Saturday - November 19, 2016
'We set forth our petitions before God, not in order to make known to Him our needs and desires, but rather so that we ourselves may realize that in these things it is necessary to turn to God for help.'
~~St. Thomas Aquinas
TODAY'S READINGS
Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
November 19, 2016
Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 502
Reading 1RV 11:4-12
I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me:
Here are my two witnesses:
These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands
that stand before the Lord of the earth.
If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths
and devours their enemies.
In this way, anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain.
They have the power to close up the sky
so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying.
They also have power to turn water into blood
and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish.
When they have finished their testimony,
the beast that comes up from the abyss
will wage war against them and conquer them and kill them.
Their corpses will lie in the main street of the great city,
which has the symbolic names “Sodom” and “Egypt,”
where indeed their Lord was crucified.
Those from every people, tribe, tongue, and nation
will gaze on their corpses for three and a half days,
and they will not allow their corpses to be buried.
The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them
and be glad and exchange gifts
because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth.
But after the three and a half days,
a breath of life from God entered them.
When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them.
Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, “Come up here.”
So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on.
Here are my two witnesses:
These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands
that stand before the Lord of the earth.
If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths
and devours their enemies.
In this way, anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain.
They have the power to close up the sky
so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying.
They also have power to turn water into blood
and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish.
When they have finished their testimony,
the beast that comes up from the abyss
will wage war against them and conquer them and kill them.
Their corpses will lie in the main street of the great city,
which has the symbolic names “Sodom” and “Egypt,”
where indeed their Lord was crucified.
Those from every people, tribe, tongue, and nation
will gaze on their corpses for three and a half days,
and they will not allow their corpses to be buried.
The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them
and be glad and exchange gifts
because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth.
But after the three and a half days,
a breath of life from God entered them.
When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them.
Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, “Come up here.”
So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on.
Responsorial PsalmPS 144:1, 2, 9-10
R. (1b) Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
My mercy and my fortress,
my stronghold, my deliverer,
My shield, in whom I trust,
who subdues my people under me.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
O God, I will sing a new song to you;
with a ten stringed lyre I will chant your praise,
You who give victory to kings,
and deliver David, your servant from the evil sword.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
My mercy and my fortress,
my stronghold, my deliverer,
My shield, in whom I trust,
who subdues my people under me.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
O God, I will sing a new song to you;
with a ten stringed lyre I will chant your praise,
You who give victory to kings,
and deliver David, your servant from the evil sword.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
AlleluiaSEE 2 TM 1:10
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death
and brought life to light through the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying,
“Teacher, Moses wrote for us,
If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child,
his brother must take the wife
and raise up descendants for his brother.
Now there were seven brothers;
the first married a woman but died childless.
Then the second and the third married her,
and likewise all the seven died childless.
Finally the woman also died.
Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be?
For all seven had been married to her.”
Jesus said to them,
“The children of this age marry and remarry;
but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age
and to the resurrection of the dead
neither marry nor are given in marriage.
They can no longer die,
for they are like angels;
and they are the children of God
because they are the ones who will rise.
That the dead will rise
even Moses made known in the passage about the bush,
when he called ‘Lord’
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;
and he is not God of the dead, but of the living,
for to him all are alive.”
Some of the scribes said in reply,
“Teacher, you have answered well.”
And they no longer dared to ask him anything.
Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death
and brought life to light through the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelLK 20:27-40
Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection,came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying,
“Teacher, Moses wrote for us,
If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child,
his brother must take the wife
and raise up descendants for his brother.
Now there were seven brothers;
the first married a woman but died childless.
Then the second and the third married her,
and likewise all the seven died childless.
Finally the woman also died.
Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be?
For all seven had been married to her.”
Jesus said to them,
“The children of this age marry and remarry;
but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age
and to the resurrection of the dead
neither marry nor are given in marriage.
They can no longer die,
for they are like angels;
and they are the children of God
because they are the ones who will rise.
That the dead will rise
even Moses made known in the passage about the bush,
when he called ‘Lord’
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;
and he is not God of the dead, but of the living,
for to him all are alive.”
Some of the scribes said in reply,
“Teacher, you have answered well.”
And they no longer dared to ask him anything.
******************************
What do you think Heaven is like?
As we near the end of the liturgical year, the scriptures of the Catholic Mass turn our gaze toward heaven. So let me ask you: What do you think Heaven is like?
When we die, our limited brains are freed, our thoughts are no longer confined into our human brain. We see everything clearly. Scripture tells us that. We see, we know the truth fully. We enter into the fullness of who God is.
And what is that fullness like? It's limitlessness. It's total freedom to be the good child of God that he created us from the very beginning to be. It's being able to pray without the limitations that we have here on earth that cause us to doubt: "Are my prayers being effective? Am I praying the right way?"
However you're ministering, doing something for the Lord here on earth, all the constraints are off in Heaven. It is the limitlessness of being able to continue doing the ministry that God has called you and gifted you for, here on earth.
During some of the lowest and hardest times of my life, Mary's Magnificat has been my song, adapted as a prayer like so:
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he who is mighty has done great things for me -- and IS doing great things for me, and WILL do great things for me, and THROUGH me, for holy is his name!"
What motivates you to keep going during tough times? Is it fear or hope? Is it the belief (perhaps unconscious but it's controlling your behaviors and moods) that the solution to the problem lies in your control and if you keep pushing forward you will finally reach what you seek? Or is it the belief that God is in control and will indeed show the strength of his arm -- albeit in his own timing, which is very often later than we wish for?
Every day, in our sincerity to follow Christ, we need to make an honest examination of what our behaviors and moods indicate about our faith. Do you really and truly believe that God is holy and that he is merciful? Mary's Magnificat describes two attributes of God that make everything else in it true and truly possible in my life and yours: He is holy and he is merciful. Yes, we believe that! So then why doesn't our faith in God let us relax and rejoice while we wait for our prayers to be answered?
It's because we have to choose to trust God. Trust is a decision, but we prefer to feel let down by God. It's a whole lot easier to justify the many ways we let God down when we believe that God has let us down. The cure: First confess it, receive forgiveness, and choose to repent (which means choosing to change with the divine help of God). Next, live the faith consciously. Pay attention to what your behaviors and moods indicate about your trust in God; make it a habit to pause and pay attention! We overcome much when we realize what's really going on inside of us, because, after all, we really do want to follow Christ and experience the strength of his arm. We really do want to be filled by God with good things. And God really does want to come to the help of his servant!
--
God Bless You.....
KONKANI PRAYER GROUP - Abu Dhabi
"Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone" Mark 16:15
No comments:
Post a Comment