Collect for 29th Sunday of Yr B

COLLECT SERIES

COLLECT

The Collect for the 29th Sunday of Year B reads as follows:

Almighty ever- living God,

grant that we may always conform our will to Yours,

and serve Your majesty with sincerity of heart.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

In making this prayer tangible for during the week, the following reflection questions emerged:

1. What does God's will mean to me?

2.  How can I conform my will to God's will this coming week?

3. What areas in my life are not in conformity to God's will?

4. What area of my life will I change this coming week towards conformity to God's
     will?

5. How can I serve God's majesty this coming week?

6. What does it mean to have a sincere heart and to serve with a sincere heart?

GOSPEL REFLECTION

Today's Gospel reminds us that The Son of Man came to give His life for the ransom of all.  In other words, God gave His only Son to the world to save all of us.
This is momentous when we think of it- God allowing His only Son to come into the world as a human like us in all things except sin.  Jesus knew joy and sadness, happiness and tears, knew the pain of grief when He lost His good friend Lazarus.  He knew the frustrations of life- the disappointments and the good times as well. He knew and experienced it all.

Despite His human fear, He still suffered grievously at the hands of humanity  who tortured Him and provided the worse possible death that could be offered- crucifixion.

Yet, in 3 days rose again- not just for Himself so that we too could share in the transformation and be able to enter Heaven too.  His death and resurrection provided healing for the evil our first parents had done for humanity.  His death and resurrection had cancelled the debt and provided us with a fresh start.

How often do we meditate on this enormous gift that God provided for us?  How often do we think of the sufferings of Christ and what they mean to us?   Do we feel uncomfortable and gloss over it knowing that the resurrection provided new life?

Perhaps as we listen to the Gospel  at Mass, we could hear the words with fresh ears and with fresh insight.  Perhaps look around at the congregation and remember every person in your parish/congregation was saved by Christ.  Every person you meet during the week is also saved by Christ.

We also want to acknowledge our gratitude to God for such a great gift.  We should not take His gift to humanity for granted. We need to accept that Christ suffered and died and rose again for ME.  Fill our hearts again with gratitude and know in our hearts that even if there was only one person on earth, Jesus still would have suffered, died and rose out of love for that person.  He suffered, died and rose again so that we could live life abundantly in His grace.

When I think of Christ's priceless gift, I often think of a hymn to sing- mostly How Great thou Art- the third and 4th verse actually speak to me most.  Perhaps this may help your meditation during the week too.