READINGS for 2008-11-29
hOARDING
“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.” – Luke 21:34-35
Last year, I joined KerygmaFamily’s seven-day fast and had a wonderful Holy Week. It was the first time that I tried fasting for a week purely on fruits and vegetables and I was not sure how I’d last. There were days when my meal would only consist of one can of unsweetened 100 percent pineapple juice. I just drank water in between as the Fasting Manual had instructed us. At the end of the week, I felt fine and without the bloated feeling that I sometimes felt after a meal. I realized that my body doesn’t really need much food to sustain it. It was just me who sometimes got scared that I’d go hungry.
In life, we too don’t need much to sustain us. As Scripture says, as long as we have food to eat, clothing to wear and house to live in, that’s good enough. But human nature desires to hoard and keep acquiring more. No wonder there is so much poverty around us.
Do we live fasted lives for the sake of Christ? Let’s seriously ask that of ourselves so that when Judgment Day comes, it won’t catch us by surprise.Joy Sosoban
REFLECTION:
By fasting as unto the Lord we answer His call to deny ourselves for the sake of the cross.(Lee Bueno)
Help me to see the excesses of my life, Lord, and enable me to let go.
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1st READING
All societies need prophets. That is, we all need men and women who are not afraid to stand up and be different and proclaim the truth of the Gospel both in the life they live and the words they speak. We need to pray for men and women to be raised up who are capable of engaging the world on its own terms, with its own media and be able to clearly present the Gospel in the face of both opposition and outright persecution. This will be a difficult task but one that we must take seriously and attend to well.
Revelation 22:1-7
1 John said: An angel showed me the river of life-giving water, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of its street. On either side of the river grew the tree of life that produces fruit twelve times a year, once each month; the leaves of the trees serve as medicine for the nations. 3 Nothing accursed will be found there anymore. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will look upon his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 Night will be no more, nor will they need light from lamp or sun, for the Lord God shall give them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. 6 And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true, and the Lord, the God of prophetic spirits, sent his angel to show his servants what must happen soon.” 7 “Behold, I am coming soon.” Blessed is the one who keeps the prophetic message of this book.
P S A L M
Psalm 95:1-2, 3-5, 6-7ab
R: Marana tha! Come, Lord Jesus!
1 Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD; let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us greet him with thanksgiving; let us joyfully sing psalm to him. (R) 3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great king above all gods; 4 in his hands are the depths of the earth, and the tops of the mountains are his. 5 His is the sea, for he has made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed. (R) 6 Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the LORD who made us. 7 For he is our God, and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides. (R)
G O S P E L
We cannot afford to fall asleep in our struggle to live our faith today, or we will find the devil taking advantage of our sleepiness to convince us of half-truths, or worse, even outright lies. We must seek to keep all our faculties alert to the devil’s wiles so that he cannot lead us astray. At the same time, we need to choose a life of discipleship according to the Gospel in order to counteract the pressures and tendencies constantly set upon us by the world. The same was true in previous generations and will still be true in the future. This is the lot of a disciple of Jesus – get used to it!
Luke 21:34-36
34 Jesus said to his disciples: “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise 35 like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. 36 Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.”
my reflections
think:We cannot afford to fall asleep in our struggle to live our faith today.
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God’s special verse/thought for me today________________ _________________________________________________________
T O D A Y ’ S BLESSING LIST Thank You Lord for: ____________________________________
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READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR Ezekiel 17-20
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MARANATHA…MANE NOBISCUM
We end the last day of the present liturgical year with the prayer: “Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!” This prayer echoes the deepest prayer in Sacred Scriptures. It is a plea to God. It is a cry from the deepest recesses of the heart. It also implies an attempt to remind God of His ancient promise to send the Savior of the world.
As another liturgical year closes, we ask the Lord to come because the world still hungers for Him. So many people remain waiting for Him though He already came. In one way or another, we failed to make His coming real to the world because our sins mock His presence in our midst. In what we failed, we pray that the Lord Jesus Himself would make His grace come and supply.
Jesus came and He continues to stay with us. Jesus is Emmanuel; He is “God-With-Us.” He also dwells in us and, therefore, present through us. We can be the answer to our own prayer. We can also be the answer to the cry of the waiting world. If we continue striving to love like Jesus, we can become the presence of Jesus. Let us make our plea today before the Holy Eucharist. Like a mantra to Jesus, let us keep repeating the words “Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!” Pope John Paul II said in his final Apostolic L e t t e r, “Ma n e No b i s c um, Domine” (“Stay With Us, Lord”): Christmas is “Jesus-coming-tous” but the Eucharist is “Jesus-staying- with-us.”
May we become like the Eucharist, too. Fr. Bobby Titco
Reflection Question:
Christmas is Jesus-comingto- us but the Eucharist is Jesus-staying-with-us. By Your transforming grace, O Jesus, make me Your presence in the world.
May I bring You everywhere I go and show You to everyone I meet. The world hungers for You. Let me satisfy its hunger through You. Amen.
St. Brendan of Birr, abbot, pray for us.
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