Collect for Thirty Third Sunday of Year B

 

COLLECT SERIES

The Mass: Collect Series Icon.

 

COLLECT 

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

 

Grant us, we pray, O Lord our God,

the constant gladness of being devoted to You,

for it is full and lasting happiness

to serve with constancy the author of all that is good.

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. How devoted am I to God and the things of God?

2. What change/s will I commit to this coming week to become more devoted to God?

3. How have I served God with constancy and the author of all that is good in my life?

4. How will I serve God with constancy this coming week?

5. Do I truly believe that God is the author of all that is good and provides His goodness to me each day for my life?

6. When life is difficult, sickness, unemployment, problems of every kind showing up in my life, do I still believe in God-the author of all that is good?

 

 

GOSPEL REFLECTION

 The Gospel is from St Mark 13:24-32. This Gospel teaches us:

1. To accept that the Father is the only one who knows the end of time.  To speculate, to listen to those who ‘know that we are in end times’ can be tempting but we do not need to fall for this trap. Today’s Gospel is quite clear- it is the Father alone who knows and not even His Son or the angels know.

2.  To know how to live our lives each day- to recognise the signs that God provides in the natural and to act upon them in faith where it is necessary.

3.To be ready to meet God whenever He calls us to Himself.  We need to live our lives each day as though it is our last.  We do not know when God will call us to Himself. We can try our best to please God each day by being in relationship with Him every day, by living our lives according to the Gospel values and asking forgiveness when we fail through the sacrament of Reconciliation. 

 

Are we ready to be called God’s chosen?   In the month of November, we remember the Holy Souls in Purgatory.  God in His great love knows that we are not perfect and when we leave this earth that most of us will need some purification, some cleansing and healing before we can be truly called God’s chosen.  We would not want to stand in the presence of God not purified since God is goodness itself.

 

Many people are frightened of the concept of Purgatory. There is no need to be afraid.  It is a place that God provides to help us to be truly read and to be our best selves in His Presence.  It is a beautiful gift God provides us after death to help us on our way to Him.  However, we do not need or should not wait until then to turn towards God.  God provides us with our lives here and now on earth to know, love and serve Him.  Yes, we will fail many times a day, but that should only encourage us to try again, to move forward and to give our best every day.  We do not need to be depressed when we fail.  We turn to Him and ask forgiveness and we can start again.

The Holy Souls in Purgatory can pray for us.  We can ask loved ones who have passed to help us.  The Church teaches us that these Holy Souls can pray for us but they are not able to pray for themselves.  They rely on our prayers, our sacrifices, our efforts to help them.  In November, the Catholic Church remembers them in a special way.  However, we need to keep them in our prayers, our actions and sufferings of the day every day.

There are many Holy Souls who have no one to pray for them or they have been forgotten. Are we going to forget these people too?  For example: if we have a particular fault, tendency to a particular sin, wny not ask the Holy Souls to pray for you. Why not ask the Holy Souls who had that particular difficulty or that tendency to that sin to pray for you and unite yourself with those people through prayer for them.  They need to atone for these sins but your prayer for them, your work for them will make all the difference. They will have a greater understanding of your difficulty/ your tendency to that sin, since they had it in varying degrees themselves whilst on earth.  They will pray for you to overcome but you can pray and offer your day for them so they may be healed and cleansed too.

November Is almost half way through but start today and pray for our loved ones who have passed but also for those we do not know personally but are in need of our prayers and our day to help them.  Include the Holy Souls in your day every day.  Why not start today at Mass, start today with a kind word, or withholding an unkind word, start today with a fault, a tendency to sin and ask the Holy Souls to help you. 

Let us help the Holy Souls every day not just in November.  They need us and we need them. Let us be united in our efforts to be called by God His Chosen in Heaven.