Daily Bible Reflections
for August 9, 2017
;

Dear Friend,

His light is shining on you this Wednesday.

Praying for you,

Bo Sanchez



9
August
Wednesday
TODAY'S READINGS:

DIDACHE | COMPANION | SABBATH
DIDACHE

 

LIVE MY LIFE
 

“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” – Matthew 15:24

 

   “The good news is your disease is not life-threatening!” my rheumatologist said. I responded with a bemused smile. I couldn’t find it in me to celebrate.

      It’s not uncommon for people with autoimmune diseases to say, “I wish I had cancer.” It’s not only because the disease makes daily living difficult, but more because of the lack of understanding and empathy from doctors, friends, and even family members.

        “You keep thinking you’re sick that’s why you get sick!”

        “Just choose to be happy and you won’t be depressed!”

        “I’m sure you can do better if you just try!”

      I only wish people were more understanding that we are doing the best we can under the circumstances.

      Jesus didn’t limit His compassion to those of His own kin. He extended healing to the Canaanite woman. I wish everyone would choose to reach out and empathize with people who are different. What a change of perspective we’ll have if we can live each other’s lives, survive each other’s traumas, and experience each other’s fears. After all, we are doing the best we can, under our unique circumstances. Cecil Lim (cez_lim@yahoo.com)

 

Reflection:“Mercy is entering into the chaos of another person’s life.” (Fr. James Keenan, SJ)

 

Lord, grant me the gift of understanding others, even as I strive to understand myself.

 

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, pray for us.

The all-new Feast mobile app is finally here! All the content you love from here may also be found in our new app and so much more! Please make sure to download the new Feast App, as we will eventually stop updating this version soon.

Let's continue to grow together with our all-new Feast app! Download and upgrade today: Feast App for Android | Feast App for iOS.


Didache | Companion | Sabbath | Top

Get your daily readings and more for free inside the Feast App!
Google PlayStore     iOS AppStore

COMPANION

 

1ST READING
 

To doubt the promises of God and to delay obedience to His manifest will are tantamount to sin. Did God punish the people for their fear and doubt that God would deliver the Promised Land into their hands? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps the writer of this text uses this story to explain the length of time that the Israelites roamed the desert due to their indecision as to what to do next. Whatever the case, it is the doubt of the people that results in their lengthy sojourn in the desert.

 
Numbers 13:1-2, 25-14:1, 26-29, 34-35

1 The Lord said to Moses, [in the desert of Paran,] 2 “Send men to reconnoiter the land of Canaan, which I am giving the children of Israel. You shall send one man from each ancestral tribe, all of them princes.” 25 After reconnoitering the land for forty days they returned, 26 met Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation of the children of Israel in the desert of Paran at Kadesh, made a report to them all, and showed them the fruit of the country to the whole congregation. 27 They told Moses: “We went into the land to which you sent us. It does indeed flow with milk and honey, and here is its fruit. 28 However, the people who are living in the land are fierce, and the towns are fortified and very strong. Besides, we saw descendants of the Anakim there. 29 Amalekites live in the region of the Negeb; Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites dwell in the highlands, and Canaanites along the seacoast and the banks of the Jordan.” 30 Caleb, however, to quiet the people toward Moses, said, “We ought to go up and seize the land, for we can certainly do so.” 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We cannot attack these people; they are too strong for us.” 32 So they spread discouraging reports among the children of Israel about the land they had scouted, saying, “The land that we explored is a country that consumes its inhabitants. And all the people we saw there are huge, 33 veritable giants [the Anakim were a race of giants]; we felt like mere grasshoppers, and so we must have seemed to them.” 14:1 At this, the whole community broke out with loud cries, and even in the night the people wailed. 26 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: 27 “How long will this wicked assembly grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the children of Israel against me. 28 Tell them: By my life, says the Lord, I will do to you just what I have heard you say. 29 Here in the desert shall your dead bodies fall. 34 Forty days you spent in scouting the land; forty years shall you suffer for your crimes: one year for each day. Thus you will realize what it means to oppose me. 35 I, the Lord, have sworn to do this to all this wicked assembly that conspired against me: here in the desert they shall die to the last man.”

 
P S A L M
 
Psalm 106:6-7, 13-14, 21-22, 23

R: Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

6 We have sinned, we and our fathers; we have committed crimes; we have done wrong. 7 Our fathers in Egypt considered not your wonders. (R) 13 But soon they forgot his works; they waited not for his counsel. 14 They gave way to craving in the desert and tempted God in the wilderness. (R) 21 They forgot the God who had saved them, who had done great deeds in Egypt, 22 wondrous deeds in the land of Ham, terrible things at the Red Sea. (R) 23 Then he spoke of exterminating them, but Moses, his chosen one, withstood him in the breach to turn back his destructive wrath. (R)

 
GOSPEL
 

Jesus was impressed that the Canaanite woman not only believes He can help her daughter but that it is something that’s easy for Him to do. It requires a mere “scrap” of His power and not His total attention and commitment. This is indeed impressive. Is our faith as deep as this woman’s faith? Sometimes, we can find encouragement in unexpected places.

 
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

A great prophet has arisen in our midst and God has visited his people.

