#i have sown the seed and i shall see it harvest

[officialyourdailyinspiration]

The Parable of the Sower

1 ¶ The same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea side.

2 And a great multitude was gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

3 And he spoke many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, the sower went forth to sow;

4 and when he sowed, some of the seed fell beside the way, and the fowls came and devoured them up.

5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth; and forthwith they sprang up because they had no deepness of earth;

6 and when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.

7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up and choked them.

8 But some fell into good ground and brought forth fruit: one a hundredfold and another sixtyfold and another thirtyfold.

9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

The Purpose of the Parables

10 Then the disciples came and said unto him, Why dost thou speak unto them in parables?

11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens, but to them it is not given.

12 For whosoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have in abundance; but whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that which he has.

13 Therefore, I speak to them in parables because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, By hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive;

15 for this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart and should be converted, and I should heal them.

16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.

17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them.

18 Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.

The Parable of the Sower Explained

19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and catches away that which was sown in his heart. This is he who was planted beside the way.

20 But he that was planted in stony places, the same is he that hears the word and receives it immediately with joy;

21 yet he has no root in himself but is temporal, for when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, by and by he is offended.

22 And he that was planted among the thorns is he that hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

23 But he that was planted in good ground is he that hears the word and understands it and who also bears the fruit and brings forth: one a hundredfold and another sixty and another thirty.

The Parable of Weeds among the Wheat

24 ¶ He put forth another parable unto them, saying, The kingdom of the heavens is likened unto a man who sows good seed in his field

25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went away.

26 But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then the tares appeared also.

27 So the slaves of the husband of the house came and said unto him, Lord, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? From where then does it have tares?

28 He said unto them, The enemy, a man, has done this. The slaves said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

29 But he said, No, lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

31 He put forth another parable unto them, saying, The kingdom of the heavens is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field;

32 which indeed is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the heaven come and make their nests in its branches.

The Parable of the Yeast

33 He spoke another parable unto them: The kingdom of the heavens is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened.

The Use of Parables

34 Jesus spoke all these things unto the multitude in parables and said nothing unto them without parables

35 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.

Jesus Explains the Parable of the Weeds

36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house, and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.

37 He answered and said unto them, He that sows the good seed is the Son of man;

38 the field is the world; the good seed are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked;

39 and the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.

40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this age.

41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and those who do iniquity

42 and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Three Parables

44 ¶ Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like unto treasure hid in the field, which when found, a man hides it and, for the joy thereof, goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

45 Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls,

46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

47 Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like unto a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind of fish,

48 which, when it was full, they drew to shore and sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.

49 So shall it be at the end of the age; the angels shall come forth and separate the wicked from among the just

50 and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Treasures New and Old

51 Jesus said unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They answered unto him, Yes, Lord.

52 And he said unto them, Therefore every scribe who is instructed in the kingdom of the heavens is like unto a man, a husband of a house, who brings forth out of his treasure things new and old.

The Rejection of Jesus at Nazareth

53 ¶ And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed from there.

54 And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished and said, From where does this man have this wisdom and these mighty works?

55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?

56 And his sisters, are they not all with us? From where then does this man have all these things?

57 And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour except in his own country and in his own house.

58 And he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. — Matthew 13 | Jubilee Bible 2000 (JUB) Jubilee Bible 2000 Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010 by Life Sentence Publishing, Inc. Cross References: Genesis 18:6; 1 Samuel 10:11; 2 Samuel 23:6-7; Job 28:13; Proverbs 2:4; Psalm 78:2; Psalm 104:12; Song of Solomon 7:13; Ezekiel 17:6; Ezekiel 47:10; Daniel 3:6; Daniel 12:3; Zephaniah 1:3; Matthew 4:18; Matthew 4:23; Matthew 5:37; Matthew 7:6; Matthew 7:28; Matthew 8:12; Matthew 8:20; Matthew 11:6; Matthew 12:32; Matthew 12:35; Matthew 13:1; Matthew 13:3-4; Matthew 13:24; Matthew 13:44; Matthew 13:49; Matthew 14:1; Matthew 17:20; Matthew 20:1; Matthew 25:32; Mark 6:1; Mark 6:3; Luke 4:22; John 4:44; 1 Corinthians 15:42; Jude 1:1; Revelation 18:12

#Jesus #parables #teaching #the purpose of parables #Matthew 13 #Gospel of Matthew #New Testament #JUB #Jubilee Bible 2000 #Life Sentence Publishing Inc.

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

17th March >> Fr. Martin's Homilies / Reflections on Today's Mass Readings (Inc. John 12:20-33) for the

Feast of Saint Patrick (Ireland)

and for the

Fifth Sunday of Lent (B)

Feast of Saint Patrick (Ireland)

Gospel (Except USA) John 12:20-33 If a grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it yields a rich harvest.

Among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. These approached Philip, who came from Bethsaida in Galilee, and put this request to him, ‘Sir, we should like to see Jesus.’ Philip went to tell Andrew, and Andrew and Philip together went to tell Jesus. Jesus replied to them:

‘Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you, most solemnly, unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest. Anyone who loves his life loses it; anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for the eternal life. If a man serves me, he must follow me, wherever I am, my servant will be there too. If anyone serves me, my Father will honour him. Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say: Father, save me from this hour? But it was for this very reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name!’

A voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ People standing by, who heard this, said it was a clap of thunder; others said, ‘It was an angel speaking to him.’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not for my sake that this voice came, but for yours.

‘Now sentence is being passed on this world; now the prince of this world is to be overthrown. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all men to myself.’

By these words he indicated the kind of death he would die.

Gospel (USA) John 12:20–33 If a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it produces much fruit.

Some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.

“I am troubled now. Yet what should I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder; but others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come for my sake but for yours. Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.

Homilies (16)

(i) Feast of Saint Patrick/ Fifth Sunday of Lent

I was a classroom in a primary school recently and the teacher and children were showing me a tray where they had planted seeds. The seeds had begun to germinate and little shoots had started to appear above the soil. The seeds the children had sown had died, but in dying they had given birth to something more wonderful. It was only by dying as a seed that the seed could release its full potential to create a flower that would give pleasure to people.

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus says, ‘Unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain, but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest’. When Jesus looked out at nature, he was often reminded of his own ministry. He recognized himself in the grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies, and in dying yields a rich harvest. The gospel reading suggests that Jesus was disturbed at the prospect of his approaching death. ‘Now my soul is troubled’, he says. He is tempted to pray, ‘Father, save me from this hour’. He was tempted to love his life, to preserve it at all costs. However, because he loved God and humanity more than himself, he accepted his death as the necessary consequence of his mission to bring God’s love to the world. His faithfulness to his mission would cost him his life and, yet, he knew that, like the grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies, his death would result in a rich harvest for himself and for all humanity. By dying he would reveal the depth of God’s love for the world. That is why Jesus goes on to say, ‘When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself’. The strength of God’s love, revealed by his death on the cross, would draw people to himself and to God. As Jesus hung from the cross, he had lost everything, his freedom, his followers, his life, and, yet, this was a loss that would be truly life-giving for himself but for all who turned towards him in faith. God worked powerfully through Jesus’ death, raising him to new life and giving birth to a whole community of believers, a community of love and service. We are members of that community, part of the harvest made possible by the profound loss of Calvary.

Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Patrick. Two of his writings have come down to us. The longer one, called the ‘Confession’, shows how Patrick too was like the grain of wheat that falls on the ground and dies, and in dying yields a rich harvest. Like Jesus, he had a profound experience of loss. He tells us that he was taken captive at the age of sixteen. His father was a town councillor and a deacon of the church. They lived in a spacious house with many servants. He was torn from that loving and secure environment and taken across the sea as a slave to a strange and alien land. As he says in the Confession, ‘I was taken captive as an adolescent, almost a speechless boy, before I knew what to seek and what to avoid’. For six years he was a slave to a man who put him tending sheep in all sorts of weather. Here was this teenager, living with a pagan family, whose language he didn’t understand. The sense of loss must have been enormous. Yet, writing his Confession in his old age, he is full of thanksgiving to God for all he received during this time of loss. Before being taken captive, he had turned away from God. He says, ‘I was like a stone lying in the deep mud’. In his captivity he had a spiritual awakening. He writes, ‘I used to pray many times during the day… My faith increased and the spirit was stirred up’. His faith came alive; he learned to entrust himself to the Lord. When he escaped from captivity after six years and returned home, he continued to listen to what the Lord was saying to him. He soon came to realize that the Lord was calling him to return to Ireland to preach the gospel. He trained for the priesthood and arrived back in Ireland, this time as a slave of Christ. Looking back in his Confession, he asks in amazement, ‘How, then, does it happen in Ireland that a people who in their ignorance of God always worshipped only idols… have lately become a people of the Lord and are called children of God?’

Patrick’s painful experience of loss as an adolescent was truly life giving for himself and for the land of his captivity. We all struggle with loss in its various forms. Our loved ones die; we lose our health with advancing years; some lose their reputation, their employment. We all struggle to let go and move on. The life of Patrick shows us that the Lord can work powerfully in our many experiences of loss. If we entrust ourselves to the Lord in our loss, as Patrick did, our loss can become a source of life for ourselves and for others. The Lord can work through our loss to draw us closer to himself. He can then work through us, as he worked through Patrick, to draw others to himself.

And/Or

(ii) Feast of Saint Patrick

Today on the feast of St. Patrick, we celebrate the beginnings of the Christian story on this island. We remember Patrick as the one who lit a flame that has remained lighting for nearly sixteen hundred years. Like Paul and Barnabas in today’s second reading, he was a light to the nations, to this nation. When children are baptized, as the baptismal candle is lit from the Easter candle, the celebrant says to their parents and godparents, ‘This light is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly. These children of yours have been enlightened by Christ… May they keep the flame of faith alive in their hearts’. Today we give thanks that the flame of faith Patrick first lit has been kept alive among us.

Two of Patrick’s own writings have been preserved for us. They are his Confessions and a letter he wrote to the soldiers of a chieftain by the name of Coroticus. Through these writings the voice of Patrick continues to be heard among us. It is above all from his Confessions that we get the fascinating story of his life.

He was born a citizen of Roman Britain. His father was a town councillor, part of the Roman administration in southern Britain, who owned a country residence with male and female servants. Patrick came from a Christian family. He tells us that his father was a priest and that his grandfather was a deacon. Yet, as a youth, Patrick’s faith was lukewarm.  Looking back on his youth many years later, he writes in his Confessions: ‘We had turned away from God; we did not keep his commandments’. We can imagine that this must have been a disappointment to his parents.

Then at the tender age of sixteen, his rather comfortable world came crashing down around him. Writing in his Confessions, he says: ‘I was taken captive as a youth, a mere child… I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people… this is where I now am, among strangers’. At a vulnerable and impressionable age, he was wrenched from the family that loved him, taken from his home, his friends, his culture, and thrown into a foreign land as a slave. An experience like that could destroy a young man. Yet, Patrick tells us that in this harsh exile, he had a powerful experience of God’s presence. When everything had been taken from him, he found God, or, rather, God found him. He writes in his Confessions about ‘the great benefits that the Lord saw fit to confer on me in my captivity’. He uses a powerful image to describe his spiritual reawakening: ‘Before I was humbled, I was like a stone lying in the deep mud. Then he who is mighty came and in his mercy he not only pulled me out but lifted me up and placed me at the very top of the wall’. In the wilderness of exile, his faith came alive.

He goes on to tell us in his Confessions that six years after first coming to Ireland as a slave, at the age of twenty two, he managed to escape from his captivity and to make his way back to Roman Britain. What a home coming that must have been for his parents, who probably thought they would never see him again. They considered him dead, and here he was alive, lost, and now he was found. Patrick states that ‘they earnestly begged me that I should never leave them’. Some years later, Patrick tells us, he had a vision of a man coming from Ireland with a large number of letters. In his vision, Patrick took one of these letters in his hands, and as he began to read it he heard a crowd shout with one voice: ‘We ask you, boy, come and walk once more among us’.

That vision touched him deeply. He did not come back to Ireland immediately. He first pursued higher studies in preparation for the priesthood, probably in Roman Gaul. After several years he made the journey back to the land of his captivity, initially as a priest. Having established himself as a missionary, he was appointed bishop. He writes in his Confessions: ‘I came to the Irish heathen to preach the good news’. He goes on to write: ‘I am very much in dept to God who gave me so much grace that through me many people should be born again in God and afterwards confirmed’. It is extraordinary that Patrick was prepared to endure voluntary exile to bring the gospel to a people among whom he had experienced captivity. He brought the precious gift of the Christian faith to those who had taken away his freedom many years earlier. I am reminded of a line in one of Paul’s letters: ‘Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good’. It could only have been Patrick’s relationship with the Lord that enabled him to overcome evil with good, as the Lord himself had done.

Patrick’s story can still speak to us over the centuries. The darkest moment in his life proved to be life-giving both for himself and for the people in the land of his captivity. We have all know our own dark moments. At times we can feel that we are in a kind of exile ourselves, cut off from the supports that we had come to value so much. In ways we might never suspect at the time, such experiences can turn out to be life-giving for ourselves and others. God can be preparing us in those dark times to be labourers in his harvest, like the seventy two in today’s gospel reading. Patrick’s feast day invites us to trust that God can turn even our darkest experiences to good and can bring unexpected new life out of our losses.

And/Or

(iii) St. Patrick’s Day

About four years ago I climbed Croagh Patrick for the first time in the company of my sister and brother-in-law. They both live in Southern California. Patrick, who is from the United States, was determined to climb Croagh Patrick. He was recovering from cancer at the time, and, in spite of a very bad back, he wanted to make this climb in thanksgiving for having come through his surgery and treatment so well, and, also, as a form of prayer of petition for God’s ongoing help. We managed to get to the top, just about.

The Croagh Patrick climb is one expression of the cult of St. Patrick that has continued down to our time. We venerate Patrick today because he spent himself in proclaiming the gospel on this island, bringing Christ to huge numbers of people. He says in his Confessions, ‘I am very much in debt to God who gave me so much grace that through me many people should be born again in God and afterwards confirmed, and that clergy should be ordained for them everywhere’. In amazement at what God had done through him, he asks, ‘How then does it happen in Ireland that a people who in their ignorance of God always worshipped only idols and unclean things up to now, have lately become a people of the Lord and are called children of God?’

On his feast day we give thanks for Patrick’s response to God’s call to preach the gospel in the land of his former captivity. His first journey to Ireland was not of his own choosing. He was brought here as a slave at the age of 16, having been cruelly separated from his family and his homeland. This must have been a hugely traumatic experience for a young adolescent. He says in his confessions: ‘I was taken captive… before I knew what to seek or what to avoid’. Yet, out of this difficult experience came great good. Although Patrick had been baptized a Christian in his youth, he had developed no relationship with Christ. The faith into which he had been baptized had made no impact on his life. It was only in his captivity that Christ became real for him. In the land of his exile he had a religious awakening. He tells us: ‘When I came to Ireland… I used to pray many times during the day. More and more the love of God and reverence for him came to me. My faith increased… As I now realize, the spirit was burning within me’. That spiritual awakening had enormous consequences, not only for himself but for the people of the land where he was held captive.

