Saturday - February 06, 2021
"He who desires anything but God deceives himself, and he who loves anything but God errs miserably"
--St. Philip Neri
TODAY'S READINGS
February 6, 2021
Memorial of Saint Paul
Miki and Companions, Martyrs
Lectionary: 328
Brothers and sisters:
Through Jesus, let us continually offer God a sacrifice of praise,
that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.
Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have;
God is pleased by sacrifices of that kind.
Obey your leaders and defer to them,
for they keep watch over you and will have to give an account,
that they may fulfill their task with joy and not with sorrow,
for that would be of no advantage to you.
May the God of peace, who brought up from the dead
the great shepherd of the sheep
by the Blood of the eternal covenant,
furnish you with all that is good, that you may do his will.
May he carry out in you what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Responsorial Psalm
R.
(1) The Lord is my shepherd;
there is nothing I shall want.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose.
Beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
He guides me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
My sheep hear my
voice, says the Lord;
I know them, and
they follow me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
The Apostles gathered together with Jesus
and reported all they had done and taught.
He said to them,
“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”
People were coming and going in great numbers,
and they had no opportunity even to eat.
So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.
People saw them leaving and many came to know about it.
They hastened there on foot from all the towns
and arrived at the place before them.
When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.
Don’t Underestimate Your Value to God
Too often, instead of listening to God tell us who we are, we believe what our parents, teachers, and other significant people have said about us. “You’ll never amount to anything!” may have been meant as a challenge to encourage us to strive for our full potential, but the child in us absorbed it literally. The words destroyed our self-image, our personal value.
Intellectually, we may have disagreed with the assessments of others, but deep inside, where the child blindly trusts those in authority, the child’s interpretation of the words has taken root.
These falsehoods need to be erased by the power of God, and replaced with His words. If you were to make two lists, one naming your faults and the other naming your good points, the fault category would be longer, wouldn’t it? This is the way most people view themselves after a lifetime of being defined by others.
However, this is not the way God sees you. As Saturday's first reading says, "Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have." God sees the good in you and He calls you to share it with others. This calling is unique to you. It makes you extremely valuable to the Kingdom of God.
Ministries are not built on faults. Yes, God uses our weaknesses, but not as the foundation of the mission to which He calls us. If He did, our ministries would collapse when times got shaky, like a house on a fault-line during an earthquake.
Rather, God bases our ministries on all that is good in us. How much time have you spent examining what is good in you — and believing it? Let God teach you about how much He values you!
Today's Prayer
Praised be to You, Lord, because Your love wants to work wonders through our faith in You. Thank You for Your merciful power that restores us in body, soul and spirit. Amen.
The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”
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