 
Matthew 15:21-28

21 At that time Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.” 23 But he did not say a word in answer to her. His disciples came and asked him, “Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.” 24 He said in reply, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25 But the woman came and did him homage, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26 He said in reply, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” 27 She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” 28 Then Jesus said to her in reply, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that hour.

 

think: What do you believe Jesus can do for you?

 
_________________________________________________________________________
 
_________________________________________________________________________
 
_________________________________________________________________________
 
_________________________________________________________________________
 
 

Read the Bible in one year 2 Maccabees 3-4

 

T O D A Y’S BLESSING LIST

 

thank You, Lord, for: ______________________________________________________

 

The all-new Feast mobile app is finally here! All the content you love from here may also be found in our new app and so much more! Please make sure to download the new Feast App, as we will eventually stop updating this version soon.

Let's continue to grow together with our all-new Feast app! Download and upgrade today: Feast App for Android | Feast App for iOS.


Didache | Companion | Sabbath | Top

Get your daily readings and more for free inside the Feast App!
Google PlayStore     iOS AppStore

SABBATH

 

KEEP CALLING OUT

 

My grandmother was a persistent pray-er. Unschooled, unlettered, unlearned, she was nevertheless not as uncouth and unpolished as one might expect a peasant woman to be. She was gentle, but firm. She was persistent, but not insistent and impertinent once she knew her limits. And she kept on calling out to the Lord in prayer, even as she kept herself busy in her garden, in her kitchen, and on her loom.

       Today, the Gospel shows us another woman of persistence, known only as the Canaanite woman. She had no rights, no objective entitlement. She deserved no attention from the Lord, coming as she is from a pagan territory. You see, being unschooled, unlettered and unlearned was not the worst condition for a woman to be in. Where one came from also mattered.

       But the Lord, who was willing to break all cultural and religious barriers, was also one to take away blockages to doing good or doing the right thing. He broke tradition by going to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And the unfolding events on this occasion tell us that He was willing to tear down the walls of indifference and lack of compassion to accommodate someone, who, though undeserving in terms of right, was worthy like everyone else of mercy.

       But deserved or undeserved, the important lessons boiled down to only two: the mercy of God and the persistent faith-filled prayer of the woman. All her life, my grandmother struggled — not for herself, assuredly, but for those she loved. For a mother who was widowed young, and for one who lost a son, tortured and killed by the Japanese for being a suspected guerilla, a woman who gave up so much, she had no sense of self-entitlement. I know not what sort of personal needs the Canaanite woman had. But I do know from Matthew’s report that her persistent prayer had nothing to do with her personal wants and needs but everything to do with what her daughter needed. She prayed — even when disciples dissuaded her. She prayed — even when the Lord Himself discouraged her.

       She kept on calling out. And the Lord heard. Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

 

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

Do you feel unworthy of the Lord’s favor? No one is. But keep on praying to Him anyway.

 

Jesus, Your mercy knows no boundaries or limits. Listen to my prayer, and answer me in

accordance to Your will and kindness. Amen.

 

The all-new Feast mobile app is finally here! All the content you love from here may also be found in our new app and so much more! Please make sure to download the new Feast App, as we will eventually stop updating this version soon.

Let's continue to grow together with our all-new Feast app! Download and upgrade today: Feast App for Android | Feast App for iOS.


Didache | Companion | Sabbath | Top

Get your daily readings and more for free inside the Feast App!
Google PlayStore     iOS AppStore

 

 

We are happy to be sending this to you. Aside from our work of evangelization, the Feast also supports 10 foundations for the poor. Would you like to be part of this humble mission of helping our beneficiaries by donating?  Click here to share in God's work through the Feast Mercy Ministries. 

Do You Want Your Friend To Receive This Email?
Friend's Email:

 


Thank you for being part of the Feast family!

JOIN THE FEAST: Find a spiritual family. Join the Feast!
Find one near you! Check out our Feast locations and schedules here: feast.ph/locations. You may also follow us on Facebook for more Feast community-wide updates.

PRAY-OVER SESSIONS: Need someone to talk to? Want someone to pray with you?
Get in touch with our LOJ Pastoral Care Center at 0923 132 3071 (Sun) and 0917 145 3756 (Globe) from Monday to Saturday 8 AM to 10 PM. You may also set a session via chat here.

DOWNLOAD THE FEAST APP: Feed your faith with the all-new Feast mobile app! Keep receiving God's Message daily on your mobile.

Download today!  Feast App for Android | Feast App for iOS

LOVE OFFERINGS AND DONATIONS: Let’s continue the cycle of generosity. Choose how you want to give to our Feast Mercy Ministries foundations:

After your transfer/ deposit, please send a copy of your deposit slip with your name and contact number to support@kerygmafamily.com so that we can have a record of your donation

1. Register for monthly giving here: www.feastmercyministries.com/give

2. Online thru PayPal:  PayPal.me/KerygmaFamily 

3. Through bank deposits and transfers:

Account name:  Shepherd’s Voice Radio and Television Foundation      

4. Give through GCASH: Scan the QR Code below

For any concerns or inquiries regarding your donation, please contact Joya from the Feast Mercy Ministries at (+632) 8725-9999 or +639989684416. Thank you again and God bless you more!