The Lord somehow got through to Patrick during the rigours of captivity in a way he had not got through to Patrick during his reasonably privileged upbringing at home. Patrick uses a striking image to express this transformation in his life: ‘Before I was humbled I was like a stone lying in the deep mud. Then he who is mighty came and in his mercy he not only pulled me out but lifted me up and placed me at the very top of the wall’.

Patrick’s own story brings home to us that the Lord can work powerfully in dark and troubling times. In the course of our lives we can be brought places that we would rather not go. We might be separated from someone or some place that has been very significant for us. We find ourselves isolated and adrift, in unfamiliar and threatening territory, unsure of our future and with regrets about the past. Patrick’s story reminds us that when we find ourselves in such wilderness places, the Lord does not abandon us. Rather when we seem to be losing so much, he can grace us all the more. Patrick says in his confessions: ‘I cannot be silent… about the great benefits and graces that the Lord saw fit to confer on me in the land of my captivity’. When we are brought low, for whatever reason, the Lord will be as generous with us as he was with Patrick. If we remain open to the Lord in such times, as Patrick did, the Lord will not only grace us but he will also grace many others through us.

Patrick’s experience teaches us to be alert to the signs of God’s presence even in difficult times. Patrick’s story reminds us that the Lord continues to work powerfully in what appears to be unpromising situations. In this morning’s gospel reading the prospects for a great catch of fish seemed very slim to Peter and his companions. After all, they had worked hard all night and had caught nothing. Yet, Jesus saw great prospects where Peter and the others saw little of promise. When Peter and the others set out in response to the word of Jesus they saw for themselves what Jesus could see all along. The Lord is always creatively at work even in the most unpromising of situations. However, if his work is to bear fruit, he needs us to set out in faith and hope in response to his word, as Peter and his companions did in this morning’s gospel reading, as Patrick did when he left his home for a second time to come to the island of his former captivity. We pray this morning for something of Patrick’s courageous and expectant faith.

And/Or

(iv) St. Patrick’s Day

We venerate Patrick on this his feast day because he spent himself in proclaiming the gospel on this island, bringing Christ to huge numbers of people. He says of himself in his Confessions, ‘The love of Christ gave me to these people to serve them humbly and sincerely for my entire lifetime’. In amazement at what God had done through him, he asks, ‘How then does it happen in Ireland that a people who in their ignorance of God always worshipped only idols and unclean things up to now, have lately become a people of the Lord and are called children of God?’ He was amazed at how much God had done through him, all the more so because he was very aware of his failings and weaknesses. At the beginning of his Confessions he says, ‘although I am imperfect in many ways I want my brothers and sisters and my relatives to know what kind of man I am so that they may understand the aspiration of my life’. Later on in his Confessions he says, ‘I realize that I did not altogether lead a life as perfect as other believers’. Patrick knew that he was a mixture of wheat and weed, like the field in the parable of today’s gospel reading. In that parable the owner of the field does not despise the field because darnel was to be found among the wheat. He was happy to allow both to grow together knowing that they would be separated at harvest time. When the Lord looks upon us, he looks beyond our failings to the good that is within us. Patrick did not allow his awareness of his imperfections to hold him back from doing what he knew God was calling him to do. There is a lesson there for us all, especially in these days when we have become more aware of the church’s imperfections and failings.

On his feast day we give thanks for Patrick’s response to God’s call to preach the gospel in the land of his former captivity. He was brought here as a slave at the age of 16, having been cruelly separated from his family and his homeland. This must have been a hugely traumatic experience for a young adolescent. Yet, out of this difficult experience came great good. Although Patrick had been baptized a Christian in his youth, he had developed no relationship with Christ. The faith into which he had been baptized had made no impact on his life. It was only in his captivity that Christ became real for him. He tells us: ‘When I came to Ireland… I used to pray many times during the day... My faith increased… the spirit was burning within me’. Patrick uses a striking image to express this transformation in his life: ‘Before I was humbled I was like a stone lying in the deep mud. Then he who is mighty came and in his mercy he not only pulled me out but lifted me up and placed me at the very top of the wall’. That spiritual awakening had enormous consequences, not only for himself but for the people of the land where he was held captive.

In the course of our lives we can find ourselves in unfamiliar and threatening territory, unsure of our future and with regrets about the past. Patrick’s story reminds us that when we find ourselves in such wilderness places, the Lord is with us. Our brokenness can provide the openings for the Lord to enter our lives. Patrick says in his confessions: ‘I cannot be silent… about the great benefits and graces that the Lord saw fit to confer on me in the land of my captivity’. When we are brought low, for whatever reason, the Lord will be as generous with us as he was with Patrick, and if we seek the Lord in such times, as Patrick did, the Lord will not only grace us but he will grace many others through us.

After six years Patrick said that he was given the opportunity to escape from his captivity. He was directed to a boat some distance from where he was minding sheep. The captain reluctantly took him on board. Three days sailing was followed by twenty eight days journeying through deserted country. At the end of that journey Patrick describes a very dark spiritual experience that he had, ‘when I was asleep Satan tempted me with a violence which I will remember as long as I am in this body. There fell on me as it were a great rock and I could not stir a limb’. However, he goes on to say that when he cried out in prayer he saw the sun rising in the sky and ‘the brilliance of that sun fell suddenly on me and lifted my depression at once’. Reflecting on that experience, he declares, ‘I believe that I was sustained by Christ my Lord and that his Spirit was even then calling out on my behalf’. Patrick was a great missionary but he also struggled with the darker experiences of life. Yet, he knew the Lord’s presence in his darkness of spirit as much as in the success of his mission. Patrick’s experience teaches us to be alert to the signs of God’s presence in difficult times as well as in good times, in those times when we are more aware of the darnel in our lives than of the wheat.

And/Or

(v) Feast of St Patrick

Today on the feast of St. Patrick, we remember Patrick as the one who lit a flame that has remained lighting for nearly sixteen hundred years. He was one of the first to preach the gospel in our land; he broke new ground. The Lord could have said of Patrick’s mission what he says in today’s first reading, ‘See, I am doing a new deed, even now it comes to light; can you not see it?’

Two of Patrick’s own writings have been preserved for us. It is above all from his Confession that we get the fascinating story of his life. He was probably born a citizen of Roman Britain and came from a Christian family. Yet, as a youth, his faith was lukewarm.  He writes in his Confessions: ‘We had turned away from God; we did not keep his commandments’. At the tender age of sixteen, his rather comfortable world came crashing down around him. Writing in his Confessions, he says: ‘I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people’. Patrick became an emigrant, against his wishes. Many of our young people today find themselves in a similar situation. We probably all know family and friends who have recently emigrated without it being their first choice. Patrick’s forced emigration was of a rougher kind. He was wrenched from the family that loved him by captives, and thrown into a foreign land as a slave. An experience like that could destroy a young man. Yet, Patrick tells us that in this harsh exile, he had a powerful experience of God’s presence. He writes in his Confessions about ‘the great benefits that the Lord saw fit to confer on me in my captivity’. In the wilderness of exile, when everything was taken from him, his faith started to fan into a living flame. In this moment of spiritual re-awaking he could easily have made his own the words of Paul in today’s second reading, ‘I look on everything as so much rubbish if only I can have Christ and be given a place in him... All I want is to know Christ’. Whenever we experience some devastating loss, the suffering can be bitter indeed; we find ourselves at the foot of the cross. Yet, like Patrick, we can also find, perhaps to our surprise, that the risen Lord comes to us in that dark place and touches us deeply.

Patrick goes on to tell us in his Confessions that six years after first coming to Ireland as a slave, at the age of twenty two, he escaped from his captivity and made his way home. What a home coming that must have been for his parents. Patrick states that ‘they earnestly begged me that I should never leave them’. Yet, some years later, he had a vision of a man coming from Ireland with a large number of letters and in that vision he heard a crowd shout with one voice: ‘We ask you, boy, come and walk once more among us’. There and then he decided to answer the call. He first pursued studies for the priesthood, probably in Roman Gaul. After several years he made the journey back to the land of his captivity, initially as a priest. Having established himself as a missionary, he was appointed bishop. He writes in his Confessions: ‘I came to the Irish heathen to preach the good news’. This time Patrick voluntarily went into exile to bring the gospel to the very people who had formerly held him captive. He brought the precious gift of the Christian faith to those who had taken away his freedom many years earlier.

At the heart of the gospel that Patrick preached was the message of the Lord’s love of us in all our frailty and weakness. That is the message of this morning’s gospel reading. The religious leaders brought a woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus for his judgement. They thought of themselves as good religious people in contrast to the sinful woman. Jesus’ comment, ‘If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her’, showed them that they were just as much sinners as she was. The reality is that we are all sinners; we just sin in different ways. The good news of Jesus is that God loves us unconditionally in spite of our sin. To receive that love and allow ourselves to be transformed by it, we simply need the humility to acknowledge our sin and to come before the Lord in our poverty. This was the humility Paul shows in our second reading, ‘Not that I have become perfect yet... but I am still running’. This humility characterized the life of Patrick too and as is clear from the opening words of his Confession, ‘I am Patrick, a sinner, the most unlearned of men, utterly worthless in the eyes of many’. He knew his past was far from perfect. Yet, he came to understand that the Lord is more interested in our present and our future than in our past. That was the message of Jesus to the woman in the gospel reading. It is his message to all of us.

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(vi) St Patrick's Day

We venerate Patrick on this his feast day because he gave himself over to proclaiming the gospel on this island, bringing Christ to huge numbers of people. He says of himself in his Confessions, ‘The love of Christ gave me to these people to serve them humbly and sincerely for my entire lifetime’. In amazement at what God had done through him, he asks, ‘How then does it happen in Ireland that a people who in their ignorance of God always worshipped only idols and unclean things up to now, have lately become a people of the Lord and are called children of God?’ He was amazed at how much God had done through him. We are the heirs of Patrick’s great missionary work. He lit a new fire in this land which has never gone out. Patrick was all the more amazed at how God had worked through him because he was very aware of his failings and weaknesses. At the beginning of his Confessions he says, ‘although I am imperfect in many ways I want my brothers and sisters and my relatives to know what kind of man I am so that they may understand the aspiration of my life’. Later on in his Confessions he says, ‘I realize that I did not altogether lead a life as perfect as other believers’. Patrick knew that he had been a continued to be a mixture of wheat and weed, like the field in the parable of today’s gospel reading. In that parable the owner of the field does not despise the field because weed was to be found among the wheat. He was happy to allow both to grow together knowing that they would be separated at harvest time. When the Lord looks upon us, he looks beyond our failings to the good that is within us. Patrick did not allow his awareness of his imperfections to hold him back from doing what he knew God was calling him to do.

On his feast day we give thanks for Patrick’s response to God’s call to preach the gospel in the land of his former captivity. He was brought here as a slave at the age of 16, having been cruelly separated from his family and his homeland, a truly traumatic experience for a young adolescent. Yet, out of this difficult experience came great good. Although Patrick had been baptized a Christian in his youth, he had developed no relationship with Christ. The faith into which he had been baptized had made no impact on his life. It was only in his captivity that Christ became real for him. He tells us: ‘When I came to Ireland… I used to pray many times during the day... My faith increased… the spirit was burning within me’. Patrick uses a striking image to express this transformation in his life: ‘Before I was humbled I was like a stone lying in the deep mud. Then he who is mighty came and in his mercy he... lifted me up and placed me at the very top of the wall’. This spiritual awakening in captivity had enormous consequences for himself and for the people of the land where he was held captive.

In the course of our lives we can find ourselves in unfamiliar and threatening territory, unsure of our future and with regrets about the past. Patrick’s story reminds us that when we find ourselves in such wilderness places, our brokenness can provide the openings for the Lord to enter our lives. Patrick says in his confessions: ‘I cannot be silent… about the great benefits and graces that the Lord saw fit to confer on me in the land of my captivity’. When we are brought low, the Lord will be there to lift us up, and he will be as generous with us as he was with Patrick. If we seek the Lord in such times, as Patrick did, the Lord will not only grace us but he will grace many others through us.

After six years as a captive Patrick was given the opportunity to escape from his captivity. He was directed to a boat some distance from where he was minding sheep. The captain reluctantly took him on board. Three days sailing was followed by twenty eight days journeying through deserted country, probably Gaul. At the end of that journey Patrick describes a very dark spiritual experience that he had, ‘when I was asleep Satan tempted me with a violence which I will remember as long as I am in this body. There fell on me as it were a great rock and I could not stir a limb’. However, he goes on to say that when he cried out in prayer he saw the sun rising in the sky; he says, ‘the brilliance of that sun fell suddenly on me and lifted my depression at once’. Reflecting on that experience, he declares, ‘I believe that I was sustained by Christ my Lord and that his Spirit was even then calling out on my behalf’. Although he was a very successful missionary, Patrick struggled with the darker experiences of life. Yet, he knew that the Lord was as present to him in his darkness of spirit as much as in the success of his mission. Patrick’s experience teaches us to be alert to the signs of God’s presence in difficult times as well as in good times, in those times when we are more aware of the darnel in our lives than of the wheat. His story also teaches us that even when all is not as well with us as we might like, the Lord continues to work powerfully within us and through us.

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(vii) Feast of Saint Patrick

The Confessions of Saint Patrick is one of two written works that have come down from him. They are very far removed from us in time, Patrick having written them towards the end of his mission in Ireland sometime in the mid to late fifth century. Yet, it is a very personal document, a personal statement of faith, and, it can continue to speak to us today, almost one thousand six hundred years later.

He speaks in that document of his two periods of time in Ireland, the first during which he was a slave of a slave owner, and the second when he was a slave of the Lord, faithfully doing the Lord’s work as a bishop. Patrick’s father was a deacon of the church and his grandfather was a pries; they were reasonably well off. He said in his Confessions that at the time of his captivity by pirates at the age of sixteen he was ‘ignorant of the true God’’ and had abandoned God’s commandments. It was while he was in captivity in Ireland, in an alien land, that the Lord touched his heart. As a result, he came to see his time in captivity as a blessing. He uses a striking image to express his spiritual awakening during his time of exile, ‘I was like a stone lying in the deepest mire; and, then, he who is mighty came and, in his mercy, raised me up’. He spells out in some detail how this spiritual awakening transformed him, ‘I prayed frequently each day, and more and more the love of God and the fear of him grew in me, and my faith was increased and my spirit enlivened... come rain, hail or snow, I was up before dawn to pray... I now understand this: at that time the Spirit was fervent in me’. In his Confessions he is giving thanks to God for this reawakening of faith that occurred in him. He declares, ‘I must not hide that gift of God which he gave me bountifully in the land of my captivity, for it was then that I fiercely sought him and there found him’. The God to whom Patrick had been so indifferent in the comfort of his own home, he became passionate about when he was torn away from all he knew and loved. Perhaps this experience of Patrick might resonate with us. It can be the darker experiences of life that open us up to the Lord more fully. When what we treasure is taken from us we can become more sensitive to the Lord’s presence in our lives.

