Tuesday - January 19, 2021
"Just as the star of the sea guides sailors to port, so Mary guides Christ's followers to heaven glory."
--St. Thomas Aquinas
"Just as the star of the sea guides sailors to port, so Mary guides Christ's followers to heaven glory."
--St. Thomas Aquinas
January 19, 2021
Tuesday of the Second
Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 312
Brothers and sisters:
God is not unjust so as to overlook your work
and the love you have demonstrated for his name
by having served and continuing to serve the holy ones.
We earnestly desire each of you to demonstrate the same eagerness
for the fulfillment of hope until the end,
so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who,
through faith and patience, are inheriting the promises.
When God made the promise to Abraham,
since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself,
and said, I will indeed bless you and multiply you.
And so, after patient waiting, Abraham obtained the promise.
Now, men swear by someone greater than themselves;
for them an oath serves as a guarantee
and puts an end to all argument.
So when God wanted to give the heirs of his promise
an even clearer demonstration of the immutability of his purpose,
he intervened with an oath,
so that by two immutable things,
in which it was impossible for God to lie,
we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged
to hold fast to the hope that lies before us.
This we have as an anchor of the soul,
sure and firm, which reaches into the interior behind the veil,
where Jesus has entered on our behalf as forerunner,
becoming high priest forever
according to the order of Melchizedek.
Responsorial Psalm
R.
(5) The Lord will remember his
covenant for ever.
I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart
in the company and assembly of the just.
Great are the works of the LORD,
exquisite in all their delights.
R. The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.
He has won renown for his wondrous deeds;
gracious and merciful is the LORD.
He has given food to those who fear him;
he will forever be mindful of his covenant.
R. The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.
He has sent deliverance to his people;
he has ratified his covenant forever;
holy and awesome is his name.
His praise endures forever.
R. The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
May the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ
enlighten the eyes of our hearts,
that we may know what is the hope
that belongs to our
call.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath,
his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain.
At this the Pharisees said to him,
“Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”
He said to them,
“Have you never read what David did
when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?
How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest
and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat,
and shared it with his companions?”
Then he said to them,
“The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”
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God's Encouragement and Affirmation
If you're serving your family, your church, your employer, your customers, or your friends in any way, God appreciates what you're doing! That's the message of today's first reading.
Sometimes, it seems like our kind efforts make little difference. This scripture is God's compassionate voice reassuring us. He's encouraging you and affirming you in the services you give. He who began a good work in you has not forgotten about any of your efforts. He's very pleased with what you've already done, and he's asking you to keep serving his kingdom with the same zeal, the same eagerness that you had at the beginning -- for the sake of others.
For example, the Good News Ministries that my husband Ralph and I founded in 1995 actually began two years prior, when a few people near Tampa (Florida) prayed the Rosary asking God to send someone who could start this ministry. At the time, we lived in New Jersey with no plans to move. One year later, Ralph and I attended Charlie Osburn's Good News Catholic Evangelization School in Pensacola, Florida.
There, as I prayed about getting involved in this ministry while kneeling before a statue of Mary, I sensed a holy, unseen presence next to me -- a female presence dressed in blue. I couldn't believe that the Blessed Mother would visit me personally, but later I realized that she had been sent to guide me because of the rosaries that others were praying.
Within a year, Jesus led us to Tampa, and only 30 days later we met a priest, parish, and core team ready and eager to host a Good News School under our leadership. We began holding seminars, parish missions, and week-long conferences. God affirmed, God encouraged, and the ministry grew. (Call this Phase 1.)
Then hardships arrived. We entered the test that everyone experiences if they truly want to be effective ministers for Christ: Would we practice what we preached? Our trials turned everything upside-down. And God affirmed, God encouraged, we endured, we waited, we lost the priest who'd become our chaplain, Ralph lost the freedom to spend time on the ministry, the core team drifted off into other interests, and the only place where the ministry grew was on the Internet, mostly by myself. (Phase 2.)
Repeatedly, God reminded us of his promises regarding the work he had begun in us, as with Abraham: "I will bless your ministry and multiply it." So, thanks be to God, every trial has been producing fruits like we'd never imagined in the beginning -- fruits that bless others abundantly, not only over the Internet but also in personal encounters and live speaking engagements.
Eventually, Phase 3 began. A staff of one grew to four and sometimes five to keep things going and growing. Thanks to the trials we endured in Phase 2 (some of which have still not ended), we're able to help people to whom we would otherwise be useless. I'm able to write these Good News Reflections that touch people at the heart of their own trials, as if (according to what some readers tell me) I'm right there in their homes.
If you're suffering, remember that God has intervened with an oath. If you take refuge in him, you can hold fast to the hope that lies before you. This is an anchor for your soul. Whatever you do for Christ in the midst of trials becomes the foundation of a work that someday he will complete -- with tremendous blessings for countless others.
Today's Prayer
Praised be to You, Lord, because You have arranged everything to save us. In You I find rest, nourishment and abundant life. Amen.
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God Bless You.....
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