GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY : Friday - November 18, 2022

 

Friday - November 18, 2022

The family is the most ancient institution which God founded in Paradise, when He called the first pair of human beings into existence. The first blessing which God gave was for the well being of the family. With family life, the history of the world commences.

 -- St. John Vianney

November 18, 2022

FRIDAY OF THE THIRTY-THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Lectionary: 501

 

Reading I     

                                                                                    RV 10:8-11

 

I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me.

Then the voice spoke to me and said:

“Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel

who is standing on the sea and on the land.”

So I went up to the angel and told him to give me the small scroll.

He said to me, “Take and swallow it.

It will turn your stomach sour,

but in your mouth it will taste as sweet as honey.”

I took the small scroll from the angel’s hand and swallowed it.

In my mouth it was like sweet honey,

but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.

Then someone said to me, “You must prophesy again

about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”

 

Responsorial Psalm                                  PS 119:14, 24, 72, 103, 111, 131

 

R. (103a) How sweet to my taste is your promise!

 

In the way of your decrees I rejoice,

as much as in all riches.

R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!

Yes, your decrees are my delight;

 they are my counselors.

R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!

The law of your mouth is to me more precious

than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!

How sweet to my palate are your promises,

sweeter than honey to my mouth!

R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!

Your decrees are my inheritance forever;

the joy of my heart they are.

R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!

I gasp with open mouth

in my yearning for your commands.

R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!

 

Alleluia                                                              JN 10:27     

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;

I know them, and they follow me.

R. Alleluia

 

Gospel                                                           LK 19:45-48

 

Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out

those who were selling things, saying to them,

“It is written,

My house shall be a house of prayer,

but you have made it a den of thieves.”

And every day he was teaching in the temple area.

The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile,

were seeking to put him to death,

but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose

because all the people were hanging on his words.

 

**********************************

A House of Prayer

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, increase my faith in you. Grant that I may not treat your house of prayer like a bandit’s den, but rather a place of true worship.

 

Encountering Christ:

 

A Brief History: Long before King Solomon had built the Temple, God had instructed the people to construct a Tent of Meeting to hold the Ark of the Covenant. According to tradition, the Ark contained two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s rod, and a pot of manna. The Ten Commandments are God’s spoken law engraved in stone. Aaron’s rod represents the fruitfulness of the tribe of Levi, the tribe dedicated exclusively to the priesthood. The manna is the bread that came down from Heaven to sustain the Israelites in their forty years of wandering the desert when they fled slavery from Egypt around the 13th century B.C. All this is a reminder of the covenant that God established with his chosen people, to preserve true worship so as to be a light for the nations. Three centuries later, King Solomon would finally build a permanent home for the Ark—the Temple.

 

A Place of Prayer: As we have seen on previous days, the Temple was the central place of worship for the Jewish people. But above all, it was a place where souls could go to be sure that their heartfelt prayer to God would be heard. Upon installing the Ark in the Holy of Holies, King Solomon, by his testimony of prayer, revealed theTemple as a place of heartfelt prayer to God, that he may continue to dwell among them (1 Kings 8:27-30): “But will God indeed dwell upon the earth? Even Heaven, the highest Heaven, cannot contain you, much less this temple I have built. Yet regard the prayer and plea of your servant, O LORD my God, so that you may hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying before you today. May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, toward the place of which you said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that you may hear the prayer that your servant prays toward this place. Hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. May you hear from Heaven, your dwelling place. May you hear and forgive.”

 

The Whole People Hung on His Words: Jesus saw how the house of the Father was being abused. Its use was being thwarted, and when Jesus corrected those who detracted from its purpose, they wanted to lash out and “do away with him.” But animosity cannot thwart the purpose for which God comes to dwell among us. Thanks to his redemptive death, the Holy Spirit established the Church where God’s presence dwells among us through his true Presence, the “manna” come down from Heaven. This is thanks to the new priesthood instituted by Christ himself. He also dwells among us in his word proclaimed in the holy liturgy. We gather in the temple of the Church to worship and to “hang onto” Jesus’ word so that he continues to dwell among us through faith and in grace. By this testimony, all nations will know that Jesus is Lord.

 

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you dwell among us in your Eucharist and your word. Send your Spirit to increase our faith in you. Hear our prayer as we cry out for those who do not believe in you. May our faith, prayer, and worship be a testimony for all nations.

 

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will reflect on my participation in the Church’s mission of prayer for the salvation of all nations.

 

Today's Prayer

 

Take my life Lord and cleanse me of everything that obscures the greatness of You in me. 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!”