Thursday - September 06, 2018
We must have a real living determination to reach holiness. ''I will be a saint'' means I will despoil myself of all that is not God; I will strip my heart of all created things; I will live in poverty and detachment; I will renounce my will, my inclinations, my whims and fancies, and make myself a willing slave to the will of God.
~~Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
September 6, 2018
Thursday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 434
Reading 11 COR 3:18-23
Brothers and sisters:
Let no one deceive himself.
If anyone among you considers himself wise in this age,
let him become a fool, so as to become wise.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God,
for it is written:
God catches the wise in their own ruses,
and again:
The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
So let no one boast about human beings, for everything belongs to you,
Paul or Apollos or Cephas,
or the world or life or death,
or the present or the future:
all belong to you, and you to Christ, and Christ to God.
Let no one deceive himself.
If anyone among you considers himself wise in this age,
let him become a fool, so as to become wise.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God,
for it is written:
God catches the wise in their own ruses,
and again:
The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
So let no one boast about human beings, for everything belongs to you,
Paul or Apollos or Cephas,
or the world or life or death,
or the present or the future:
all belong to you, and you to Christ, and Christ to God.
Responsorial PsalmPS 24:1BC-2, 3-4AB, 5-6
R. (1) To the Lord belongs the earth and all that fills it.
The LORD's are the earth and its fullness;
the world and those who dwell in it.
For he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
R. To the Lord belongs the earth and all that fills it.Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?
or who may stand in his holy place?
He whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.
R. To the Lord belongs the earth and all that fills it.
He shall receive a blessing from the LORD,
a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks for him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
R. To the Lord belongs the earth and all that fills it.
The LORD's are the earth and its fullness;
the world and those who dwell in it.
For he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
R. To the Lord belongs the earth and all that fills it.Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?
or who may stand in his holy place?
He whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.
R. To the Lord belongs the earth and all that fills it.
He shall receive a blessing from the LORD,
a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks for him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
R. To the Lord belongs the earth and all that fills it.
AlleluiaMT 4:19
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Come after me, says the Lord,
and I will make you fishers of men.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Come after me, says the Lord,
and I will make you fishers of men.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelLK 5:1-11
While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God,
he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.
He saw two boats there alongside the lake;
the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.
Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon,
he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore.
Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon,
"Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch."
Simon said in reply,
"Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,
but at your command I will lower the nets."
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish
and their nets were tearing.
They signaled to their partners in the other boat
to come to help them.
They came and filled both boats
so that the boats were in danger of sinking.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said,
"Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."
For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him
and all those with him,
and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
who were partners of Simon.
Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching men."
When they brought their boats to the shore,
they left everything and followed him.
he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.
He saw two boats there alongside the lake;
the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.
Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon,
he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore.
Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon,
"Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch."
Simon said in reply,
"Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,
but at your command I will lower the nets."
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish
and their nets were tearing.
They signaled to their partners in the other boat
to come to help them.
They came and filled both boats
so that the boats were in danger of sinking.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said,
"Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."
For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him
and all those with him,
and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
who were partners of Simon.
Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching men."
When they brought their boats to the shore,
they left everything and followed him.
******************************
READY TO CALL IT QUITS?
What are you ready to give up on, call it quits and say, "Enough is enough?"
Would you change your mind if Jesus sent you an email from heaven and told you to try again, but this time do it from a different angle, take a different approach? Would you respond like Simon Peter did in today's Gospel reading? Would you throw your net on the other side, even though you couldn't see any fish there and you're way too tired?
Sometimes, Jesus does want us to quit, like when we're casting pearls before swine. He said we should wipe the dirt from our shoes and move on. At other times, he wants us to quit because we're not doing his will in the first place.
And sometimes he tells us to try again but differently, in a strange, perhaps foolish way. This usually occurs when success is only a few steps ahead but we can't yet see it. Weary and losing hope, we're unwilling to take one more step. We think God is not giving us any helpful guidance, but that's only because we're expecting him to say or do something that makes sense to us.
What's your empty net? Perhaps it's a relationship that's deteriorated, and reconciliation seems impossible. Healing often comes after we do what we had resisted before, such as daring to set up and enforce boundaries that block hurtful behaviors. At first this will cause deeper division in the relationship, but it can become the turning point that leads to conversion and new growth in the one who's been hurting us, which finally opens the way to true reconciliation.
Perhaps your job situation seems hopeless. Is Jesus telling you to look in an entirely different direction? Is he trying to take you where you don't want to go? Maybe he's pointing at a goal where the obstacles seem insurmountable. Trust him; he'll open the right doors for you.
Remember who God really is. Even when his guidance doesn't make sense, God is still God. He has an over-abundant catch of blessings waiting to jump into your net. As the responsorial Psalm says, "To the Lord belongs the earth and all that fills it." If he wants to, he can multiply the fish and make them torpedo themselves directly into our nets. And he does want to!
But first we have to give up our own ideas of how a problem should be fixed. As the first reading says, let's not delude ourselves into thinking that we are wise, for then we are truly foolish. When we're ready to quit doing things our way, because it's only led to failure, that's when Jesus shows us where and how to find success. Although the fishing trip might take a while, he's telling us how to experience miracles that will give us more than what we hope for or imagine to be possible.
Today's Prayer
My Lord: You call me to work in Your vineyard, to conquer hearts for You. Give me the courage and the grace to let go of everything You ask me to so I can follow You with strong decisiveness. Amen.
God Bless You.....
Rosary Family
The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”
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