Welcome to my blog.
You will find the daily readings from the Bible which the Catholic Church under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit has chosen and provides for our spiritual
nourishment. If we use them seriously each day, we will grow in our relationship
with God – ‘in whom we live, move and have our being’ – and come to know Jesus
who loved us and gave his life for us on the Cross. He gives us life and gives
it in abundance.
How to pray with the
Bible. 1. Set aside a time each day when alone or in a group, you can in
silence listen to God speaking to you. He speaks gently as with Elijah (1 Kings
19:12), Jesus, (Rev 3:20). 2.Sit comfortably where you will not be distracted
or disturbed. You are to enter into the presence of God who loves and cares for
you. 3.Pray for the Holy Spirit who teaches us how to pray (Rom 8:26-27). Ask
Mary to intercede with her Son to send the Spirit upon you. (Luke 11:13). 4.
Read slowly in the Spirit who inspired the reading, asking him to speak to you
too. Phrases will strike you. “Speak Lord your servant is listening” (1 Sam
3:11). “All Scripture is inspired and profitable for teaching… and instruction
in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16”. 5. Pray to Jesus with gratitude for the
inspiration he has given you. 6. Go back in the Spirit of Jesus to your
ordinary life.
Monday 1 June 2020
Tenant of your life, how do you welcome the Son?
Today we honour Mary as Mother of the
Church community.
The disciples devoted themselves with
one accord to prayer with Mary, the mother of Jesus. (Acts 1:14)
Collect
O God, Father of mercies,
whose Only Begotten Son, as he hung upon the Cross,
chose the Blessed Virgin Mary, his Mother, to be our Mother also;
grant, we pray,
that with her loving help,
your Church may be more fruitful day by day,
and rejoicing in the holiness of her children,
may draw to her embrace all the families of the peoples.
We make our prayer through your Son, Christ
Jesus our Lord.
First reading
2 Peter
1:2-7 ·
You will be able to share the divine
nature if you add goodness to your faith
May you have more and more grace and
peace as you come to know our Lord more and more.
By his divine power, he has given us
all the things that we need for life and for true devotion, bringing us to know
God himself, who has called us by his own glory and goodness. In making these
gifts, he has given us the guarantee of something very great and wonderful to
come: through them you will be able to share the divine nature and to escape
corruption in a world that is sunk in vice. But to attain this, you will have
to do your utmost yourselves, adding goodness to the faith that you have,
understanding to your goodness, self-control to your understanding, patience to
your self-control, true devotion to your patience, kindness towards your fellow
men to your devotion, and, to this kindness, love. THE WORD OF THE LORD
Prayerful reflection
“You will be able to share the divine
nature”. What does this mean? We now share God’s nature by Baptism and it is
nourished and grows more and more mature by the Bread of Life in the Holy
Eucharist. We are not God. God is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Likewise, we are not our earthy parents. Yet they gave us the life we have. We
have so much in common with them and there is a bond of love and familiarity.
The relationship is unique. Though not them, we are like them in every way and we
can sit with them in some way as equals and, in another way, always as children
dependent on them for everything we now have. So is our relationship with God,
Father, Sons and Holy Spirit who is the Love poured into our hearts. We will
never be God, always ourselves. Yet, we live by the life he gives us and it is
eternal life. We now have so much in common with our Divine Parents. We grow in
their characteristics. We are at home with them. We share everything that is
theirs. In some way, we are equal with them and we call God ‘Abba’. Yet
we are always dependent on them for everything. And so, our respect, reverence,
love, obedience, in a word our adoration. We are eternally grateful to them for
the life they have given us.
A
son/daughter’s prayer: to sit quietly in their presence and say, ’Thank you for
everything. How can I please you today?’
Who we are,
determines how we live. We express our love, reverence and adoration in a life
pleasing to them. The more we are aware of the dignity of who we are, the more
we will strive ‘to add goodness to our faith’ and understanding, self-control,
patience and true devotion to our Divine Parents and like them we will show
love and kindness to everyone we meet. Not them, but with the life given by
them, we will be their images in this alien world.
____________________
Psalm (Make he psalm your prayer of
thanksgiving for his Word)
Psalm
90(91):1-2,14-16
My God, in you I trust.
