Daily Reflection | Gospel Reading | RVA

4TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
St. John Bosco, priest
Psalter: Week 4 / (White)

Ps 32:1-2, 5, 6, 7
Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.

1st Reading: 2 S 24:2, 9-17*
 (…) The following day, before David awoke, Yahweh’s word had come to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, “Go, and give David this message: I offer you three things and I will let one of them befall you according to your own choice.” So Gad went to David and asked him, “Do you want three years of famine in your land? Or do you want to be pursued for three months by your foes while you flee from them? Or do you want three days’ pestilence in your land? Now, think and decide what answer I shall give him who sent me.”
David answered Gad, “I am greatly troubled. Let me fall into the hands of Yahweh whose mercy is abundant; but let me not fall into human hands.”
So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel from morning until the appointed time, causing the death of seventy thousand men from Dan to Beersheba. When the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh would punish no more and said to the angel who was causing destruction among the people, “It is enough, hold back your hand.” The angel of Yahweh was already at the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite.
When David saw the angel striking the people, he spoke to Yahweh and said, “I have sinned and acted wickedly, but these are only the sheep; what have they done? Let your hand strike me and my father’s family.”

Gospel: Mk 6:1-6
 Leaving that place, Jesus returned to his own country, and his disciples followed him. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and most of those who heard him were astonished. But they said, “How did this come to him? What kind of wisdom has been given to him, that he also performs such miracles? Who is he but the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here among us?” So they took offense at him.
And Jesus said to them, “Prophets are despised only in their own country, among their relatives, and in their own family.” And he could work no miracles there, but only healed a few sick people, by laying his hands on them. Jesus himself was astounded at their unbelief.

Reflections
LET ME FALL INTO THE HANDS OF YAHWEH
Kierkegaard, a famous philosopher said: “Faith is leap into the dark” and I add: ”Because you are sure to fall into the hands of the living God. When I went to Germany to study, I passed by our Motherhouse which had a boathouse near the Stanberg lake where the Sisters would go when they would swim in the lake. They couldn’t believe I could not swim even if I live in an island. Anyway they taught me to swim. The first thing is to float. The more I tried, the more I sank until at one moment I just stopped trying and let go and lo and behold, I floated. Then I reflected on the spirituality of swimming and that is of: LETTING GO — SURRENDER! Faith is actually letting go, surrendering oneself to God who loves us with an unconditional love. In life, we have to practice letting go and letting God. We will find out that when we have exhausted all human efforts to solve our problem and decide to put them into the heart of God, then a solution comes out of nowhere. And if we have become adept at letting go little by little, at the time of our death, when we really have to let go of everything, it will no longer be hard for us and we prepare ourselves to fall into the hand of our loving God.

Daily Reflection 2018

Bible Diary ® is a product of Claretian Publications, a division of Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc. (CCFI) which is a pastoral endeavor of the Claretian Missionaries in the Philippines that brings the Word of God to people from all walks of life. CCFI aims to promote integral evangelization and renewed spirituality that is geared towards empowerment and total liberation in response to the needs and challenges of the Church today.

CCFI is a member of Claret Publishing Group, a consortium of the publishing houses of the Claretian Missionaries all over the world: Bangalore, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Chennai, Colombo, Dar es Salaam, Lagos, Madrid, Macao, Manila, Owerry, São Paolo, Varsaw , Yaoundé.

Biblical Texts are taken from Christian Community Bible, Catholic Pastoral Edition (57^th Edition) The New English Translation for the ROMAN MISSAL

With permission from the EPISCOPAL COMMISION ON LITURGY of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines

 

