Archive for October 1, 2022

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted: October 1, 2022 by CatholicJules in Sunday Reflections
Tags: ,
0

Life by Faith: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings:

Habakkuk 1:2–3; 2:2–4

Psalm 95:1–2, 6–9

2 Timothy 1:6–8, 13–14

Luke 17:5–10

________________________________________

Because of his faith, the just man shall live. We hear in today’s First Reading the original prophetic line made so central by St. Paul (see Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38).

We are to live by faith in Christ who loved us and gave Himself on the Cross for us (see Galatians 2:20).

The world, though, can seem to us as seventh-century Judah seemed to Habakkuk—in the control of God’s enemies. The strife and discord we face in our own lives can sometimes cause us to wonder, as the prophet does, why God doesn’t seem to hear or intervene when we cry for help.

We can’t let our hearts be hardened by the trials we undergo. As today’s Psalm reminds us: Israel forgot His mighty works, lost faith in the sound words of His promise. They tested God in the desert, demanding a sign.

But God didn’t redeem Israel from Egypt only to let them die in the desert. And He didn’t ransom us from futility only to abandon us in our trials. He is our God and we are the people He shepherds always—though at times His mercy and justice seem long delayed.

If we call on the Lord, as the Apostles do in today’s Gospel, He will increase our faith, will stir to a flame the Holy Spirit who has dwelt within us since Baptism.

As Paul tells us in today’s Epistle, the Lord will always give us the love and self-control we need to bear our share of hardship for the Gospel—with a strength that can come from God alone.

Our task is to continue doing what He has commanded—to love and to build up His kingdom—trusting that His vision still presses on to its fulfillment.

For His vision still has its time. One day, though we are but “unprofitable servants,” we will be invited to eat and drink at our Master’s table. It is that day we anticipate with each celebration of the Eucharist.

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: October 1, 2022 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
Tags:
0

When we are in right relationship with God our loving Father and living in the presence of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ then truly our hearts are filled with joy by the Holy Spirit. Our hearts desire is to be One with Him and one another in Holy Communion.

And we will go on to do great things to glory Him by our lives! For we know our names are written in Heaven. We are His Priests, Prophets and Kings! Most of all we are His children so loved by Him. Amen

Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus Pray for us…

________

First reading

Job 42:1-3,5-6,12-17

In dust and in ashes I repent

This was the answer Job gave to the Lord:

I know that you are all-powerful:

    what you conceive, you can perform.

I am the man who obscured your designs

    with my empty-headed words.

I have been holding forth on matters I cannot understand,

    on marvels beyond me and my knowledge.

I knew you then only by hearsay;

    but now, having seen you with my own eyes,

I retract all I have said,

    and in dust and ashes I repent.

The Lord blessed Job’s new fortune even more than his first one. He came to own fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand she-donkeys. He had seven sons and three daughters; his first daughter he called ‘Turtledove’, the second ‘Cassia’ and the third ‘Mascara.’ Throughout the land there were no women as beautiful as the daughters of Job. And their father gave them inheritance rights like their brothers.

    After his trials, Job lived on until he was a hundred and forty years old, and saw his children and his children’s children up to the fourth generation. Then Job died, an old man and full of days.

________

Gospel

Luke 10:17-24

Rejoice that your names are written in heaven

The seventy-two came back rejoicing. ‘Lord,’ they said ‘even the devils submit to us when we use your name.’ He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Yes, I have given you power to tread underfoot serpents and scorpions and the whole strength of the enemy; nothing shall ever hurt you. Yet do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you; rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven.’

    It was then that, filled with joy by the Holy Spirit, he said:

    ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’

    Then turning to his disciples he spoke to them in private, ‘Happy the eyes that see what you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.’