Tenant of your life, how do you welcome the Son?

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.