Accept God’s message for what it really is

Welcome to my blog and peace be with you!

You will find here, daily readings from the Scriptures with a prayerful reflexion. Reading slowly and prayerfully the Word of God is the way to get into contact with Him. The reflection may help you turn to God, who has revealed himself in his Son, Jesus, himself God.

We follow the sequential readings given us by the Catholic Church for each day.

The Word of God is like the rain. As the rain bring fruitfulness to the earth, may his Word bear abundant fruit in your life. God can make anything of anyone. There’s hope for you and me.

I will be happy to receive your comments and also any question you may have about the Scriptures or the Catholic Faith.

 

Friday 31 July 2020

Accept God’s message for what it really is

Phil 2: 10-11

At the name of Jesus, every knee should bend

of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

 

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Prayer

O God, who raised up Saint Ignatius of Loyola in your Church

to further the greater glory of your name,

grant that by his help we may imitate him

in fighting the good fight on earth

and merit to receive with him a crown in heaven.

We make our prayer through your Son.

Christ Jesus, our Lord

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First reading

Jeremiah 26:1-9 ·

Jeremiah preaches in the Temple of the Lord and is threatened with death

At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word was addressed to Jeremiah by the Lord, ‘The Lord says this: Stand in the court of the Temple of the Lord. To all the people of the towns of Judah who come to worship in the Temple of the Lord you must speak all the words I have commanded you to tell them; do not omit one syllable. Perhaps they will listen and each turn from his evil way: if so, I shall relent and not bring the disaster on them which I intended for their misdeeds. Say to them, “The Lord says this: If you will not listen to me by following my Law which I put before you, by paying attention to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send so persistently to you, without your ever listening to them, I will treat this Temple as I treated Shiloh, and make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.”’

The priests and prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah say these words in the Temple of the Lord. When Jeremiah had finished saying everything that the Lord had ordered him to say to all the people, the priests and prophets seized hold of him and said, ‘You shall die! Why have you made this prophecy in the name of the Lord, “This Temple will be like Shiloh, and this city will be desolate, and uninhabited”?’ And the people were all crowding round Jeremiah in the Temple of the Lord. THE WORD OF THE LORD

 

Prayerful reflection

The Temple was holy because God resided there. The holy of holies entered once a year by the High Priest was God’s dwelling place. Because of this the city itself was considered the holy city. Would God ever allow his holy city and the Temple of his presence to be destroyed by pagans? The Jews thought ‘no’. In the process they would also be spared. We may be sinners, have ignored the Covenant, but God will save his sanctuary and us too. Jeremiah is told by God to proclaim that the Temple and the Holy of Holies will be totally destroyed because of the sins of his people. Furthermore, they will be taken into captivity. This is too much for both priests and people and they arrest Jeremiah for blasphemy. Shiloh had been a famous sanctuary of Yahweh in the time of the priest Eli and the prophet Samuel. It had been destroyed by the Philistines. Likewise, the holy city of Jerusalem.

Evil deeds will be punished, whoever we are and whatever position we may hold. In the sixteenth century as a result of sin the single garment of Christ, the Church, was torn into shreds. To this day the division of Christianity is a scandal to the world.

Each one contributes by his/her life to the welfare or ruin of the Church of Christ. How do you contribute?

 

 

 

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 69:5,8-10,14

In your great love, answer me, O God.

More numerous than the hairs on my head

are those who hate me without cause.

Those who attack me with lies

are too much for my strength.

How can I restore

what I have never stolen?

In your great love, answer me, O God.

It is for you that I suffer taunts,

that shame covers my face,

that I have become a stranger to my brothers,

an alien to my own mother’s sons.

I burn with zeal for your house

and taunts against you fall on me.

In your great love, answer me, O God.

This is my prayer to you,

my prayer for your favour.

In your great love, answer me, O God,

with your help that never fails.

In your great love, answer me, O God.

 

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1Th2:13

Alleluia, alleluia!

Accept God’s message for what it really is:

God’s message, and not some human thinking.

Alleluia!

 

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Gospel

Matthew 13:54-58

A prophet is only despised in his own country

Coming to his home town, Jesus taught the people in their synagogue in such a way that they were astonished and said, ‘Where did the man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? This is the carpenter’s son, surely? Is not his mother the woman called Mary, and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Jude? His sisters, too, are they not all here with us? So where did the man get it all?’ And they would not accept him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is only despised in his own country and in his own house’, and he did not work many miracles there because of their lack of faith. THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD

Prayerful reflection

Jesus has come to his own village of Nazareth. One might expect him to be well received. After all, he has earned a famous name and it surely must reflect upon them. Isn’t he one of them? He has put their village on the map. But no, as in Capernaum they are astonished at the way he proclaims God’s message, but they know him. He never studied the Law, he is the son of the carpenter they knew. His mother and his relatives live in their small village. Now this man who worked here and often for us, is preaching to us? Who does he think he is? And they will not accept him. We, too, live with God in the Catholic Church. Do we accept him? He comes as then in an insignificant way – under the appearance of a piece of bread. It is insignificant but it is also the true God. How many of us really recognise him and accept him as their Lord? Our life proclaims our faith.

What kind of faith does our life proclaim?

 

Lk 12: 49

Thus, says the Lord: I have come to cast fire on the earth,

and how I wish that it were kindled!

 

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Prayer

May the sacrifice of praise

that we have offered with thanksgiving

in honour of Saint Ignatius, O Lord,

bring us to exalt your majesty without end.

Through Christ our Lord.