Collect for 30th Sunday of Year C

THE COLLECT SERIES

The Collect for the 30^th Sunday of Year reads as follows:

Almighty ever-living God, increase our faith, hope and charity,

and make us love what you command,

so that we may merit what you promise.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS.

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

1. What is my current level of faith, hope and charity?  Give myself a stock take of my spiritual life overall especially in these areas. 

2.   Why do I want or desire God to increase my faith, hope and love?  

3. Why do I want God to make me love what He commands?  

4. What does this mean? What does God promise?  

5.    How may I merit what God promises this coming week.

GOSPEL REFLECTION.

The Gospel is from St. Luke 18:9-14.  Jesus forgave sinners, especially those who regretted what they have done. Jesus did not condemn them but brought them forgiveness, healing and peace. During His hidden life in Nazareth, and especially during His public life when He travelled through the towns and villages of Palestine,  Jesus met sinners of all kinds, never providing any harsh word to any of them. They may have deserved it because of their sins but never a harsh word.   However, Jesus was accused of mixing too freely with them. His answer was that "it was those who were ill who needed a doctor, not those who were in good health." The sinners He met knew that they were ill. They regretted their sins. He forgave them.

Jesus however did speak condemnation on the Pharisees and for whom He foretold an unhappy ending. These were the Pharisees. In Mt. 23, the whole chapter is devoted to Christ's condemnation of them. It contains eight "woes" which He utters against them. He calls them by many unflattering names. One was "whited sepulchres, appearing beautiful to men on the outside but full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness within" (23: 27). Such harshness, coming from the gentle Christ, may surprise us, but knowing as He did that pride, the first and basic sin of mankind and the root of all other evil in the world, was so ingrained in their very hearts, that they could never seek forgiveness, He stated nothing but the truth concerning them or to them.

In this parable which He addressed to the Pharisees themselves, He tells them once more where their pride will lead them. They will be excluded from the kingdom of God, because they will not admit or repent of their pride and their lack of charity. Instead of thanking God for the many gifts He had given them, they almost demanded thanks from God for being such pious people. They had virtues. They avoided serious injustices. They did not commit adultery. They fasted often. They paid all their Temple dues, but it was all done, not for the honor and glory of God, but for their own honor and glory. They told the world about it. They demanded the first places in the synagogues, and special marks of reverence on the streets. They had to be called "masters" as they claimed to represent and interpret Moses to the ordinary people.

One thing that we can learn from this sad story of the Pharisees is that, while God approves of no sin, His mercy and His forgiveness is available for all sinners except the proud. It isn't that God cannot or will not forgive the sin of pride but that the proud man will not ask for God's forgiveness.

We must all be on our guard against this insidious and destructive vice. It is insidious because it can grow in us almost without our knowing it, and once it has taken root it is difficult to eradicate. It is destructive because it spoils every other virtue we practice and every good work we do. Charity, or brotherly love, cannot flourish in a proud heart, for a proud heart is so full of self that it has no room for others. No true love of God can exist in a proud heart, for even the very acts of religion which a proud man performs, are done for the motive of self-glory and not for the glory of God. The Pharisee in this parable proves that fact. He boasted of his good works.

 Some simple questions can identify whether or not we are proud.  These include:

1.    Do we like others to see and hear of our good works, or do we prefer to do them in secret?

2.    Do we give as generously to charitable causes when no list of benefactors is published?

3.    Do we willingly take part among the rank and file in parish activities or do we feel offended if we are not the leaders?

4.    Do we criticise offhand those who are not all they should be, or do we thank God that we were saved from similar temptations?

5.    Do we always try to find an excuse for the failings of others or have we excuses for our own faults only?

When we are pondering these questions, we might also refer to the Scripture of the two men praying in the temple. One prays to himself whilst the other man dares not look up but pleads ‘’Be merciful a sinner’’.

The opposite of pride is the virtue of humility.   You may wish to check out my series on the virtues as each of the virtues are the answer to or the medicine for the seven deadly sins.  People often have issues with a confused understanding with regard to humility or a healthy understanding of what humility it is and is not.  It is definitely not a putting down of oneself or the gifts that God has given you. 

During this week as we take a stock take of our spiritual lives especially in the areas of faith, hope and love, we may also, in the light of this Gospel consider where we stand in relation to pride.

Remind me Lord

REFLECTION AND PRAYER SERIES.

My reflection and prayer series is about sharing reflections and Prayers which have impacted upon me and have provided food for thought. I hope that they will also nurture your soul and spirit.

My Scripture reflection is 

It is by grace you have been saved through faith…

 and this not from yourselves. It is the gift of God”’ 
(Ephesians 2 8)

Christ The Redeemer.

My post is called:

Remind me Lord.

