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Friday 19 – Late Issue but Hot Off The Press
June 19, 2015 by
Thursday June 18 Jesus Teaches the "Our Father"
June 18, 2015 by
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Wednesday June 17 No matter what age we are, we all give good or bad example to others
June 17, 2015 by
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Tuesday June 16 – The Gospel again talks about Love and Forgiving and Loving our Enemies.
June 16, 2015 by
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Monday June 15 Not an eye for an eye but Forgiveness
June 15, 2015 by
Daily Dig for June 15
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
| The poet Stifter once said, “Pain is a holy angel, who shows treasures to men which would otherwise remain forever hidden; through him men have become greater than through all the joys of the world.” It must be so and I tell myself this in my present situation over and over again. The pain of suffering and of longing, which can often be felt even physically, must be there, and we cannot and need not talk it away. But it needs to be overcome every time, and thus there is an even holier angel than the one of pain; that is, the one of joy in God. Source: The Martyred Christian: 160 Readings
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Daily Prayer for June 15Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
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Sunday June 14 The seed is planted
June 14, 2015 by
Sunday June 14th The Kingdom of God is like a man who goes out and scatter seeds upon the ground.
June 13, 2015 by
THE GROWTH OF THE CHURCH
(A biblical refection on THE ELEVENTH ORDINARY SUNDAY – June 14, 2015)
Gospel Reading: Mark 4:26-34
First Reading: Ezekiel 17:22-24; Psalms: Psalm 92:2-3,13-16; Second Reading: 2Corinthians 5:6-10
The Scripture Text And He said, “The Kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how. The earth produces of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.’’
And He said, “With what can we compare the Kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
With many such parables He spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to His own disciples He explained everything. (Mark 4:26-34 RSV)
No one has actually seen a tree grow. Its growth is too slow for the human eye to perceive. Nor, for that matter, has anyone ever seen a child grow. It is only after you have not been with a child for some time, that you notice how tall he has become. Living things grow slowly.The Church, too, grows slowly because it is a living organism. It is made up of human beings who, like the cells of human body, form the mystical body of Jesus Christ. Growth is what our Lord is talking about in today’s Gospel. He started with the twelve apostles, a very small group of men. Those men after Pentecost went out and began the conversion of the whole world, so that today the Church has really many people as its members. Based on the July 2013 world statistics, total world population is estimated at 7.1 billions, of which 31.5 % are Christians (Roman Catholic Church alone: 16.85%; source: WIKIPEDIA). When Pope John summoned the Second Vatican Council, more than two thousand bishops from every nation responded to his call. If the apostles could come back to earth today, they would be amazed at the growth of the Church.
The growth of the Church is of course due to the power of God, and God’s power cannot be frustrated by either the evil or the incompetence of men. As a seed planted in the earth has an almost mysterious ability to develop while the farmer sleeps, so the Church has an inner divinely given dynamism which ensures its continuing and spreading from age to age. And yet the role of the members of the Church is far from passive in God’s plan. What God could do all by Himself, He has decided to do with and through the members of the Church.
Back in 1943 when he wrote his encyclical on the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ, Pope Pius XII put it this way: “Dying on the cross Christ left to His Church the immense treasury of the redemption; towards this she contributed nothing. But when those graces come to be distributed, not only does He share this task of sanctification with His Church, but He wants it in a way to be due to her action” (46), That we (you and I) are Catholics today is traceable to the action of those who have preceded us in the faith. That the Church spread from Palestine over the centuries to all the countries of the world is due, under God, to the goodness and holiness of the members of the Church.When we think of how the Church began with such a small group and see what it is today we are indeed amazed, but we must never become complacent. Now it is our turn to do something, for we bear the responsibility for continuing the spread of Christ’s Church. We know that we should give good example and try to talk to people about the Church. Today, however, let’s try to focus on something very important, something that may escape our realization.