After six years in captivity he ran away from his master and after a journey of two hundred miles he boarded a ship which sailed to Gaul. He finally made his way back to his family in Britain. He writes that his parents ‘welcomed me home as a son. They begged me in good faith after all my adversities to go nowhere else, nor ever leave them again’. Patrick must have presumed that he was home among his own for good. Yet, he then had this powerful spiritual experience which sent him back to the very people who had taken him captive. He had a vision in which a man called Victorinus came to him with innumerable letters and as he read one Patrick said that he thought the heard the voice of those who live around the wood of Foclut which is close to the Western Sea shouting with one voice, ‘O holy boy, we beg you to come again and walk among us’. He was ordained priest and then appointed bishop and travelled back to Ireland to begin his mission. Looking back over his mission towards the end of his life, he was very aware that his second coming to Ireland was no more his own decision that his first coming. He says at the end of his Confessions, ‘It is not I but Christ the Lord who has ordered me to come here and be with these people for the rest of my life’. He had a very successful mission in Ireland but, clearly, it cost him a great deal. He writes that ‘not a day passes but I expect to be killed or waylaid or taken into slavery or assaulted in some other way’. Patrick’s sense of being called to this work, even though he knew in advance it would cost him so much, is very striking. He encourages us all to be open to the Lord’s call in our own lives. ‘What is the Lord asking of me?’ is a question worth pondering. Sometimes, as in the case of Patrick, he may be asking us to do something that, from a merely human point of view, doesn’t make a lot of sense. To become aware of what the Lord may be asking of us, we need to give ourselves time and space so as to listen to him.

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(viii) Feast of St Patrick's Day

We are very fortunate that the story of Patrick has been preserved in two short Latin letters which he himself wrote in his old age, a letter to the soldiers of Coroticus, the leader of a tribe in Wales, and his own Confessions. In these invaluable documents, Patrick describes himself as a Briton of the Roman nobility who was kidnapped from his family villa by pirates and taken to Ireland when he was about sixteen. His grandfather had been a priest and his father a deacon, so Patrick was raised in a Christian home. However by the time of his capture at the age of sixteen, he had lost his childhood faith and had become an unbeliever. He writes, ‘I was only a young man, almost a speechless boy, when I was captured, before I knew what I ought to seek out or avoid’.

Nevertheless, several years of brutal slavery in Ireland turned him into a fervent believer. During that traumatic period of exile and slavery he had a spiritual awakening. His time of exile was a spiritual watershed in his life. Looking back on his life before this conversion moment, he says that he was ‘like a stone stuck deep in the mud’. Continuing with that image, he speaks of his spiritual awakening as a time when the Lord ‘in his mercy lifted me up and raised me on high, placing me on top of a wall’. In this Jubilee Year of Mercy, it is interesting that Patrick speaks of this turning point in his life as an experience of the Lord’s mercy. He had a strong sense that it was the Lord rather he himself who brought out this change in him. He writes, ‘I must not conceal the gift of God that he has given me in the land of my captivity’. He found in himself a great need to pray, ‘In a single day I would pray a hundred times and the same at night, even when I was in the woods on the mountain’.

This spiritual awakening had enormous consequences not just for Patrick but for so many others in the land of his captivity. After several years of brutal slavery in Ireland, he heard the voice of God telling him to flee back to Britain. Against all the odds, he managed to escape to Britain and eventually made his way back to his family. However, after some time he heard the voice of God again calling him to return to the land of his captivity to proclaim the gospel to the very people who had enslaved him. He did not set out on this mission immediately but trained for the priesthood, possibly in Auxerre in Gaul. He was quickly appointed bishop and sent on his mission to Ireland. The sense we get from his writings is that he gave himself wholeheartedly to sharing the gift of faith he had rediscovered with those who had never heard of Christ. He writes in his Confessions, ‘I spent myself for you all... I travelled among you everywhere risking many dangers for your sake even to the farthest places beyond which no one lived. No one had ever gone that far to baptize or ordain clergy or serve the people’.

I always try to reread the two writings of Patrick that have come down to us as we approach his feast day. Every year something new in them strikes. The gospel reading for the feast of Saint Patrick this particular year made me more sensitive to one feature in particular of Patrick’s writings. In the gospel reading Peter has an overwhelming sense of his own unworthiness, ‘Depart from me, Lord; I am a sinful man’. Simon Peter seems to have had a realistic sense of his own past and present failings. Yet, this did not deter the Lord from calling him, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is people you will catch’. Patrick also had a very strong sense of his own limitations and of his failings. He begins his letter to the soldiers of Coroticus with the sentence, ‘I am Patrick, a sinner and a very ignorant man’. He begins his Confessions in a similar way, ‘I am Patrick, a sinner and a very unsophisticated man. I am the least of all the faithful, and to many the most despised’. At one point in his Confessions he shares an experience of temptation, using a striking image: ‘While I was sleeping that very night, Satan greatly tempted me. I will remember the experience as long as I am in this body. Something like a huge rock seemed to fall on me so that I couldn’t move my arms or legs’. S little further on he writes, ‘He is strong who tries daily to turn me away from my faith and the pure chastity that I have chosen to embrace to the end of my life for Christ the Lord. But the hostile flesh always drags me toward death, to those enticing, forbidden desires’. He is very honest about his personal struggles to remain faithful to the Lord’s call. There is a great realism about his writing. Yet, those struggles did not discourage him. They brought home to him his total dependence on the Lord. He ends his confessions with the acknowledgement that ‘any small thing I accomplished or did that was pleasing to God was done through his gift’.

Patrick, like Peter in the gospel reading, is an encouragement to us all. He reminds us that the Lord does not ask us to be perfect before calling us to share in his work. He can work powerfully through us, weak as we are, if, like Patrick, we have a generosity of spirit and a recognition of our dependence on the Lord for everything.

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(ix) Feast of Saint Patrick

Today we celebrate the feast of the missionary who was the first to preach the gospel in large parts of this Island. Two of his writings have survived. It is nothing short of a miracle that these two texts have come down to us through the turmoil of history. They allow us to hear in our own time the voice of Patrick. We must be grateful to Patrick for sharing something of his story with us and to the scribes who made copies of the texts down through the centuries.

There is great humility in these two texts. Patrick recognizes his imperfections. He says in his confession, ‘I am imperfect in many ways’. Looking back on his youth he writes that ‘We had turned away from God and had not kept the commandments’. He goes on to declare, ‘I did not believe in the living God… I remained in death and unbelief’. It was the experience of captivity that opened him up to God. He says that in the land of his captivity, he was ‘seized by an awareness of God’s presence’. Patrick seems to have come from a very privileged background. When all that was taken from him, he became sensitive to God’s presence. He expresses this religious awakening in a very striking image, ‘Before my humiliation, I was like a stone lying deep in mire; and the Mighty One came and in his mercy… raised me up and placed me on top of a wall’. Having been living in a kind of spiritual death, he was now raised to a new life in God. His spiritual awakening was an experience of God as Love. He writes in his Confessions that ‘the love of God surrounded me more and more and my faith and reverence towards God was strengthened and my spirit was moved so much that in a single day I would pray as many as a hundred times’. He was so deeply touched by God’s love for him that he had a deep desire to communicate with God in prayer.

Yet it is clear from his writings that this period of rejoicing in God’s love did not stay with him every day ever after. He is very open about the times when his faith was put to the test. Sometime after he escaped from captivity and before he arrived at his home, he endured a great assault on his relationship with God. He speaks of this experience in very vivid imagery, ‘While I was sleeping, Satan assailed me violently, which I will remember as long as I am in this body. He came down upon me like a huge rock, so that none of my limbs could move’. He goes on to say that when he saw the sun rise he cried out with all his strength and he declares, ‘the splendour of the sun fell upon me suddenly and immediately freed me from all the weight of oppression. I believe that I had been helped by Christ my Lord’. Elsewhere he writes, ‘there is a strong force which strives every day to subvert me from the faith’. He knew the darker side of faith and, also, the presence of Christ as light in the midst of the darkness.

Sometime after returning home from captivity, Patrick heard the voice of the Irish calling to him to leave his home once more and return among them as a free man, as a messenger of the Lord. ‘We beg you, O Holy youth, to come and walk once more among us’. His subsequent mission among the Irish bore great fruit. Yet, it is evident from his writings that he suffered a great deal in the exercise of that mission. One of the most painful experiences was when some senior members of the church tried to undermine his ministry when some sin of his youth was brought to their attention. He writes that ‘on that day I was hit so hard I could have fallen here and forever’. Yet, he managed to keep going because, as he writes, ‘the Lord… boldly came to my assistance in this trampling, as a result of which I did not fall apart badly even though shame and blame fell upon me’

His accusers were made aware of some weed from his past, in the language of the gospel reading, and, on that basis they were prepared to undermine all the good he was doing. Patrick was very aware that he was a mixture of wheat and darnel and, yet, he also knew that the Lord loved him and was working powerfully through him, flawed though he was. One of the messages Jesus is giving us in that parable is that the attempt to root out evil may destroy the good as well. There is a mixture of good and evil, of virtue and sin, in each one of us and in the church as a whole. Patrick’s story teaches us that the existence of evil is not a cause for disillusionment. If we acknowledge it and open ourselves to the Lord’s love in our weakness, he can strengthen what is good in us and empower us to be his messengers in the world.

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(x) Feast of Saint Patrick

Saint Patrick lived at a time and place very different to our own. He was born at the end of the fourth century on the embattled edge of the crumbling Roman Empire, probably somewhere in Britain. This was a time when the Roman legions had been withdrawn from the edges of the Empire, and there was a general breakdown in Roman law and order. The way Patrick speaks of his family in his Confessions suggests that there were from the rural gentry. His father was a deacon of the church and his grandfather a priest. Yet, their reasonably well to do background did not prevent them from suffering the effects of the general breakdown of order in Roman society. The protection of Rome was not there to prevent Patrick being captured at the tender age of sixteen. He spent six years as a slave in Ireland, escaping only at the age of twenty-two. Ireland, at the time, was a very different society to anywhere in the Roman Empire, even the edges of the Empire where Patrick was from. He often refers to himself as living among strangers. Coming to Ireland at that tender age must have been a huge culture shock, apart altogether from the hardships of slavery.

Yet, he subsequently came to see these six years as a time of great grace. He refers to ‘the many great blessings and grace which the Lord chooses to give me in the land of my captivity’. When he was taken captive, he said, ‘I did not yet know what I ought to desire and what to avoid’. Although born into a Christian family, he had never taken his faith seriously. He uses a striking image to describe his life at the time he was taken captive, ‘I was like a stone lying in the deepest mire’. Yet, in exile as a slave in Ireland, he underwent what can only be called a profound spiritual transformation. He writes, ‘I must not hide the gift of God which he gave us bountifully in the land of my captivity, because it was then that I fiercely sought him and there found him’. He writes at one point in his confessions, ‘When I had arrived in Ireland and was looking after flocks the whole time, I prayed frequently each day. And more and more, the love of God and the fear of him grew in me, and my faith was increased’. This spiritual renewal would form the basis of his extraordinary missionary work in Ireland many years later. This was a time of great loss in Patrick’s life, but also a time of deep spiritual and personal growth. It is often the way in our own lives that the most painful experiences can also be the most life-giving, for ourselves and for others. Patrick discovered that when so much was taken from him, the Lord worked powerfully in his life. The Lord is always at work in a life-giving way in all our struggles and losses. At any stage of our lives, we can find ourselves in a kind of exile experience. Our personal landscape changes and we feel estranged, lonely, frightened. We are not alone at such times. The Lord is at our side. He is always close to the broken hearted, those whose spirit is crushed, working to bringing something new out of what is dying.

After six years of captivity, Patrick made his escape and managed to board a boat. After a long and perilous journey, he finally made it back to his home. He writes, ‘I was again with my parents in Britain who welcomed me home as a son. They begged me in good faith after all my adversities to go nowhere else, or ever leave them again’. It is likely that Patrick believed he would never leave them again. However, God works in mysterious ways. Patrick writes in his Confessions that after many long years ‘God chose to give me a great grace towards that people (who had held me captive), but this was something I had never thought of, nor hoped for, in my youth’. He had a vision in which he heard the voice of the Irish call out to him, ‘O holy boy, we beg you to come again and walk among us’. After studying for the priesthood, he was eventually sent on mission to Ireland as a bishop. In the course of that difficult mission, he says that he often felt the urge to go back to his homeland, but he resisted it because, as he writes, ‘I fear the loss of the work I have begun here, since it is not I but Christ the Lord who ordered me to come here and be with these people for the rest of my life’. If his first visit to Ireland was as a young slave, this second visit was in response to the Lord’s call; he came as a slave of the gospel. As he says right at the end of his Confessions, ‘the one and only purpose I had in coming back to that people from whom I had earlier escaped was the gospel and the promises of God’. This second visit of Patrick to Ireland with all its momentous consequences brings home to us the unexpected nature of God’s call to all of us. God’s call can surprise us. God can be prompting us to take a path we might never have considered if left to ourselves. God’s purpose for our lives can be so much greater than our own plans. Patrick teaches us to hold ourselves in readiness for the Lord’s surprising call in our lives.

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(xi) Feast of Saint Patrick

We are very fortunate that the story of Patrick has been preserved in two short Latin letters which he himself wrote in his old age, a letter to the soldiers of Coroticus, the leader of a tribe in Britain, and what has come to be called, ‘St Patrick’s Confession’. In these invaluable historical documents, Patrick gives us a lot of information about himself. He came from a well to do family, the rural gentry, who lived somewhere in Britain or in what is now Britany. He was kidnapped from his family villa by pirates and taken to Ireland when he was only sixteen years of age. His grandfather had been a priest and his father a deacon, so Patrick was raised in a Christian home. However by the time of his capture, his faith was lukewarm.

During several years of harsh slavery in Ireland, when he was struggling with the loss of so much that was dear to him, he had a spiritual awakening. He began to experience a strong desire to pray, ‘In a single day I would pray a hundred times and the same at night, even when I was in the woods on the mountain’. His time of exile was a watershed in his life. Looking back on his life before his faith was rekindled, he says that he was ‘like a stone stuck deep in the mud’. Continuing with that image, he speaks of his spiritual awakening as a time when the Lord ‘in his mercy lifted me up and raised me on high, placing me on top of a wall’. Patrick speaks of this turning point in his life as an experience of the Lord’s mercy. He had a strong sense that this reawakening of his faith was the Lord’s doing. He writes, ‘I must not conceal the gift of God that he has given me in the land of my captivity’. Whenever, in our own lives, we experience some devastating loss, and we find ourselves in a dark place, we too can find, as Patrick did, that the risen Lord comes to us in that dark place and touches us deeply.

Patrick’s spiritual reawakening had enormous consequences for the people in the land of his captivity. After several years of slavery in Ireland, he heard the voice of God telling him to flee back to his home. Against all the odds, he managed to escape and make his way back to his family. However, after many years, he heard the voice of God again calling him to return to the land of his captivity, this time to proclaim the gospel to the very people who once enslaved him. After studying for the priesthood, he was eventually sent back to Ireland on mission as a bishop. He gave himself wholeheartedly to proclaiming Christ to those who had never heard of him. He writes in his Confessions, ‘I spent myself for you all... I travelled among you everywhere risking many dangers for your sake even to the farthest places beyond which no one lived. No one had ever gone that far to baptize or ordain clergy or serve the people’. He engaged in this mission at great personal cost to himself, as he wrote in his letter to Coroticus, ‘I sacrificed my homeland and parents and I offer my life to the moment of death’.

