Friday - September 18, 2020
True charity consists in putting up with all one's neighbor's faults, never being surprised by his weakness, and being inspired by the least of his virtues.
-- St. Therese of Lisieux
True charity consists in putting up with all one's neighbor's faults, never being surprised by his weakness, and being inspired by the least of his virtues.
-- St. Therese of Lisieux
September
18, 2020
Friday of
the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Reading
1
1 COR
15:12-20
Brothers and sisters:
If Christ is preached as raised from the dead,
how can some among you say there is no resurrection of
the dead?
If there is no resurrection of the dead,
then neither has Christ been raised.
And if Christ has not been raised, then empty too is
our preaching;
empty, too, your faith.
Then we are also false witnesses to God,
because we testified against God that he raised Christ,
whom he did not raise if in fact the dead are not
raised.
For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been
raised,
and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain;
you are still in your sins.
Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have
perished.
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ,
we are the most pitiable people of all.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead,
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Responsorial
Psalm
PS
17:1BCD, 6-7, 8B AND 15
R. (15b) Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be
full.
Hear, O LORD, a just suit;
attend to my outcry;
hearken to my prayer from lips without deceit.
R. Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.
I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
incline your ear to me; hear my word.
Show your wondrous mercies,
O savior of those who flee
from their foes to refuge at your right hand.
R. Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.
Hide me in the shadow of your wings,
But I in justice shall behold your face;
on waking, I shall be content in your presence.
R. Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.
Alleluia
MATHEW
11:25
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth;
you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the
Kingdom.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
LUKE
8:1-3
Jesus journeyed from one town and village to another,
preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom
of God.
Accompanying him were the Twelve
and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and
infirmities,
Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone
out,
Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza,
Susanna, and many others
who
provided for them out of their resources.
******************************
Finding Hope in the Midst of
Discouragement
Are you feeling discouraged? Then get your focus back onto Jesus!
Jesus is your reason to hope, not the circumstances nor the people in your life. God is bigger than your worst problem, and he cares - he really, really cares about you. But he doesn't wave a magic wand to make everything suddenly become easy and nice and happy. What holiness would we learn in that? And how would the people who are troubling us gain humility?
If we could visit the far future and look back at this time and see two optional paths - one in which God took us on a short-cut to the end of our problems and one in which we walked all the way through the dark valley with Jesus - we would definitely prefer the latter. There is so much more to be gained! More blessings, more triumphs, more spiritual growth, more benefit to the others who are on the journey with us, more ministry that comes from it so that we make a bigger difference in helping others, and so on, lots more.
However, letting go of our wish for everything to be easy and nice and happy right now is a difficult death. We'll mourn, but grieving helps us get beyond it to the joy of the resurrection that springs from hardships.
All of our dyings (our sufferings, our humblings, our rejections, our persecutions, the false accusations against us, the loss of people who are dear to us, etc.) will always result in resurrections if we closely follow Jesus. But in the midst of discouragement and depression, it seems impossible, right? That's because, before the resurrection occurs, we can't imagine how God will turn our particular daily deaths into new life.
For Jesus to be our source of hope we have to place him squarely in front of us and we must keep our eyes on him. We have to let him block our view of what is going wrong and what we fear might go wrong. We have to let his crucifixion absorb the pain we're feeling. When we connect our sufferings to Christ's sacrifice, we also connect our lives to his resurrection.
As St. Paul says in today's first reading, how can you say there will be no resurrection for you? If there is no resurrection, Christ himself has not been raised and our faith is pointless, meaningless.
Rather than look at the evidence of suffering and death to use as proof that our lives will not improve, we need to wait on the Lord's perfect timing for new life to begin. By trusting in him and following his guidance every step of the way, we can sing with the psalmist in our responsorial psalm today , "Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full!"
Jesus is your reason to hope, not the circumstances nor the people in your life. God is bigger than your worst problem, and he cares - he really, really cares about you. But he doesn't wave a magic wand to make everything suddenly become easy and nice and happy. What holiness would we learn in that? And how would the people who are troubling us gain humility?
If we could visit the far future and look back at this time and see two optional paths - one in which God took us on a short-cut to the end of our problems and one in which we walked all the way through the dark valley with Jesus - we would definitely prefer the latter. There is so much more to be gained! More blessings, more triumphs, more spiritual growth, more benefit to the others who are on the journey with us, more ministry that comes from it so that we make a bigger difference in helping others, and so on, lots more.
However, letting go of our wish for everything to be easy and nice and happy right now is a difficult death. We'll mourn, but grieving helps us get beyond it to the joy of the resurrection that springs from hardships.
All of our dyings (our sufferings, our humblings, our rejections, our persecutions, the false accusations against us, the loss of people who are dear to us, etc.) will always result in resurrections if we closely follow Jesus. But in the midst of discouragement and depression, it seems impossible, right? That's because, before the resurrection occurs, we can't imagine how God will turn our particular daily deaths into new life.
For Jesus to be our source of hope we have to place him squarely in front of us and we must keep our eyes on him. We have to let him block our view of what is going wrong and what we fear might go wrong. We have to let his crucifixion absorb the pain we're feeling. When we connect our sufferings to Christ's sacrifice, we also connect our lives to his resurrection.
As St. Paul says in today's first reading, how can you say there will be no resurrection for you? If there is no resurrection, Christ himself has not been raised and our faith is pointless, meaningless.
Rather than look at the evidence of suffering and death to use as proof that our lives will not improve, we need to wait on the Lord's perfect timing for new life to begin. By trusting in him and following his guidance every step of the way, we can sing with the psalmist in our responsorial psalm today , "Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full!"
Today's Prayer
Thank You, Lord, because You have worked wonderful things in my life as a foreshadowing of the abundant life we'll have in heaven. Give me the grace to remember them always and to give testimony of them. Amen.
------------------------------
God Bless You.....
The 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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