Collect Third Sunday Eastertide Year A

COLLECT SERIES 

The Mass: Collect Series Icon.

 

COLLECT

The Collect for 3^rd Sunday of Eastertide reads as follows:

May Your people exult for ever, O God in renewed youthfulness of spirit,

So that, rejoicing now in the restored glory of our adoption,

We may look forward in confident hope to the rejoicing of the day of Resurrection.

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.How will I exult in renewed youthfulness of spirit this coming week?

2. What does it mean to me to exult and praise God?

3. How often each day do I praise and exult God in my prayers and throughout the day?

4.What are the areas of my life that needs to be renewed in youthfulness of spirit?

5.What does it mean me to be an adopted son/daughter of God?

6.Why is the resurrection of Jesus central to my Catholic faith?

7.In this difficult time of Covid 19, how will I live in confident hope this coming week?

 

 GOSPEL REFLECTION

 

There are many aspects to the Gospel of the Disciples on the way to Emmaus.

Some of these may be:

The grief and downheartedness of these disciples and their expectations of Jesus.

Importance of sharing grief/emotions with others who understand and listen.

Importance of sharing our life with Jesus- every aspect not just the big things in our lives.

The role of scripture in our lives- Scripture is God’s love letter to us. How often do we read it and understand it?

What happens when scripture comes alive in us’ How often can we say’’ did our hearts not burn as He explained the scripture to us?’

The importance of recognising Jesus as we listen and converse with Him in prayer and also, recognising Him in other people in the circumstances of our lives.

 

If we are to recognise Jesus, we need to spend time with Him  to converse, to listen, to share our lives, hopes, disappointments and daily up and downs.  We need also to spend time to read the scripture- our hearts cant burn within us like the disciples on the road to Emmaus if we do not spend time with Jesus in the scripture.
He alone can explain it to us in the best possible way for each of us individually. We too can experience our hearts burning as Jesus speaks to us.

 

In this time of the pandemic Covid 19, we need to re-evaluate our lives on all levels- the physical, emotional, spiritual, financial, social. We need to take stock and  change where necessary our habits, behaviours, attitudes and mindset.  We need to set appropriate goals too so that each day we continue to live in hope in the light of the risen Lord.

 

Remember, regardless of the current pandemic, the decision to place Jesus no 1 in our lives is a choice- a choice we need to continue to do every day.  However, if we truly love Jesus, then we will want to spend some time with Him every day, we will want to hear Him speak to us and we will want to listen to Him.

 On this third Sunday of Easter when we are reminded of the importance of God’s word for us and recognising Jesus too who also resides in other people, let us recommit ourselves to knowing, loving and serving God this coming week in whatever way we can.  Every task done however small offered to God and done cheerfully can be a gift from us to God, can provide for us more graces we need and ultimately shows our faith in action. We too can be like the disciples from Emmaus, turning back to share the Good News with others of the Risen Lord. We too can experience a watershed moment during this pandemic if we are open to God and His grace in our lives.

 (icon-1971100_1280 He is risenPixabay.com)

May our hearts burn within us as we recognise Him this coming week.

 

Alleluia.

 

 

 

Collect for Second Sunday of Eastertide Year A

COLLECT SERIES

The Mass: Collect series Icon.

COLLECT

The Collect for the Second Sunday of Eastertide reads as follows:

God of everlasting mercy, who in the very recurrence of the paschal feast

 kindle the faith of the people you have made your own,

Increase, we pray, the grace You have bestowed,

that all my grasp and right understand in what font they have been washed,

by whose Spirit they have bee reborn,

by whose Blood they have been redeemed. 

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

1.    What does God’s mercy mean to me?

2.    How will I celebrate Mercy Sunday?

3.    In what areas of my faith does my faith need kindling?

4.    What does it mean to me be to be reborn in the Spirit?

5.    What difference will it make to my life this coming week to have been redeemed by Jesus?

GOSPEL REFLECTION.

The Gospel which tells the story of doubting Thomas is so well known and for many people so well loved.  I think it is so well loved for many because we  can relate to Thomas.

Imagine we were the disciples and we were told by some of the other disciples, after knowing that Jesus had died on the cross that He has risen. What would we say?  Surely, we would have questioned it.  Thomas therefore did the most natural thing a human would do. Remember no one ever before had risen from the dead. Why would the disciples expect anything else even though Jesus had told them numerous times during His three-year ministry?

The other aspect about Thomas refusal to believe is that he wanted proof.  There are many people who refuse to believe because they want Christians to prove and show them the existence of God.

Yet faith does not need proof. Faith believes.  Thomas came to belief because he saw but Jesus says’ Happy are they who believe yet not see’.

However, even though Thomas came to belief through seeing Jesus, he still had the choice to believe and to respond to his belief.  He could have acknowledged that Jesus is risen and left it at that. No, he humbled himself and from the core of his being cried out ‘My Lord and my God’.

When life is difficult, especially now with the Covid 19 crisis in the world, we may be tempted to think ‘where is God in all of this?  Why has He allowed this to happen to the world?  Some people’s faith may be shaken through this crisis.  Some may even lose their faith by not making the effort to keep Jesus no 1 in their lives.  They may not bother to attend a live stream Mass on Sunday or continue to communicate in prayer to Jesus. 

