Make no mistake! We who are disciples of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ do not follow Him in blind faith. We take up our cross to follow Him knowing full well the trails and challenges that await us. We do so because we know that He is the way, the truth and the life. Our faith grows stronger each and every day in His love, through His Word and listening to His will for us in His presence. Our faith has length, breadth, depth and height for the Lord our God’s wisdom and His immense love for us is immeasurable. And so we strive to see the world through His eyes and with His heart.
For God is good and pure of heart; and all that is evil and tainted does not come from Him. While we entrust ourselves fully in His loving care and protection, we must put on the whole armour of God, so that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Eph 6:11-12
Victory is our inheritance, for we have been baptised and belong to the kingdom of God by receiving Christ in our life. We desire victory, as we await readily anticipating it to come on our way and then we claim it through the word of God, “You give me your shield of victory and your right hand sustains me…” (Ps. 18:35). Jesus assures us, “…Take courage, I have overcome the world.” (Jn. 16:33). Amen
First reading
James 1:12-18 ·
Temptation is not from God
Happy the man who stands firm when trials come. He has proved himself, and will win the prize of life, the crown that the Lord has promised to those who love him.
Never, when you have been tempted, say, ‘God sent the temptation’; God cannot be tempted to do anything wrong, and he does not tempt anybody. Everyone who is tempted is attracted and seduced by his own wrong desire. Then the desire conceives and gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it too has a child, and the child is death.
Make no mistake about this, my dear brothers: it is all that is good, everything that is perfect, which is given us from above; it comes down from the Father of all light; with him there is no such thing as alteration, no shadow of a change. By his own choice he made us his children by the message of the truth so that we should be a sort of first-fruits of all that he had created.
Gospel
Mark 8:14-21
Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod
The disciples had forgotten to take any food and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. Then he gave them this warning, ‘Keep your eyes open; be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.’ And they said to one another, ‘It is because we have no bread.’ And Jesus knew it, and he said to them, ‘Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you not yet understand? Have you no perception? Are your minds closed? Have you eyes that do not see, ears that do not hear? Or do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves among the five thousand, how many baskets full of scraps did you collect?’ They answered, ‘Twelve.’ ‘And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many baskets full of scraps did you collect?’ And they answered, ‘Seven.’ Then he said to them, ‘Are you still without perception?’
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