Daily Reflection

March 8, 2017 Wednesday

1^st WEEK OF LENT
Psalter: Week 1 / (Violet)
St. John of God, religious

Ps 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19
A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

1^st Reading: Jon 3:1-10

The word of Yahweh came to Jonah a second time: “Go to Nineveh, the great city, and announce to them the message I give you.“

In obedience to the word of Yahweh, Jonah went to Nineveh. It was a very large city, and it took three days just to cross it. So Jonah walked a single day’s journey and began proclaiming, “Forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed.“

The people of the city believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

Upon hearing the news, the king of Nineveh got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes. He issued a proclamation throughout Nineveh:

“By the decree of the king and his nobles, no people or beasts, herd or ﬂock, will taste anything; neither will they eat nor drink. But let people and beasts be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call aloud to God, turn from his evil ways and violence. Who knows? God may yet relent, turn from his ﬁerce anger and spare us.“

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened upon them.

Gospel: Lk 11:29-32

As the crowd increased, Jesus spoke the following words: “People of the present time are troubled people. They ask for a sign, but no sign will be given to them except the sign of Jonah. As Jonah became a sign for the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be a sign for this generation. The Queen of the South will rise up on Judgment Day with the people she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and here, there is greater than Solomon.

“The people of Nineveh will rise up on Judgment Day with the people of these times and accuse them, for Jonah’s preaching made them turn from their sins, and here, there is greater than Jonah.“

REFLECTION:

Repent and believe in the Gospel

The second formula used during the giving of ashes on Ash Wednesday is “Repent and believe in the Gospel.“ This formula reminds us of our call to repentance. Jonah in the Old Testament was sent to Nineveh to preach repentance. Jonah actually did not want to obey Yahweh. No! He wanted instead to pray that Nineveh, the city of their persecutors be destroyed! (Jonah was not yet taught the Lord’s Prayer!) But still God made a way so that Jonah would preach to the Ninevites and they would repent!

On the other hand, in the Gospel today Jesus commiserates on how the Jews of his own time have one greater than Jonah preaching to them about repentance and yet they turn a deaf ear. So Jesus speaks of a severe judgment on the Jews who refuse to heed his call to repentance.

San Juan de Dios, our Saint of today, lived a very troubled life before his conversion. He had been a shepherd, soldier of fortune, and many odd occupations before he heard the Gospel that converted him in his 40s. Once he had seen the light of the Gospel he gave his life to the care of the sick, especially the mentally ill, as he himself had suffered some mental illness. He dedicated his life for the sick establishing the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John, who care for the sick. He repented and believed in the Gospel! May we repent and believe in the Good News!

Daily Gospel ® is a product 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

DAILY GOSPEL ® 2017
Readings and Reflections
Copyright © 2O16
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

March 7, 2017 Tuesday

1st WEEK OF LENT
Psalter: Week 1 / (Violet)
Sts. Felicity & Perpetua, martyrs

Ps 34:4-5, 6-7, 16-17, 18-19
From all their distress God rescues the just.

1^st Reading: Is 55:10-11

As the rain and the snow come down from the heavens and do not return till they have watered the earth, making it yield seed for the sower and food for others to eat, so is my word that goes forth out of my mouth: it will not return to me idle, but it shall accomplish my will, the purpose for which it has been sent.

Gospel: Mt 6:7-15

Jesus said to his disciples, “When you pray, do not use a lot of words, as the pagans do; for they believe that, the more they say, the more chance they have of being heard. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need, even before you ask him.

This, then, is how you should pray:
Our Father in heaven, holy be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will, be done on earth, as in heaven.
Give us today, our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we forgive those who are in debt to us.
Do not bring us to the test,
but deliver us from the evil one.

“If you forgive others their wrongdoings, your Father in heaven will also forgive yours. If you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive you.“

REFLECTION:

Forgive Your Enemy

There is a very beautiful story about the “Our Father.“ During the communist reign in Russia under Stalin, a communist Russian-Jew, Dr. Boris Kornfeld, a surgeon, became one of the many political prisoners in Siberia. While in the prison camp a Christian prisoner taught him “The Our Father.“ Boris was not a Christian; but he found the prayer attractive and consoling, so he begun to pray it.