We as Catholics know that Jesus said ‘ I am with you always until the end of time’.  We are living in trying times right now but we need to stay strong and reaffirm our belief in the risen Lord.  We need to cry out from the depths of our hearts ‘ My Lord and my God’.

No 118 Why was the death of Jesus part of God’s plan?

COMPENDIUM SERIES.

JESUS THE TEACHER:  Compendium Series Icon.

No 118.  Why was the death of Jesus part of  God’s plan? (CCC 599-605)

WHAT DOES THE COMPENDIUM SAY?

Compendium states:

‘To reconcile to himself all who were destined to die because of sin God took the loving initiative by sending His Son that He might give himself up for sinners.  Proclaimed in the Old Testament especially as the sacrifice of Suffering Servant, the death of Jesus came about “in accordance with Scripture’.

What does this mean for me?

1.  Imagine for a moment what it would be like if God had not sent Jesus to take our place as sinners.

2.  I can acknowledge constantly in prayer the great gift God gave to the world by sending His Only Son to die for our sins.so that we could be reconciled to God.

3. I can read and meditate on the passion and death of Jesus regularly to remind myself of God’s great love.

Questions to consider.

1. What does it mean to me to be reconciled to God?
2.  How will I examine my conscience with regard to my personal sins and vices each day?
3.  How can I appreciate the Passion, death and resurrection of Jesus?
4.   In what areas of my life do I need conversion of heart and need personal reconciliation with God?
5.  What am I doing for my parish to contribute?
6.   Are there people in my life that I need to be reconciled?  What actions am I able to make to enter into a process of reconciliation?
7.    In the light of Coronavirus and our parish churches closed, how can I continue to stay close to Jesus and remain faithful? 
8.   How can we be converted in our hearts and re-evaluate my relationship with God?

      

Plan of St Matthew Gospel Pt 2

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW SERIES

 

Gospel of Matthew series Icon.(Pixabay.com)

Welcome back to my Gospel of Matthew Series. During 2020, each week, I will write a post about the Gospel of Matthew as I review and explore each of the 28 chapters and how it may be applied in our daily lives. My goal is to understand and pray the Gospel of Matthew.  I hope you will join me on this journey as we travel through the liturgical season of Year A.

PLAN OF ST MATTHEW’S GOSPEL PART 2.

In last week’s post, we discussed the structure of Gospel of Matthew in relation to the narratives. If you have not read this post, you might like to read it here.

In this week’s post we continue on with understanding the plan of Gospel of Matthew by unpacking the structure of the Discourses.

There are 5 discourses or sermons. They are:

1.    Sermon on the Mount.

2.    Mission Sermon.

3.    Sermon in Parables.

4.    Sermon on the Church

5.    Judgement Sermon.

There is a pattern to these discourses/sermons.  In this pattern,  Sermon on the Mount (1) is connected to the Judgement Sermon (5): the MIssion sermon corresponds to Sermon on the Church (4) and finally, Sermon in Parables becomes the central focus or significance.

In other words,  Sermon 1 and 5 and 2 and 4 should be read in a manner which sheds light on each other. It could be inferred then that because of this pattern that  the Gospel was constructed on a structure that the title ‘son of Abraham’ given to Jesus in the prologue (1:1) to be related to the command to the Eleven Disciples in the epilogue ‘God therefore and make disciples of all nations’. Jesus is the realisation of the promise made to Abraham’ In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’(Gen 12:3).

In Matthew’s Gospel, he stresses the following theme:

·         The universality of salvation.

It has a high theological for Matthew as is shown by its exposed position at the very beginning and end of the Gospel.

Stay tuned for next week’s post as we begin our journey of salvation by examining Chapter 1.

Collect for Easter Sunday

COLLECT SERIES

The Mass: Collect Series Icon.

COLLECT

The Collect for Easter Sunday Year A reads as follows:

O God, who on this day, through Your Only Begotten Son,

Have conquered death and unlocked for us the path to eternity,

Grant, we pray, that we who keep the Solemnity of the Lord’s Resurrection

May, through the renewal brought by Your Spirit,

Rise up in the light of life.

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 does Jesus conquering death and unlocking for me the path to eternity mean      for me?
2.    How will I keep the Solemnity of the Lord’s Resurrection during the pandemic crisis
3.   How will I renew myself with God’s grace in the light of Christ this coming week?
4.   How will I renew my spiritual life during this crisis of covid19?
5.    What are the areas of my life that need to risen up in the light of life?

GOSPEL REFLECTION

‘He is not here. He is risen. He will go to meet you in Galilee.’

He is risen Icon from Pixabay.com

This Gospel reflection is from Matthew’s Gospel which was read at the Easter Vigil.  On Easter Sunday, the Resurrection account is from St John.

Imagine for a moment what it must have been like for those women who went to the tomb to do the customary ritual.  They were expecting the tomb sealed and definitely knew that Jesus had died. They had witnessed it after all at a distance, unlike most of His disciples who ran away and locked themselves in the Upper Room. 

