Daily Bible Reflections
for December 12, 2024
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Dear Friend,

Be blessed by His Creative Word this Thursday!

Praying for you,

Bo Sanchez



12
December
Thursday
TODAY'S READINGS:

DIDACHE | COMPANION | SABBATH
DIDACHE

 Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

God Sees, God Knows
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel. – Luke 1:34

I’ve courted four girls in my lifetime. I was turned down by the first. I had a failed relationship with the second after almost seven years (with three years long distance). The third wasn’t meant to be. But the fourth one is the best God has given me. 

We started as friends, decided to be best of friends, and then became more than friends. I still clearly remember going to her house, maneuvering my car, and feeling like I was already picking up my wife. That was in 2007, but God already knew that we would get married in 2014. We saw no signs of pregnancy in 2015, but God already knew that our baby would come in 2019. He already even saw our second child arriving in 2021.

Think of your current blessings and the day you started praying for them. God saw them already. He knows. How will this be? By His spirit, His grace, His word, His love. So be excited and get ready to be blessed. Dreus Cosio (andreus.cosio@gmail.com)


reflect

What beautiful miracles await you in the future that God can already see? It’s time to trust Him. 

Lord, give me the grace to see that Your love doesn’t come in our answered prayers. Being with You is the answer to our prayers. Amen.


Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.

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Didache | Companion | Sabbath | Top

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COMPANION

 Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

First Reading | Zechariah 2:14-17 (or Revelation 11:19, 12:1-6, 10)

We are nothing compared to the glory and splendor of God. Yet He loves us because He has created us. Therefore, we are worthwhile. We are lovable. We are beautiful, and each of us has something to offer in the work of God’s Kingdom. Our worth is found in God’s love for us and that fact is indisputable. Let us pray for the grace to really believe this truth. 

14 Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the Lord. 15 Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord on that day, and they shall be his people, and he will dwell among you, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. 16 The Lord will possess Judah as his portion of the holy land, and he will again choose Jerusalem. 17 Silence, all mankind, in the presence of the Lord! For he stirs forth from his holy dwelling. 


Responsorial Psalm | Judith 13:18, 19

R: You are the highest honor of our race. 

18 Blessed are you, daughter, by the Most High God, above all the women on earth; and blessed be the Lord God, the creator of heaven and earth. (R) 19 Your deed of hope will never be forgotten by those who tell of the might of God. (R)


Gospel | Luke 1:26-38 (or Luke 1:39-47) 

A certain violence is necessary to enter God's Kingdom. There is a certain kind of violence that occurs against our will, when we follow God's will for us. If we obey His will, we are on the way to the gift of eternal life. However, if our will constantly gains the upper hand, we endanger our salvation as our wills are not necessarily aligned with God’s will. Let us not be afraid to do violence to our own wills in order to bring them into unity with the will of the Father.

Gospel Acclamation

Blessed are you, holy Virgin Mary, deserving of all praise; from you rose the sun of justice, Christ our God.

26 The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” 29 But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, 33 and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34 But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” 35 And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. 36 And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; 37 for nothing will be impossible for God.” 38 Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.


Reflect:
In what area of your life do you need to believe that “nothing is impossible for God”?

Read the Bible in one year! Read 2 TIMOTHY 1 - 4 today.

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Didache | Companion | Sabbath | Top

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SABBATH

 Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Standing with the Poor and the Lowly

In 1531, Mary appeared to Juan Diego, a humble man in Mexico, someone from the lowest class in the country. She asked him to go to the palace of the Bishop of Mexico and request that the Bishop build a church on the site where she stood. Juan Diego knew he would not have credibility with the Bishop, but he did as she asked. When he returned without having success with the Bishop, he begged Mary to pick someone else as her messenger, “someone of importance, well known, respected, and esteemed, so that they may believe in him; because I am a nobody.”  But Mary sent him back to the Bishop, a task he humbly accepted. Eventually, his request was heeded and the church was built.  

One of my favorite images of our Blessed Mother is that of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The image is full of rich symbols about Mary’s role in God’s plan of salvation—the long, flowing robe, hands clasped in prayer, her belted waist revealing a mother pregnant with new life, among others. However, it is her face that is most striking. Our Lady of Guadalupe bears the features of those who gave birth to and share the heritage of Saint Juan Diego. 

Today, we commemorate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In the Gospel passage, much praise is being passed around. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, praises Mary for what God has done in her person. She commends Mary’s faith filled response to God’s will for her and for the whole of humanity. Rather than acknowledge Elizabeth’s high praise of her, Mary instead deflects the praise and extols God for the special grace bestowed upon her. “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46).   

As any human being, Mary could have acknowledged, welcomed, and been grateful for the praises bestowed upon her. However, she knew, in her utter humility, to whom that praise should truly be directed.   

The example of Mary and Juan Diego as lowly servants of God reminds us that we, too, are called to follow Jesus in the humility and poverty that was His very life. Like His mother Mary, He asks us to stand on the side of the poor and the lowly of heart. Fr. Rick Montañez, AA


reflection question

How do you treat those considered lowly in your midst? 

Lord, I pray that I may walk humbly before You all the days of my life. Amen.

Today, I pray for: _________________________

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