Remind me often, Lord,

 that You are more interested in what I am than in what I do.

Whatever draws me away from You i

s not the ‘’better thing’’

The Preface.

ABOUT THE MASS SERIES

THE MASS: ABOUT THE MASS SERIES ICON.

THE PREFACE.

Although praise and thanksgiving characterise the whole Eucharistic Prayer, these elements particularly appear in the Preface, a term meaning “proclamation” or “speaking out” before God and his people.

The body of the preface is a statement of the special reason for praising God, especially God’s work in creation and redemption. The priest takes up the response of the people ‘it is right and just’. 

On behalf of the whole congregation, he praises God and gives thanks for what God has done to save us.

Nowadays, there are over many different Prefaces- at least 6 for Sundays and 6 for during the week, as well as one for every season and occasions (feast days). For example, the Christmas Preface gives thanks for the birth of Jesus; the Easter Preface gives thanks that Jesus was raised from the dead.  Each of the prefaces however begins with words such as:

 ‘It is truly right and just our duty and our salvation always and everywhere to give you thanks’.

As the Mass progresses, the Church invites us again to give thanks to God for all the benefits and blessings of our lives.  As our hearts are lifted in thanks and praise, we are reminded towards the end of the prefaces that we are not alone in the pilgrim journey. In some form or other, we are praising and thanking God in the company of the angels and saints and/or the choirs of angels.

From a practical viewpoint, if you are using a computer waiting to use a Powerpoint presentation for the Holy- Holy, hearing the words, referring to the angels and/or saints gives you an important guideline that it is near the end of the preface.  It is also useful for musicians and/or choirs to listen to these words in order to be ready.

So, as we hear the Preface proclaimed Sunday after Sunday, let us give thanks to God for the many blessings He gives us, proclaim His glory with thankful praise and sing for joy with the company of the angels and saints the unending hymn of praise.

The Burial of Jesus Mk 15L42-47

GOSPEL OF MARK SERIES.

The Bible: Gospel of Mark icon.

During 2019, each week, I will write a weekly post about the Gospel of Mark, as I review and explore each of the 16 chapters and how it may be applied in our daily lives. If you are following this series for the first time, you will find this series under Scripture- New Testament- Gospel of Mark. 

Click here to read the first post in the series. I have written this series in different years (2012, 2015, 2018) with some irregularity, but am determined to complete this series this year since I am more than half way through this Gospel.

My goal is to understand and pray the Gospel of Mark. I hope you will join me on this journey as we travel through the liturgical season.  In today's post we explore chapter 15:42-47 1which is called the burial of Jesus.

THE BURIAL OF JESUS.

 It was a Roman practice to let the bodies rot on the crosses or be eaten by wild animals.  However, for the Jews, this type of practice was unthinkable since a death was incomplete without a proper burial especially if the person lived according to the law as it was interpreted by the Book of Deuteronomy (Deut 21:22-23).

A prominent member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, Joseph from Arimathaea, the location of which is unknown, comes forward to perform this last act of piety for the dead Jesus. One interesting observation here- the Jewish people could have asked for Jesus to be released but instead asked for Barabbas, a common thief and criminal. Added to that, they. Although incited by the Roman officials cried out crucify Him.  Yet now, they afford Jesus a proper Jewish burial. Remember a proper Jewish burial was for someone who lived according to the law.  If they thought Jesus did not, then they could have agreed to the Roman tradition.  Just an interesting observation.

Since Joseph is not a disciple of Jesus, Mark again draws attention to the desertion of Jesus by all His disciples.  He was waiting expectantly, Mark notes, for the coming of the kingdom of God, suggesting it is more than Jewish piety or respect for the law that inspires Him to go courageously to Pilate and ask for the body of Jesu who faithfully proclaimed the coming of the kingdom of God.

The truth that Jesus really died on the cross, against some early doubters, is reinforced by the action attributed to Pilate.  He calls the centurion who was in charge of the execution to verify from him that Jesus is truly dead.

The devotion and care of Joseph, the non-disciple, is detailed for us in several ways.  He buys a piece of fine lines as a shroud for the corpse of Jesus.  He provides a tomb cut from rock. He rolls a stone, not doubt with the help of servants, across the entrance of the tomb.  These devout actions of Joseph also highlight the extreme poverty in which Jesus dies.

The faithful women stand silently watching all that Joseph does and where he hastily buries the body of Jesus, because it is already evening and Sabbath rest begins at sunset.  The women see that the corpse of Jesus is buried without the customary anointing of ointments and spices.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS.

.

In our journal and/or our discussion group we may wish to reflect on this passage as follows:

• Name the key points that you have learnt about the person of Jesus in this passage of scripture?

