Posts Tagged ‘church’

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: September 26, 2019 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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Many think they can do without the Lord our God in their lives. Especially those who have much success in their careers and who live pretty much comfortable lives. After all it is their sheer determination and hard work that paid off. They cannot however understand where their sense of restlessness and anxiety comes from? The tinglings of discontentment that sends chills down their spine. These good people may have all that they desire and yet their lives are empty!

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” St Augustine who obviously knew what he was talking about from his own life experiences sums it up perfectly! We must therefore earnestly strive to build up and rebuild if necessary, the church within us. So that our loving and living God can dwell within us. Jesus is the source of all life and so we will have need of nothing when we have Him deep within us.

So let us turn our backs to all forms of sin and guard ourselves against wanton desires and temptations. Seek our Lord Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of reconciliation as He ministers to us, heals and restores us in His mercy. Then receive Him fully in Holy Eucharist so as to fortify the foundation of the tabernacle that we carry faithfully within us.

O Lord my God! Let me never ever take Your love for me for granted. Forgive me the error of my ways and thoughts. Amen

First reading

Haggai 1:1-8 ·
‘Rebuild the House’

In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord was addressed through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, high commissioner of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as follows, ‘The Lord of Hosts says this, “This people says: The time has not yet come to rebuild the Temple of the Lord. (And the word of the Lord was addressed through the prophet Haggai, as follows:) Is this a time for you to live in your panelled houses, when this House lies in ruins? So now, the Lord of Hosts says this: Reflect carefully how things have gone for you. You have sown much and harvested little; you eat but never have enough, drink but never have your fill, put on clothes but do not feel warm. The wage earner gets his wages only to put them in a purse riddled with holes. So go to the hill country, fetch wood, and rebuild the House: I shall then take pleasure in it, and be glorified there, says the Lord.”’

Gospel

Luke 9:7-9
‘John? I beheaded him; so who is this?’

Herod the tetrarch had heard about all that was being done by Jesus; and he was puzzled, because some people were saying that John had risen from the dead, others that Elijah had reappeared, still others that one of the ancient prophets had come back to life. But Herod said, ‘John? I beheaded him. So who is this I hear such reports about?’ And he was anxious to see Jesus.

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: July 30, 2019 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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We thank You O Lord God Almighty for your continued blessings, love and mercy upon us. Glory to You O Lord our God!

Are we grateful and thankful enough to the Lord our God? Or have we taken all we have for granted? We now have ‘Tents of Meeting’ we call churches in which we are now able, through our Lord Jesus Christ to meet Him and to be in His Presence. To be allowed to receive Him into our very being, so that through His divinity in us we can grow in Holiness to be with Him in paradise, there is NO other God like ours!

Yet how many choose more ‘important’ things, places or events they rather be at than to attend the Eucharistic Celebration? How many say why do I need to go to church to pray when I can do so at home or anywhere for that matter? What are you and I doing to bring them to the awareness of the the true meaning of Communion. Of what it means to be one Body in Christ, as we worship and we pray. Of the foretaste and experience of Heaven at every Eucharistic Celebration. Most important of all the source and summit of our Faith, the loving embrace of our Lord Jesus Christ when we receive Him at Holy Eucharist. The opportunity of having our Risen Euchartic Lord dwell within us! Amen, Amen, Amen!

Are we grateful and thankful enough? That in His mercy and love, our Lord patiently awaits for us to repent of our sins and turn back to Him. So whether tares, darnel or any other name can be transformed into wheat; sinners into Saints!

We thank You O Lord God Almighty for your continued blessings, love and mercy upon us. Glory to You O Lord our God!

First reading

Exodus 33:7-11,34:5-9,28
‘They are a headstrong people; but forgive us our faults’

Moses used to take the Tent and pitch it outside the camp, at some distance from the camp. He called it the Tent of Meeting. Anyone who had to consult the Lord would go out to the Tent of Meeting, outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the Tent, all the people would rise. Every man would stand at the door of his tent and watch Moses until he reached the Tent; the pillar of cloud would come down and station itself at the entrance to the Tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. When they saw the pillar of cloud stationed at the entrance to the Tent, all the people would rise and bow low, each at the door of his tent. The Lord would speak with Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would turn back to the camp, but the young man who was his servant, Joshua son of Nun, would not leave the Tent.
And the Lord descended in the form of a cloud, and Moses stood with him there.
He called on the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness; for thousands he maintains his kindness, forgives faults, transgression, sin; yet he lets nothing go unchecked, punishing the father’s fault in the sons and in the grandsons to the third and fourth generation.’ And Moses bowed down to the ground at once and worshipped. ‘If I have indeed won your favour, Lord,’ he said ‘let my Lord come with us, I beg. True, they are a headstrong people, but forgive us our faults and our sins, and adopt us as your heritage.’
Moses stayed there with the Lord for forty days and forty nights, eating and drinking nothing. He inscribed on the tablets the words of the Covenant – the Ten Words.

Gospel

Matthew 13:36-43
As the darnel is gathered up and burnt, so it will be at the end of time

Leaving the crowds, Jesus went to the house; and his disciples came to him and said, ‘Explain the parable about the darnel in the field to us.’ He said in reply, ‘The sower of the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world; the good seed is the subjects of the kingdom; the darnel, the subjects of the evil one; the enemy who sowed them, the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; the reapers are the angels. Well then, just as the darnel is gathered up and burnt in the fire, so it will be at the end of time. The Son of Man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that provoke offences and all who do evil, and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. Then the virtuous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Listen, anyone who has ears!’