Every year, as I reread the two writings of Patrick, I am struck by something new in them. The gospel reading for the feast of Saint Patrick this year made me more sensitive to one feature in particular in Patrick’s writings. In the gospel reading Peter has an overwhelming sense of his own unworthiness, ‘Depart from me, Lord; I am a sinful man’. Yet, this did not deter the Lord from calling him to share in his work, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is people you will catch’. Patrick also had a very strong sense of his own limitations and of his failings. He begins his Confession, ‘I am Patrick, a sinner… I am the least of all the faithful, and to many the most despised’. At one point in this text he shares an experience of temptation, using a striking image: ‘While I was sleeping that very night, Satan greatly tempted me. I will remember the experience as long as I am in this body. Something like a huge rock seemed to fall on me so that I couldn’t move my arms or legs’. A little further on he writes, ‘He is strong who tries daily to turn me away from my faith and the purity of true religion that I have chosen to embrace to the end of my life for Christ the Lord’. He is honest about his personal struggles to remain faithful to the Lord’s call. Yet, those struggles did not discourage him. They brought home to him his total dependence on the Lord. He ends his Confession acknowledging that ‘any small thing I accomplished or did that was pleasing to God was done through his gift’.

Patrick, like Peter in the gospel reading, is an encouragement to us all. He reminds us that the Lord does not ask us to be perfect before calling us to share in his work of leading others to God. The Lord can work powerfully through us, weak as we are, if, like Patrick, we have a generosity of spirit when it comes to witnessing to our faith and if we recognize our dependence on the Lord for everything.

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(xii) Saint Patrick’s Day

Coming up to the feast of Saint Patrick, I always re-read the two documents that have come down to us from him, his Confession and his letter to the soldiers of Coroticus. His Confession in particular is a very personal document. He says he writes it because he wants people ‘to know what kind of man I am’. He says that he is writing it in his ‘old age’. Not long before he wrote his Confession, the people in Britain who had been sponsoring his mission in Ireland had made serious accusations against him, which proved to be false. They were taking away his good name. This situation brought on a personal crisis of faith which nearly destroyed him. His Confession was a response to this very hurtful attack on himself and his mission. He needed to show that the way he was being portrayed was not the kind of man he actually was. He says that because of the accusation made against him, he felt shame and disgrace and ‘the impulse was overpowering to fall way not only here and now but forever’. In that dark moment, he turned to the Lord on whom he had always relied, and the Lord did not let him down. He says, ‘the Lord graciously spared his exile and wanderer for his own name’s sake and helped me greatly when I was being walked on in this way’. Patrick had a strong sense of the Lord speaking personally to him through images, dreams, visions. He mentions how the night after this accusation by his seniors in Britain, he saw before his face a writing that dishonoured him, and simultaneously, he says, ‘I heard God’s voice saying to me: “We have seen with disapproval the face of the chosen one deprived of his good name”’. In the Confessions, there is a strong note of thanksgiving to God i for standing by him during this difficult time, ‘I give thanks to my God tirelessly who kept me faithful in the day of trial’. Patrick reminds us that the Lord is standing by us all in our time of trial now.

As he looks back on his life journey, he tells us that he is the freeborn son of a Roman nobleman, a town Councillor, who was also a deacon of the church. He had a privileged upbringing, but he acknowledges that in his younger years, his faith was at best dormant, ‘we had turned away from God’. Then at the age of sixteen everything changed. As he puts it, ‘I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people’. Without warning, he lost his family and friends, his community, his freedom of movement, his schooling. In his utter misery as a slave, he found himself becoming aware of God’s presence. He had a spiritual awakening. He speaks of ‘the great benefits and grace that the Lord saw fit to confer on me in the land of my captivity’. Even though this was a traumatic time of suffering and loneliness, he repeatedly speaks of the ‘wonderful gifts’ that the Lord gave him. He refers to ‘the great and beneficial gift of knowing and loving God’. He says, ‘the Lord indeed gave much to me, his little servant, more than as a young man I ever hoped for or even considered’. Among the many gifts the Lord gave him at this time, he says, was the gift of prayer, ‘the spirit was stirred up so that in the course of a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many in the night. This I did even when I was staying in the woods and on the mountain’. As the years of captivity passed, his prayer grew in intensity. He learned to listen carefully to the promptings of the Spirit within, giving him the guidance he needed to make important decisions. He learned to discern when the time of his captivity was coming to an end and that his ship was ready. He eventually escaped his captivity and made his way home to his family in Britain. The Lord worked powerfully in Patrick’s dark experience of captivity, and we need to be open to the ways the Lord may be working among in this dark for our nation and our world.

When Patrick arrived home, he tells us that his relatives ‘welcomed me as a son and earnestly begged me that I should never leave them, especially in view of all the hardships I had endured’. Yet, such was his openness to God’s presence and his attentiveness to the Spirit’s promptings that he became convinced he was being called back to Ireland to proclaim the faith which was now central to his life. One night he had a vision of a man called Victor who appeared to have come from Ireland with an unlimited number of letters. As he read one of them, he heard the voice, ‘We ask you, holy boy, come and walk once more among us’. Probably against his family’s wishes, he went abroad to study for the priesthood, most likely to Gaul, in preparation for his mission to the Irish. It is clear from his Confession that his subsequent mission in Ireland bore rich fruit. He wasn’t the first missionary to bring the gospel to Ireland. Earlier in the fifth century, the Bishop Palladius had founded communities of faith. However, Patrick brought the gospel to parts of the island that had never heard it, ‘in places’, he says, ‘beyond which nobody lives’. The impact of his mission was hugely significant. He speaks in his Confession of the many thousands whom he baptized in the Lord. He expresses his indebtedness to God who ‘gave me so much grace that through me people should be born again in God and afterwards confirmed, and that clergy should be ordained for them everywhere’.

We have come to share the faith that Patrick preached on our island fifteen centuries ago. We might be tempted to think that our faith is somewhat dormant, as Patrick’s was as a young man. We may be aware of what Jesus in today’s parable calls ‘darnel’ in our own personal lives, and in the life of the church as a whole. Yet, Patrick’s story reminds us that the Lord never abandons us or his church. No matter where we are in our faith journey, the Lord can break through to us in a wonderfully new way, if we give him the space to do so. Sometimes, as Patrick’s life shows us, it is often in times of great adversity that the space is created in our lives for the Lord to work powerfully within us and through us. We could all make our own Patrick’s prayer wish towards the end of his Confession, ‘I ask God for perseverance, to grant that I remain a faithful witness to him for his own sake until my passing from this life’.

And/Or

(xiii) Feast of Saint Patrick

Some time ago I climbed Croagh Patrick for the first time in the company of my sister, Catherine, and brother-in-law, Patrick, who died a few years ago on the feast of Saint Joseph. They both lived in Southern California. Patrick, who was from the United States, was determined to climb Croagh Patrick. He was recovering from cancer at the time, and, in spite of a very bad back, he wanted to make this climb in thanksgiving for having come through his surgery and treatment so well, and, also, as a form of prayer of petition for God’s ongoing help. We managed to get to the top, just about. The Croagh Patrick climb is one expression of the cult of St. Patrick that has continued down to our time. We venerate Patrick today because he spent himself in proclaiming the gospel on this island, bringing Christ to huge numbers of people.

It is evident from his two writings that have come down to us that Patrick came from a reasonably privileged background. His father was a town counsellor who had a comfortable house with many servants. Patrick says that he was born free, of noble rank. Then suddenly, his personal and communal landscape radically changed. At the age of sixteen, he was taken captive with others and brought to Ireland. As he says, he found himself among strangers. Gone were his comfortable home, his loving family, his freedom. He was now a slave, with no rights or protection. He was lost, without friend or future. It is hard to imagine the impact of such a traumatic experience on one so young. Yet, as he wrote his Confession in his old age, he recognizes the great gifts that came to him during this painful and lonely time of exile. Although his grandfather was a priest, and Patrick had been baptized, he acknowledges that as an adolescent he ‘did not know the true God’. He said he had turned away from God. However, in exile, while herding sheep in all kinds of weathers he had the most extra-ordinary spiritual awakening. Looking back, he speaks of the ‘great benefits and graces the Lord saw fit to confer on me in my captivity’. He speaks of the Lord’s ‘wonderful gifts, gifts for the present and for eternity, which the human mind cannot measure’. He goes on to say, ‘my faith increased and the spirit was stirred up so that in the course of a single day I could say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many in the night’.

Many years later, he finally broke free of his captivity and made his way home to his family. Having been profoundly touched by God in the years since he left his family, he was now sensitive to the presence and the call of God in his life. Some years after returning home, he heard the Lord’s call to return to the land of his former captivity to preach the gospel. He trained for the priesthood and arrived back in Ireland, this time as a free man, or, perhaps more accurately, as the Lord’s slave or servant. He speaks of himself now as a ‘stranger and exile for the love of God’. He writes of ‘the people to whom the love of God brought me’. His mission in Ireland was fraught with dangers and difficulties of all sorts, including at times opposition from leading members of the church in Britain who had authorized his mission to Ireland. Yet, his two writings are full of a strong sense of God’s protective and guiding presence in his life. He was very aware of all the Lord was doing through him, in spite of setbacks. He writes, ‘I am very much in debt to God, who gave me so much grace that through me people should be born again in God and afterwards confirmed’. He asks, ‘What return can I make to God for all his goodness to me? What can I say or what can I promise to my Lord since any ability I have comes from him?’ Writing towards the end of his life, Patrick could see the many ways the Lord had worked powerfully through his painful experience of exile as an adolescent. Because of that traumatic experience of loss, the gospel was brought to what Patrick calls ‘the most remote districts beyond which nobody lives and where nobody had ever come to baptize, to ordain clergy or to confirm the people’.

Patrick’s life teaches us to be attentive to the ways that the Lord may be surprisingly present in situations of great struggle that seem devoid of any value at the time. Whereas it is never the Lord’s desire that misfortune should befall us, when it does come our way, he is always there with us, working among for our good and the good of others. Perhaps our very vulnerability at such times can make us more attentive to what the Lord may want to say to us. Patrick’s experience of exile made him alert to the Lord’s call at different moments of his life. Our own experiences of exile and loss, whatever form they may take, can help to make us more alert to the Lord’s loving purpose for our lives.

And/Or

(xiv) St Patrick's Day

Today on the feast of St. Patrick, we celebrate the beginnings of the Christian story on this island. We remember Patrick as the one who lit a flame that has remained lighting for nearly sixteen hundred years. He preached the gospel in our land and, as today’s second reading says, ‘the footsteps of those who bring good news are a welcome sound’. Today we give thanks that the flame of faith Patrick first lit has been kept alive among us.

Two of Patrick’s own writings have been preserved for us. It is above all from his Confessions that we get the fascinating story of his life. He was probably a citizen of Roman Britain. His father was a town councillor, part of the local Roman administration. Patrick came from a Christian family. He tells us that his father was a priest and that his grandfather was a deacon. Yet, in his youth Patrick’s faith was lukewarm.  Then at the tender age of sixteen, his rather comfortable world came crashing down around him. Writing in his Confessions, he says: ‘I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people… this is where I now am, among strangers’. Patrick became an emigrant, against his wishes. Many of our young people today find themselves in a similar situation. We probably all know one or two people who have recently emigrated without it being their first choice. We remember them and pray for them today. Patrick’s forced emigration was of a very rough kind. He was wrenched from the family that loved him, taken from his home, his friends, his culture by captives, and thrown into a foreign land as a slave. An experience like that could destroy a young man. Yet, Patrick tells us that in this harsh exile, he had a powerful experience of God’s presence. He writes in his Confessions about ‘the great benefits that the Lord saw fit to confer on me in my captivity’. He uses a powerful image to describe his spiritual reawakening: ‘Before I was humbled, I was like a stone lying in the deep mud. Then he who is mighty came and in his mercy he not only pulled me out but lifted me up and placed me at the very top of the wall’. In the wilderness of exile, when everything was taken from him, his faith started to fan into a living flame. When we experience some devastating loss, the suffering can be bitter indeed; we find ourselves at the foot of the cross. Yet, like Patrick, we can also find, perhaps to our surprise, that the risen Lord is there to lift us up. Like Saint Paul, we experience the Lord’s power at work in our weakness.

Patrick goes on to tell us in his Confessions that six years after first coming to Ireland as a slave, at the age of twenty two, he escaped from his captivity and made his way home. What a home coming that must have been for his parents, who thought they would never see him again. Patrick states that ‘they earnestly begged me that I should never leave them’. Could you blame them? Yet, some years later, Patrick tells us, he had a vision of a man coming from Ireland with a large number of letters. In his vision, he took one of these letters in his hands, and as he began to read he heard a crowd shout with one voice: ‘We ask you, boy, come and walk once more among us’. That vision touched him deeply, and there and then decided to answer the call. He did not come back to Ireland immediately. He first pursued studies in preparation for the priesthood, probably in Roman Gaul. After several years he made the journey back to the land of his captivity, initially as a priest. Having established himself as a missionary, he was appointed bishop. He writes in his Confessions: ‘I came to the Irish heathen to preach the good news’. Patrick was prepared to endure voluntary exile to bring the gospel to the very people among whom he had experienced captivity. He brought the precious gift of the Christian faith to those who had taken away his freedom many years earlier. It is clear from his Confessions that Patrick was very aware of his limitations, in particular, his lack of education, and, yet, the Lord worked powerfully through him in this land of ours.

The gospel reading this evening refers to the Lord working powerfully through his disciples, through those who responded to the call of the risen Lord. We have to believe that the Lord continues to work powerfully today through our sometimes flawed efforts to proclaim the gospel by what we say and how we live. All the Lord asks of us is that we may remain faithful and generous, and if we do so he well certainly work through us in ways that will surprise us. We could easily make our own the prayer of Patrick towards the end of his Confessions, ‘I ask God for perseverance, to grant that I remain a faithful witness to him for his own sake until my passing from this life’.

And/Or

(xv) St. Patrick’s Day

Last October twelve months I climbed Croagh Patrick for the first time, in the company of my sister and brother-in-law. They both live in California. Patrick, who is from the United States, came to Ireland determined to climb Croagh Patrick. He is recovering from cancer and he wanted to make this climb in thanksgiving for having come through the surgery and the treatment so well, and, also, as a form of prayer of petition for God’s ongoing help. We managed to get to the top, just about.

The Croagh Patrick climb is one expression of the cult of St. Patrick that has continued down to our own time. We venerate Patrick today, not so much as the one who first brought Christianity to this island. Historians tell us that the bishop Palladius first preached the gospel in Ireland, some years before Patrick arrived. We venerate Patrick because he spent himself in proclaiming the gospel on this island, bringing Christ to huge numbers of people who never heard of him. Patrick says in his Confessions, ‘I am very much in debt to God who gave me so much grace that through me many people should be born again in God and afterwards confirmed, and that clergy should be ordained for them everywhere’. In amazement at what God had done through him, he asks, ‘How then does it happen in Ireland that a people who in their ignorance of God always worshipped only idols and unclean things up to now, have lately become a people of the Lord and are called children of God?’

