Wednesday - February 27, 2019
So mighty is the physician who has come to us that he has healed all our sins! If we choose to be sick once again, we not only harm ourselves, but show ingratitude to the physician as well. Yes he gave us a path of humility. If we keep to it we shall confess our belief in the Lord and have good reason to sing: We shall praise you, God, we shall praise you and call upon your name.
-- St. Augustine
So mighty is the physician who has come to us that he has healed all our sins! If we choose to be sick once again, we not only harm ourselves, but show ingratitude to the physician as well. Yes he gave us a path of humility. If we keep to it we shall confess our belief in the Lord and have good reason to sing: We shall praise you, God, we shall praise you and call upon your name.
-- St. Augustine
February 27 2019
Wednesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 343
Reading 1SIR 4:11-19
Wisdom breathes life into her children
and admonishes those who seek her.
He who loves her loves life;
those who seek her will be embraced by the Lord.
He who holds her fast inherits glory;
wherever he dwells, the LORD bestows blessings.
Those who serve her serve the Holy One;
those who love her the LORD loves.
He who obeys her judges nations;
he who hearkens to her dwells in her inmost chambers.
If one trusts her, he will possess her;
his descendants too will inherit her.
She walks with him as a stranger
and at first she puts him to the test;
Fear and dread she brings upon him
and tries him with her discipline
until she try him by her laws and trust his soul.
Then she comes back to bring him happiness
and reveal her secrets to them
and she will heap upon him
treasures of knowledge and an understanding of justice.
But if he fails her, she will abandon him
and deliver him into the hands of despoilers.
and admonishes those who seek her.
He who loves her loves life;
those who seek her will be embraced by the Lord.
He who holds her fast inherits glory;
wherever he dwells, the LORD bestows blessings.
Those who serve her serve the Holy One;
those who love her the LORD loves.
He who obeys her judges nations;
he who hearkens to her dwells in her inmost chambers.
If one trusts her, he will possess her;
his descendants too will inherit her.
She walks with him as a stranger
and at first she puts him to the test;
Fear and dread she brings upon him
and tries him with her discipline
until she try him by her laws and trust his soul.
Then she comes back to bring him happiness
and reveal her secrets to them
and she will heap upon him
treasures of knowledge and an understanding of justice.
But if he fails her, she will abandon him
and deliver him into the hands of despoilers.
Responsorial PsalmPS 119:165, 168, 171, 172, 174, 175
R. (165a) O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
Those who love your law have great peace,
and for them there is no stumbling block.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
I keep your precepts and your decrees,
for all my ways are before you.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
My lips pour forth your praise,
because you teach me your statutes.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
May my tongue sing of your promise,
for all your commands are just.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
I long for your salvation, O LORD,
and your law is my delight.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
Let my soul live to praise you,
and may your ordinances help me.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
Those who love your law have great peace,
and for them there is no stumbling block.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
I keep your precepts and your decrees,
for all my ways are before you.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
My lips pour forth your praise,
because you teach me your statutes.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
May my tongue sing of your promise,
for all your commands are just.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
I long for your salvation, O LORD,
and your law is my delight.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
Let my soul live to praise you,
and may your ordinances help me.
R. O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.
AlleluiaJN 14:6
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord;
no one comes to the Father except through me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord;
no one comes to the Father except through me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelMK 9:38-40
John said to Jesus,
"Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,
and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us."
Jesus replied, "Do not prevent him.
There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name
who can at the same time speak ill of me.
For whoever is not against us is for us."
"Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,
and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us."
Jesus replied, "Do not prevent him.
There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name
who can at the same time speak ill of me.
For whoever is not against us is for us."
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THE UNITY OF LOVE
In the 1980s, when contemporary Christian recording artists were just beginning to transform the music scene with Christ-centered rock and pop, a friend asked me to listen to one of their albums. She wanted me to tell her it was demonic, because she believed that all rock music came from the devil. But the songs on the album glorified God! I reminded my friend of the words that Jesus spoke in today's Gospel passage: "Anyone who is not against us is with us."
Sadly, she wanted nothing more to do with me, because she now believed that I was demonized.
Isn't it interesting that Jesus did not say, "Anyone who is not against me is with me." He made it an "us". Since we belong to him, anyone who does good for the Lord does good for us, too.
This can be hard to grasp, because it's easier to be aware of what divides us than it is to unite on our common ground. We assume that if people don't tell us what we want to hear, they're against us. Or we think that if someone doesn't worship Jesus the way we do, they're against our faith.
We don't have to be in agreement to be in community with others. True Christian unity means acknowledging what we have in common and refusing to allow our differences to interfere with our love.
Everyone who loves us is with us, because "love comes from God" and therefore "everyone who loves has been born of God" (see 1 John 4:7). As Pope Saint John Paul II wrote in "Ut Unum Sint" (That They May Be One) in 1995: "Love gives rise to the desire for unity, even in those who have never been aware of the need for it. Love builds communion between individuals and between Communities [i.e., denominations]."
The opposite of unity is self-imposed excommunication (a word that means "divided from community"). Like the friend who cut herself off from me in her judgmentalism, people excommunicate themselves when they cause division by choosing against love.
As Saint John Paul II said at the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in 2003: "May each of us be enabled more and more to look upon our brothers and sisters in faith, within the unity of the Mystical Body. ... May we come to see what is positive in others, to welcome it and prize it as a gift from God."
Today's Prayer:
May Your Spirit of unity, Lord, reign in all who seek Your ways. 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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