We love because God first loved us. And because He loved us so much, He sent His only begotten Son into the world, so that through His life, death, and resurrection, we have hope of eternal life with Him. By our very baptism, we have been consecrated unto the sacred heart of Jesus. And so we know intimately God our Father’s love for us. When we love one another as He first loved us, we reflect the love of God that dwells in us.
For we live as free men and women to bring His light into the world. The Lord our God has given us His spirit, His wisdom, and His knowledge, so that as we are beacons sent into the world, we will bring His peace, mercy, love, joy, and healing grace upon those who need it.
Let us then choose to remain steadfast in the Lord and fear only that we might offend Him by our sins. Let us choose each and every day to renounce the works of the enemies and to live in the empowerment of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to give glory to Him. Amen
The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus pray for us…
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First reading
Deuteronomy 7:6-11
The Lord set his heart on you and chose you
Moses said to the people: ‘You are a people consecrated to the Lord your God; it is you that the Lord our God has chosen to be his very own people out of all the peoples on the earth.
‘If the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, it was not because you outnumbered other peoples: you were the least of all peoples. It was for love of you and to keep the oath he swore to your fathers that the Lord brought you out with his mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know then that the Lord your God is God indeed, the faithful God who is true to his covenant and his graciousness for a thousand generations towards those who love him and keep his commandments, but who punishes in their own persons those that hate him. He is not slow to destroy the man who hates him; he makes him work out his punishment in person. You are therefore to keep and observe the commandments and statutes and ordinances that I lay down for you today.’
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Second reading
1 John 4:7-16
Let us love one another, since love comes from God
My dear people,
let us love one another
since love comes from God
and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love.
God’s love for us was revealed
when God sent into the world his only Son
so that we could have life through him; this is the love I mean: not our love for God, but God’s love for us when he sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away.
My dear people,
since God has loved us so much,
we too should love one another.
No one has ever seen God;
but as long as we love one another
God will live in us and his love will be complete in us.
We can know that we are living in him and he is living in us because he lets us share his Spirit.
We ourselves saw and we testify that the Father sent his Son as saviour of the world.
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he in God.
We ourselves have known and put our faith in
God’s love towards ourselves. God is love
and anyone who lives in love lives in God,
and God lives in him.
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Gospel
Matthew 11:25-30
You have hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to little children
Jesus exclaimed, ‘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 the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.’
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