SAINT QUOTE OF THE DAY : Monday - August 02, 2021

Monday - August 02, 2021

Fight all errors, but do it with good humor, patience, kindness, and love. Harshness will damage your own soul and spoil the best cause. 

~~St. John of Kanty

August 2, 2021

Monday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 407

 

Reading 1                                                     Nm 11:4b-15

The children of Israel lamented,

“Would that we had meat for food!

We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt,

and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks,

the onions, and the garlic.

But now we are famished;

we see nothing before us but this manna.”

 

Manna was like coriander seed and had the color of resin.

When they had gone about and gathered it up,

the people would grind it between millstones or pound it in a mortar,

then cook it in a pot and make it into loaves,

which tasted like cakes made with oil.

At night, when the dew fell upon the camp, the manna also fell.

 

When Moses heard the people, family after family,

crying at the entrance of their tents,

so that the LORD became very angry, he was grieved.

“Why do you treat your servant so badly?” Moses asked the Lord.

“Why are you so displeased with me

that you burden me with all this people?

Was it I who conceived all this people?

Or was it I who gave them birth,

that you tell me to carry them at my bosom,

like a foster father carrying an infant,

to the land you have promised under oath to their fathers?

Where can I get meat to give to all this people?

For they are crying to me,

‘Give us meat for our food.’

I cannot carry all this people by myself,

for they are too heavy for me.

If this is the way you will deal with me,

then please do me the favor of killing me at once,

so that I need no longer face this distress.”

 

Responsorial Psalm                                              81:12-13, 14-15, 16-17

 

R.    (2a)  Sing with joy to God our help.

 

“My people heard not my voice,

    and Israel obeyed me not;

So I gave them up to the hardness of their hearts;

    they walked according to their own counsels.”

R.    Sing with joy to God our help.

“If only my people would hear me,

    and Israel walk in my ways,

Quickly would I humble their enemies;

    against their foes I would turn my hand.”

R.    Sing with joy to God our help.

“Those who hated the LORD would seek to flatter me,

    but their fate would endure forever,

While Israel I would feed with the best of wheat,

    and with honey from the rock I would fill them.”

R.    Sing with joy to God our help.

 

Alleluia                                                                      Mt 4:4

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

One does not live on bread alone,

but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

Gospel                                                                       Mt 14:13-21

When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist,

he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself.

The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns.

When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,

his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick.

When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said,

“This is a deserted place and it is already late;

dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages

and buy food for themselves.”

He said to them, “There is no need for them to go away;

give them some food yourselves.”

But they said to him,

“Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.”

Then he said, “Bring them here to me,”

and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass.

Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven,

he said the blessing, broke the loaves,

and gave them to the disciples,

who in turn gave them to the crowds.

They all ate and were satisfied,

and they picked up the fragments left over–

twelve wicker baskets full.

Those who ate were about five thousand men,

not counting women and children.

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JESUS’S HEART

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, grant me the grace to get to know you more, so I can love you more. 

Encountering Christ:

1. True God and True Man: Jesus shows us his heart in these lines of Scripture: “His heart was moved with pity for them.” Jesus is never indifferent to our loneliness, pain, or distress. He wants to be united to us. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI says, “God has a face–meaning he is a “you” who can enter into a relationship–and who has not withdrawn into his heavenly dwelling place, looking down at humanity from on high. God is certainly above all things, but he addresses us, he listens to us, he sees us, he speaks to us, he makes a covenant, he is capable of love” (Pope Benedict XVI General Audience, January 16, 2013).

2. I Am the Bread of Life: The disciples worried because they were painfully conscious of their own limitations to give food to five thousand people, so they asked Jesus to dismiss the crowd. But for Jesus, this was an opportunity to teach his disciples (and us) not to count on our own resources, but on the grace and love of God, if we want to bear fruit. “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.” Psalm 127:2 says, “It is vain for you to rise early and put off your rest at night, to eat bread earned by hard toil—all this God gives to his beloved in sleep.” 

3. Twelve Baskets of Leftovers: The abundance of leftover bread shows the greatness of Jesus’s heart and his magnanimity. Jesus is always predisposed to give us as much as we need, even to overflowing. Nevertheless, St. Paul opens our horizons even more when he says “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). These twelve baskets are a sign that God has prepared for us something better than we can ever expect. Is this not a motivation to follow Jesus in faith? “Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time we shall reap our harvest, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).

Conversing with Christ: My Lord, allow me to contemplate you looking at the crowd with a heart “moved” by love for them and for me. I know that you love me with a tender heart and that you look at me with eyes of true love. 

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will share with someone what I’ve contemplated about the heart of Jesus.

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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!”