• Imagine that you are these solders.  What do you see and hear and feel? What can I learn from this?
• Are there any present-day situations which have all the hallmarks of a similar execution (e.g. the assault on the beliefs of the Church and its constant persecution by the media or when Judges do not speak up for the right outcome out of fear of the crowd?
•  Imagine being the women from Galilee and share their feelings as they watched the burial of Jesus by others.  What questions do I want to bring to Jesus? 
• Imagine being Joseph who was a non-disciple fronting Pilate for the body of Jesus. What would he have felt going to Pilate and what would you want to say to him’.?  In what ways do we offer help to non- disciples of Jesus in our lives?
•         Imagine being Pilate who was conflicted about handing Jesus over to the Romans.  Does his act of handing the corpse of Jesus to Joseph without causing problems serve as some form of repentance for what he did? How do we right wrongs?
  
• ·         What is reading the Gospel passage with the eyes and ears of disciple mean to me?

• How does Jesus make clear His teaching to me in this passage?         
• Consider a situation in your life today where the teaching of Jesus needs to be applied.
  
• Consider how much my faith means to me and what does my faithfulness/unfaithfulness to my church/parish mean to me and others?

• What are the areas in my life I need to bring to Jesus in the light of this teaching?
  
  
• Am I willing to look into myself with honesty and ask how much do I grasp what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus in the light of this teaching? 

Collect for the 28th Sunday of Year C

COLLECT SERIES

 

The Collect for the 28th Sunday of the Year C is as follows:

May your grace, O Lord, we pray, at all times

go before us and follow after

and make us always determined to carry out good works.

Through our lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,

who lives and reigns with You

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God for ever and ever.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

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

1.    What are the graces I desire from God in your life this coming week?
2. .    What are the graces I pray for? 
3.   What are the good works that need to be carried out this coming week?
4.   What are the good works that I have previously failed to do and could do this coming week?
5.     What does it mean to me to be determined to carry out good works? What does being determined mean to me in this context.

GOSPEL REFLECTION.

The Gospel is from St. Luke 17:11-19. The incident of the ten lepers happened as our Lord was on His way to Jerusalem, where He was to die on the cross so that we could live eternally. The Church brings it before our minds today,  to remind us of  remind us of the mercy and kindness of Jesus to all classes, even the outcasts, as lepers were,  and to remind us and be amazed at the depths of ingratitude to which humanity can sink.

Jesus cured many people in His public ministry. Some would have been grateful for sure but also many of them who were miraculously cured forget to thank Him.

Lepers in the time of Jesus were outcasts. Today’s Gospel highlights that there was one, and he was the one least expected to do so, who had the decency to return and thank his benefactor. This pleased our Lord and led Him to remark on the ingratitude of the others. "Were not all ten made whole, where are the other nine?"

Jesus was not disappointed that He was not thanked for His own sake but for theirs as in failing to show gratitude, they missed greater graces through this lack of appreciation and gratitude.

It should be noted clearly that all ten lepers showed great faith and confidence in Jesus' power to heal. They had not heard Him preach nor had they seen any of His miracles. They lived in isolation camps, yet they believed the reports they had heard. They all were very obedient too. They set off for Jerusalem to carry out the command of Jesus, even though their leprosy had not yet left them.

In all of this it was their own self-interest which came first in the minds of the nine Jews. Once they found their leprosy gone all they thought of was their own good fortune. Their Benefactor was quickly forgotten. The Samaritan's first thought, on the other hand, was of the one who had healed him. He was as delighted as the others with his cure but being generous and thoughtful for others, he felt it his bounden duty to return and thank the man who had done him this miraculous good turn.

How do we feel when we hear this Gospel?  Does it speak to us about our own level of gratitude to God and to others who help us?  We may feel ashamed of our fellowmen who were so ungrateful, and who treated the loving Jesus so shamefully,  but are we any different from them towards showing gratitude to Jesus.

It should be noted that those Jewish lepers  were unaware that He was the Son of God who assumed human nature, became man, in order to raise us up to a new supernatural status. He gave them the gift of physical health for thirty, forty, or maybe sixty years more. We know that He has come to give us an eternal life — a life that will last forever, a life free from all troubles and worries "where all tears will be wiped away and death shall be no more."

With this knowledge then of what Christ means to us, of what His Incarnation has won for us, of the eternal freedom from all sickness and death which His human life, death and resurrection have put at our disposal, how can any real Christian ever cease thanking Him, could there be such a being as an ungrateful Christian ever on earth?

