"Virtues are formed by prayer.
Prayer preserves temperance.
Prayer suppresses anger.
Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy.
Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit, and raises man to Heaven."
-- St Ephraem
Prayer preserves temperance.
Prayer suppresses anger.
Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy.
Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit, and raises man to Heaven."
-- St Ephraem
SATURDAY OF THE TWENTY-THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Lectionary: 442
Reading 1 1 COR 10:14-22
My beloved ones, avoid idolatry.
I am speaking as to sensible people;
judge for yourselves what I am saying.
The cup of blessing that we bless,
is it not a participation in the Blood of Christ?
The bread that we break,
is it not a participation in the Body of Christ?
Because the loaf of bread is one,
we, though many, are one Body,
for we all partake of the one loaf.
Look at Israel according to the flesh;
are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?
So what am I saying?
That meat sacrificed to idols is anything?
Or that an idol is anything?
No, I mean that what they sacrifice,
they sacrifice to demons, not to God,
and I do not want you to become participants with demons.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and also the cup of demons.
You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons.
Or are we provoking the Lord to jealous anger?
Are we stronger than him?
Responsorial Psalm PS 116:12-13, 17-18
R. (17) To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
Alleluia JN 14:23
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Whoever loves me will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we will come to him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel LK 6:43-49
Jesus said to his disciples:
“A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,
nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.
For every tree is known by its own fruit.
For people do not pick figs from thornbushes,
nor do they gather grapes from brambles.
A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good,
but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil;
for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I command?
I will show you what someone is like who comes to me,
listens to my words, and acts on them.
That one is like a man building a house,
who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock;
when the flood came, the river burst against that house
but could not shake it because it had been well built.
But the one who listens and does not act
is like a person who built a house on the ground
without a foundation.
When the river burst against it,
it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed.”
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You can stand firm in a sinking world
As the world around us continues to sink into the mire and muck of immorality and evil propaganda, we who follow Christ need to be more alive in the faith than ever.
But how do we do it? When we stand up for the truth, the storms raging around us can knock us down.
Jesus is calling all Christians to put great effort into continuing his mission. Clearly, we’re not doing enough or else the world would be a better place.
Jesus has given you a rock foundation. He’s the foundation of your daily life, right? The goodness you have in your heart is Jesus himself. The world needs your goodness more than ever, even though it will reject you for it. Family members who have left the Faith need your goodness as a reminder of who Jesus is; stand firm, don’t give up on them. Fellow Catholics need your goodness to help strengthen them in their own storms; spend time with them and you too will be strengthened.
The world needs extraordinary Catholics. An ordinary tree produces good fruit when weather conditions are perfect. People of the world are eating bad fruit and thinking it’s yummy. But sooner or later they get sick from the worms and rot. When they look around for something better, will they see a healthy tree standing tall in the sinking landscape?
Not if the Church within their eyesight looks unremarkable.
I learned something spiritually important from the woods surrounding my house. When we moved into our home ten years ago, I wondered, “In a hurricane, are all those trees likely to topple onto our house and destroy us?” An arborist looked at them and replied, “You are much safer with all those trees than a house with one or two trees. Their roots intermingle. The trees are holding each other firmly in the ground.”
In the flood of evil that’s been rising, we need each other. We absolutely benefit from coming together — not just to worship at Mass but also to grow in the faith together, face to face, fellowshipping in community gatherings.
We absolutely need Christian fellowship to thrive in today’s world. This is how we can recover from disasters, smile in adversities, and reduce stress. The surest way to connect (or re-connect) with Jesus during a storm is to surround ourselves with others who have a heart of goodness revealing Jesus himself.
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God Bless You.....
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