Bible Diary ® 2018
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Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc.
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Gospel: Mk 5:21-43*
(...) Jairus, an official of the synagogue, came up and, seeing Jesus, threw himself at his feet, and begged him earnestly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may get well and live.“
Jesus went with him, and many people followed, pressing around him. Among the crowd was a woman, who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. (...) Because she had heard about Jesus, this woman came up behind him and touched his cloak, thinking, “If I just touch his clothing, I shall get well.“ Her flow of blood dried up at once, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her complaint. But Jesus was conscious that

healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd, and asked, “Who touched my clothes?“ (...) He kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, aware of what had happened, came forward trembling and afraid. She knelt before him, and told him the whole truth. Then Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be free of this illness.“ While Jesus was still speaking, some people arrived from the official’s house to inform him, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Master any further?“ But Jesus ignored what they said, and told the official, “Do not fear, just believe.“ (...) When they arrived at the house, Jesus saw a great commotion, with people weeping and wailing loudly. Jesus entered, and said to them, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead, but asleep.“ They laughed at him. So Jesus sent them outside, and went with the child’s father and mother and his companions into the room, where the child lay. Taking her by the hand, he said to her, “Talitha kumi!“ which means, “Little girl, get up!“ The girl got up at once and began to walk around. (...) (She was twelve years old.)

Reflections
YOUR FAITH HAS SAVED YOU
In all the miracles Jesus performed, he would inevitably say after the cure: YOUR FAITH HAS SAVED YOU. What is this power within us that has tremendous effects? Is this real? I must say that in my life, I am amazed at how many of my dreams (projects) have come true. The material and human resources simply appeared when they were needed. In human terms, faith can mean this daring to dream, focusing on something, gathering all one’s inner energies in realizing one’s dream. I can give many examples. The latest is when a bishop of a very poor diocese asked me (when I was Prioress) to put a hospital in their area because people just die on the way to the hospital which is 6 hours away. Believe it or not somebody donated to us 3 and a half hectares of land as site of the hospital. And a former scholar of ours, who is now CEO of an automobile company which had a foundation for social responsibility, undertook the construction of the hospital for free. We got a mobile clinic for free. That is why when I was giving a homily in a New York parish to fund-raise for the endowment fund of the hospital, I said: ”To put up a hospital is no joke. But I learned two things in undertaking this project. First, that miracles do happen today not to saints but to ordinary people like us. And second, it pays to dream and to dream big, because if our dream is for people and is worthwhile fulfilling, all the forces of the universe will align themselves to make our dream come true. As Jesus said: If you have a faith as small as a mustard seed, you can move mountains.

Daily Reflection 2018

Bible Diary ® is a product of Claretian Publications, a division of Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc. (CCFI) which is a pastoral endeavor of the Claretian Missionaries in the Philippines that brings the Word of God to people from all walks of life. CCFI aims to promote integral evangelization and renewed spirituality that is geared towards empowerment and total liberation in response to the needs and challenges of the Church today.

CCFI is a member of Claret Publishing Group, a consortium of the publishing houses of the Claretian Missionaries all over the world: Bangalore, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Chennai, Colombo, Dar es Salaam, Lagos, Madrid, Macao, Manila, Owerry, São Paolo, Varsaw , Yaoundé.

Biblical Texts are taken from Christian Community Bible, Catholic Pastoral Edition (57^th Edition) The New English Translation for the ROMAN MISSAL

With permission from the EPISCOPAL COMMISION ON LITURGY of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines

 

Bible Diary ® 2018
Copyright © 2O17 
Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc.
U.P. P.O. Box 4, Diliman,
1101 Quezon City, Philippines
Tel.: (63-2) 921-3984
Fax: (6352) 921-7429
Email: ccfi@claretianpublicationscom
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Web: www.claretianph.com

Gospel: Mk 5:1-20*
They arrived at the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gerasenes. No sooner did Jesus leave the boat than he was met by a man with evil spirits, who had come from the tombs. (...)
When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell at his feet, and cried with a loud voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? For God’s sake, I beg you, do not torment me!“ He said this, because Jesus had commanded, “Evil spirit, come out of the man!“ (...)
Now a great herd of pigs was feeding on the hillside, and the evil spirits begged him, “Send us to the pigs, and let us go into them.“ So Jesus let them go.

The evil spirits came out of the man and went into the pigs; and immediately, the herd rushed down the cliff; and all were drowned in the lake. (...) And when those who had seen it told what had happened to the man and to the pigs, the people begged Jesus to leave their neighborhood.
When Jesus was getting into the boat, the man, who had been possessed begged to stay with him. Jesus would not let him, and said, “Go home to your people, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.“ So he went throughout the country of Decapolis, telling everyone how much Jesus had done for him; and all the people were astonished.