One day, a guard featured in a knifing incident. An artery had been cut. Dr. Kornfeld was ordered to save the guard. While suturing the blood vessel, he thought of tying the thread in such a way that it would reopen shortly after surgery. The guard would die quickly and no one would suspect anything. The process of taking this particular form of vengeance gave rein to the burning hatred Dr. Kornfeld had for the guard and all like him. How he despised his persecutors! An opportunity for him to get even with the inhuman prison guards had presented itself to him. But just as he was about to do the evil he had contemplated, he remembered the “Our Father“ he had been praying. He paused. He prayed. He resisted the temptation. As he completed the surgery he prayed: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation.“

Dr. Kornfeld would later die in prison, a victim of the atrocities of the Gulag prison camp, but not before converting to Christianity and telling his story to his last patient in the Gulag, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, author of “One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.“

Daily Reflection

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

March 6, 2017 Monday

1st WEEK OF LENT
Psalter: Week 1 / (Violet)

Ps 19:8, 9, 10, 15
Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.

1^st Reading: Lev 19:1-2, 11-18

Yahweh spoke to Moses and said, “Speak to the entire assembly of the people of Israel and say to them: Be holy for I, Yahweh, your God, am holy.

Do not steal or lie or deceive one another. Do not swear falsely by my name so as to profane the name of your God; I am Yahweh.

Do not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning. 14 You shall not curse a deaf man nor put a stumbling block in the way of the blind; but you shall fear your God; I am Yahweh.

Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor nor bow to the great; you are to judge your neighbor fairly so as not to share in his guilt. Do not go about as a slanderer of your people and do not seek the death of your neighbor; I am Yahweh.

Do not hate your brother in your heart; rebuke your neighbor frankly so as not to share in his guilt. Do not seek revenge or nurture a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am Yahweh.

Gospel: Mt 25:31-46

Jesus said to his disciples, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory with all his angels, he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be brought before him; and, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, so will he do with them, placing the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left.

“The king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, blessed of my Father! Take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me into your home. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to see me.’

“Then the righteous will ask him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, and give you food; thirsty, and give you something to drink; or a stranger, and welcome you; or naked, and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and go to see you?’ The king will answer, ‘Truly I say to you: just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it to me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Go, cursed people, out of my sight, into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry, and you did not give me anything to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not welcome me into your house; I was naked, and you did not clothe me; I was sick, and in prison, and you did not visit me.’

“They, too, will ask, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked or a stranger, sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ The king will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you: just as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for me.’

“And these will go into eternal punishment; but the just, to eternal life.“

REFLECTION:

The Tree of Holiness

In todays’ reading we hear Yahweh reveal to Moses the fundamental Law: “Be holy, for I, Yahweh, your God am holy.“ What is holiness? How does one become holy?

Holiness is following the way of Christ. And the way of Christ is the way of the Cross! Under the sign of the Cross we pray, bless, and are sanctified. It is in the sign of the Cross that we become holy. The Cross has two dimensions, namely, the vertical and the horizontal. The vertical dimension tells us to raise our eyes to God in heaven in prayer. The horizontal dimension tells us to reach out to our brothers and sisters in charity, in the corporal works of mercy. This reminds me of two beautiful literary pieces.

In “The Trees“ Joyce Kilmer wrote:
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
Holiness is stretching our arms in prayer.

The other literary piece is “The Giving Tree“ by Shel Silverstein. It is the story of an apple tree that gives itself to a man from boyhood to adulthood. The “giving tree“ gave its entire life to the boy. Holiness is giving until it hurts, giving until nothing remains!

Yes, holiness is about the Cross! Holiness is becoming like Jesus who prayed with outstretched arms and giving all! Holiness comes in the form of The Tree of Life, the Cross!

