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Gratitude is the most passionate transformative force in the cosmos. When we offer thanks to God or to another human being, gratitude gifts us with renewal, reflection, reconnection.
- Sarah Ban Breathnach
(. . . the
most passionate transformative force in the cosmos." You don't want to pass that up, do you? How will you express gratitude today?) |
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1 Thes 2:9-13; Ps 139:7-8, 9-10,
11-12ab Mt 23:27-32 Jesus said,
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on
the outside,
but inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of filth.
Even so, on the outside you appear righteous,
but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You build the tombs of the prophets
and adorn the memorials of the righteous,
and you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors,
we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets' blood.'
Thus you bear witness against yourselves
that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets;
now fill up what your
ancestors measured out!" USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture |
“That is why we thank God constantly that in receiving His message from us you
took it, not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God at work within you who believe.” —1 Thessalonians 2:13
Some of us have been reading the Bible and the teaching on the Eucharistic readings in this book, One Bread, One Body, almost every day for several decades. Many of us have heard God’s Word at Sunday Mass or at other times for twenty, fifty, or even seventy years. Some of us
have even read through the Bible. However, the question is not: “How many times have we been through the Bible?” but “How many times has the Bible been through us?” On Judgment Day, we will not be accountable for how much of the Bible we know but for how much of it we have lived. However, we have a much better opportunity to live the Bible if we have tried to know it. Consequently, the words of St. Jerome are true: “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ” (Catechism of the Catholic
Church, 133).
If someone didn’t know you, would they, by observing you, come to the conclusion that you believe that the teaching of the Church, especially as contained in the Bible, is not merely “the word of men, but...truly is, the word of God at work within you who believe”? (1 Thes 2:13) Abide in God’s Word (Jn 8:31), do God’s Word (Jas 1:22), and make any sacrifice to share God’s Word (see 2 Tm
4:2). Only then will our lives proclaim “loud and clear” that the Church’s teaching and the Bible are “the Word of the Lord.” Prayer: Father, when the lector concludes the reading with the phrase, “The word of the Lord,” may my life cry out, “Thanks be to God.” Promise: “We encouraged and
pleaded with you to make your lives worthy of the God Who calls you to His kingship and glory.” —1 Thes 2:12 Presentation Ministries
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-Readings from Jesus Alive in Our Lives, by Philip St. Romain. Ave Maria Press, 1985. Contemplative Ministries, Inc. 2011. Part Two, Encountering the Risen Christ Chapter 4: Christian
Community - Selected quotes Some of the implications of this perspective are very important. First and foremost is the emphasis on the fact that Jesus now identifies
his continuing work on earth with the ministry of the Christian community. This is not to deny that he is also working outside the Church, but it is to recognize that he most definitely intended to continue his work through the Church. To pursue a relationship with Jesus to the exclusion of the Church would seem, then, to be in contradiction to how Jesus himself wanted to continue his work. If one has been blessed with a faith relationship in Christ, then one is a kind of
cell in his Mystical Body, and just as a cell in our body has life when it is connected to the body, so it is the same with us individual cells in the Body of Christ. Apart from the Body, we cut ourselves off from the flow of Spirit moving through the Body and animating its parts. We might be able to hang in there with our faith, but we won’t know the depth of Life that Christ intends for us to know. He wants us to know this Life as members of a Christian community.
That’s all part of his plan for us.. Paperback and eBook versions
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