Reflections
TELL THEM HOW MUCH THE LORD HAS DONE FOR YOU
A retreat master once made us do an exercise. He said: Take a piece of paper and on the left hand column, list down all the negative things that happened in your life and on the right hand column, list all the good things that happened in your life. When we discussed and compared our lists, we found out that all of us without exception had a much longer list on the right hand column of our paper. There were many more good things that happened in our lives than negative ones. Indeed the Lord has done great things for us. If we begin with our own existence, out of the many possible beings, why were we the ones that were called to be born? If we look at our bodies, we have the most sophisticated and efficient system in the world including all possible computers. If we think of our family and friends, how much joy and support they have given us. And the opportunities that came to our life — material as well as spiritual — we cannot but exclaim: Thanks be to God. And actually there are those which we do not know we have been blessed with, for example, that we avoided an accident because we came out of the house 5 minutes earlier; that we were not caught doing some mischief in our youth which could have altered the course of our life. Even negative events can prove to be blessings. Many cancer survivors have shared with me their gratitude in finding God after being diagnosed with cancer. And many more. So we can really sing with Mary in the Magnificat: GOD HAS DONE GREAT THINGS TO ME AND HOLY IS GOD’S NAME!

Daily Reflection 2018

Bible Diary ® is a product of Claretian Publications, a division of Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc. (CCFI) which is a pastoral endeavor of the Claretian Missionaries in the Philippines that brings the Word of God to people from all walks of life. CCFI aims to promote integral evangelization and renewed spirituality that is geared towards empowerment and total liberation in response to the needs and challenges of the Church today.

CCFI is a member of Claret Publishing Group, a consortium of the publishing houses of the Claretian Missionaries all over the world: Bangalore, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Chennai, Colombo, Dar es Salaam, Lagos, Madrid, Macao, Manila, Owerry, São Paolo, Varsaw , Yaoundé.

Biblical Texts are taken from Christian Community Bible, Catholic Pastoral Edition (57^th Edition) The New English Translation for the ROMAN MISSAL

With permission from the EPISCOPAL COMMISION ON LITURGY of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines

 

Bible Diary ® 2018
Copyright © 2O17 
Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc.
U.P. P.O. Box 4, Diliman,
1101 Quezon City, Philippines
Tel.: (63-2) 921-3984
Fax: (6352) 921-7429
Email: ccfi@claretianpublicationscom
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Web: www.claretianph.com

Gospel: Mk 1:21-28
They went into the town of Capernaum and Jesus taught in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. The people were astonished at the way he taught, for he spoke as one having authority, and not like the teachers of the law.
It happened that, a man with an evil spirit was in their synagogue, and he shouted, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: you are the Holy One of God.” Then Jesus faced him and said with authority, “Be silent, and come out of this man!” The evil spirit shook the man violently and, with a loud shriek, came out of him.

All the people were astonished, and they wondered, “What is this? With what authority he preaches! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him!” And Jesus’ fame spread throughout all the country of Galilee.

Lectio Divina
Read: A prophet carries great responsibility to communicate not his or her mind, but the mind of the Lord; and the people are expected to be attentive to such a discerning prophet. Everyone has a prophetic call and duty in his or her given station of life wherein one must remain united to the Lord, free from anxieties. Jesus was such a prophet par excellence and so recognized and obeyed even by evil spirits.
Reflect: Jesus preached with such authenticity and authority that even the evil spirits recognized his identity and obeyed him. His authenticity and authority were derived from his having been perfectly attuned to the Father in his total being so much so when he spoke, it was the communication of the very thoughts of the Father. He is a wonder¬ful model for us to imitate in becoming what Paul invites us to do: to be entirely united to the Lord. It helps us to be prophets in our own given/chosen walks of life.
Pray: Lord, keep me united to you so that my heart thinks your thoughts, my lips speak your words, and my hands do your work.
Act: Spend 30 minutes in mindful listening to the Lord.