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
and abides in the shade of the Almighty
says to the Lord: ‘My refuge,
my stronghold, my God in whom I trust!’
My God, in you I trust.
His love he set on me, so I will rescue him;
protect him for he knows my name.
When he calls I shall answer: ‘I am with you.’
My God, in you I trust.
I will save him in distress and give him glory.
With length of life I will content him;
I shall let him see my saving power.
My God, in you I trust.
Col3:16a,17
Alleluia,!
Let the message of Christ, in all its richness,
find a home with you;
through him give thanks to God the Father.
Alleluia!
Gospel
Mark 12:1-12
They seized the beloved son, killed him
and threw him out of the vineyard
Jesus began to speak to the chief priests, the scribes and the
elders in parables: ‘A man planted a vineyard; he fenced it round, dug out a trough
for the winepress and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants and went
abroad. When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from
them his share of the produce from the vineyard. But they seized the man,
thrashed him and sent him away empty-handed. Next he sent another servant to
them; him they beat about the head and treated shamefully. And he sent another
and him they killed; then a number of others, and they thrashed some and killed
the rest. He had still someone left: his beloved son. He sent him to them last
of all. “They will respect my son” he said. But those tenants said to each
other, “This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be
ours.” So they seized him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. Now
what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and make an end of the
tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this text of
scripture:
It was the stone rejected by the builders
that became the keystone.
This was the Lord’s doing
and it is wonderful to see?
And they would have liked to arrest him, because they realised that
the parable was aimed at them, but they were afraid of the crowds. So they left
him alone and went away. THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD
Prayerful reflection
We are now in Ordinary Time. This week
, we continue reading Mark from where we left off before the season of Lent.
Jesus has now come to Jerusalem. This
is the heartland of the scribes, pharisees and the chief priests. They are
deadly opposed to him. Jesus has already foretold on three occasions that in
Jerusalem he will apprehended, handed over to the Romans, scourged and
crucified. They had planned to kill him in his own territory of Galilee in the
very beginning of his ministry (Chapter 3:6). Since his time had not yet come,
they were helpless. When his time has come, then, will he lay down his life. Now
his time has come.
He is in Jerusalem and he has come to
his Temple. He does not like what he sees. It is a den of robbers, not a house
of prayer. He drives out those buying and selling and purifies the Temple. Taken
by surprise, the enemy regroups and comes at him. Considering the Temple their property, they demand to know
with what authority he, an outsider from Galilee, cleared the Temple. Jesus
will not tell them. As Son of God, the Temple is his, the priests are no more
than stewards. He is Lord, they are servants.
Parables are a way of condemning
without actually naming names. Today’s parable is clear and his enemies
understood it was about them. They had been appointed to care for the people of
God. Jesus likens this responsibility to the vineyard. They are to give him the
fruits – they are to keep the religion and worship pure and unsullied. They
have not done this. God sent prophets. Their forefathers persecuted and killed
them all. God’s mercy however is boundless and one might even say reckless. If
the tenants have not honoured his servants will they honour his Son? He sends
him all the same. They grab him, kill him and throw him out of the vineyard.
The owner of the vineyard has no alternative but to take it back and give it to
other tenants.
This is where we come in. We are now
the new People of God. The vineyard of God’s holy Church is in our hands. The
Gospels are not written for the scribes and pharisees who are long dead. They
are written for us who are alive. Each of us has our part to play in
cultivating the vineyard which is the Church.
Your life, too, is
his vineyard, given to you on trust. Welcome
Jesus into your life. He is truly with you. When you go to a Catholic church,
he is truly present in his Risen glory waiting in the Host. Listen to him and
do what he asks.
Let us ask ourselves: do I welcome the Son,
Jesus into my life? do I offer him a life of holiness towards God, and love
towards my brothers and sisters? Am I grateful to him for the opportunity to
live my life for him and be his witness in a hostile and dismissive world?
Jn 19: 26-27
As he hung upon the cross,
Jesus said to the disciple whom he loved:
Behold your mother.
Prayer
Father we have received your promise of
salvation and eternal life,
We humbly pray that with the Blessed Virgin’s
motherly help,
We, your Church, may through the Holy Spirit,
proclaim your truth to the nations of the world.
We make our prayer through your Son, Christ
Jesus our Lord.
