Posts Tagged ‘integrity’

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: August 29, 2024 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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Are we known to be good and Holy men and women after the heart of God? Are we seen to speak to the truth with integrity just at St John the Baptist did on Today’s Gospel?

Are we then thriving in the gifts of the Holy Spirit in our communities, our ministries just like the folks at Corinth in the first reading? What are the fruits? Do we see Healing in body, mind and spirit taking place? Prophesying? Exponential growth in faith, worship and believers?

The sad truth is many have remained where they are over the years. They neither enrich others nor are they enriched themselves. Yet how can they not be if they are connected to the vine, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?

Lord let me be fully connected to You always in body, mind and spirit. Amen

St John the Baptist pray for us…




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First reading
1 Corinthians 1:1-9 ·


You have been enriched in many ways in Christ

I, Paul, appointed by God to be an apostle, together with brother Sosthenes, send greetings to the church of God in Corinth, to the holy people of Jesus Christ, who are called to take their place among all the saints everywhere who pray to our Lord Jesus Christ; for he is their Lord no less than ours. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ send you grace and peace.
    I never stop thanking God for all the graces you have received through Jesus Christ. I thank him that you have been enriched in so many ways, especially in your teachers and preachers; the witness to Christ has indeed been strong among you so that you will not be without any of the gifts of the Spirit while you are waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed; and he will keep you steady and without blame until the last day, the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, because God by calling you has joined you to his Son, Jesus Christ; and God is faithful.


Gospel
Mark 6:17-29



The beheading of John the Baptist

Herod sent to have John arrested, and had him chained up in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife whom he had married. For John had told Herod, ‘It is against the law for you to have your brother’s wife.’ As for Herodias, she was furious with him and wanted to kill him; but she was not able to, because Herod was afraid of John, knowing him to be a good and holy man, and gave him his protection. When he had heard him speak he was greatly perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him.
    An opportunity came on Herod’s birthday when he gave a banquet for the nobles of his court, for his army officers and for the leading figures in Galilee. When the daughter of this same Herodias came in and danced, she delighted Herod and his guests; so the king said to the girl, ‘Ask me anything you like and I will give it you.’ And he swore her an oath, ‘I will give you anything you ask, even half my kingdom.’ She went out and said to her mother, ‘What shall I ask for?’ She replied, ‘The head of John the Baptist.’ The girl hurried straight back to the king and made her request, ‘I want you to give me John the Baptist’s head, here and now, on a dish.’ The king was deeply distressed but, thinking of the oaths he had sworn and of his guests, he was reluctant to break his word to her. So the king at once sent one of the bodyguard with orders to bring John’s head. The man went off and beheaded him in prison; then he brought the head on a dish and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. When John’s disciples heard about this, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: February 12, 2020 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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A Christian must always and everywhere reflect the heart of God in all that is said and done. There cannot be any or slightest form of duplicity.

For whether we like it or not, want it or not, people are watching our every move; hanging on our every word. And No this is not paranoia but a simple reality. They look to see from afar what we say and do both in church and outside of church. One clearest example is social media, like Facebook and Instagram. There are lurkers who will not like, dislike or comment but are watching what we post, and what we comment on the post of others. And so we have the power to evangelise the faith we hold dear, by the way we live our lives; bringing glory to our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ or by our own choosing bring forth scandal, disarray and dismay by failing to live our Lord’s Kingdom values.

Let us then hold fast to our Lord Jesus’s commandment. To love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, strength and soul. And to love one another as He had loved us. Then our light will break forth like the dawn, and our healing will quickly appear; then our righteousness will go before us, and the glory of the LORD will be our rear guard. Is 58:8

First reading

1 Kings 10:1-10 ·
Solomon prays to the Lord in the Temple

The fame of Solomon having reached the queen of Sheba, she came to test him with difficult questions. She brought immense riches to Jerusalem with her, camels laden with spices, great quantities of gold, and precious stones. On coming to Solomon, she opened her mind freely to him; and Solomon had an answer for all her questions, not one of them was too obscure for the king to expound. When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon, the palace he had built, the food at his table, the accommodation for his officials, the organisation of his staff and the way they were dressed, his cup-bearers, and the holocausts he offered in the Temple of the Lord, it left her breathless, and she said to the king, ‘What I heard in my own country about you and your wisdom was true, then! Until I came and saw it with my own eyes I could not believe what they told me, but clearly they told me less than half: for wisdom and prosperity you surpass the report I heard. How happy your wives are! How happy are these servants of yours who wait on you always and hear your wisdom! Blessed be the Lord your God who has granted you his favour, setting you on the throne of Israel! Because of the Lord’s everlasting love for Israel, he has made you king to deal out law and justice.’ And she presented the king with a hundred and twenty talents of gold and great quantities of spices and precious stones; no such wealth of spices ever came again as those given to King Solomon by the queen of Sheba.

Gospel

Mark 7:14-23
It is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean

Jesus called the people to him and said, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that goes into a man from outside can make him unclean; it is the things that come out of a man that make him unclean. If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to this.’
When he had gone back into the house, away from the crowd, his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, ‘Do you not understand either? Can you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot make him unclean, because it does not go into his heart but through his stomach and passes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he pronounced all foods clean.) And he went on, ‘It is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean. For it is from within, from men’s hearts, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within and make a man unclean.’