Today we give thanks for Patrick’s response to God’s call to preach the gospel in the land of his former captivity. His first journey to Ireland was not of his own choosing. He was brought here as a slave at the age of 16, having been cruelly separated from his family and his homeland. This must have been a hugely traumatic experience for a young adolescent. His identity was anything but fully formed at this stage. He says in his confessions: ‘I was taken captive… before I knew what to seek or what to avoid’. This experience was a personal disaster. Yet, out of this traumatic experience came great good. Although Patrick had been baptized a Christian, he had developed no relationship with Christ. The faith into which he had been baptized had made no impact on his life. In his captivity, he had a religious awakening. He tells us: ‘When I came to Ireland… I used to pray many times during the day. More and more the love of God and reverence for him came to me. My faith increased… As I now realize, the spirit was burning within me’. That spiritual awakening in the land of his captivity had enormous consequences, not only for himself but for huge numbers of people in the land where he was held captive.

The Lord somehow got through to Patrick during the rigours of captivity in a way he had not got through to Patrick during his reasonably privileged upbringing at home. Patrick uses a striking image to express this transformation in his life: ‘Before I was humbled I was like a stone lying in the deep mud. Then he who is mighty came and in his mercy he not only pulled me out but lifted me up and placed me at the very top of the wall’.

Patrick’s own story brings home to us that the Lord can work powerfully in and through our own experiences of captivity. In the course of our lives we sometimes are brought somewhere we would rather not go. We can find ourselves in situations where we are conscious only of loss. We are separated from someone or from some experience that has been very significant for us, that has helped to define us. We experience ourselves as isolated and adrift, in unfamiliar and threatening territory, unsure of our future and with regrets about the past. Patrick’s story reminds us that when we find ourselves in such wilderness places, the Lord does not abandon us. On the contrary, when we seem to be loosing much, he graces us all the more. Patrick says in his confessions: ‘I cannot be silent… about the great benefits and graces that the Lord saw fit to confer on me in the land of my captivity’. The Lord will be as generous with us as he was with Patrick in the land of our captivity, whatever form that might take. If we remain open to the Lord in such times, as Patrick did, the Lord will not only grace us but he will also grace many others through us.

There is a sense in which it is true to say that the church in Ireland has been going through something of a wilderness time in recent years. Many of us in the church are conscious of a sense of loss. The numbers coming to the Sacraments have fallen greatly; there has been a dramatic decline in the numbers going on for priesthood and the religious life; the fabric of our society seems to be more and more resistant to the values of the gospel; the way we have come to relate to each other seem more and more at odds with the Lord’s teaching and lifestyle. Patrick’s story is a reminder to us that the Lord continues to work powerfully in what appears to be unpromising terrain. In the gospel reading Jesus instructs the seventy two to proclaim the same message regardless of how they are received, ‘the kingdom of God is very near to you’. Even in barren and lean times, it remains the case that the kingdom of God is very near to us. Patrick teaches us to be alert to the signs of God’s kingdom even in periods of loss. He encourages us to be attentive to the new deed that God is always doing in the land of our captivity.

And/Or

(xvi) St. Patrick’s Day

About four years ago I climbed Croagh Patrick for the first time in the company of my sister and brother-in-law. They both live in Southern California. Patrick, who is from the United States, was determined to climb Croagh Patrick. He was recovering from cancer at the time, and, in spite of a very bad back, he wanted to make this climb in thanksgiving for having come through his surgery and treatment so well, and, also, as a form of prayer of petition for God’s ongoing help. We managed to get to the top, just about.

The Croagh Patrick climb is one expression of the cult of St. Patrick that has continued down to our time. We venerate Patrick today because he spent himself in proclaiming the gospel on this island, bringing Christ to huge numbers of people. He says in his Confessions, ‘I am very much in debt to God who gave me so much grace that through me many people should be born again in God and afterwards confirmed, and that clergy should be ordained for them everywhere’. In amazement at what God had done through him, he asks, ‘How then does it happen in Ireland that a people who in their ignorance of God always worshipped only idols and unclean things up to now, have lately become a people of the Lord and are called children of God?’

On his feast day we give thanks for Patrick’s response to God’s call to preach the gospel in the land of his former captivity. His first journey to Ireland was not of his own choosing. He was brought here as a slave at the age of 16, having been cruelly separated from his family and his homeland. This must have been a hugely traumatic experience for a young adolescent. He says in his confessions: ‘I was taken captive… before I knew what to seek or what to avoid’. Yet, out of this difficult experience came great good. Although Patrick had been baptized a Christian in his youth, he had developed no relationship with Christ. The faith into which he had been baptized had made no impact on his life. It was only in his captivity that Christ became real for him. In the land of his exile he had a religious awakening. He tells us: ‘When I came to Ireland… I used to pray many times during the day. More and more the love of God and reverence for him came to me. My faith increased… As I now realize, the spirit was burning within me’. That spiritual awakening had enormous consequences, not only for himself but for the people of the land where he was held captive.

The Lord somehow got through to Patrick during the rigours of captivity in a way he had not got through to Patrick during his reasonably privileged upbringing at home. Patrick uses a striking image to express this transformation in his life: ‘Before I was humbled I was like a stone lying in the deep mud. Then he who is mighty came and in his mercy he not only pulled me out but lifted me up and placed me at the very top of the wall’.

Patrick’s own story brings home to us that the Lord can work powerfully in dark and troubling times. In the course of our lives we can be brought places that we would rather not go. We might be separated from someone or some place that has been very significant for us. We find ourselves isolated and adrift, in unfamiliar and threatening territory, unsure of our future and with regrets about the past. Patrick’s story reminds us that when we find ourselves in such wilderness places, the Lord does not abandon us. Rather when we seem to be losing so much, he can grace us all the more. Patrick says in his confessions: ‘I cannot be silent… about the great benefits and graces that the Lord saw fit to confer on me in the land of my captivity’. When we are brought low, for whatever reason, the Lord will be as generous with us as he was with Patrick. If we remain open to the Lord in such times, as Patrick did, the Lord will not only grace us but he will also grace many others through us.

Patrick’s experience teaches us to be alert to the signs of God’s presence even in difficult times. Patrick’s story reminds us that the Lord continues to work powerfully in what appears to be unpromising situations. In this morning’s gospel reading the prospects for a great catch of fish seemed very slim to Peter and his companions. After all, they had worked hard all night and had caught nothing. Yet, Jesus saw great prospects where Peter and the others saw little of promise. When Peter and the others set out in response to the word of Jesus they saw for themselves what Jesus could see all along. The Lord is always creatively at work even in the most unpromising of situations. However, if his work is to bear fruit, he needs us to set out in faith and hope in response to his word, as Patrick did when he left his home for a second time to come to the island of his former captivity. We pray this morning for something of Patrick’s courageous and expectant faith.

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Fifth Sunday of Lent (B)

Homilies (6)

(i) Fifth Sunday of Lent

Martin Luther King once wrote about a time when he knelt down in prayer at the kitchen table in his home in Alabama. A hail of stones had just come through the window because of his advocacy of civil rights for black people. His wife and children were in danger. He had already become a highly qualified academic by then, and a promising career lay ahead. In prayer he found himself asking, ‘Do I really need this additional worry and danger?’ It was in that prayerful moment that he decided to put the will of God and the welfare of others before his own security and that of his family. He chose to let go of an easier path in order to serve God by working on behalf of those who were most oppressed. In a sense, he chose to die so that others might have life. His life is a striking example of the image that Jesus uses in the gospel reading, the grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies, and in dying yields a rich harvest.

Jesus himself was the supreme expression of that image. He is the grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies, and in dying yields a rich harvest. He refers to that harvest towards the end of today’s gospel reading: ‘When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself’. God worked powerfully through the life of Jesus, and God worked even more powerfully through the death of Jesus. Jesus’ death reveals the power of God’s love in an even fuller way than his life did, and this love, revealed in the death of Jesus, drew people to God, and continues to do so. Many people over the centuries, looking upon the crucifix, have experienced God’s love for them, and have found themselves drawn to God in some way, because of the crucifix. In choosing to accept the loss of so much that was dear to him, in particular, his vibrant life, Jesus drew people to himself and, thereby, to a sharing in God’s life. That moment in his life when Jesus chose such a significant loss out of love for us all is well expressed in this morning’s gospel reading, ‘What shall I say? Save me from this hour. No, it was for this very reason I have come to this hour’.

In these spring days we may find ourselves sowing some seeds in the garden. The seed that dies in order to yield a new form of life is as familiar to us today as it was in the days of Jesus. The seed has to shed its husk so that the potential for new life it carries within itself can be realized. The loss of the husk is a necessary loss if the seed is to realize its destiny. This phenomenon of nature can speak to our own experience as much as it did to the experience of Jesus. Jesus recognized that the loss of his life was a necessary loss if he was to remain faithful to his mission, and, thereby, realize his destiny. Each of us in different ways can be called upon to choose some significant loss if we are to remain true to our deepest and best self, true to what God is asking of us. We can find ourselves at a crossroads, as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane, as Martin Luther King did in the kitchen of his home. At such crossroads we can either choose some loss for the sake of a greater good, or hold on to some reality that is good in itself but that prevents us from taking the path that God is asking us to take, that others need us to take. There are many such crossroads on the journey of life. Whenever we choose some loss for ourselves so that others might live, we are following in the way of the Lord, and a harvest will come from it.

Then there are other losses in life that we do not choose, but that are forced upon us. These are losses we have no choice but to accept. Jesus’ disciples had no choice but to accept the loss of Jesus on Good Friday; their loss flowed from the choice Jesus made. We often have to accept the loss of people we love and care about because of the choices they make. Parents may not wish to see a son or daughter go abroad to live and work, but they accept that as a necessary loss, because they respect the choice made by the one they love. Many of the necessary losses we have to accept in life arise from the choices others make. In accepting those losses, in letting go of those we love, we often find them again in a fuller and richer way, as Jesus’ disciples received him again in a richer way through his resurrection from the dead and the sending of the Spirit.

There are other, more demanding, losses we do not choose but have no choice but to accept. The loss we experience because of the death of a loved one comes to mind. The acceptance of such a loss only comes with great struggle. Then, for each of us, there is the final and unavoidable struggle to let go of our own earthly lives, with all the loss that is entailed in that. As we face all these inevitable losses that are an integral part of life, we are strengthened by the words of Jesus in today’s gospel reading, ‘When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself’. We trust and we believe that, at the end of the day, after we have struggled with all our losses, the Lord will draw us to himself, and, when that happens, we will lack nothing.

And/Or

(ii) Fifth Sunday of Lent

We can ourselves faced with the prospect of doing something which we know is worth doing but which we also know is going to make demands on us. Faced with that kind of a situation we can experience something of a struggle within us. In our heart of hearts we want to do this worthwhile task and, yet, at another level we do not want to do it. Invariably, if we overcome our resistance and follow through on our good intention, we will feel afterwards that we did the right thing. It is probably true to say that we experience that kind of a struggle several times a week. As well as those daily struggles that are part of life, we may find ourselves engaged in a more fundamental struggle, where the future direction of our lives is at stake. I am thinking of those moments in our lives when we have a really important decision to make, and how we make it has enormous consequences for ourselves and for others. The right decision can often be the more difficult one, and the struggle in making it can be great indeed.

In today’s gospel reading we find Jesus in just such a significant moment of decision. The hour when he has to leave this world is drawing near. The journey from this world to the Father will be painful and traumatic. As he faces into this hour, he asks aloud the question, ‘What shall I say?’ There are two possible answers to that question. He could ask the Father to preserve him from the hour and all that it entails, ‘Father, save me from this hour’. Alternatively, he could ask the Father to be present to him as he heads into his hour. This in fact is the prayer he makes at this crucial moment in his life, ‘Father, glorify your name’. Rather than the focus of his prayer being on himself, ‘save me’, the focus of his prayer is on God, ‘glorify your name’. Rather than putting what he wants at the centre of his prayer, he puts what God wants to the fore. With the prayer, ‘Father, glorify your name’, Jesus commits himself anew to doing the work that the Father has given him, with all its consequences.

That question of Jesus, ‘What shall I say?’ or some version of it can be a question that we find ourselves asking too. ‘What shall I do? What path will I take?’ Jesus took the path that God wanted him to take That path involved a dying but it was a path that was ultimately life-giving, not only for himself but for all humanity. In our own lives, taking the path that God would want us to take will often involve some kind of dying for us, such as dying to our own comfort and convenience, letting go of the plans that we have for ourselves. This can take very ordinary forms. We get a phone call from someone who needs to talk to us, just as we are about to sit down and watch our favourite television programme. Someone asks us to visit them, and the only opportunity we have for doing that is Saturday afternoon when we would normally take it easy. A call for help goes out in regard to some issue and we know that we have the time and the ability to respond, but we also know that if we do so it will make demands on us. The strong temptation is to pray, ‘Father, save me from this hour’, to try and preserve ourselves, to protect ourselves. Yet, today’s gospel makes a strong declaration that if we invest energy in trying to preserve ourselves, we will loose ourselves. ‘Anyone who loves his life looses it’. If, on the contrary, we give ourselves away, we will find life. It is the grain of wheat that falls to the earth and dies that bears much fruit.

We are only a week away from Holy Week. During Holy Week we remember Jesus’ readiness to fall to the ground and die for our sakes. As we contemplate his dying for us, we may find ourselves drawn to him. Jesus says in today’s gospel reading, ‘when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself’. It is in allowing ourselves to be drawn to him that we will find the strength to take the path that he took, the path of self-giving that leads to fullness of life. It is only our union with Christ which will empower us to take this path. Every day we invite the Lord to draw us to himself, so that we too can become the grain that falls to the ground and dies, and in dying bears much fruit.  

And/Or

(iii) Fifth Sunday of Lent

The lead singer of a legendary pop group from the 60’s died a few years ago. The name of the group was the Monkies and they were big in the United States. Those of a certain age might remember them. They were probably as big in the US as the Beatles were in England. Both of those groups had and still have a huge following; at their peak they drew very large numbers of young people to themselves. There have been many other singing groups since then who drew large crowds of people whenever they performed. It is not only singing groups who draw crowds. Football teams draw huge crowds to their matches. Indeed many Irish people get on a plane early on Saturday morning to fly over to Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, London, or wherever to watch their favourite team. Huge crowds will be drawn to Croke Park in the coming months up to September to watch the championship matches in football and hurling. There have always been individuals and groups of people who have had the ability to draw large crowds.

At the very end of this morning’s gospel reading Jesus says of himself, ‘when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself’. It is one of the sayings of Jesus in the gospels that has always struck me. Jesus speaks there of the drawing power he will have when he is lifted up from the earth. In John’s gospel, from which our gospel reading is taken, when Jesus speaks of himself as one who will be lifted up from the earth, he is referring to both his death and his resurrection and ascension. He will be lifted up on the cross and he will be lifted up in glory. In John’s gospel there is a sense in which both of those moments of lifting up are one moment. When Jesus is lifted up on the cross, he is at the same time being lifted up in glory, because on the cross Jesus reveals God’s glory, the glorious presence of God who is love. Jesus declares in our gospel reading that when he is lifted up from the earth, he will draw all people to himself. The drawing power of Jesus on the cross is the drawing power of a divine love. Authentic love always draws us; it attracts. There is no more authentic love than God’s love revealed in Jesus when he is lifted up on the cross and in glory. That is why the crucified and risen Jesus has been drawing people to himself for over two thousand years and will continue to do so for the next two thousand years. We are drawn to Jesus lifted up from the earth because we experience there a love which is stronger than sin and death, a love which assures us of our worth, and holds out to us an eternal destiny beyond death. If we allow that love to enter within us we will be inspired and empowered to love as we have been loved. Jesus lifted up from the earth, Jesus on the cross, has always drawn people of faith. The liturgies of Good Friday are always very well attended. It is not that as Christians we are in love with suffering. It is just that we sense that the lifting up of Jesus has in some profound sense lifted us all up.

