation. He was then anointed
with the Spirit and in the power given by the Spirit he begins his ministry.
Like heat possesses the iron and makes it white hot so the Spirit possessed
Jesus. He strides on to the stage to save the poor, the oppressed, the
Satan-bound. He continues to do this today. Meet him in prayer day by day and
he will save you too. Do you daily sit at his feet?
Friday 11
January 2013
First reading
1
John 5:5-13
Who can overcome the world?
Only the man who believes that Jesus is
the Son of God:
Jesus Christ who came by water and
blood,
not with water only,
but with water and blood;
with the Spirit as another witness –
since the Spirit is the truth –
so that there are three witnesses,
the Spirit, the water and the blood,
and all three of them agree.
We accept the testimony of human
witnesses,
but God’s testimony is much greater,
and this is God’s testimony,
given as evidence for his Son.
Everybody who believes in the Son of God
has this testimony inside him;
and anyone who will not believe God
is making God out to be a liar,
because he has not trusted
the testimony God has given about his
Son.
This is the testimony:
God has given us eternal life
and this life is in his Son;
anyone who has the Son has life,
anyone who does not have the Son does
not have life.
I have written all this to you
so that you who believe in the name of
the Son of God
may be sure that you have eternal life.
____________________
Psalm
Psalm
147:12-15,19-20
O praise the Lord, Jerusalem!
or
Alleluia!
O praise the Lord, Jerusalem!
Zion, praise your God!
He has strengthened the bars of your
gates
he has blessed the children within you.
O praise the Lord, Jerusalem!
or
Alleluia!
He established peace on your borders,
he feeds you with finest wheat.
He sends out his word to the earth
and swiftly runs his command.
O praise the Lord, Jerusalem!
or
Alleluia!
He makes his word known to Jacob,
to Israel his laws and decrees.
He has not dealt thus with other
nations;
he has not taught them his decrees.
O praise the Lord, Jerusalem!
or
Alleluia!
____________________
Gospel
Acclamation
cf.1Tim3:16
Alleluia, alleluia!
Glory to you, O Christ,
proclaimed to the pagans;
glory to you, O Christ,
believed in by the world.
Alleluia!
Gospel
Luke
5:12-16
Jesus was in one of the towns when a man
appeared, covered with leprosy. Seeing Jesus he fell on his face and implored
him. ‘Sir,’ he said ‘if you want to, you can cure me.’ Jesus stretched out his
hand, touched him and said, ‘Of course I want to! Be cured!’ And the leprosy
left him at once. He ordered him to tell no one, ‘But go and show yourself to
the priest and make the offering for your healing as Moses prescribed it, as
evidence for them.’
His
reputation continued to grow, and large crowds would gather to hear him and to
have their sickness cured, but he would always go off to some place where he
could be alone and pray.
Fruit of Expectant
Faith
Leprosy was a disease without hope,
which destroyed the sufferer. Full of repulsive sores and disfigurement the
leper had to live alone and away from other humans. Leprosy came to be seen as
a symbol of sin. What leprosy does for the body sin does for the spirit of man.
The Good News is that Jesus came to cure lepers. He brought hope into the
world. If we approach Jesus he can heal us of any kind of sin. The leper defied
the opposition of people to meet Jesus. Jesus too stretched out his hand and
touched him. The leper has humility and expectant faith and Jesus responds to
this. So he will respond to us if we come to him day by day with sincerity in
our weakness and sin. Do you approach Jesus in prayer with the same mind as
this leper? Is Jesus real for you?
Saturday 12
January 2013
Readings at Mass
First reading
1
John 5:14-21
We are quite confident that if we ask
the Son of God for anything,
and it is in accordance with his will,
he will hear us;
and, knowing that whatever we may ask,
he hears us,
we know that we have already been
granted what we asked of him.
If anybody sees his brother commit a sin
that is not a deadly sin,
he has only to pray, and God will give
life to the sinner
– not those who commit a deadly sin;
for there is a sin that is death,
and I will not say that you must pray
about that.
Every kind of wrong-doing is sin,
but not all sin is deadly.
We know that anyone who has been
begotten by God
does not sin,
because the begotten Son of God protects
him,
and the Evil One does not touch him.
We know that we belong to God,
but the whole world lies in the power of
the Evil One.
We know, too, that the Son of God has
come,
and has given us the power
to know the true God.
We are in the true God,
as we are in his Son, Jesus Christ.
This is the true God,
this is eternal life.
Children, be on your guard against false
gods.
Every human being is weak and liable
to sin under temptation. For the ordinary person, that is, for one to whom God
has not given a special grace of holiness, the eradication of sin may take many
years. It is the work of the Holy Spirit within us. It is brought about through constant dependence on God in both Sacrament and personal prayer. Our salvation
and sanctification, which means our becoming like God, is the work of God, but
needs our cooperation. Naturally, God will grant our earnest prayer for our
salvation and our prayer to become like him now. We should pray too for the salvation and sanctification of others.
Psalm
Psalm
149:1-6,9
The Lord takes delight in his people.
or
Alleluia!
Sing a new song to the Lord,
his praise in the assembly of the
faithful.
Let Israel rejoice in its Maker,
let Zion’s sons exult in their king.
The Lord takes delight in his people.
or
Alleluia!
Let them praise his name with dancing
and make music with timbrel and harp.
For the Lord takes delight in his
people.
He crowns the poor with salvation.
The Lord takes delight in his people.
or
Alleluia!
Let the faithful rejoice in their glory,
shout for joy and take their rest.
Let the praise of God be on their lips:
this honour is for all his faithful.
The Lord takes delight in his people.
or
Alleluia!
____________________
Gospel
Acclamation
Lk7:16
Alleluia, alleluia!
A great prophet has appeared among us;
God has visited his people.
Alleluia!
Gospel
John
3:22-30
Jesus went with his disciples into the
Judaean countryside and stayed with them there and baptised. At the same time
John was baptising at Aenon near Salim, where there was plenty of water, and
people were going there to be baptised. This was before John had been put in
prison.
Now
some of John’s disciples had opened a discussion with a Jew about purification,
so they went to John and said, ‘Rabbi, the man who was with you on the far side
of the Jordan, the man to whom you bore witness, is baptising now; and everyone
is going to him.’
John
replied:
‘A man can lay claim
only to what is given him from heaven.
‘You yourselves can bear me out: I said:
I myself am not the Christ; I am the one who has been sent in front of him.
‘The bride is only for the bridegroom;
and yet the bridegroom’s friend,
who stands there and listens,
is glad when he hears the bridegroom’s
voice.
This same joy I feel, and now it is
complete.
He must grow greater, I must grow
smaller.’
Jesus, you and the
Church
John is teaching us that Jesus replaces Judaism. He is the Temple . He is also the
Bride-groom. The prophets had seen Israel as the bride of God (Hosea
2:19). The true Israelites are those who accept Jesus. They belong to him as
Bride to Groom. John is the best man. In Jewish culture the groom went to the
house of the bride to take her to his home. Meanwhile the best man stood at the
door to see that he alone entered. Jesus, the Bridegroom, has come and so John
is now happy to withdraw. The Church is the Bride of Christ and each member of
the Church is called to have this intimate relationship of a bride with her
husband. Do you see religion in terms
of a personal relationship with Jesus whereby you belong to Christ and he to
you in an exclusive and unbreakable relationship?
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