Thursday - February 16, 2017
To pray for those who are in mortal sin is the best kind of almsgiving. For the love of God, always remember such souls when you pray.
-- St. Teresa of Avila
TODAY'S READINGS
Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
"Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.
Dread fear of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth
and all the birds of the air,
upon all the creatures that move about on the ground
and all the fishes of the sea;
into your power they are delivered.
Every creature that is alive shall be yours to eat;
I give them all to you as I did the green plants.
Only flesh with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat.
For your own lifeblood, too, I will demand an accounting:
from every animal I will demand it,
and from one man in regard to his fellow man
I will demand an accounting for human life.
If anyone sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed;
For in the image of God
has man been made.
Be fertile, then, and multiply;
abound on earth and subdue it."
God said to Noah and to his sons with him:
"See, I am now establishing my covenant with you
and your descendants after you
and with every living creature that was with you:
all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals
that were with you and came out of the ark.
I will establish my covenant with you,
that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed
by the waters of a flood;
there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth."
God added:
"This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come,
of the covenant between me and you
and every living creature with you:
I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign
of the covenant between me and the earth."
The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,
and all the kings of the earth your glory,
When the LORD has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory;
When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
and not despised their prayer.
R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
Let this be written for the generation to come,
and let his future creatures praise the LORD:
"The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die."
R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
The children of your servants shall abide,
and their posterity shall continue in your presence,
That the name of the LORD may be declared in Zion,
and his praise, in Jerusalem,
When the peoples gather together,
and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life;
you have the words of everlasting life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
for the villages of Caesarea Philippi.
Along the way he asked his disciples,
"Who do people say that I am?"
They said in reply,
"John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others one of the prophets."
And he asked them,
"But who do you say that I am?"
Peter said to him in reply,
"You are the Christ."
Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.
He began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed, and rise after three days.
He spoke this openly.
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,
rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."
February 16, 2017
Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 338
Reading 1GN 9:1-13
God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them:"Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.
Dread fear of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth
and all the birds of the air,
upon all the creatures that move about on the ground
and all the fishes of the sea;
into your power they are delivered.
Every creature that is alive shall be yours to eat;
I give them all to you as I did the green plants.
Only flesh with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat.
For your own lifeblood, too, I will demand an accounting:
from every animal I will demand it,
and from one man in regard to his fellow man
I will demand an accounting for human life.
If anyone sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed;
For in the image of God
has man been made.
Be fertile, then, and multiply;
abound on earth and subdue it."
God said to Noah and to his sons with him:
"See, I am now establishing my covenant with you
and your descendants after you
and with every living creature that was with you:
all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals
that were with you and came out of the ark.
I will establish my covenant with you,
that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed
by the waters of a flood;
there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth."
God added:
"This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come,
of the covenant between me and you
and every living creature with you:
I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign
of the covenant between me and the earth."
Responsorial PsalmPS 102:16-18, 19-21, 29 AND 22-23
R. (20b) From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,
and all the kings of the earth your glory,
When the LORD has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory;
When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
and not despised their prayer.
R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
Let this be written for the generation to come,
and let his future creatures praise the LORD:
"The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die."
R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
The children of your servants shall abide,
and their posterity shall continue in your presence,
That the name of the LORD may be declared in Zion,
and his praise, in Jerusalem,
When the peoples gather together,
and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
R. From heaven the Lord looks down on the earth.
AlleluiaJN 6:63C, 68C
R. Alleluia, alleluia.Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life;
you have the words of everlasting life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelMK 8:27-33
Jesus and his disciples set outfor the villages of Caesarea Philippi.
Along the way he asked his disciples,
"Who do people say that I am?"
They said in reply,
"John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others one of the prophets."
And he asked them,
"But who do you say that I am?"
Peter said to him in reply,
"You are the Christ."
Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.
He began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed, and rise after three days.
He spoke this openly.
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,
rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."
******************************
CAN CHRIST COUNT ON ME?
Introductory Prayer: Lord, reveal to me the awesome mystery of your person. In you is hidden my beginning; in you is hidden the mission for my life; in you is hidden my future happiness. Let me not measure the future by what I think I can do for you, but rather by what your power can do with my generosity. May this prayer convince me of the necessity of welcoming you daily through prayer, contemplation, and a sacramental life of grace and conversion.
Petition: Lord, grant me an experience of you strong enough to overcome all spiritual laziness and tepidity.
1. Who Has Christ Been for You? - Our prayer must lead us to respond to Christ’s question, “Who do you say that I am?” This is the only test, the only examination question we need to pass in life. We must reflect and respond to the question from this perspective: “Who has Christ been for you?” This question does not so much define Christ, but the one who answers it. What experiences have we had of him? What have we been learning about Christ personally, through experiences that we cannot have known by solemn definitions, by routine external piety or by what others say? Christ’s history and our personal history must intertwine to become a single chapter which we both share.
2. Who Have You Been for Christ? - If I have little to say as far as my firsthand knowledge of Jesus, if my interior experiences have been eclipsed by a mundane and materialistic spirit, I must take Christ’s question to the next level: “Who have I been for Christ?” Who I have been for Christ will be determined largely by who I have been for him in prayer. The “inner Christ” is known only by those to whom it is revealed. It will not happen by a merely flesh-and-blood approach, nor by just going with the flow of human events. Peter’s interior life was fertile ground for the Father. His testimony was not luck, but was a divine intervention in his soul from which his faith drew its strength. “For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven” (Matthew 16:17). May I seek in a special way the grace of greater sensitivity to let my interior life of prayer define me and shape my character.
3. Can Christ Count on Me? - Poor Peter! In one moment he is revealing the thoughts of the Father, in the next, Satan’s. Peter’s living experience of Christ is the target of Satan’s attempts to break his faith. Christ’s suffering will be the pledge that the faith of the apostle will not fail: “I have prayed for you…” (Luke 22:32). Ultimately Christ’s prayer would prevail: Peter is reborn on Pentecost, fearlessly accepting and launching the mission of the Church. A strong interior foundation in Christ ultimately leads to one last reality check of the spiritual life: Can Christ build on me because I am built on him? Christ’s fidelity will uphold me if I stay in the battle, if I hold firm and don’t let the reality of my falls keep me from advancing. Satan cannot break my faith if I keep fighting, and for this I always have to have new goals, to begin fresher, better and more generously than before.
Conversation with Christ: Lord, according to the riches of your glory, grant that I may be strengthened in my inner being with power through your Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith. Being rooted and grounded in love, I pray that I may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that I may be filled with all the fullness of you. (Cf. Ephesians 3:16-20)
Resolution: I will spend some time before our Lord in the Eucharist today, asking that he deepen my experience of him.
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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
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