Daily Bible Reflections
for June 24, 2017
;

Dear Friend,

Be inspired with His message to you this Saturday!

Praying for you,

Bo Sanchez



24
June
Saturday
TODAY'S READINGS:

DIDACHE | COMPANION | SABBATH
DIDACHE

 

Feast of the Nativity

of John the Baptist

 
ONLY GRACE
 

I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. – Isaiah 49:6

 

       When I talk to young people or hear about those who suffer from low self-worth and hopelessness, I can’t help but empathize with them. I was like them ages ago — and it sprang from fear. I was afraid of how other people saw me. So I asked God how I could extend His love to those people even in the simplest way I can. I wanted to shine His light to the hearts dimmed by hopelessness and fear.

       God’s answer came in one of my personal retreats. During one of my prayer times, I began scribbling non-stop. It ended up as a book outline. For the following weeks, I kept writing even when I didn’t feel like it. The book Status Confused came out a year ago and I thank

      God for embracing many people through its message. I can’t claim the glory. My stories reflected my flaws and failures. But one thing filled the empty spaces and restored the broken pieces — God’s grace.

       I believe that God’s relentless grace will keep on shining and saving lives — just as He did with mine. And He continues to do it through us to the ends of the earth. Maymay R. Salvosa (christiane.salvosa@gmail.com)

 

Reflection:Your life is a light that others need to illuminate their path.

 

Use me, Jesus, to show forth Your grace and Your glory.

 

St. John the Baptist, pray for us.

 

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COMPANION

 

1ST READING
 

The Servant of God is a sharpened sword and a polished arrow. This reminds us to be ready for battle. We live in a world that is relentlessly promoting sin and hedonism. The devil never gives up in tearing us away from the Kingdom of God. There is no need to worry. God will provide all that we need to endure and triumph in this battle.

 
Isaiah 49:1-6

1 Hear me, O coastlands, listen, O distant peoples. The Lord called me from birth, from my mother’s womb he gave me my name. 2 He made of me a sharp-edged sword and concealed me in the shadow of his arm. He made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me. 3 You are my servant, he said to me, Israel, through whom I show my glory. 4 Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength, yet my reward is with the Lord, my recompense is with my God. 5 For now the Lord has spoken who formed me as his servant from the womb, that Jacob may be brought back to him and Israel gathered to him; and I am made glorious in the sight of the Lord, and my God is now my strength! 6 It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

 
P S A L M
 
Psalm 139:1-3, 13-14, 14-15

R: I praise you, for I am wonderfully made.

1 O Lord, you have probed me and you know me: 2 you know when I sit and when I stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. 3 My journeys and my rest you scrutinize, with all my ways you are familiar. (R) 13 Truly you have formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. 14 I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made; wonderful are your works. (R) My soul also you knew full well; 15 nor was my frame unknown to you when I was made in secret, when I was fashioned in the depths of the earth. (R)

 
2nd READING
 

John was a herald for the Messiah when He came the first time. Today, we are heralds for the King of kings when He comes in glory. The most important thing we learn from John’s ministry is to trust that when we speak the truth in love, God will take care of the rest. The blood of martyrs is the seedbed of faith. If we are martyred, it will never be in vain.

 
Acts 13:22-26

22 In those days, Paul said: “God raised up David as king; of him God testified, I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will carry out my every wish. 23 From this man’s descendants, God, according to his promise, has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus. 24 John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel; 25 and as John was completing his course, he would say, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. Behold, one is coming after me; I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet.’ 26 “My brothers, son of the family of Abraham, and those others among you who are God-fearing, to us this word of salvation has been sent.”

 
GOSPEL
 

John leapt in his mother’s womb as Mary approached Elizabeth. This is a sign of the holiness of the child in Mary’s womb, and that the Holy Spirit is also preparing John for an extraordinary role. Zechariah chose an unusual name for his son, a sign that John is a miracle child and that he is destined for greatness in the eyes of the Lord.

 
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

You, child, will be called prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way.

 
Luke 1:57-66, 80

57 When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son. 58 Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her. 59 When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, 60 but his mother said in reply, “No. He will be called John.” 61 But they answered her, “There is no one among your relatives who has this name.” 62 So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called. 63 He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,” and all were amazed. 64 Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God. 65 Then fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea. 66 All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child be?” For surely the hand of the Lord was with him. 80 The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the desert until the day of his manifestation to Israel.

 

think: How was the hand of the Lord seen in John’s life? In your life?

 
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Read the Bible in one year 1 Chronicles 4-6

 

T O D A Y’S BLESSING LIST

 

thank You, Lord, for: ______________________________________________________

 
 
 

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SABBATH

 

ZEAL FOR THE TRUTH

 

John the Baptist had an unenviable task in being raised up to prepare the way for Jesus. It must be pretty difficult to prepare a path for someone you do not know, or to understand what the point of the exercise is. Jesus and John are cousins. Perhaps they did know each other, although we are not told about their personal relationship while growing up.

       John, however, makes no excuses for what he has been asked to do even to the point of telling King Herod that he has unlawfully taken the wife of his brother for himself. John is a man to look up to if we are going to face a difficult conversation. He spoke the truth to Herod and ultimately lost his life on account of this. Are we willing to stand by the truth of the Gospel even if it would mean our death?

       Let us pray that we will be as zealous for the truth as John was. May we never shirk from our duty to live and proclaim the truth so that the message of the Gospel will reach to the ends of the earth. It is sad to come across people whose lives have been captured by a lie. If we are not living according to the truth of who we are, created in the image and likeness of God, then we will be destined to unending frustration. It is only within the plan of God for our lives that we will be able to find true fulfillment. Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL

 

---------- REFLECTION QUESTION ----------

Are you constantly committing yourself to projects and ideas that fail to satisfy you? Perhaps you need to look at the fundamentals of these things to discover whether they are rooted in the truth or not.

 

Holy Spirit, grant me the strength and courage to live my life for the truth and to be bold in proclaiming the truth of the Gospel at all times. Amen.

 

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