Daily Reflection

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

March 5, 2017 Sunday

1ST SUNDAY OF LENT
Psalter: Week 1 / (Violet)

Ps 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17
Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.

1^st Reading: Gen 2:7-9; 3:1-7

Then Yahweh God formed man, dust drawn from the clay, and breathed into his nostrils a breath of life and man became alive with breath. God planted a garden in Eden in the east and there he placed man whom he had created. Yahweh God caused to grow from the ground every kind of tree that is pleasing to see and good to eat, also the tree of Life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Now the serpent was the most crafty of all the wild creatures that Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say: You must not eat from any tree in the garden?“ The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden, but of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden God said: You must not eat, and you must not touch it or you will die.“ The serpent said to the woman, “You will not die, but God knows that the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.“

The woman saw that the fruit was good to eat, and pleasant to the eyes, and ideal for gaining knowledge. She took its fruit and ate it and gave some to her husband who was with her. He ate it. Then their eyes were opened and both of them knew they were naked. So they sewed leaves of a fig tree together and made themselves loincloths.

2^nd Reading: Rom 5:12-19 (or Rom 5:12, 17-19)

Therefore, sin entered the world through one man; and through sin, death; and later on, death spread to all humankind, because all sinned. As long as there was no law, they could not speak of disobedience, but sin was already in the world. This is why, from Adam to Moses, death reigned among them, although their sin was not disobedience, as in Adam’s case—this was not the true Adam, but foretold the other, who was to come.

Such has been the fall, but God’s gift goes far beyond. All died, because of the fault of one man, but how much more does the grace of God spread, when the gift he granted, reaches all, from this unique man, Jesus Christ. Again, there is no comparison between the gift, and the offense of one man. The disobedience that brought condemnation was of one sinner, whereas the grace of God brings forgiveness to a world of sinners. If death reigned through the disobedience of one and only one person, how much more, will there be a reign of life, for those who receive the grace, and the gift of true righteousness, through the one person, Jesus Christ.

Just as one transgression brought sentence of death to all, so, too, one man’s good act has brought justification and light to all; and, as the disobedience of only one, made all sinners, so the obedience of one person, allowed all to be made just and holy.

Gospel: Mt 4:1-11

Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert, that he might be put to the test by the devil. After Jesus fasted forty days and nights he was famished.

Then the tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, order these stones to turn into bread.“ But Jesus answered, “Scripture says: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.“

Then the devil took Jesus to the Holy City, set him on the highest wall of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for scripture says: God has given orders to his angels concerning you. Their hands will hold you up, lest you hurt your foot against a stone.“ Jesus answered, “But scripture also says: You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.“

Then the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain, and showed him all the nations of the world in all their greatness and splendor. And he said, “All this I will give you, if you kneel down and worship me.“ Then Jesus answered, “Be off, Satan! Scripture says: Worship the Lord your God and serve him alone!“

Then the devil left him; and angels came to serve him.

REFLECTION:

Read: The first reading narrates the Fall of Man: How humanity sinned. The Gospel narrative informs us how Jesus overcame the temptations and rewrote human history. Paul captures the theological implications of both narratives: how through one man’s sin and death entered the world, and through another, salvation and life.

Reflect: The temptations of Jesus parallel those of Adam and Eve. For, Eve saw that the fruit was good to eat [bodily realm], and pleasant to the eyes [psychological realm], and ideal for gaining knowledge [spiritual realm], and she succumbed to the temptation. Jesus faces the same situation— bread [bodily realm], miracle [psychological], and false worship [spiritual]—and he overcomes them. What are your temptations at these levels and how do you respond?

Pray: Pray the Lord’s Prayer, with special attention to the verse on temptations.

Act: Receive the sacrament of reconciliation this week.

Daily Reflection

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

Daily Reflection | Gospel Reading | RVA

March 8, 2017 Wednesday

Daily Reflection

March 7, 2017 Tuesday

Daily Reflection

March 6, 2017 Monday

Daily Reflection

March 5, 2017 Sunday

Daily Reflection

More Articles ...

Daily Reflection

RVA Mass