GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY - Wednesday, October 05, 2016

 Wednesday - October 05, 2016

“Pure love is capable of great deeds, and it is not broken by difficulty or adversity. As it remains strong in the midst of great difficulties, so too it perseveres in the toilsome and drab life of each day.”

― Maria Faustina Kowalska

TODAY'S READINGS

 

 October 4, 2016

 

« October 3  |  October 5 »

Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi
Lectionary: 462

Reading 1GAL 1:13-24

Brothers and sisters:
You heard of my former way of life in Judaism,
how I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure
and tried to destroy it, 
and progressed in Judaism
beyond many of my contemporaries among my race,
since I was even more a zealot for my ancestral traditions.
But when he, who from my mother’s womb had set me apart
and called me through his grace,
was pleased to reveal his Son to me,
so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles,
I did not immediately consult flesh and blood,
nor did I go up to Jerusalem
to those who were Apostles before me;
rather, I went into Arabia and then returned to Damascus.

Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to confer with Cephas
and remained with him for fifteen days.
But I did not see any other of the Apostles,
only James the brother of the Lord.
(As to what I am writing to you, behold,
before God, I am not lying.)
Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.
And I was unknown personally to the churches of Judea
that are in Christ;
they only kept hearing that “the one who once was persecuting us
is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”
So they glorified God because of me.

Responsorial PsalmPS 139:1B-3, 13-14AB, 14C-15

R. (24b) Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.
O LORD, you have probed me and you know me;
you know when I sit and when I stand;
you understand my thoughts from afar.
My journeys and my rest you scrutinize,
with all my ways you are familiar.
R. Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.
Truly you have formed my inmost being;
you knit me in my mother’s womb.
I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made;
wonderful are your works.
R. Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.
My soul also you knew full well;
nor was my frame unknown to you
When I was made in secret,
when I was fashioned in the depths of the earth.
R. Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.

AlleluiaLK 11:28

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are those who hear the word of God
and observe it.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

GospelLK 10:38-42

Jesus entered a village 
where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.
She had a sister named Mary
who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. 
Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said,
“Lord, do you not care
that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? 
Tell her to help me.” 
The Lord said to her in reply,
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. 
There is need of only one thing. 
Mary has chosen the better part
and it will not be taken from her.”

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Prayer Has an Important Place in Our Continuing Conversion

Introductory Prayer: Lord Jesus, you are the master of the universe, and yet you wish to listen to me and guide me. You know all things past, present and future, and yet you respect my freedom to choose you. Holy Trinity, you are completely happy and fulfilled on your own, and yet you have generously brought us into existence. You are our fulfillment. Thank you for the gift of yourself. I offer the littleness of myself in return, knowing you are pleased with what I have to give.

Petition: Lord, teach me through the “Our Father” to pray more deeply.

1. Traditional Prayers Teach Us the Correct Attitudes to Have towards God: What better prayer could we devise than a prayer using the very words Jesus taught us here? Yet the “Our Father” is a traditional prayer, a prayer with set words, prone to be recited merely by rote. But in fact, traditional prayers are an invitation to meditate, set up in a way that appeals to beginners. In the “Our Father”, as in all traditional prayers, we repeat phrases that express the essence of a correct relationship with God. Whether we already hold these attitudes in our heart or not, the beauty of traditional prayers is not what we say, but how we say it. If we pray these words, trying to make them our own, conforming our heart to the attitudes they express, then little by little we will form a Christian heart, a heart that loves the way it should.

2. Traditional Prayers Can Change My Heart and Draw It to God: When I first turned to the Lord, I had a lot to work on. Most people do. I didn’t love the way I should have. I was flawed in many other ways. One of the things that helped me was the “Our Father” as well as other traditional prayers. When we first come to the Lord, we don’t know how Christians should think, what attitudes a Christian should hold. When we pray the “Our Father” from the heart, it helps our heart to change, to become more Christ-like. It takes only a moment to pray an “Our Father”, but from time to time, we should meditate on the words. Say each phrase and repeat it, not moving on to the next phrase until we feel that we have really gotten to the bottom of what it is saying.

3. Traditional Prayers Fight Off the Attitudes of the World: Our conversion to Christ is a change of attitudes from those of the world to those of a Christian. Every day, the world proposes its attitudes as something good that should be lived. But often what the world proposes as good is actually harmful to us. How do we resist? By constantly repeating to myself and meditating on Christian attitudes. This is what can happen in using traditional prayers. It is a way of helping our heart understand and embrace the Christianity we profess. The Christian who disdains traditional prayers is rejecting a powerful tool of conversion.

Conversation with Christ: Dear Jesus, too often I rattle off my prayers without thinking about the attitudes they contain. I want to get the full benefit of all the prayers I say every day. I want to pray these prayers more often, especially the “Our Father,” since it is the prayer that you, yourself, taught me.

Resolution: Today I will pray my traditional prayers with special attention and with the conviction that they will instruct me and change me in a way that leads me closer to God.

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God Bless You.....

KONKANI PRAYER GROUP - Abu Dhabi

"Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone"  Mark 16:15