Tuesday - January 04, 2022
“To live is to change,
and to be perfect is to have changed often.”
--St. John Henry Newman
TODAY'S READINGS
January 4, 2022
MEMORIAL OF SAINT ELIZABETH ANN SETON, RELIGIOUS
Lectionary: 213
Reading 1 1 Jn 4:7-10
Beloved, let us love one another,
because love is of God;
everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.
In this way the love of God was revealed to us:
God sent his only-begotten Son into the world
so that we might have life through him.
In this is love:
not that we have loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.
Responsorial Psalm 72:1-2, 3-4, 7-8
R. (see 11) Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
The mountains shall yield peace for the people,
and the hills justice.
He shall defend the afflicted among the people,
save the children of the poor.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Alleluia Lk 4:18
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Lord has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor
and to proclaim liberty to captives.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Mk 6:34-44
When Jesus 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.
By now it was already late and his disciples approached him and said,
“This is a deserted place and it is already very late.
Dismiss them so that they can go
to the surrounding farms and villages
and buy themselves something to eat.”
He said to them in reply,
“Give them some food yourselves.”
But they said to him,
“Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food
and give it to them to eat?”
He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.”
And when they had found out they said,
“Five loaves and two fish.”
So he gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass.
The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by fifties.
Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven,
he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples
to set before the people;
he also divided the two fish among them all.
They all ate and were satisfied.
And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments
and what was left of the fish.
Those who ate of the loaves were five thousand men.
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WHAT DO YOU NEED MULTIPLIED?
In what ways do you feel inadequate? Often, we say no to getting involved in a ministry, or we stop short of reaching out to someone who has special needs, or we hold back from sharing our faith with a co-worker who's struggling -- and why do we do this? Because we feel inadequate. We feel like we don't have enough of what it takes to do the task well. Well, God has good news for you!
Which of the following fits you?
- I don't sing well enough to join the choir.
- I'm not a good public speaker, so I know I can't serve as a reader at Mass.
- I'm not as self-confident as my boss is, so I can't suggest a better way of doing business.
- I'm poor at making casual conversation, so I won't visit that person who's in the hospital.
- I'm not a good organizer, so let someone else be in charge of that program.
- I don't have enough time to pray for all those people who need prayers.
- I don't make enough income to give more in the collection basket.
- This is good! These are your loaves and fish. God is generous, and we see proof of this in the Gospel reading for today. If you want proof of his miracle power in your own life, give him your insufficiencies!
We always need more -- much more of what God can give us. By ourselves, we never have enough of what's required to successfully serve God and the people and the church that he has placed in our lives. It's part of his plan! It makes us rely on God. He wants to give us whatever we need so that we can be his instruments continuing the ministry of Christ on earth today.
If you become aware of something that needs to get done and no one else is doing it, and you have even just a little bit of talent or training or knowledge or funding to improve it, then God is calling your attention to it because he wants you to do something. He doesn't care if you don't have enough of what it takes to do it successfully, because he knows he can multiply the little you do have and make it become more than enough.
How does he do this? How does your teeny weeny itty bitty bit of talent or skill or time or money become more than enough to get the job done? God makes you his partner! He doesn't want you to do anything by yourself and with just your own abilities. He is in you by the power of your Baptism, and whatever you do, he does it with you. He blesses your efforts, just as Jesus blessed the five loaves and two fish.
And that's the key to abundant success. If you let Jesus take the little that you have and bless it and use it, you will discover that God is still very good at multiplying.
Today's Prayer
Even in the middle of the desert, if I'm by your side I find the abundant nourishment I need. Amen.
God Bless You.....
The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”
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