In this morning’s gospel reading Jesus speaks of his forthcoming death using a very different set of words to the language of being lifted up. He speaks of the grain of wheat which falls into the earth and dies and in dying yields a rich harvest. He himself was the grain of wheat which fell into the earth and died and his death yielded a rich harvest for all of us. We are all part of the harvest of his death. His death was life-giving for himself and for us all. That is why we find ourselves looking upon Jesus lifted up from the earth, on the cross and in glory. Later on in John’s gospel Jesus says of himself, ‘no one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’. In being lifted up from the earth, Jesus was laying down his life for all of us, for each one of us; he was drawing us into his friendship. We look upon the cross because we sense that no one has ever befriended us or could ever befriend us in such a complete way. This is the harvest which has come from the grain of wheat falling to the ground and dying.

This being lifted up from the earth, this falling to the ground and dying, did not come easy to Jesus. We can sense that from this morning’s gospel reading. ‘Now my soul is troubled’, he says, and he is tempted to pray, ‘Father, save me from this hour’. His love for us was a costly love. All authentic human love is costly. In giving ourselves away to another in love we leave ourselves vulnerable to suffering and brokenness. Yet, this is the path Jesus took; it is the path we are all called to take as his followers. In the words of the gospel reading, ‘if anyone serves me, he must follow me’. The path of self-emptying love is ultimately the path that leads to life, a full life here and now and eternal life beyond death.

And/Or

(iv) Fifth Sunday of Lent

We probably all have a wish list of things we would like to do before we die, or, perhaps people we would like to meet. If we were given a blank sheet of paper with the words ‘I wish...’ at the top and asked to fill it in, we would likely all come up with a different list, although there might be some elements in common. What we would have in common would probably be the more important, deeper, realities of life, such as health, peace of mind, loving relationships, happiness for oneself and one’s loved ones. As people of faith we might include on our blank page some expression of our religious longings. We might wish for a deeper experience of the Lord’s love and forgiveness in our lives or for greater clarity as to what the Lord is asking of us or desires for us.

At the beginning of this morning’s gospel reading we are introduced to two people who approach one of the disciples of Jesus and express their wish in a very simple way, ‘We should like to see Jesus’. They are described as ‘Greeks’. In saying to Philip ‘We want to see Jesus’, they are giving expression to their deeper religious longings. No matter where we are on our own faith journey, there is a sense in which we can always say, ‘we want to see Jesus’. Those two Greeks were at the very beginning of their faith journey as followers of Jesus. Yet, their wish is appropriate for every stage of the journey. When it comes to the Lord, there is always more to be seen. When it comes to our relationship with the Lord, there is always room for growth. Saint Paul was one of the few people in the New Testament who had seen the risen Lord. Writing to the church in Corinth, he says, ‘Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?’ Yet in that same letter, he acknowledges, ‘now, we see as in a mirror dimly; but then we will see face to face’. In that eternal moment beyond this earthly life we will see the Lord clearly, face to face. Now, we see dimly, and so we can always say, ‘I want to see Jesus’, ‘I want to see him more clearly’. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul gives expression to this wish, this longing to see the Lord more clearly, when he says, ‘I want to know Christ’. We might be tempted to say to him, ‘Surely, you already know Christ’. He would reply to us, quoting again his letter to the Corinthians, ‘Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known’. It is only ‘then’ beyond this earthly life that we will know the Lord fully, will see him clearly.  Until then, we are among the Greeks in today’s gospel reading who say, ‘We want to see Jesus’.

It is striking that the two Greeks did not approach Jesus directly. They approached one of Jesus’ disciples, Philip, who in turn went to Andrew and then, together, they went to Jesus with the request of the Greeks. The two disciples, Philip and Andrew, served as mediators between the Greeks and Jesus. These two disciples made it possible for the two Greeks to see Jesus. This is as true today as it was in the time of Jesus. We come to the Lord through each other. We are called to bring each other to the Lord, to help one another to see Jesus. In our faith life, in our search for Jesus, we are intimately bound up with one another. Parents help their children to see Jesus by teaching them to pray, bringing them to the church, reading passages from the gospels to them. Children, in turn, can bring their parents, and all of us, to see Jesus. Their unselfconscious desire to know the Lord, their openness to prayer and the world of the spirit, can touch us deeply, and even awaken some faith in us that has been dormant for some time. When it comes to our faith, we are all struggling to see; we are all a little blind and we need others to show us and to guide us.

If at the beginning of today’s gospel reading we have two Greeks wanting to see Jesus, at the end of that reading we have those wonderful words of Jesus, ‘When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself’. Jesus declares there that when he is lifted up on the cross and lifted up in glory, he will be revealing his love for us and that love will draw us to himself. The one whom we wish to see is not playing hide and seek with us. Rather, he is constantly drawing us to himself in love. He is the grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies and in dying bears much fruit. His dying is an explosion of love that envelopes us and brings to pass our wish to see him more clearly.

And/Or

(v) Fifth Sunday of Lent

I came across a story in a book that caught my attention. A distinguished citizen came to a Zen Master, seeking the meaning of life. The visitor began to tell the Zen Master all about his ideas, his achievements, his interests. As he continued his hymn of praise to himself, the Zen Master graciously placed a beautiful cup in front of his guest and began filling it with tea. Even after the cup was filled, he continued to pour tea into it. The distinguished visitor quickly moved away from the overflowing cup, saying to the Zen Master, ‘The cup is overflowing! No more will go in!’ The Zen Master replied, ‘Like this cup, you are overflowing with your own opinions and achievements. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?’

The wisdom expressed in that story finds expression in our gospel reading today in a different form. Jesus proclaims the paradoxical wisdom of self-emptying in order to become full, of dying so that we may be raised to new life, ‘Unless a grain falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies it yields a rich harvest… Anyone who loves his life loses it; anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life’. The language of hating our life in this world jars with us. Yet, it is a way of speaking for emphasis and is not to be taken literally. Elsewhere Jesus calls on us to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. There is a healthy, wholesome, love of self which is the foundation for the love of God and love of others. Jesus is warning against an excessive love of self, the kind of over-valuing of our achievements, our gifts and abilities, which stunts our growth as human beings made in God’s image and likeness.

When a grain of wheat is dropped into the earth, the seed shrinks, ‘empties’ itself and dies. Yet, in the warmth and moisture of the earth new life breaks out of the husk and yields a rich harvest. The grain of wheat is an image of Jesus. Saint Paul says of Jesus that he ‘emptied himself, taking the form of a servant’. He emptied himself in loving service of God and of humanity. He continued down this path of self-emptying love of others, even when it became clear that it would cost him his life. As Paul says, ‘he emptied himself… becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross’. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus is aware that the hour is at hand when, like the grain of wheat, he will be buried in the heart of the earth. He stands to lose everything. It is clear from the gospel reading that the prospect of such loss troubles him deeply. He is tempted to pray, ‘Father, save me from this hour!’ Yet, he comes through this struggle and remains faithful to his love-inspired mission, like the good shepherd who loves his flock so deeply that he is prepared to lay down his life for them. His ultimate self-emptying on the cross yields a rich harvest. It reveals the depth of his love for us all and the extent of God the Father’s love for the world. In the light of the resurrection, the cross is seen to be an explosion of divine love, which is why Jesus can say in the gospel reading, ‘When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself’. As Jesus hung from the cross, Pilate declared him a king in mockery, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews’. Yet, this mocking title proclaimed a great truth. Jesus was a king, but his kingdom was not based on force of arms but on the drawing power of love. Jesus lifted up on the cross, lifted up in glory, continues to draw people to himself. In drawing us to himself, he draws us into a sharing in his own risen life. His dying was life-giving, not only for himself, but for all who turn to him in faith.

If the grain of wheat which falls to the ground and dies and in dying yields a rich harvest is an image of Jesus, it is also an image of his followers. ‘If anyone serves me, they must follow me’. Following the Lord will always involve an element of self-emptying, of dying to ourselves out of love for others. The image of the wheat grain invites us to ask, ‘What within me needs to die so that I may live more fully with the life of the Lord, so that I may love more fully with his love?’ For us as followers of the risen Lord, the moment of death is the final self-emptying that yields a rich harvest. It is the ultimate letting go that opens us up to a wonderful encounter with the Lord of love who finally and fully draws us to himself. As we journey towards that final moment of letting go, the Lord calls us daily to empty ourselves in love for others, to die to our self-centeredness in the service of the Lord and his people. As we respond to that call of the Lord, we will begin to experience something of that fullness of life which awaits us beyond death.

And/Or

(vi) Fifth Sunday of Lent

Martin Luther King once wrote about a time when he knelt down in prayer at the kitchen table in his home in Alabama. A hail of stones had just come through the window because of his advocacy of civil rights for all. His wife and children were in danger. He had already become a highly qualified academic by then, and a promising career lay ahead. In prayer he found himself asking, ‘Do I really need this additional worry and danger?’ It was in that prayerful moment that he decided to put what he believed to be the will of God, which was the welfare of the most vulnerable, before his own security and that of his family. He would suffer a great loss for the sake of others. In a sense, he chose to risk death so that others might have a more humane life. His life is a striking example of the image that Jesus uses in the gospel reading, the grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies, and in dying yields a rich harvest.

Jesus himself was the supreme expression of that image. He, more than anyone, is the grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies, and in dying yields a rich harvest. He refers to that harvest which springs from his dying towards the end of today’s gospel reading: ‘When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself’. Jesus is declaring that God who worked powerfully through his life, would work even more powerfully through his death. His death would reveal the power of God’s love for us in an even fuller way than his life had done. God’s love, revealed in Jesus’ death, would draw people to Jesus. Many people over the centuries, looking upon the crucifix, have experienced the strength of God’s love for them, and have found themselves drawn to Jesus, and through him, to God. Roman crucifixion was a degrading form of execution. Yet, the first believers, in the light of the resurrection, came to recognize Christ crucified as the fullest human expression of God’s love for humanity. In the words of Paul’s letter to the Romans, ‘God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners, Christ died for us’. This explosion of God’s love on Calvary was the rich harvest that came from the death of Jesus.

Yet, the gospels suggest that becoming the grain of wheat that dies so that others might be touched by God’s life-giving love did not come easy to Jesus. It was a struggle to accept the loss of so much that was dear to him, in particular, his vibrant life, just as it was a struggle for Martin Luther King. Something of Jesus’ struggle comes through in today’s gospel reading.  He is tempted to pray to God, ‘What shall I say? Save me from this hour’. In the other gospels, Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, ‘Take this cup from me’. Yet, he went on to choose this great loss out of love for all of us. In the words of Jesus’ prayer in today’s gospel reading, ‘It was for this very reason that I have come to this hour’.

In these spring days we may find ourselves sowing some seeds in the garden. The seed that dies in order to yield a new form of life is as familiar to us today as it was in the time of Jesus. The seed has to shed its husk so that the potential for new life it carries within itself can be realized. The loss of the husk is a necessary loss if the seed is to realize its potential. This phenomenon of nature can speak to our own experience as much as it did to the experience of Jesus. Jesus recognized that the loss of his life was a necessary loss if he was to remain faithful to his mission of revealing God’s love to a broken world. Each of us can be called upon to choose some significant loss so as to remain true to what God is asking of us. We can find ourselves at a crossroads, as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane, as Martin Luther King did in the kitchen of his home. These are times when we sense a calling to risk some significant loss out of love for others, so that others, especially the most vulnerable, may have a fuller life. When we sense such a calling, we can be tempted, as Jesus was, to pray, ‘Save me from this hour’. However, whenever we choose some loss for ourselves out of love for others, we are sowing the seeds of a rich harvest. In the words of the gospel reading, we will be serving the Lord, sharing in his loving and life-giving mission. The Lord does not ask us to take this more difficult path, relying only on our own resources. We need to allow the Lord to keep drawing us to himself, so that we can draw strength from him. It is the strength we get from the Lord that allows us to keep taking the path of self-emptying love. Again, in the words of Saint Paul, ‘I can do all things through him who gives me strength’.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[rcedge]

Judgement day is falling as per my wishes. I have sown the seed and i am seeing the harvest. No weapon forged against r truth shall prosper. Or edge

#wrassle lb

[luaemeia]

and oh I say, how my eyes have met the golden sun and god themself, a golden-crowned sparrow, their melodies dawning onto me: have you forgotten your crops? and I say my love, but am I a farmer? they sang, speaking: must you be a farmer to reap? have you sown dishonesty, disloyalty, disillusion? and I answer my darling, I am humble, I am kind, I am human.

as it was god became a silver knight cicada, the loud buzz exclaiming: you have faltered like all before you and all after you and I see with your eyes the seeds of your awareness. are you not ready to harvest? and I say my muse, thus shall be done when death lends me her scythe and I walk through my soul’s garden unashamed and unpolished as perfect as you made me.

alas god was a golden carpenter ant, and her silence exploded in my ears: reclaim your wit and repossess your wavering wisdom! there will be no testament to leave once you depart from this, the land I have given you! for the land is your life and your bounty is what you have lived! the uncollected produce of experience will serve no one other than yourself and no later than now! child, grow as tall as wheat and as simple as a sunflower, stem and bud and blossom as far and wild as a dandelion (and god was a dandelion and I was a dandelion and I was the wind that propelled me and I was the wind that propelled god and god was the wind that propelled me)

and oh I say, again, how my eyes have met the golden sun and all of you, my darlings, my beloved, and I pray to you today: we will harvest and we will feast, and we will savor what our hearts have sowed, so let us hope it is not poison.



— l.amb, for @nosebleedclub, VII & IX.

#luaemeia #nosebleedclub #september prompts #morning visions #harvest #what is more holy that the collective #would we eat what our heart sowed and would we trust our community enough to eat each other's crops? #deity #prophetic

[pooma-bible]

Sister Savita Manwani

Praise the Lord! Welcome you all for today’s word ministration.

Let us Pray: Lord, I thank you for this time of word ministration. Bless all of us on this platform as we hear from you today. Give us a receptive heart and an understanding mind to receive your word with gladness. In Jesus’ name… Amen.

TOPIC: A CHEERFUL GIVER

Giving is a principle God has given us. We need to follow it as commandment. We hear many countless testimonies when God blesses people financially after they have given faithfully to the Lord.

Giving is the key for receiving. And receiving is only after investing. This is the God given principle and we need to follow it in order to receive our blessings and our victory.

God himself is a Cheerful Giver. Consider all he has done for us. He loves when His children follow in His footsteps and give generously and joyfully. Think about the many blessings God has so richly bestowed on you. He blesses us because He loves us.

Who can be a Cheerful Giver?

Say, I can be a Cheerful Giver.

What must we do for that?

1 Corinthians 9:6 – This verse single handedly sums up the reason Christians are to give – because God loves a cheerful giver.

