Saturday - September 23, 2017
One must erase the word discouragement from one's dictionary of love.
~~St. Elizabeth of the Trinity
TODAY'S READINGS
September 23, 2017
Memorial of Saint Pius of Pietrelcina, Priest
Lectionary: 448
Reading 11 TM 6:13-16
Beloved:I charge you before God, who gives life to all things,
and before Christ Jesus,
who gave testimony under Pontius Pilate
for the noble confession,
to keep the commandment without stain or reproach
until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ
that the blessed and only ruler
will make manifest at the proper time,
the King of kings and Lord of lords,
who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light,
and whom no human being has seen or can see.
To him be honor and eternal power. Amen.
Responsorial PsalmPS 100:1B-2, 3, 4, 5
R. (2) Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.Sing joyfully to the LORD all you lands;
serve the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful song.
R. Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.
Know that the LORD is God;
he made us, his we are;
his people, the flock he tends.
R. Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
his courts with praise;
Give thanks to him; bless his name.
R. Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.
For he is good:
the LORD, whose kindness endures forever,
and his faithfulness, to all generations.
R. Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.
AlleluiaSEE LK 8:15
R. Alleluia, alleluia.Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generious heart
and yield a harvest through perseverance.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelLK 8:4-15
When a large crowd gathered, with people from one town after anotherjourneying to Jesus, he spoke in a parable.
"A sower went out to sow his seed.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled,
and the birds of the sky ate it up.
Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew,
it withered for lack of moisture.
Some seed fell among thorns,
and the thorns grew with it and choked it.
And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew,
it produced fruit a hundredfold."
After saying this, he called out,
"Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear."
Then his disciples asked him
what the meaning of this parable might be.
He answered,
"Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God
has been granted to you;
but to the rest, they are made known through parables
so that they may look but not see, and hear but not understand.
"This is the meaning of the parable.
The seed is the word of God.
Those on the path are the ones who have heard,
but the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts
that they may not believe and be saved.
Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear,
receive the word with joy, but they have no root;
they believe only for a time and fall away in time of temptation.
As for the seed that fell among thorns,
they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along,
they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life,
and they fail to produce mature fruit.
But as for the seed that fell on rich soil,
they are the ones who, when they have heard the word,
embrace it with a generous and good heart,
and bear fruit through perseverance."
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God's Amazing Generosity!
Isn't it amazing that Jesus tells a parable about a farmer, who represents God the Father, sowing seeds everywhere? Everywhere! Even where he knew that nothing would sprout and bear fruit.
God's generosity surprises us. He's extravagant even to the point of being (seemingly) wasteful. Consider the people in your life who've been rejecting the Faith. Remember this: God hasn't given up on them. He's still sowing seeds in their lives, and he will continue to do so all the way until their last chance, their last breath.
There are a few things we can do to help fertilize their soul (or soil) so that God's seeds will finally take root.
(1) One way to help is to stop bailing them out from the troubles they get themselves into; we need to stop playing the role of savior.
(2) A second way is to be God's partner in sowing seeds; generously use every opportunity to plant the truth. Not as a nag, not in debates, and certainly not in anger (though we feel very frustrated). With the Holy Spirit's help, we can recognize golden moments when the truth needs to be spoken, and then we'd better not shy away from doing it because of being afraid of what they'll think of us.
(3) A third way is to pray for them persistently.
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God Bless You.....
The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”
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