Welcome to my blog. Peace be with you.
You will find
the readings from the Bible, prescribed by the Catholic Church for
today.
By daily reading and praying about these reading,
we grow spiritually and come to know the true God and not some God imagined by
us.
Saturday 19th September
I am with you now and forever
First reading
1 Corinthians 15:35-37,42-49 ·
The
resurrected body is heavenly by nature
Someone may ask, ‘How are dead people raised, and
what sort of body do they have when they come back?’ They are stupid questions.
Whatever you sow in the ground has to die before it is given new life and the
thing that you sow is not what is going to come; you sow a bare grain, say of
wheat or something like that. It is the same with the resurrection of the dead:
the thing that is sown is perishable but what is raised is imperishable; the
thing that is sown is contemptible but what is raised is glorious; the thing
that is sown is weak but what is raised is powerful; when it is sown it
embodies the soul, when it is raised it embodies the spirit.
If the soul has its own embodiment, so does the spirit have its own
embodiment. The first man, Adam, as scripture says, became a living soul;
but the last Adam has become a life-giving spirit. That is, first the one with
the soul, not the spirit, and after that, the one with the spirit. The first
man, being from the earth, is earthly by nature; the second man is from heaven.
As this earthly man was, so are we on earth; and as the heavenly man is, so are
we in heaven. And we, who have been modelled on the earthly man, will be
modelled on the heavenly man. THE WORD OF THE LORD
Prayerful reflection
What
will life be like in heaven. These are stupid questions St. Paul says. Why?
Because we have no idea. The ways of God and the power and love of God are
things which are far beyond our intelligence too grasp. We can say nothing of
God except what Jesus has revealed to us. We should remain in silence before
him, allowing his love to work in us. Like small children trusting in their
parents, so we wait patiently for God to work out his plan. He will do it and
it will more marvellous than anything we could even imagine.
Gospel
With a large crowd gathering and people from every town finding their
way to him, Jesus used this parable:
‘A sower went out to sow
his seed. As he sowed, some fell on the edge of the path and was trampled on;
and the birds of the air ate it up. Some seed fell on rock, and when it came up
it withered away, having no moisture. Some seed fell amongst thorns and the
thorns grew with it and choked it. And some seed fell into rich soil and grew
and produced its crop a hundredfold.’ Saying this he cried, ‘Listen, anyone who
has ears to hear!’
His disciples asked him
what this parable might mean, and he said, ‘The mysteries of the kingdom of God
are revealed to you; for the rest there are only parables, so that
they may see but not perceive,
listen but not understand.
‘This, then, is what the parable means: the seed is the word of God.
Those on the edge of the path are people who have heard it, and then the devil
comes and carries away the word from their hearts in case they should believe
and be saved. Those on the rock are people who, when they first hear it,
welcome the word with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while,
and in time of trial they give up. As for the part that fell into thorns, this
is people who have heard, but as they go on their way they are choked by the
worries and riches and pleasures of life and do not reach maturity. As for the
part in the rich soil, this is people with a noble and generous heart who have
heard the word and take it to themselves and yield a harvest through their
perseverance.’ THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD
Prayerful reflection
The seed is the
Word. Jesus is the Word. The way we receive him will determine the crop that we
receive. There is no limit to his generosity. He lives to intercede for us with
the Father and give us every blessing that God has. It is our relationship with
him which is bears fruit.
Jesus is present
with body, soul and divinity in the Holy Eucharist. It is there that we meet hm
and build up our relationship with him. ‘Seeing him there, we can see him
everywhere.’ ‘What you did to the least, you did to me’ is as true as ‘This is
my Body given for you.’ In the Holy Eucharist we build up our relationship with
him. He welcomes us and gives us abundant blessings. Outside we lovingly obey
him and serve him in our brothers and sisters. Blessed are those who love and
honour him in the Blessed Sacrament and in the least, even, of his brothers and
sisters.
Jesus is present in many ways. One important way in which he
is truly present is when two or three gather together in his name. ‘Where two
or three gather in my name, I will be with them’. (Matt 18:20). When a family
gathers for prayer, Jesus is with them as a source of blessings.
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