The Church is like a human body. As the vitality of the body depends on the health of its cells, to the vitality of the Church depends on the holiness of its members. We may think that the sins we commit offend God alone and harm only ourselves. That is not true. Sin damages the whole Church, just as an infection in any part of the body affects the whole body. On the other hand, we may feel that we are not very important, that our prayers and penances cannot accomplish very much. That too is not true. When we try to live good lives as Jesus has taught us, we are very instrumental in the building up of the whole Church.
Listen to these words of Pope Pius XII from the same encyclical on the Mystical Body: “Deep mystery this, subject of inexhaustible meditation, that the salvation of many depends on the prayers and voluntary penances which the members of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ offer for this intention …” (ibid.). Deep mystery indeed: God wills that the salvation of others should come about through our prayers and penances. Subject of inexhaustible meditation, something we must never forget, that the goodness of our lives can ready benefit others.Prayers: Heavenly Father, Your love gives us strength to follow Your Son, Jesus Christ. We rejoice in the faith that draws us together in the Church as His Mystical Body, fully aware that selfishness can drive us apart. Let Your encouragement be our constant strength. Keep us one in the love that has sealed our lives, help us to live as one family the Gospel we profess. Amen.
Jakarta, 12 June 2015 [SACRED HEART OF JESUS]
A Christian Pilgrim
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Daily Dig for June 13
Henri Nouwen
| I am with people who are poor in spirit. They teach me that being is more important than doing, the heart is more important than the mind, and doing things together is more important than doing things alone. Source: The Road to Peace: Writings on Peace and Justice |
Daily Prayer for June 13Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
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Friday June 12 Feast of the Sacred Heart God So Loved the World, He gave us His Only Son
June 12, 2015 by
June 13 Saturday – Feast of Saint Anthony of Padua.
Founder of Lost Article
( So they say)
Daily Dig for June 12
Henry David Thoreau
| We need the tonic of wildness, to wade sometimes in marshes where the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe; to smell the whispering sedge where only the wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground. At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and titanic features, the sea-coast with its wrecks, the wilderness with its living and its decaying trees, the thunder cloud, and the rain which lasts three weeks and produces freshets. We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander. Source: Walden |
Daily Prayer for June 12Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
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Thursday June 11 Feast of Saint Barnabas
June 11, 2015 by
Saint Barnabas and Paul.
Daily Prayer for June 11
Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
| Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 36:5, 7, NIV
Lord our God, we turn our hearts and minds to you. Be with us and grant us your Spirit. May your Word be a blessing for us. We thank you that this Word is given us in Jesus Christ, our Savior. Almighty God, stretch out your hand over the whole world. Let your Spirit bring a new age, an age of truth, righteousness, and love, an age of peace that comes from you. O Lord God, we are your children, and as your children we pray to you in the name of Jesus Christ. You will hear us, and we look forward with joy to the time when all promises will be fulfilled, the time spoken about by the prophets, and especially by your Son, Jesus Christ. Be with us and gather us in your Spirit. Amen. Daily Dig for June 11Sadhu Sundar Singh
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Wednesday June 10 "I have not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them." Matthew 5:17-19
June 10, 2015 by
Daily Dig for June 10
Basil of Caesarea
| “I am wronging no one,” you say, “I am merely holding on to what is mine.” What is yours! Who gave it to you so that you could bring it into life with you? Why, you are like a man who pinches a seat at the theater at the expense of latecomers, claiming ownership of what was for common use. That’s what the rich are like; having seized what belongs to all, they claim it as their own on the basis of having got there first. Whereas if everyone took for himself enough to meet his immediate needs and released the rest for those in need of it, there would be no rich and no poor. Source: Ownership: Early Christian Teaching
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Daily Prayer for June 10
Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
| May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us – so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. Psalm 67:1–2, NIV Lord, Almighty God, you are our Father and we are your children, who want to live for you through Jesus Christ our Lord. Strengthen and renew our hearts. When discouragement and fear try to mislead us, may your Holy Spirit help us again and again to hold fast, for no matter what difficulties arise, your will is being done and your will is good. Your name will be honored. Your kingdom will come for all nations. Your reign will come over all peoples, for they are all yours and must acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Lord, to your honor, O Father. Amen. |
