Friday - March 01, 2019
Our wish, our object, our chief preoccupation must be to form Jesus in ourselves, to make his spirit, his devotion, his affections, his desires, and his disposition live and reign there. All our religious exercises should be directed to this end. It is the work which God has given us to do unceasingly.
-- St. John Eudes
Our wish, our object, our chief preoccupation must be to form Jesus in ourselves, to make his spirit, his devotion, his affections, his desires, and his disposition live and reign there. All our religious exercises should be directed to this end. It is the work which God has given us to do unceasingly.
-- St. John Eudes
March 1 2019
Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 345
Reading 1SIR 6:5-17
A kind mouth multiplies friends and appeases enemies,
and gracious lips prompt friendly greetings.
Let your acquaintances be many,
but one in a thousand your confidant.
When you gain a friend, first test him,
and be not too ready to trust him.
For one sort is a friend when it suits him,
but he will not be with you in time of distress.
Another is a friend who becomes an enemy,
and tells of the quarrel to your shame.
Another is a friend, a boon companion,
who will not be with you when sorrow comes.
When things go well, he is your other self,
and lords it over your servants;
But if you are brought low, he turns against you
and avoids meeting you.
Keep away from your enemies;
be on your guard with your friends.
A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter;
he who finds one finds a treasure.
A faithful friend is beyond price,
no sum can balance his worth.
A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy,
such as he who fears God finds;
For he who fears God behaves accordingly,
and his friend will be like himself.
and gracious lips prompt friendly greetings.
Let your acquaintances be many,
but one in a thousand your confidant.
When you gain a friend, first test him,
and be not too ready to trust him.
For one sort is a friend when it suits him,
but he will not be with you in time of distress.
Another is a friend who becomes an enemy,
and tells of the quarrel to your shame.
Another is a friend, a boon companion,
who will not be with you when sorrow comes.
When things go well, he is your other self,
and lords it over your servants;
But if you are brought low, he turns against you
and avoids meeting you.
Keep away from your enemies;
be on your guard with your friends.
A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter;
he who finds one finds a treasure.
A faithful friend is beyond price,
no sum can balance his worth.
A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy,
such as he who fears God finds;
For he who fears God behaves accordingly,
and his friend will be like himself.
Responsorial PsalmPS 119:12, 16, 18, 27, 34, 35
R. (35a) Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
Blessed are you, O LORD;
teach me your statutes.
R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
In your statutes I will delight;
I will not forget your words.
R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
Open my eyes, that I may consider
the wonders of your law.
R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
Make me understand the way of your precepts,
and I will meditate on your wondrous deeds.
R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
Give me discernment, that I may observe your law
and keep it with all my heart.
R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
Lead me in the path of your commands,
for in it I delight.
R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
Blessed are you, O LORD;
teach me your statutes.
R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
In your statutes I will delight;
I will not forget your words.
R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
Open my eyes, that I may consider
the wonders of your law.
R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
Make me understand the way of your precepts,
and I will meditate on your wondrous deeds.
R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
Give me discernment, that I may observe your law
and keep it with all my heart.
R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
Lead me in the path of your commands,
for in it I delight.
R. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.
AlleluiaSEE JN 17:17B, 17A
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Your word, O Lord, is truth;
consecrate us in the truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Your word, O Lord, is truth;
consecrate us in the truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelMK10:1-12
Jesus came into the district of Judea and across the Jordan.
Again crowds gathered around him and, as was his custom,
he again taught them.
The Pharisees approached him and asked,
"Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?"
They were testing him.
He said to them in reply, "What did Moses command you?"
They replied,
"Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce
and dismiss her."
But Jesus told them,
"Because of the hardness of your hearts
he wrote you this commandment.
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate."
In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this.
He said to them,
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her;
and if she divorces her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery.”
Again crowds gathered around him and, as was his custom,
he again taught them.
The Pharisees approached him and asked,
"Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?"
They were testing him.
He said to them in reply, "What did Moses command you?"
They replied,
"Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce
and dismiss her."
But Jesus told them,
"Because of the hardness of your hearts
he wrote you this commandment.
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate."
In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this.
He said to them,
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her;
and if she divorces her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery.”
******************************
THE TRUE MEANING OF FRIENDSHIP
At the heart of the message against divorce in today's Gospel passage is the understanding of what true friendship means. Husbands and wives are, first and foremost, called to be true friends for each other.
The first reading describes what a true friend is and is not. This applies to marriages and to all other relationships.
True friendship is a holy relationship. In a holy friendship, no one stops caring about the other, no matter what happens. A holy friend imitates Christ, making sacrifices for the sake of the other, willing to do whatever will help heal wounds and overcome problems.
When the efforts are only one-sided, it's not a holy friendship. You might handle it righteously, but you cannot force the other person to be holy. If a husband refuses to be a true friend to his wife, he has forsaken the marriage. If a wife never intended to be faithful, there is nothing the husband can do to make the marriage valid. When spouses quit being loving, by abusing or abandoning, they break their vows of unity; they are the adulterers if they marry another, not the faithful partner.
The point is, our friendships and marriages are supposed to be reflections of God's friendship, evangelizing the world. He has made a Covenant of Love with us, sealed by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Human friends will fail us, but God never does.
When we accept God's Covenant of Love, we're agreeing to true friendship, which includes loving those whom he loves -- which is everyone! Whenever we fail to love anyone, we're breaking our unity with God. The Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Penance Rite of Mass restore that unity.
To remain in unity with God, we have to give his love to the people around us. To live in his friendship, we have to be friendly toward others. It's like water in the pipes: Wrap your hand around the kitchen faucet. You won't feel the presence of the water in the pipes unless it's flowing. To feel the presence of God, we have to keep his love flowing out to others.
If we ever think that God has failed to be a True Friend, it's only because we have quit being a true friend to him. When things don't go our way, we blame it on him or assume that he's ignoring us. In reality, we're quitting the friendship by refusing to let him comfort us and heal our wounds and solve our problems in an unexpected way.
In our covenant friendship with God, even if the people we love reject us or warp the love that we offer, we are not failures. With God in our marriages and friendships, the love we give always succeeds, because if it's rejected or the relationship ends, the love flows back to us from God directly, and we are mightily blessed in a special intimacy of mutual suffering.
Today's Prayer:
Forgive me, Lord, for the times that my actions were not motivated by genuine love. Help me to be faithful in every circumstance. Amen
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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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