|
|
What health and sickness are to the body, virtue and wickedness are to the soul, and knowledge and ignorance to the intellect. The greater our devotion to the practice of the virtues, the more our intellect is illumined by knowledge. St. Peter of Damaskos (Virtue as the active practice of spiritual and moral disciplines. Which are you needing to emphasize at this time in your life?) |
|
|
Heb 12:4-7, 11-15; Psalm
103:1-2, 13-14, 17-18a Mk 6:1-6 Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples.
When the sabbath came he began to teach in the
synagogue,
and many who heard him were astonished.
They said, “Where did this man get all this?
What kind of wisdom has been given him?
What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!
Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary,
and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon?
And are not his sisters
here with us?”
And they took offense at him.
Jesus said to them,
“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and among his own kin and in his own house.”
So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there,
apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.
He was amazed at
their lack of faith. USCCB lectionary
|
Reflection on the Scripture
|
All these evils come from within and render a person impure.” —Mark 7:23
The source of “acts of fornication, theft, murder,
adulterous conduct, greed, maliciousness, deceit, sensuality, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, an obtuse spirit” (Mk 7:21-22) is the impurity inside us. Consequently, it is very important to be cleansed inside and to remain clean inside. This means that:
* To hear God’s cleansing Word daily is even more necessary than to wash daily (see Eph 5:26; Jn 15:3).
* Fasting, because of its cleansing power, should be highly valued.
* The defilement from most TV programs and what we view on our
handheld electronic devices is intolerable.
* “Dirty language” and “dirty pictures” are aptly named and are worse than living in a garbage can.
Be clean and stay clean — deep inside — and thus be free and holy (see Jn 8:36).
Prayer: Father, whatever it takes, cleanse the temple of my heart (see Jn 2:15ff).
Promise: “The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became
a living being.” —Gn 2:7 Presentation Ministries
|
|
|
What is Christian Love? by Philip St. Romain (all rights reserved) Adapted from Freedom from Codependency: A Christian Response - The Nature of Christian Love - God hates sin. God, who is love,
created human beings to know and share in that love by helping to shape the creation. Therefore, we who are created in God’s image and likeness, are also images of love. When we sin, we act against our true nature. We distort what God has created, and we spread our evil and distortion to others by mistreating them. The consequences of our non-love have even spread to creation, threatening the very basis of life on our planet. What we have done with the gift of life
God has given us is equivalent to hoodlums throwing mud on the masterpiece of a painter. It destroys the masterpiece and insults the painter. We are magnificent beings acting like spoiled children, and this is an injustice toward God and one another. God still loves each of us but nonetheless hates all this non-loving selfish behavior. Paperback book, PDF eBook, Kindle, ePub
|
Please support this outreach with a tax-deductible donation.
|
|
|