We need to have money, financial breakthrough in our lives. We always bring requests to the Church, to God. But we fail to understand how will money come to the church if the member will not sow into the kingdom of God.

This Biblical verse talks about sowing and reaping. The seed that we sow determines our blessing. The seed is our destiny. The Bible says how you sow is important than how much you sow. You need to sow bountifully means with blessings. If you sow sparingly you will reap sparingly.

When Christians freely give with a gracious heart, we please God.

Here we find two kinds of sowers – one who sows bountifully and other who sows sparingly.

What kind of sower you want to be?

No one can be forced to sow. Farmers can never be forced to sow the kind of seed he needs. He only thinks of sowing bountifully because he needs a great harvest.

Similarly, no one can force us to sow. We need to only follow the Biblical principles.

Imagine, if you have a gold coin and you keep it in the cupboard for 1,5, 10 or 20 years. After 20 years what will happen? Will it increase? No… it remains the same. But if you will take it and sow it in God’s kingdom, it will surely multiply and give you an increase.

You can be a “Sower” or an “Eater”.

Money comes, we become eaters and not sowers. We often say, let’s see later. We say let us listen to God’s word, believe it and later practice it.

Our giving into God’s kingdom is sowing.

What can be sown?

We can sow money, time, prayer, talents, etc. we are so blessed because God said he will receive what we sow. Each time we give, we not only sow, we invest because investment gives us returns. Whenever we sow the first thing we must do is to sow it bountifully

How much you give that much you will be blessed. So, if you want to receive God’s blessings then stop sowing sparingly but rather sow bountifully.

The person who gives only a little will receive only a little in return. Don’t let a lack of faith keep you from giving cheerfully and generously.

Two things the sower needs to have is Faith and Hope

2 Corin.9:7 – So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity for God loves a cheerful giver.

We must not give by force. Don’t you know we are going to church… we need to give? This becomes giving out of necessity or compulsion.

The Bible says, as he purposes in heart… means whatever he thinks or decides so shall he give. It means to give willingly from the heart. A giving attitude is more important than the amount given.

You are responsible for your giving.

Whom do you want to show you are giving?

Your neighbor, your friend, family, pastor or God…

Bible says you give according to what you purpose without constraint. Give with understanding.

Then the Bible says what will happen?

God loves a cheerful giver.

When you give, give and again give, keep on giving, one thing you will know that you are loved by God. If you are a cheerful giver, then god loves you. And we can’t explain the love of God. It’s so wide, so big, so deep we can’t measure it. It’s an unconditional love…Amen.

Praise the Lord…

So be a cheerful giver….

How do we sow?

Sow bountifully, willingly, joyfully, undoubtedly, ungrudgingly, etc.

2 Corin.9:8 - And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

We invest our money in various companies. Then one day we lose all the money because either the owner dies or company goes into a big loss. But if we invest in God’s kingdom God puts a seal on it. Then He gives it back to us. How???

As mentioned in Luke 6:38 – “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

Hallelujah…

And the verse says, God is able to do that. He is able to..

• Give you much more than you give. 2 Chron.25:9

• Deliver you Daniel 3:17

• Make all grace abound 2 Corin.9:8

• Save us from death

Jeremiah 32:27 - “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?

No…there is nothing too hard for God. when you sow bountifully believe God is able and that Heavenly government has invested your giving in the heavenly bank. God shows his grace upon us that we may have all sufficiency in all things.

Would you like to be a cheerful giver? If Yes, then how many times do we do things cheerfully?

We often think how to give, how much to give, what to give, when to give, etc. we spend too much time thinking and so we lose opportunity to give.

We should not be cold on giving. Remember this verse no.8 always.

Luke 21:1-4 – The widow’s two mites

It is the new concept of giving.

The one that gave her all gave more than others who gave a very small part of their all.

Forsake and give all even life if need be is the requirement of the gospel.

2 Corin.9:10 – Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness.

Here, Bible speaks of a supplier. Who is the supplier?

God is the supplier.

What is he supplying?

He is supplying us the seed. Seed means blessings – physical, material, financial, spiritual, etc. All these blessings are seed.

To whom does God supply?

He supplies it only to the sower. Not to everybody but only to the sower.

Sower will receive the seed and then he knows that some of it is to be eaten and some to be sown again. But if the seed is given to the eater, he will eat and finish it.

Now when God supplies you the seed, you need to sow it bountifully in order to reap bountifully.

Many a times the supplier (God) supplies the seed, the sower takes the seed and sows it sparingly but he expects a harvest. He often says, God is a gracious God and will give the harvest. Sorry… this doesn’t work in God’s kingdom. There is no subtraction in God’s kingdom only addition and multiplication. And that is why He promises us to give 30, 60 and a 100 fold return.

Who is responsible for our sowing?

It’s you and me who is responsible for our sowing. God not only gives us the seeds to sow but He also gives us food.

God is the supplier. He is able to multiply. If we don���t sow, the process of multiplying is decreased.

We will have a financial breakthrough, only when we give not like a miser but give cheerfully.

The God who gives us seed for sowing, meets all our basic needs and also gives us abundance so that we can bless others. He gives us happiness, peace and all the fruits of the Spirit. How good is our good? How great and loving is our God?

The seed that God gives us, we must allow it to grow. We need to put water (prayer) and manure (faith) for the seed to grow. Prayer and faith will allow the seed to grow well and give a hundred fold return.

Examine self today…

Say, I want to be a cheerful giver to experience God’s love. Surely you will be protected, provided and blessed.

When you are blessed you can be a blessing to others.

Remember 4 things a man must do in giving:

• Give willingly from the heart

• Do not give grudgingly

• Do not give out of compulsion

• Give cheerfully.

Allow me to end here. May God bless you to be a cheerful giver.

[madewithonerib]

D.Brown & A.R. Fausset, Church of Scotland [1871] | Psalm 27:4-5

The secret of HIS confidence is HIS delight in communion with GOD [Ps 16:11; 23:6], beholding the harmony of His perfections, & seeking His favor in His temple or palace; a term applicable to the tabernacle [compare Ps 5:7].

There he is safe [Ps 31:21; 61:5].

The figure is changed in the last clause, but the sentiment is the same.

The Treasury of David 4 One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord, & to enquire in HIS temple.

5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in HIS pavilion:

in the secret of HIS tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.

6 And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me-therefore will I offer in HIS tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord.

"One thing." Divided aims tend to distraction, weakness, disappointment.

The man of one book is eminent, the man of one pursuit is successful.

Let all our affection be bound up in one affection, & that affection set upon Heavenly things.

"Have I desired" - what we cannot at once attain, it is well to desire.

GOD judges us very much by the desire of our hearts.

He who rides a lame horse is not blamed by HIS master for want of speed, if he makes all the haste he can, & would make more if he could; GOD takes the will for the deed with HIS children.

"Of the Lord." This is the right target for desires, this is the well into which to dip our buckets, this is the door to knock at, the bank to draw upon; desire of men, & lie on the dunghill with Lazarus:

desire of the Lord, & be carried of angels into Abraham's bosom.

Our desires of the Lord should be sanctified, humble, constant, submissive, fervent, & it is well if, as with the Psalmist, they are all molten into one mass.

Under David's painful circumstances we might have expected HIM to desire repose, safety, & a thousand other good things, but no, he has set HIS heart on the pearl, & leaves the rest.

"That will I seek after." Holy desires must lead to resolute action.

The old proverb says, "Wishers & woulders are never good housekeepers," & "wishing never fills a sack." Desires are seeds which must be sown in the good soil of activity for they will yield no harvest.

We shall find our desires to be like clouds without rain, unless followed up by practical endeavours.

"That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life." For the sake of communion with the King, David longed to dwell always in the palace; so far from being wearied with the services of the Tabernacle, he longed to be constantly engaged in them, as HIS lifelong pleasure.

He desired above all things to be one of the household of GOD, a home-born child, living at home with HIS Father.

This is our dearest wish, only we extend it to those days of our immortal life which have not yet dawned.

We pine for our Father's house above, the home of our souls; if we may but dwell there for ever, we care but little for the goods or ills of this poor life.

"Jerusalem the golden" is the one & only goal of our heart's longings.

"To behold the beauty of the Lord." An exercise both for Earthly & Heavenly worshippers.

We must not enter the assemblies of the saints in order to see & be seen, or merely to hear the minister; we must repair to the gatherings of the righteous, intent upon the gracious object of learning more of the loving Father, more of the glorified Jesus, more of the mysterious Spirit, in order that we may the more lovingly admire, & the more reverently adore our glorious GOD.

What a word is that, "the beauty of the Lord!" Think of it, dear reader! Better far - behold it by faith! What a sight will that be when every faithful follower of Jesus shall behold "the King in HIS beauty!" Oh, for that infinitely blessed vision! "And to enquire in HIS temple." We should make our visits to the Lord's house enquirers' meetings.

Not seeking sinners alone, but assured saints should be enquirers.

We must enquire as to the will of GOD & how we may do it; as to our interest in the Heavenly city, & how we may be more assured of it.

We shall not need to make enquiries in Heaven, for there we shall know even as we are known; but meanwhile we should sit at Jesus' feet, & awaken all our faculties to learn of him.

Psalm 27:5

This verse gives an excellent reason for the Psalmist's desire after communion with GOD, namely, that he was thus secured in the hour of peril.

"For in the time of trouble," that needy time, that time when others forsake me, "he shall hide me in HIS pavilion:" he shall give me the best of shelter in the worst of danger.

The royal pavilion was erected in the centre of the army, & around it all the mighty men kept guard at all hours; thus in that divine sovereignty which almighty power is sworn to maintain, the believer peacefully is hidden, hidden not by himself furtively, but by the king, who hospitably entertains him.

"In the secret of HIS tabernacle shall he hide me." Sacrifice aids sovereignty in screening the elect from harm.

No one of old dared to enter the most holy place on pain of death; & if the Lord has hidden HIS people there, what foe shall venture to molest them? "He shall set me up upon a rock." Immutability, eternity, & infinite power here come to the aid of sovereignty & sacrifice.

How blessed is the standing of the man whom GOD himself sets on high above HIS foes, upon an impregnable rock which never can be stormed! Well may we desire to dwell with the Lord who so effectually protects HIS people.

Psalm 27:6

"And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me." - He is quite sure of it.

GODly men of old prayed in faith, nothing wavering, & spoke of the answer to their prayers as a certainty.

David was by faith so sure of a glorious victory over all those who beset him, that he arranged in HIS OWN heart what he would do when HIS foes lay all prostrate before him; that arrangement was such as gratitude suggested.

"Therefore will I offer in HIS tabernacles sacrifices of joy." That place for which he longed in HIS conflict, should see HIS thankful joy in HIS triumphant return.

He does not speak of jubilations to be offered in HIS palace, & feastings in HIS banqueting halls, but holy mirth he selects as most fitting for so divine a deliverance.

"I will sing." This is the most natural mode of expressing thankfulness.

"Yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord." The vow is confirmed by repetition, & explained by addition, which addition vows all the praise unto YHWH.

Let who will be silent, the believer when HIS prayer is heard, must & will make HIS praise to be heard also; & let who will sing unto the vanities of the world, the believer reserves HIS music for the Lord alone.

[catolinewsdailyreadings]

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings of Sunday, July 16, 2023

Reading 1

IS 55:10-11

Thus says the LORD: Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14

R./ The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.

You have visited the land and watered it; greatly have you enriched it. God’s watercourses are filled; you have prepared the grain. R./ The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.

Thus have you prepared the land: drenching its furrows, breaking up its clods, Softening it with showers, blessing its yield. R./ The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.

You have crowned the year with your bounty, and your paths overflow with a rich harvest; The untilled meadows overflow with it, and rejoicing clothes the hills. R./ The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.

The fields are garmented with flocks and the valleys blanketed with grain. They shout and sing for joy. R./ The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.

Reading 2

ROM 8:18-23

Brothers and sisters: I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us. For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

Gospel

MT 13:1-23

On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore. And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold. Whoever has ears ought to hear.”

The disciples approached him and said, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” He said to them in reply, “Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand. Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says: You shall indeed hear but not understand, you shall indeed look but never see. Gross is the heart of this people, they will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and be converted, and I heal them.

“But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

“Hear then the parable of the sower. The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it, and the evil one comes and steals away what was sown in his heart. The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy. But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away. The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit. But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”

[wolint]

FRESH MANNA

HARVEST

John 4:35

I want to believe that the best and favourite season for a farmer is harvest, the time and season when the yield from a plant in the growing season is ripened and needs to be gathered in. Sowing and reaping is a law of both the spiritual and natural world. Ever since the beginning of time, man has understood the process of sowing and reaping and has applied it to his benefit.

The harvest process is first mentioned in Genesis 8:22 and several other places, where the divine Noahic covenant guarantees the continual cycle of sowing and harvesting.

So many people are due a harvest and the Lord is on the move to bring the harvest in.

Everyone who sows is entitled to a harvest in life according to Galatians 6:7. However, if we choose to live in ways that are contrary to the will of God like a lot of people believe that they can do anything and get away with it, be assured that there is an accounting system with God that compensates us for whatever seed we’ve sown.

Many Bible stories explain the phrase “Whatever you sow you shall reap.” It means we get what we deserve, whatever we put our time, talent, and energy into is what we get back. We must eventually face the consequences of our actions.

Sowing and reaping imply a waiting period as nothing good grows overnight. The farmer must be patient to see the fruit of his labours.

The mystery of harvest is the planting, watering and reaping according to 1 Corinthians 3:6, suggesting a length of time and labour. God will always bring forth fruit for His glory in His time. Until such time, we must faithfully labour in His field, knowing that at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” as stated in Galatians 6:9.

Although we are no longer in the era of burnt offerings like Cain and Abel in Genesis 4, God still requests that we generously and cheerfully give to his work in 2 Corinthians 9:6-8. Jesus here contrasts the natural harvest season with the spiritual, which was immediately to take place in the ingathering of the Samaritans. The “you” here is emphatic, marking what everyone should expect according to the order of nature.

We wake up daily to a set of possibilities, each one presents a choice and the effects of those choices we will reap through our day, week, month, and year(s).

If we study the bible, it will help us make beneficial choices through life and into eternity. The Word of God will become a light to our feet to take the right paths in life says Psalm 119:105.

Everything works according to the principle of sowing and reaping: seedtime and harvest, this is a time principle for looking forward to a harvest, meaning we must have seed in the ground first, and the more seed is sown, the better harvest we expect.

Sow your seed wherever you believe is fertile ground in the morning, noon and evening, don’t be stingy, you don’t know where the Lord of the harvest will send your harvest from, says Ecclesiastes 11:6.

Galatians 6:8 says if we sow to the flesh, we will reap corruption. But if we sow to the Spirit, we will reap everlasting life.

The Lord sees and records all our seeds: money, time, word, tears, every labour in the vineyard of the Master brings fruitful and blessed harvest but we must first sow seeds to receive any harvest.

Count your seed, account for them, and receive the prepared and abundant harvest the Lord has for us.

PRAYER: Lord of harvest, I call forth harvest on all my seeds according to your time in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Shalom

Women of light international prayer ministries.

