AUGUST 14, 2008
Tuesday in the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
First Reading
1 John 4:7-16
GOD IS LOVE
My dear friends, let us love one another for love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Those who do not love have not known God, For God is Love. How did the love of God appear among us? God sent his only son into this world that we might have life through him.
This is love:not that we loved God but that he first loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear Friends, if such has been the love of God, we, too, must love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love comes to its perfection in us.
How may we know that we live in God and he in us? Because God has given us his spirit. We ourselves have seen and declare that the Father has sent his Son to save the world. Those who confess that Jesus is the son to save the world. Those who confess that Jesus is the son of God, God remains in them and they in God.
We have known the love of God have believed in it. God is Love. The one who lives in love, lives in God and God in him. When do we know that we have reached a perfect love? When in this world, we are like him in everything, and expect with confidence the day of Judgment.
GOSPEL
John 11:19-27/Luke 10:38-42
MARTHA’S FAITH
Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to offer consolation at their brother’s death. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him while Mary remained sitting in the house. And she said to Jesus, “If you had not been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha replied, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection at the last day.” But Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection; whoever believes in me, though he die, shall live. Do you believe this? Martha then answered, “Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world.
Sunday in the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
First reading
Isiah 55:10-11
An Invitation to grace
As the rain and the snow come down from the heavens and do not return till they have watered the earth, making it yield seed for the sower and food others eat, so is my word that goes forth out of my mouth; it will not return to me idle, but it shall accomplish ky will, the purpose for which it has been sent.
Responsorial Psalm Response
” The seed that falls on the good ground will yeild a fruitful harvest.”
Second reading
Romans 8:18-23
Destined for Glory
And so God takes pity on whom he wishes, and hardens the heart of whomsoever he wishes. Maybe you say; “Why then does God complain, if it is impossible to evade his decision?” But you, my friend, who are you to call God to account? should the clay pot say to its maker: why did you make me like this? Is it not up to the potter to make from the same clay a vessel for beauty and a vessel for menial use? Thus God endures very patiently vessels that deserve hi wrath, fit to be broken, and through then he wants to show the riches of his glory in others, in vessels of mercy prepared for glory.
GOSPEL
Matthew 13:1-23
The parable of the sower
That same day Jesus left the lakeside. As many people gathered around him, he got in a boat. There he sat while the whole crowd stood on the shore, and he spoke to them in parables about many things. Jesus said, “The sower went out to sow and as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground where there was little soil, and the seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was not deep. But as soon the sun rose the plants were scorched and withered because they had no roots. Again other seeds fell among thistles grew and choked the plants. Still other seeds fell on the good soil and produced a crop; some produced a hundredfold, others sixty and others thirty. If you have ears, then hear!”
Then his disciples came to him with the question, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” Jesus answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingodm of heaven, but not to these people. For the one who has, willbe given more and he will have in abundance. But the one who does not have will be deprived of even what he has. That is why I speak to them in parables, because they look and do not see; they hear, but they do not listen or understand. In them the words of the prophet Isiah are fulfilled; Much has grown dull. Their ears hardly hear and their eyes dare not see, If they were to see with their eyes, hear with their ears and understand with their heart, they would heal them. But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears, because they hear.
For I tell you that many prophets and upright people would have longed to see the tings you see, but they did not, and to hea the things you hear, but they did not hear it. Now listen to the parable of the sower. When a person hears the message of the Kingdom but without taking it to himself, the devil comes and snatches away what sown in his heart. This is the seed that fell along the footpath.The seed that fell on the rocky ground stands forone who hears the word and accepts it for at onec with joy. But such a person has no roots. No sooner is he harrased or persecuted because of the word, than he gives up. The seed that fell among the thistles is the one who hears the word, but then the worries of his life and the love of money choke the word, and it does not bear fruit. As for the seed that fell on the good soil it is the one who hears the word and understands it; this bears fruit and produces a hundred, or sixty, or thirty times more.”
Saturday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary time
First Reading
Isiah 6:1-8
The call of Isaiah
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted; the train of his robe filled the Temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings; two to cover the face, two to cover the feet, and two to fly with. They were calling to one another; “Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh Sabaoth. All the earth is filled with his Glory!”
Athe sound of their voices the foundations of the threshold shook and the Temple was filled with smoke. I said, “Poor me! I am doomed! for I am a man of unclean lips living among a people of unclean lips, and yet I have seen the King, Yahweh Sabaoth.” Then one of the seraphs flew to me; in his hands was a live coal which he had taken with tongs fromthe altar. He touched my mouth with it and said, ” See. this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”Then I heard the voice of the Lord, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” I answered. “Here I am. Send me!”
GOSPEL
Matthew 10:24-33
A student is not above his teacher, or a slave is above his master. A student should be glad to become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If the head of the family has been called Beelzebul, how much more the mebers of the family! So, do not be afraid of them. There is nothing covered that will not be uncovered, and nothing hidden that will not be made known. What i am telling you in the dark, you must speak in the light. What you heart in private, proclaim from the housetops.
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but have no power to kill the soul. Rather be afraid of him who can destroy both body and soul in hell. For only a few cents you can buy two sparrows, yet not one sparrow falls to the ground without your Father’s consent. As for you, every hair of your head has been counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth much mire than many sparrows. Whoever acknowledges me bofore others will acknowledge before my father in heaven. Whoever rejects me before others I will reject before my father in heaven.
Wednesday of the Fourteenth week in Ordinary Time
First Reading
Hosea 10:1-3, 7-8, 12
Time to seek the Lord
Israel was a spreading vine, rich in fruit. The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built; the more land prospered, the more he adorned his sacred stones. Their heart is divided! They shall pay for it. Their altars will be thrown down and their sacred stones broken to pieces. Now they say, “We have no king (because we have no fear of God) and what good would a king do us?”
As for the Samaria, he has been carried off like foam on water. The idolatrous high places - the sin of Israel - will be destroyed. Thorn and thistle will creep over the altars. Then they will say to the mountains: “Cover us,” and to the hills: “Fall on us.” Plow new ground, sow for yourselves justice and reap the harvest of kindness. It is the time to go seeking Yahweh until he comes to rain salvation on you.
Gospel
Matthew 10:7-5
Instructions for the mission
Then he called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority over the unclean spirits to drive them out and to heal every disease and sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles; first Simon, called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon, the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, the man who would betray him. Jesus set these twelve on mission with the instruction; “Do not visit pagan teritory and do not enter a Samaritan town. Go instead to the lost sheep of the people of Israel. Go and Proclaim this message; The kingdom of heaven is near.