GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY : Saturday - July 08, 2023

 

Saturday - July 08, 2023

Help yourself during this troubled period by reading holy books. This reading provides excellent food for the soul and conduces to great progress along the path of perfection. By no means is it inferior to what we obtain through prayer and holy meditation. In prayer and meditation it is ourselves who speak to the Lord, while in holy reading it is God who speaks to us. Before beginning to read, raise your mind to the Lord and implore Him to guide your mind Himself, to speak to your heart and move your will.

 -- Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

July 8, 2023

Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 382

 

Reading I     

                                                                                                Gn 27:1-5, 15-29

 

When Isaac was so old that his eyesight had failed him,

he called his older son Esau and said to him, "Son!"

"Yes father!" he replied.

Isaac then said, "As you can see, I am so old

that I may now die at any time.

Take your gear, therefore–your quiver and bow–

and go out into the country to hunt some game for me.

With your catch prepare an appetizing dish for me, such as I like,

and bring it to me to eat,

so that I may give you my special blessing before I die."

 

Rebekah had been listening

while Isaac was speaking to his son Esau.

So, when Esau went out into the country

to hunt some game for his father,

Rebekah [then] took the best clothes of her older son Esau

that she had in the house,

and gave them to her younger son Jacob to wear;

and with the skins of the kids she covered up his hands

and the hairless parts of his neck.

Then she handed her son Jacob the appetizing dish

and the bread she had prepared.

 

Bringing them to his father, Jacob said, "Father!"

"Yes?" replied Isaac.  "Which of my sons are you?"

Jacob answered his father:  "I am Esau, your first-born.

I did as you told me.

Please sit up and eat some of my game,

so that you may give me your special blessing."

But Isaac asked, "How did you succeed so quickly, son?"

He answered,

"The LORD, your God, let things turn out well with me."

Isaac then said to Jacob,

"Come closer, son, that I may feel you,

to learn whether you really are my son Esau or not."

So Jacob moved up closer to his father.

When Isaac felt him, he said,

"Although the voice is Jacob's, the hands are Esau's."

(He failed to identify him because his hands were hairy,

like those of his brother Esau;

so in the end he gave him his blessing.)

Again he asked Jacob, "Are you really my son Esau?"

"Certainly," Jacob replied.

Then Isaac said, "Serve me your game, son, that I may eat of it

and then give you my blessing."

Jacob served it to him, and Isaac ate;

he brought him wine, and he drank.

 

Finally his father Isaac said to Jacob,

"Come closer, son, and kiss me."

As Jacob went up and kissed him,

Isaac smelled the fragrance of his clothes.

With that, he blessed him saying,

 

"Ah, the fragrance of my son

is like the fragrance of a field

that the LORD has blessed!

 

"May God give to you

of the dew of the heavens

And of the fertility of the earth

abundance of grain and wine.

 

"Let peoples serve you,

and nations pay you homage;

Be master of your brothers,

and may your mother's sons bow down to you.

Cursed be those who curse you,

and blessed be those who bless you."

 

Responsorial Psalm                                                          Ps 135:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6

 

R.(3a) Praise the Lord for the Lord is good!

 

Praise the name of the LORD;

Praise, you servants of the LORD

Who stand in the house of the LORD,

in the courts of the house of our God.

R. Praise the Lord for the Lord is good!

 

Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good;

sing praise to his name, which we love;

For the LORD has chosen Jacob for himself,

Israel for his own possession.

R. Praise the Lord for the Lord is good!

 

For I know that the LORD is great;

our LORD is greater than all gods.

All that the LORD wills he does

in heaven and on earth,

in the seas and in all the deeps.

R. Praise the Lord for the Lord is good!

 

Alleluia         

 

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;

I know them, and they follow me.

R. Alleluia

 

Gospel                                                                       Mt 9:14-17

 

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said,

"Why do we and the Pharisees fast much,

but your disciples do not fast?"

Jesus answered them, "Can the wedding guests mourn

as long as the bridegroom is with them?

The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,

and then they will fast.

No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth,

for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse.

People do not put new wine into old wineskins.

Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined.

Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved."

 

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Your Divine Dad wants to bless you abundantly

Guess what! Your Divine Daddy wants to give you his blessing. A blessing that will stay with you for the rest of your life. A blessing that will carry you into the bliss of Heaven. A blessing that will make a difference today and every time you return to Abba-Father during prayer.

 

In the Old Testament, we read about the great patriarchs of the faith giving a father’s blessing to the eldest son before dying. This was a reflection of God the Father. They believed that the father of the home was directly connected to God the Father. Therefore, whatever blessing the father chose to give to his offspring (usually the first-born son) came with the authority of God. This is why Jacob stole the blessing from his twin, Esau, and why Esau was so upset by the trickery (read that story in Genesis 27). They knew that the blessing was not a wish; it was a guaranteed plan for the future, an inheritance received from the hand of God.

 

You are a much-loved adopted child of God. With your adoption, you have inherited all that belongs to him. Generously! Abundantly! But what does this mean? In our human experiences, someone has to die before we receive our inheritance. Since Abba-Father is eternal, how does our divine inheritance come to us? Do we have to die? Do we have to wait until we reach Heaven before we can receive it?

 

Our inheritance looks like this: God has made available to us eternal life and every blessing under the heavens and in Heaven. (See Genesis 49:25, Ephesians 1:3, and Malachi 3:10.)

 

Jesus often said, “The Kingdom of God is at hand.” We can correctly interpret that to include: “The full inheritance of God is at hand.” Note that Jesus did not say: “When you die, if you believe in Me you will enter the Kingdom of God and then you will receive your inheritance.”

 

He did say, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live forever” (see John 11:25-26). This is the greatest blessing of all. But we need every blessing under the heavens now. Today. Right? Don’t you wish you could have Heaven on Earth this day and every day? Isn’t that what you’re asking for when you ask for God’s intervention in the problems of this world?

 

The good news is: Your inheritance is available to you right now. Abba-Father desires to give it to you today and every day of your earthly life — as long as you are still following Jesus and doing your best to be the saint that your baptism re-created you to be.

 

Blessings come to us all the time. Every breath and each heartbeat is a blessing of life. We are blessed whenever we see, do, hear, or feel something that comes from the heart of our Divine Daddy. Thus, we’re even blessed in situations that feel like curses, because he is with us, guiding us through it!

 

To grow stronger in our relationship with the Father, we need to become more aware of our inheritance. We need to look for the blessings he wants to give us.

 

Prayer

 

Lord, give me a merciful heart, able to look beyond rules and laws but not forgetting them, always seeking the good and salvation of my brothers and sisters. 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!”