GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY : Friday - August 19, 2022

Friday - August 19, 2022

If you are wise, then, know that you have been created for the glory of God and your own eternal salvation. This is your goal; this is the center of your life; this is the treasure of your heart. May you consider truly good whatever leads you to your goal and truly evil whatever makes you fall away from it.

- St. Robert Bellarmine

August 19, 2022

FRIDAY OF THE TWENTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Lectionary: 423

 

Reading I     

                                                                                    EZ 37:1-14

 

The hand of the LORD came upon me,

and led me out in the Spirit of the LORD

and set me in the center of the plain,

which was now filled with bones.

He made me walk among the bones in every direction

so that I saw how many they were on the surface of the plain.

How dry they were!

He asked me:

Son of man, can these bones come to life?

I answered, “Lord GOD, you alone know that.”

Then he said to me:

Prophesy over these bones, and say to them:

Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!

Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones:

See! I will bring spirit into you, that you may come to life.

I will put sinews upon you, make flesh grow over you,

cover you with skin, and put spirit in you

so that you may come to life and know that I am the LORD.

I prophesied as I had been told,

and even as I was prophesying I heard a noise;

it was a rattling as the bones came together, bone joining bone.

I saw the sinews and the flesh come upon them,

and the skin cover them, but there was no spirit in them.

Then the LORD said to me:

Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man,

and say to the spirit:  Thus says the Lord GOD

From the four winds come, O spirit,

and breathe into these slain that they may come to life.

I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them;

they came alive and stood upright, a vast army.

Then he said to me:

Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.

They have been saying,

“Our bones are dried up,

our hope is lost, and we are cut off.”

Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD:

O my people, I will open your graves

and have you rise from them,

and bring you back to the land of Israel.

Then you shall know that I am the LORD,

when I open your graves and have you rise from them,

O my people!

I will put my spirit in you that you may live,

and I will settle you upon your land;

thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.

 

Responsorial Psalm                      PS 107:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

 

R. (1)  Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.

 

Let the redeemed of the LORD say,

those whom he has redeemed from the hand of the foe

And gathered from the lands,

from the east and the west, from the north and the south.

R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.

They went astray in the desert wilderness;

the way to an inhabited city they did not find.

Hungry and thirsty,

their life was wasting away within them.

R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.

They cried to the LORD in their distress;

from their straits he rescued them.

And he led them by a direct way

to reach an inhabited city.

R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.

Let them give thanks to the LORD for his mercy

and his wondrous deeds to the children of men,

Because he satisfied the longing soul

and filled the hungry soul with good things.

R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.

 

Alleluia                                              Phil 2 PS 25:4B, 5A 

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Teach me your paths, my God,

guide me in your truth.

R. Alleluia

 

Gospel                                                           MT 22:34-40

 

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,

they gathered together, and one of them,

a scholar of the law, tested him by asking,

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

He said to him,

“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart,

with all your soul, and with all your mind.

This is the greatest and the first commandment.

The second is like it:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

 

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Restoring Life to Dry Bones

Do you have any relationships that once were good but now have dried up? A relationship that has rotted, that has no flesh on it, no life? It’s nothing but dry bones? Or a dream that has faded or a ministry that has withered? Today’s first reading gives us a very graphic image of God’s ability to resurrect anything. Nothing is ever hopeless except in hell.

 

If it’s good for us and when the timing is right, God the Father will put flesh back on any bones that he has created: any relationship, any dream, any desire that he himself has given to you. But this new “flesh” will not resurrect what has died. Something else will do it: the Spirit of Life, the Holy Spirit.

 

As the scripture says, “From the four winds — from all directions — come, O Spirit, and breathe into that which has been slain and bring them to life.” The Spirit, as the Giver of Life, puts holiness back into the relationship, energy into the dream, and new opportunities into the ministry.

 

Without the Holy Spirit, there is no hope, but with the Holy Spirit, there is life and a future full of abundant goodness. Even if a relationship cannot be restored on earth, it will come alive again in heaven.

 

Holiness is life. Consider how humility, truth, and unconditional love, which are attributes of holiness, give us life. They unite us to our Creator, who is the source of eternal life.

 

Selfishness, deception, and an unwillingness to be vulnerable infect our relationships, rot away what was good, and leave us with nothing but dry bones. Our ministries are diseased by self-importance and the compromises we make on moral issues and the dislike we have for humble servanthood, because they pull us away from a close relationship with God. Thus, we lose his guidance that would have led us to success.

 

When I was a child, Jesus became my dearest friend, but I knew nothing of the Holy Spirit. As a teenager, I instinctively sought the Spirit’s power, but I looked for it in the occult, which diseased my faith. After seven years of this, my friendship with Jesus had dried up into lifeless bones.

 

Then Jesus brought someone into my life who introduced me to the Holy Spirit. After I gave my heart and soul to this Third Person of the Trinity, the truth about each occult deception became clear to me. Breath by breath, the Spirit of Truth gave me a fuller life in God’s kingdom.

 

It’s the Holy Spirit who breathes life into these daily Good News Reflections to give you what you need when you need it. Time and time again I hear from readers who say, “It’s like you were here in my house and knew exactly what’s going on in my life!” It’s not me, of course, who makes that happen. It’s the Holy Spirit.

 

Ask this wonderful Presence of God’s Spirit to clarify the truth for you, weed out any false beliefs you have, and empower you to do everything that God asks of you. From this oft-repeated prayer will grow new life, and you’ll eventually receive the resurrections you’ve been wanting.

 

Today's Prayer

 

Beloved Jesus, Today I want to take another step forward to grow in the way of love. Today I will forgive somebody, I will ask for forgiveness and I will help someone in need. Today, Lord, I decide to do it. Today I decide to love. 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!”