Remember they were being very brave because there were the soldiers guarding the tomb. Yet we are told in Matthew’s gospel that the earthquake happened and the soldiers were like dead men totally dazed.

The women saw and heard the angel speak to them. Notice that the angel announced the Good News of the Resurrection just like the angel did at His Birth.

Were the women afraid? Well probably- they were human of course but the difference is they believed- they had faith even though someone rising from the dead had never happened before.   What would you or I think if some friends came and told us that our loved ones were alive again physically?  Would we believe them? Would we think that they had gone insane or just too hard to believe?

In light of this, I don’t this we can be too critical of the disciples. We have 2000 years and we know the greatest story ever told.  Do we truly believe?

The other important aspect is that the women put their faith into action. They responded to the Good News and went and told the Disciples. 

"He is risen." The resurrection of Christ is a pledge of our own resurrection. It is the foundation upon which our faith rests. It is the guarantee of our redemption and God's assurance that our sins are forgiven and that we are called to eternal life. "This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us be glad and rejoice therein. Give praise to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. Alleluia." "Christ our Pasch is sacrificed. . .. The Lamb redeems the sheep. Christ, the innocent One, hath reconciled sinners to the Father." 

What about us? How do we respond to the Good News of Jesus Christ?

May you have a truly blessed Easter day and 50 days to rejoice.

No 117 Who is responsible for the death of Jesus?

COMPENDIUM SERIES

JESUS THE TEACHER:  Compendium Series Icon.

No 117.  Who is responsible for the death of Jesus? (CCC 595-598)

WHAT DOES THE COMPENDIUM SAY?

Compendium states:

‘The Passion and death of Jesus cannot be imputed indiscriminately either to all the Jews that were living at the time or their descendants. Every single sinner, that is, every human being is really the cause and the instrument of the suffering of the Redeemer; and the greater blame in this regard falls on those above all who are Christians who more often fall into sin and delight in their vices

What does this mean for me?

1.  I can consider my role in the passion and death of Jesus by considering my sins and vices and resolving to turn away from them with God’ help.

2.  I can kindly correct anyone who blames the Jews and gently point out that the whole of humanity is responsible because we have all sinned.

3. I can read and meditate on the passion and death of Jesus regularly to remind myself of God’s great love.

Questions to consider.

       1   How can I appreciate the saving plan of God- the Paschal Mystery in my life every
    day?
 2. How will I examine my conscience with regard to my personal sins and vices each
    day?

        3. In what areas of my life do I need conversion of heart?

 4. How do I contribute to my parish?

 5. What is my attitude to blasphemy in speech, on the TV, in the media?

        6. In the light of Coronavirus and our parish churches closed, how can I continue to
      stay close to Jesus and remain faithful? 

      7.    How can we be converted in our hearts and re-evaluate my relationship with God?

      

Plan of St Matthew's Gospel

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW SERIES.

Gospel of Matthew Series Icon.

Welcome back to my Gospel of Matthew Series. During 2020, each week, I will write a post about the Gospel of Matthew as I review and explore each of the 28 chapters and how it may be applied in our daily lives. My goal is to understand and pray the Gospel of Matthew.  I hope you will join me on this journey as we travel through the liturgical season of Year A.

PLAN OF ST MATTHEW’S GOSPEL

In understanding Matthew’s Gospel, it is interesting to note that it not only has 28 chapters but it falls naturally into 7 parts. Added to that the structure of chapter 3-28 is precise: five sections, each containing a narrative section and a discourse. 

Each of the discourses has a brief introduction and each is closed by a stereotypical formula ‘And when it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these sayings’. These 5 central parts of the Gospel are not disconnected units, but rather are closely linked.

The narratives indicate therefore the progression of events whilst the discourses illustrate a parallel progress in the messianic concept of the kingdom of Heaven.

THE PLAN/STRUCTURE

1.    Part 1: Prologue: Infancy Narrative (Chapter 1-2).

2.    Part 2: Proclamation of the Kingdom (Chapter 3-7).

            The Mission begins (Chapter 3-4).

            Sermon on the Mount (Chapter 5-7).

3.    Part 3: Mission in Galilee (8:1-11:1)

                       Miracles Stories (8-9)

                       Mission Sermon (10:1-11:1).

4.    Part 4: Opposition from Israel (11:2-13:53)

          Opposition and Response (11:2-12:50).

          Sermon in Parables (13:1-53).

5.    Part 5: The Kingdom develops (13:54-18:35)

             Formation of Disciples (14-17).

            Sermon on the Church (18).

6.    Part 6:  Towards the Passion (19-25)

                        Mounting Opposition (19-23).

                        Judgement Sermon (24-25).

7.    Part 7:   Climax: Passion, Death and Resurrection (26-28).

In understanding this structure of the Gospel, it can give us insight in how the Gospel develops. We can also compare it to the other synoptic Gospels of Mark and Luke and notice also the difference or extra detail that Matthew shares.  It is important to remember that the Gospel writers were inspired by the Holy Spirit and were also addressing different audiences.

Next week, we will continue to look at the structure a little deeper and discuss the structure of the discourses.