READINGS for 2006-07-27

PRICELESS

?How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.? ? Psalms 36:7

The sash on my graduation gown: $25
      Graduation invites to everyone who supported me: $80
      Hosting my 21st birthday-slash-graduation party: $1,000
      Knowing I wouldn?t have gone to college at a world-class university and finish with flying colors without the love of God and the people who care for me: PRICELESS
      During college I learned to adjust to the foreign land that called ?home?. I missed my friends from Manila, and had to find a job to put me through school. Many nights I tearfully asked God to keep me strong.
      My family also went through a terrible storm. I remember telling my mother since I was older and was more understanding, I would gracefully accept my parents? permanent separation.
      I graduated in 2004. God?s unfaltering love gave me courage to face the storms, wisdom to make the right choices, and confidence in myself. When I delivered my graduation speech, I felt as if someone was taking me for a ride in the skies?like someone was keeping me under His wings. Dorothy A.

REFLECTION:
Have you realized how priceless God?s love for you is?

Keep me under Your wings, never let me go, and everything will be alright.

1st READING

Jeremiah 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13

Complacency is a terrible attitude to develop particularly in the light of the nature of the Gospel that is one of action and service to all. I think it often results when people become too comfortable and begin to lose sight of the cost paid by others so that they might enjoy their present comfort. I hope and pray that none of us ever forgets that we are in relationship with God today because Jesus paid the supreme cost of His earthly life for us to win forgiveness of our sins.

1 This word of the LORD came to me: 2 ?Go, cry out this message for Jerusalem to hear! I remember the devotion of your youth, how you loved me as a bride, following me in the desert, in a land unsown. 3 Sacred to the LORD was Israel, the first fruits of his harvest. ?Should anyone presume to partake of them, evil would befall him,? says the LORD. 7 When I brought you into the garden land to eat its goodly fruits, you entered and defiled my land, you made my heritage loathsome. 8 The priests asked not, ?Where is the LORD?? Those who dealt with the law knew me not the shepherds rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, and went after useless idols. 12 ?Be amazed at this, O heavens, and shudder with sheer horror,? says the LORD. 13 Two evils have my people done they have forsaken me, the source of living waters; they have dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water.

P S A L M

Psalm 36:6-7, 8-9, 10-11

R: With you is the fountain of life, O Lord.

5 [6] O LORD, your mercy reaches to heaven; your faithfulness, to the clouds. 6 [7] Your justice is like the mountains of God; your judgments, like the mighty deep. (R) 7 [8] How precious is your mercy, O God! The children of men take refuge in the shadow of your wings. 8 [9] They have their fill of the prime gifts of your house; from your delightful stream you give them to drink. (R) 9 [10] For with you is the fountain of life, and in your light we see light. 10 [11] Keep up your mercy toward your friends, your just defense of the upright of heart. (R)

G O S P E L

Matthew 13:10-17

I think that Jesus uses parables to teach His disciples because a narrative containing a fundamental truth is a universal means of education and formation. That is, it is a universally accepted and practiced form of instruction. There is no need for great educational qualifications to understand a parable. All one needs is ears to hear and a heart open to the truth contained within. The temptation for the wise and educated is to look for a complicated message. However, the Gospel is designed for all people, and thus, the meaning of parables is always simple and clear.

10 The disciples approached him and said, ?Why do you speak to them in parables?? 11 He said to them in reply, ?Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. 12 To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because ?they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.? 14 Isaiah?s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says: ?You shall indeed hear but not understand, you shall indeed look but never see. 15 Gross is the heart of this people, they will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and be converted, and I heal them.? 16 ?But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. 17 Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.?

my reflections
think: Complacency is a terrible attitude to develop.

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God?s special verse/thought for me today________________

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T O D A Y ? S BLESSING LIST

Thank You Lord for: ____________________________________

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READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR Isaiah 42-43

THE ERROR OF SELF-SUFFICIENCY?

Ecclesiastes tells us there is a time for every purpose under heaven. It is true that there is a time for self-sufficiency but when it comes to salvation and faith, there is never a time for self-sufficiency. Without God, salvation is impossible and so is faith. They are both so rooted in the power and work of God that we are mad to try and make them work without Him!
      Jeremiah faces a situation where the people have seemingly rejected the Law of God for their own wisdom. He prophesies against them in these terms and ultimately predicts disaster for the Jewish people if they do not repent and change their ways. Unfortunately, they do not listen to Jeremiah and defeat in war and subsequent exile are the result. Maybe the national implications for us are not as prominent in these days as we live in secular countries, but the individual ramifications of our actions are just as serious. If we fail to recognize the need to repent in our lives and insist on remaining in sin, we will discover that our exile is not a secular reality but a spiritual one whereby we are excluded from the Kingdom of God! It is not necessary for me to mention that this is not a situation that we want to find ourselves in!
      There is a simple and easy way to avoid the pain of exclusion from the Kingdom of God. All we have to do is live in submission to God?s Law, after all this is the only path to true and lasting personal fulfillment. In order to do this we should listen to the Word of God as it is given to us in the Scriptures. We should also take care to inform ourselves of the teachings of the Church as here is God?s continuing unfolding of the truth for our moral and religious lives. We should also seek to form our minds according to that of the mind of Christ by imbibing the spiritual teachings of the saints. It is easy to see that there is plenty that we can be proactive about when it comes to doing our part in the work of our salvation. Remember, all that we do in this regard is done according to the will of God and under the grace of the Holy Spirit. This is our protection from a misguided sense of self-sufficiency. Fr. Steve T.

REFLECTION QUESTION:
Do I spend enough time reading the documents of the Church so that my mind will be formed according to the mind of Christ? If not, do I have a good reason why this is not happening?

Lord Jesus, I want to know you better so that I can serve you better. I pray for the grace of conversion so that all that is contrary to your will is expelled from my life and replaced by your mind and heart for all your people.

St. Innocent I, pope confessor, pray for us.