GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY : Saturday - September 17, 2022

 Saturday - September 17, 2022

I will go peaceably and firmly to the Catholic Church: for if Faith is so important to our salvation, I will seek it where true Faith first began, seek it among those who received it from God Himself.

--St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

September 17, 2022

SATURDAY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Lectionary: 448

 

Reading 1                                                     1 COR 15:35-37, 42-49

 

Brothers and sisters:

Someone may say, “How are the dead raised?

With what kind of body will they come back?”You fool!

What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies.

And what you sow is not the body that is to be

but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind.

 

So also is the resurrection of the dead.

It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible.

It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious.

It is sown weak; it is raised powerful.

It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one.

 

So, too, it is written,

“The first man, Adam, became a living being,”

the last Adam a life-giving spirit.

But the spiritual was not first;

rather the natural and then the spiritual.

The first man was from the earth, earthly;

the second man, from heaven.

As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly,

and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly.

Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one,

we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.

 

Responsorial Psalm                                              PS 56:10C-12, 13-14

 

R. (14) I will walk in the presence of God, in the light of the living.

 

Now I know that God is with me.

In God, in whose promise I glory,

in God I trust without fear;

what can flesh do against me?

R. I will walk in the presence of God, in the light of the living.

 

I am bound, O God, by vows to you;

your thank offerings I will fulfill.

For you have rescued me from death,

my feet, too, from stumbling;

that I may walk before God in the light of the living.

R. I will walk in the presence of God, in the light of the living.

 

Alleluia                                                                      LK 8:15

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart

and yield a harvest through perseverance.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

Gospel                                                                       LK 8:4-15

 

When a large crowd gathered, with people from one town after another

journeying to Jesus, he spoke in a parable.

“A sower went out to sow his seed.

And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled,

and the birds of the sky ate it up.

Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew,

it withered for lack of moisture.

Some seed fell among thorns,

and the thorns grew with it and choked it.

And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew,

it produced fruit a hundredfold.”

After saying this, he called out,

“Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”

 

Then his disciples asked him

what the meaning of this parable might be.

He answered,

“Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God

has been granted to you;

but to the rest, they are made known through parables

so that they may look but not see, and hear but not understand.

 

“This is the meaning of the parable.

The seed is the word of God.

Those on the path are the ones who have heard,

but the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts

that they may not believe and be saved.

Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear,

receive the word with joy, but they have no root;

they believe only for a time and fall away in time of temptation.

As for the seed that fell among thorns,

they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along,

they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life,

and they fail to produce mature fruit.

But as for the seed that fell on rich soil,

they are the ones who, when they have heard the word,

embrace it with a generous and good heart,

and bear fruit through perseverance.”

 

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Listening

“Those on the path are the ones who have heard, but the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts that they may not believe and be saved.”  Luke 8:12

This familiar story identifies four possible ways in which we hear the Word of God.  Some are like a trodden path, some like rocky ground, others like a bed of thorns and some are like rich soil.  

In each one of these images, there is a possibility of growth with the Word of God.  The rich soil is when the Word is received and bears fruit.  The seed among thorns is when the Word grows but the fruit is choked off by daily troubles and temptations.  The seed sown in the rocky ground results in the Word growing, but ultimately dies off when life gets hard.  The first image of seed falling on the path, however, is the least desirable of all.  In this case, the seed does not even grow.  The earth is so hardened that it can’t sink in.  The path itself provides no nourishment whatsoever and, as the passage reveals above, the Devil steals the Word away before it can grow.

Sadly, this “path” is becoming more and more prevalent in our day and age.  In fact, many struggle with actually listening.  We may hear, but hearing is not the same as actually listening.  We often have much to do, places to go and things to occupy our attention.  As a result, it can be difficult for many people to actually receive the Word of God into their hearts where it can grow. 

Reflect, today, on the many ways that the Devil can come and steal the Word of God away from you.  It may be as simple as keeping you so occupied that you are too distracted to soak it in.  Or it may be that you allow the constant noise of the world to contradict what you hear before it sinks in.  Whatever the case may be, it is essential that you seek to take, at very least, the first step of listening and understanding.  Once that first step is accomplished, you can then work to remove the “rocks” and “thorns” from the soil of your soul.

Today’s Prayer

My revealing Lord, help me to hear Your Word, to listen to it, to understand it and to believe it.  Help my heart to ultimately become rich soil that You enter so as to bear an abundance of good fruit.  Jesus, I trust in You. 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!”