Unfortunately, there is not only one such ungrateful being, but there are millions of them. How many of us here present are numbered amongst these ungrateful ones? There are those of us who think of God only when we are in difficulties. While things are going well, when there is no sickness in the home, when our business is prospering, when there is peace all around us, how many times in the week do we say, "thank you, God, you are very good to me." When trouble strikes it is a different matter. We rush to church, we implore God to have pity on us, we make novenas to our special saints. This is not wrong. What is wrong, however, is that we forgot to thank God all the time that He was giving us spiritual and temporal favors.

Think for a moment. If those nine ungrateful lepers were struck again with disease some months later and returned to implore Christ for a cure, would you blame Him if He refused? Most of us would refuse. Yet we expect Him to listen to our urgent pleas the minute we make them, while we have not given Him a thought and never said one "thank you, Lord; while things were going well with us.

We all need to be more grateful to God every day of our lives—more grateful than we have been. He has not only given us life on this earth with its joys and its sorrows, but He has prepared for us a future life where there will be no admixture of sorrows. It is for that life that we are working. It is because there is a heaven after death that we are Christians. God has already done His part in preparing this heaven for us. He is assisting us daily to get there. We need a lot of that assistance and one of the surest ways of getting further benefits from God (as well as from men) is to show true gratitude for the benefits already received.

HOW TO DEVELOP GRATITUDE

Psychologically and physically the best way to develop gratitude is this:

Just before you fall asleep, walk through in your mind your day.  Name 1 or 2 things you were grateful for that day. 

They do not have to be big events- eg it might be that you thank God for the water so you can do the dishes or the dishwasher can do the dishes for you.  It is something we do every day- dishes…always dishes.  Yet do we stop and think of the people who made the dishwasher who were given the skill and expertise by God to be able to do it?  Do we thank God that we have water?  Many drought stricken parts of Australia suffer because of lack of water. Many of us waste so much water that could be used by these people in these areas.

It is vital that it is done just before you fall asleep as the mind processes and provides healing as we sleep. By doing this at this time, we are, over time bathing our spirit in gratitude and we will awake feeling more appreciative of life.

Sometimes when life is really difficult, it is hard to think of something to be grateful for.  However, we all wake up because God allows it for us each morning. We all get out of bed- when life is difficult, getting out of bed can be a real achievement. Be grateful for that step.

There is another part to the exercise but I know from experience that doing this for a week/month every night at first really helped me to focus on what I had to be grateful for and to appreciate the many gifts God gives me every day.  There is seldom a night I miss this now because I know that the more I do it, the more grateful I feel about life- my spirit is bathed in gratitude and should Jesus choose to provide more graces for me, I am ready and open to receive them. 

I highly recommend this to you all. Try it for a week to start and see how different you feel- better still do it for a month and you will be surprised at the difference.  Remember even getting out of bed on difficult days is a grace and something to be grateful for.

Friend at your side always.

REFLECTION AND PRAYER SERIES.

My reflection and prayer series is about sharing reflections and Prayers which have impacted upon me and have provided food for thought. I hope that they will also nurture your soul and spirit.

My Scripture reflection is 

There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother”’ 
(Proverbs 18:24)

Christ The Redeemer.

My post is called:

Friend at your side always.

In the midst of loneliness

Let me remember Lord

That thought and prayer and work

Make good companions.

Trust Me, your friend who is always at your side.

Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY.

Our Lady of the Rosary.

The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary was instituted by Pope Saint Pius V on the anniversary of the naval battle at Lepanto (1571). It was said that the Christians were victorious because of help of Our Lady- mother of God, invoked by saying the Rosary.

Today's feast day urges all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ, following the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary who was in a special manner associated with the incarnation, passion and resurrection of her son Jesus, the Son of God.

THE ROSARY.

St Dominic is also strongly connected with the Rosary. Tradition tells us that our Blessed Mother Mary, presented St Dominic with the Rosary, and since that time, the Rosary has been part of the Dominican way of life.  In my parish church, the stain glass window depicts magnificently St Dominic receiving the rosary from Our Lady.

During the month of October, it is a tradition to say the Rosary. In my parish, parishioners have nominated a day to say the Rosary (either by themselves or with other parishioners) so that at least one family is saying the Rosary each day in the month of October. Why not do something similar or at least try to say the Rosary during the month of October yourself.  Even one decade said well is better than not at all.

There are 4 mysteries of the Rosary and the Church has specified the days of the week to make it universal for all Catholics to follow easily.
Sunday: Glorious
Monday: Joyful
Tuesday; Sorrowful
Wednesday: Glorious
Thursday: Luminous
Friday: Sorrowful
Saturday: Joyful.

I would like to conclude this post with the prayer taken from today's morning prayer of the Office

Lord, open our heart to your grace,

May we who learned to believe,

through the angel's message,

in the incarnation of Christ Your Son,

be brought by His passion and cross,

at the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary,

to the glory of His resurrection

We make this prayer through our Lord.