Collect for Thirty First Sunday Year B

 

COLLECT SERIES

 

The Mass: Collect Series Icon.

COLLECT 

The Collect for the Thirty First Year B reads as follows:

Almighty and merciful God,

by whose gift your faithful offer you right and praiseworthy service,

grant, we pray, that we may hasten without stumbling

to receive the things you have promised.

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, the following reflection questions emerged:

1. What does right and faithful service to God mean to me?

2. How will I give God right and faithful service this coming week?

3. What are the things God has promised that I would receive?

4. What are the stumbling blocks which hinder me from fully receiving all the promises that God wants to provide to me?

5. Which of these stumbling blocks in my life will I commit to changing this coming week?

6. Devise a plan/programme for a week/month to work on this area of change.

7. How will I be a better person by next Sunday?

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 GOSPEL REFLECTION

 The Gospel is from St Mark 12:28-34. This Gospel teaches us:

1. The importance of love of God

2. The importance of love of neighbour.

It is interesting to note that when hearing this gospel, many homilists focus on the importance of love of neighbour and exclude the importance of love of God.

There are many occasions where we can choose to love our neighbour.  It does not have to be a grand gesture.  Something as small as a smile, a kind word,  a helpful hand can be both helpful to the neighbour and the emotional wellbeing of the other person.  For example:  I was doing some baking this week.  However my oven decided it was not going to heat correctly.  I had my slice in the oven for 30 minutes and when I came to get it out, it was barely cooked if at all. 
This slice was not for myself as it had been promised and expected to another person.  What was I to do?

I rang my neigbour next door and asked if I could put  it in her oven.  She willingly said yes and whilst it was in the oven, we sat and had a chat.  She had been doing some entertaining the night before and she was tired. She could have easily said no because of her tiredness or she could have said no just because she could not be bothered to help out.  Although she is not a believer, she still showed neigbourly help to provide for my rather desperate need at that point. She was a good neighbour for me.

For Christians though, often we have to go the extra mile, do something we don’t want to do, or God asks us to do something we don’t understand or does not seem logical to us.  If we truly love God,  we will say yes simply because we love God with our whole heart and soul and mind.  If we only do something to help our neighbour but we do it grudgingly, or without any love of God, then we are missing out on the blessing God wants to give us.  Every action we do, we say, we think- every waking moment must be to the honour and glory of God.  If God is first place in our lives and is our best friend, then we will want to love Him more and more.  From that love of God then the actions will follow.

In my view it does not work the other way around. Yes, it is good to love our neighbour and do what we can to help. If we stop there then the whole purpose is missing. 

Every day we have countless ways of showing that we love God- first by being in relationship with Him and spending time in prayer with Him.  Then throughout the day, there are countless opportunities to demonstrate that love of God through our thoughts, words, actions and sufferings too.  However the day unfolds we can keep connected with God who loves us and with His help we too can show our love for Him.