Posts Tagged ‘God first loved us’

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: August 2, 2024 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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Truth spoken to evoke a change of heart, to turn away from sin, sinful inclinations, and begin right living in the presence of the Lord our God will often fall on deaf ears. Especially on those whom are closest to us.

We may face rejection, hurtful words spoken against us even animosity. For more often than not it is due to their own lack of faith.

What do we do? Well what did Jesus do? He willingly laid down His life for us sinners so that we might have life with and in Him. So then let us continue to love all those who reject us into His Kingdom. Amen

Saint Eusebius of Vercelli, Saint Peter Julian Eymard, Pray for us…

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First reading
Jeremiah 26:1-9 ·


Jeremiah preaches in the Temple of the Lord and is threatened with death

At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word was addressed to Jeremiah by the Lord, ‘The Lord says this: Stand in the court of the Temple of the Lord. To all the people of the towns of Judah who come to worship in the Temple of the Lord you must speak all the words I have commanded you to tell them; do not omit one syllable. Perhaps they will listen and each turn from his evil way: if so, I shall relent and not bring the disaster on them which I intended for their misdeeds. Say to them, “The Lord says this: If you will not listen to me by following my Law which I put before you, by paying attention to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send so persistently to you, without your ever listening to them, I will treat this Temple as I treated Shiloh, and make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.”’
    The priests and prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah say these words in the Temple of the Lord. When Jeremiah had finished saying everything that the Lord had ordered him to say to all the people, the priests and prophets seized hold of him and said, ‘You shall die! Why have you made this prophecy in the name of the Lord, “This Temple will be like Shiloh, and this city will be desolate, and uninhabited”?’ And the people were all crowding round Jeremiah in the Temple of the Lord.


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Gospel
Matthew 13:54-58


A prophet is only despised in his own country

Coming to his home town, Jesus taught the people in their synagogue in such a way that they were astonished and said, ‘Where did the man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? This is the carpenter’s son, surely? Is not his mother the woman called Mary, and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Jude? His sisters, too, are they not all here with us? So where did the man get it all?’ And they would not accept him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is only despised in his own country and in his own house’, and he did not work many miracles there because of their lack of faith.

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: July 12, 2021 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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We often think that the atrocities of genocide, gender selection and other such terrors against humanity occurred only in recent centuries. But we can clearly see the very same things happening in today’s first reading of the Book of Exodus. What about in the very country that we live in today? Perhaps not in explicit forms but in some adulterated versions beginning with race, language and religious discrimination. What then about abortions and euthanasia!? What happened to the sanctity of life? Where is the Lord our God? Has He abandoned His people to their sins? 

Perhaps the mess, divisions, quarrels and unrest we face in our very own homes is the very result of an absence of our Lord? We had stubbornly refused to acknowledge our loving Lord Jesus as the Lord of our lives. And by refusing the deep personal relationship He wants us to have with Him, we have ultimately rejected the Prince of Peace! How then do we expect to have peace in our homes let alone peace of mind?

If God is with us and for us, who then can stand against us? So let us order our lives and place Him first above all! Let us turn back to Him with contrite hearts, so that we can once again dwell in Him as He will dwell in us and surely; His peace, love and joy will reign in our hearts, in our loved ones and in our brethren forevermore. Amen

First reading

Exodus 1:8-14,22 ·

The Egyptians force the sons of Israel into slavery

There came to power in Egypt a new king who knew nothing of Joseph. ‘Look,’ he said to his subjects ‘these people, the sons of Israel, have become so numerous and strong that they are a threat to us. We must be prudent and take steps against their increasing any further, or if war should break out, they might add to the number of our enemies. They might take arms against us and so escape out of the country.’ Accordingly they put slave-drivers over the Israelites to wear them down under heavy loads. In this way they built the store-cities of Pithom and Rameses for Pharaoh. But the more they were crushed, the more they increased and spread, and men came to dread the sons of Israel. The Egyptians forced the sons of Israel into slavery, and made their lives unbearable with hard labour, work with clay and with brick, all kinds of work in the fields; they forced on them every kind of labour.

    Pharaoh then gave his subjects this command: ‘Throw all the boys born to the Hebrews into the river, but let all the girls live.’

Gospel

Matthew 10:34-11:1

It is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword

Jesus instructed the Twelve as follows: ‘Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth: it is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s enemies will be those of his own household.

    ‘Anyone who prefers father or mother to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who prefers son or daughter to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me. Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.

    ‘Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me; and those who welcome me welcome the one who sent me.

    ‘Anyone who welcomes a prophet will have a prophet’s reward; and anyone who welcomes a holy man will have a holy man’s reward.

    ‘If anyone gives so much as a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple, then I tell you solemnly, he will most certainly not lose his reward.’

    When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples he moved on from there to teach and preach in their towns.

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: May 14, 2020 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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We love because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19) We may think that we had chosen Jesus, but in reality Jesus chose us and even commissioned us to bear fruit with a trust that we will indeed bear much fruit. Yes it is the Lord our God who is the first to love and to be merciful and we may never fully grasp the extent of His love for us in our lifetime.Still if we declare that we love Him then we must do our best to revere, honour and glorify Him by our lives through our love and actions for Him and for one another. We must be reverent in our approach in appointing leaders through prayer and discernment guided by the Holy Spirit afterall the leaders we appoint will be shepherds after our own. Every leader chosen in a sense must be prepared to lay down His life for the ones under His care.Whether or not we are called to be leaders ourselves, the priority for each and everyone of us is to love! Love one another as Jesus loves us. AmenSt Matthias pray for us….

First reading

Acts 1:15-17,20-26 ·
‘Let someone else take his office’One day Peter stood up to speak to the brothers – there were about a hundred and twenty persons in the congregation: ‘Brothers, the passage of scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit, speaking through David, foretells the fate of Judas, who offered himself as a guide to the men who arrested Jesus – after having been one of our number and actually sharing this ministry of ours. Now in the Book of Psalms it says:Let his camp be reduced to ruin,
Let there be no one to live in it.And again:Let someone else take his office.‘We must therefore choose someone who has been with us the whole time that the Lord Jesus was travelling round with us, someone who was with us right from the time when John was baptising until the day when he was taken up from us – and he can act with us as a witness to his resurrection.’
Having nominated two candidates, Joseph known as Barsabbas, whose surname was Justus, and Matthias, they prayed, ‘Lord, you can read everyone’s heart; show us therefore which of these two you have chosen to take over this ministry and apostolate, which Judas abandoned to go to his proper place.’ They then drew lots for them, and as the lot fell to Matthias, he was listed as one of the twelve apostles.

Gospel

John 15:9-17
You are my friends if you do what I command youJesus said to his disciples:‘As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete.
This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you.
A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you.
I shall not call you servants any more,
because a servant does not know his master’s business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father.
You did not choose me: no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last; and then the Father will give you
anything you ask him in my name.
What I command you is to love one another.’