[god-whispers]

apr 12

the eve of destruction

"for when they say, 'peace and safety!' then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman.  and they shall not escape." 1 thess 5:3

they shall not escape.  those words keep ringing through my mind.  i ask in all sincerity - could sodom and gomorah have really been that much worse than what we are seeing today?

i feel a new wind beginning to blow.  a wind not of sowing, but of reaping that which has already been sown.  those who have sown to the wind shall reap the whirlwind.  the seeds of chaos and destruction have already been planted and soon it will be the only harvestable crop remaining.  the stingers meant for others will turn inwards to sting their self.  "let destruction come upon him unexpectedly, and let his net that he has hidden catch himself; into that very destruction let him fall." psa 35:8

the eastern world, it is explodin' violence flarin', bullets loadin' you're old enough to kill but not for votin'

these words from a song written in the sixties... and look at us now.  more lawless.  more loveless.  more godless.  peace has been stricken from the world.  self and chaos reign just as surely as it did in sodom.  i am reminded of the scripture in judges: "but every man did that which was right in his own eyes." judges 17:6  come, let us sacrifice another baby and rape another angel.  "as he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him." psa 109:17

like a frog, slowly expiring in boiling water, the tribulation may indeed have been slow in creeping upon us but there will come a "suddenly" to bring it's full manifestation into view.  "for man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them." eccl 9:12 kjv  it will be suddenly and there will be no escape.

this is the wrath God has been patiently setting aside for this day; wrath that needs to be spent.  "the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, 'fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!  for the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?'" rev 6:15-17

just as surely as every reward will be given, every debt must be paid, every evil must be recompensed.  "for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." 2 cor 5:10  in that day there will be no place found for repentance.  if it was despised when it was freely offered, His hand will not be stretched out again.

am i scaring anyone yet?  i hope to be scaring the hell out of you for it is indeed a terrifying hell awaiting all those who reject so costly a gift.  be it princes or paupers, rulers or slaves, rich or poor this will be the great equalizer of all who have lived.

are we teetering on the eve of destruction?  i think we are.  what do you think?  time is swiftly coming when the only peace to be found will be the peace each of us carry in our own hearts; the peace that passes understanding.

[proposamensah]

*POM DAILY WORD* ✝️ Matthew 19:19 "Honor your father and your mother,' and, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."' (NKJV) WHEN YOU FOLLOW THE LAWS OF GOD, YOUR LIFE WILL SEE PROGRESS. 🕎 THIS YOUNG MAN CAME TO JESUS TO INQUIRE HOW TO MAKE IT TO HEAVEN. HE WANTED TO KNOW HOW HE CAN PLEASE GOD WHICH MOST OF US FAIL TO SEEK AFTER. WE WANT TO KNOW THE WAY TO RICHES, AND PROSPERITY BUT ONLY A FEW SEEK TO KNOW GOD AND HIS WAYS. 🕎 KNOW THAT IF YOU KNOW HOW TO PLEASE GOD, YOU WILL ATTRACT WEALTH WITH EASE. JESUS TOLD THE YOUNG MAN TO OBEY THE LAWS OF GOD. ONE OF THE LAWS WE ARE NEGLECTING IN OUR DAYS IS THE LAW OF HONOR. 🕎 WE FAIL TO HONOR OUR FATHERS AND MOTHERS. SOME OF US IN THE NAME OF YOUR FATHER ARE EVIL, YOUR MOTHER IS A WITCH WE FAIL TO TAKE CARE OF THEM. NO MATTER WHO YOUR MOTHER IS, THE LAW IS DIRECT TO HONOR THEM. TAKE CARE OF YOUR PARENTS AND STOP MAKING THEM SUFFER. 🕎 ANOTHER THING IS DISRESPECTING ELDERLY PEOPLE IN SOCIETY IN THE NAME OF POLITICS. LET ME TELL YOU, YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER ARE ALWAYS NOT THOSE THAT GAVE BIRTH TO YOU BUT ANYONE THAT IS OVER YOU. AS LONG AS THEY PLAY A FATHER ROLE OR MOTHER ROLE YOU MUST HONOR THEM. 🕎 TO HONOR SOMEONE IS NOT ABOUT SEEING THEM AND BOWING OR KNEELING BUT WHAT YOY SAY ABOUT THEM WHEN THEY ARE NOT AROUND. WE NEED TO TREAT THE WORDS THAT WE SPEAK TOWARD OUR LEADERS IN SOCIETY. IF YOU FAIL TO HONOR OUR LEADERS TODAY, TAKE NOTE THAT THIS IS A SEED YOU HAVE SOWN AND TOMORROW YOU WILL HARVEST IT. 🕎 I PRAY FOR YOU, MAY THE SPIRIT OF HONOR TAKE OVER YOUR LIFE IN JESUS NAME, AMEN. *STUDY EPHESIANS 6:1-3* *MONTH OF DIVINE SETTLEMENT* *#SHARE_THE_GOSPEL*® *#SUPPORT_THE_MINISTRY* https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn1U7lnK3JJ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#share_the_gospel #support_the_ministry

[tpanan]

My Saturday Daily Blessings

September 17, 2022

Be still quiet your heart and mind, the LORD is here, loving you talking to you...........    

Saturday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time (Roman Rite Calendar) Lectionary 448, Cycle C

First Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:35-37, 42-49

Brothers and sisters: Someone may say, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come back?”You fool! What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind.

So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible. It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious. It is sown weak; it is raised powerful. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one.

So, too, it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being,” the last Adam a life-giving spirit. But the spiritual was not first; rather the natural and then the spiritual.

The first man was from the earth, earthly; the second man, from heaven. As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly, and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 56:10c-12, 13-14

"I will walk in the presence of God, in the light of the living."

Verse before the Gospel: Luke 8:15

R: Alleluia, Alleluia

"Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart and yield a harvest through perseverance."

R: Alleluia, Alleluia

**Gospel: Luke 8:4-15

When a large crowd gathered, with people from one town after another journeying to Jesus, he spoke in a parable. “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled, and the birds of the sky ate it up. Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew, it withered for lack of moisture. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew, it produced fruit a hundredfold.”

After saying this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.” Then his disciples asked him what the meaning of this parable might be. He answered, “Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you; but to the rest, they are made known through parables so that they may look but not see, and hear but not understand.

“This is the meaning of the parable. The seed is the word of God. Those on the path are the ones who have heard, but the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts that they may not believe and be saved. Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, but they have no root; they believe only for a time and fall away in time of temptation.

As for the seed that fell among thorns, they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along, they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life, and they fail to produce mature fruit. But as for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.”

Meditation:

How good are you at listening, especially for the word of God? God is always ready to speak to each of us and to give us understanding of his word. Jesus' parable of the sower is aimed at the hearers of his word. There are different ways of accepting God's word and they produce different kinds of fruit accordingly. There is the prejudiced hearer who has a shut mind. Such a person is unteachable and blind to the things of God. Then there is the shallow hearer who fails to think things out or think them through; such a person lacks spiritual depth. They may initially respond with an emotional fervor; but when it wears off their mind wanders to something else.

Does God's word for you go in one ear and out the other? Another type of hearer is the person who has many interests and cares, but who lacks the ability to hear and understand what is truly important. Such a person is for ever too busy to pray and to listen and reflect on God's word because he or she allows other things to occupy their mind and heart. Whose voice or message gets the most attention from you - the voice of the world with its many distractions or the voice of God who wishes to speak his word of love and truth with you each and every day?

A receptive heart and mind that listens attentively Jesus compares the third type of hearer with the good soil that is ready to receive the seed of his word so it can take root and grow, and produce good fruit. A receptive heart and open mind are always ready to hear what God wants to teach us through his word. The "ears of their heart" and the "eyes of their mind" search out the meaning of God's word for them so that it may grow and produce good fruit in their lives. They hear with a listening ear and teachable spirit (Isaiah 50:4-5) that wants to learn and understand the intention of God's word for them. They strive to tune out the noise and distractions of the world around them so they can give their attention to God's word and find nourishment in it. They listen in order to understand.

God's word has power to change and transform each one of us if we receive it with trust (a believing heart) and allow it to take root in our inner being (the depths of our heart, mind, and soul). God's word is our daily food to nourish and strengthen us on our journey of faith to his everlasting kingdom. Do you hunger for God's word?

Lord Jesus, faith in your word is the way to wisdom, and to ponder your divine plan is to grow in the truth. Open my eyes to your deeds, and my ears to the sound of your call, that I may understand your will for my life and live according to it.

Sources:

Lectionary for Mass for use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, copyright (c) 2001, 1998, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain (c) 1968, 1981, 1997, international committee on english in the liturgy, Inc All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner

**Meditations may be freely reprinted and translated into other languages for non-profit use only. Please cite copyright and original source. Copyright 2021 Daily Scripture Readings and Meditation, dailyscripture.net author Don Schwager

[officialyourdailyinspiration]

Israel Forsakes the Lord

1 The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord,

“I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. 3 Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his harvest. All who ate of it incurred guilt; disaster came upon them, declares the Lord.”

4 Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of the house of Israel. 5 Thus says the Lord:

“What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless? 6 They did not say, ‘Where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells?’ 7 And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. 8 The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those who handle the law did not know me; the shepherds transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit.

9 “Therefore I still contend with you, declares the Lord, and with your children's children I will contend. 10 For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see, or send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has been such a thing. 11 Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. 12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, 13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

14 “Is Israel a slave? Is he a homeborn servant? Why then has he become a prey? 15 The lions have roared against him; they have roared loudly. They have made his land a waste; his cities are in ruins, without inhabitant. 16 Moreover, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes have shaved the crown of your head. 17 Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the Lord your God, when he led you in the way? 18 And now what do you gain by going to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates? 19 Your evil will chastise you, and your apostasy will reprove you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God; the fear of me is not in you, declares the Lord God of hosts.

20 “For long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds; but you said, ‘I will not serve.’ Yes, on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore. 21 Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine? 22 Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord God. 23 How can you say, ‘I am not unclean, I have not gone after the Baals’? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done— a restless young camel running here and there, 24 a wild donkey used to the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind! Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary themselves; in her month they will find her. 25 Keep your feet from going unshod and your throat from thirst. But you said, ‘It is hopeless, for I have loved foreigners, and after them I will go.’

26 “As a thief is shamed when caught, so the house of Israel shall be shamed: they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets, 27 who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Arise and save us!’ 28 But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah.

29 “Why do you contend with me? You have all transgressed against me, declares the Lord. 30 In vain have I struck your children; they took no correction; your own sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion. 31 And you, O generation, behold the word of the Lord. Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness? Why then do my people say, ‘We are free, we will come no more to you’? 32 Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

33 “How well you direct your course to seek love! So that even to wicked women you have taught your ways. 34 Also on your skirts is found the lifeblood of the guiltless poor; you did not find them breaking in. Yet in spite of all these things 35 you say, ‘I am innocent; surely his anger has turned from me.’ Behold, I will bring you to judgment for saying, ‘I have not sinned.’ 36 How much you go about, changing your way! You shall be put to shame by Egypt as you were put to shame by Assyria. 37 From it too you will come away with your hands on your head, for the Lord has rejected those in whom you trust, and you will not prosper by them. — Jeremiah 2 | English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Cross References: Exodus 12:49; Exodus 15:17; Exodus 20:2; Exodus 22:2; Deuteronomy 8:7; Deuteronomy 32:10; Deuteronomy 32:15-16; Deuteronomy 33:20; Joshua 13:3; Judges 10:10; Judges 10:14; 2 Samuel 13:19; 1 Kings 9:9; 2 Chronicles 28:16; Job 9:30; Job 20:12; Job 39:6; Psalm 106:21; Psalm 106:38; Proverbs 30:12; Isaiah 1:2; Jeremiah 1:9; Jeremiah 4:7; Jeremiah 5:1; Jeremiah 32:32; Ezekiel 20:35-36; John 4:10-11; Acts 7:52; Romans 1:21; Romans 1:23; James 1:18; James 4:4; 1 John 1:8; Revelation 2:4; Revelation 14:4; Revelation 17:1

#Israel #sin #unfaithfulness #consequences #forsaking God #Jeremiah 2 #Book of Jeremiah #Old Testament #ESV #English Standard Version Bible #Good News Publishers #Crossway Bibles

[roman-catholic-mass-readings]

17th September >> Mass Readings (Except USA)

Saturday, Twenty Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

    or 

Saint Robert Bellarmine, Bishop, Doctor

    or 

Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Virgin, Doctor

    or 

Saturday memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Saturday, Twenty Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(Liturgical Colour: Green)

First Reading

1 Corinthians 15:35-37,42-49

The resurrected body is heavenly by nature.

Someone may ask, ‘How are dead people raised, and what sort of body do they have when they come back?’ They are stupid questions. Whatever you sow in the ground has to die before it is given new life and the thing that you sow is not what is going to come; you sow a bare grain, say of wheat or something like that. It is the same with the resurrection of the dead: the thing that is sown is perishable but what is raised is imperishable; the thing that is sown is contemptible but what is raised is glorious; the thing that is sown is weak but what is raised is powerful; when it is sown it embodies the soul, when it is raised it embodies the spirit.

   If the soul has its own embodiment, so does the spirit have its own embodiment. The first man, Adam, as scripture says, became a living soul; but the last Adam has become a life-giving spirit. That is, first the one with the soul, not the spirit, and after that, the one with the spirit. The first man, being from the earth, is earthly by nature; the second man is from heaven. As this earthly man was, so are we on earth; and as the heavenly man is, so are we in heaven. And we, who have been modelled on the earthly man, will be modelled on the heavenly man.

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 55(56):10-14

R/ I shall walk in the presence of God in the light of the living.

My foes will be put to flight    on the day that I call to you. This I know, that God is on my side.

R/ I shall walk in the presence of God in the light of the living.

In God, whose word I praise,    in the Lord whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not fear;    what can mortal man do to me?

R/ I shall walk in the presence of God in the light of the living.

I am bound by the vows I have made you.    O God, I will offer you praise for you have rescued my soul from death,    you kept my feet from stumbling that I may walk in the presence of God    and enjoy the light of the living.

R/ I shall walk in the presence of God in the light of the living.

Gospel Acclamation

Psalm 118:18

Alleluia, alleluia! Open my eyes, O Lord, that I may consider the wonders of your law. Alleluia!

Or:

cf. Luke 8:15

Alleluia, alleluia! Blessed are those who, with a noble and generous heart, take the word of God to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance. Alleluia!

Gospel

Luke 8:4-15

The parable of the sower.

With a large crowd gathering and people from every town finding their way to him, Jesus used this parable:

   ‘A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell on the edge of the path and was trampled on; and the birds of the air ate it up. Some seed fell on rock, and when it came up it withered away, having no moisture. Some seed fell amongst thorns and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some seed fell into rich soil and grew and produced its crop a hundredfold.’ Saying this he cried, ‘Listen, anyone who has ears to hear!’

   His disciples asked him what this parable might mean, and he said, ‘The mysteries of the kingdom of God are revealed to you; for the rest there are only parables, so that

they may see but not perceive, listen but not understand.

‘This, then, is what the parable means: the seed is the word of God. Those on the edge of the path are people who have heard it, and then the devil comes and carries away the word from their hearts in case they should believe and be saved. Those on the rock are people who, when they first hear it, welcome the word with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of trial they give up. As for the part that fell into thorns, this is people who have heard, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries and riches and pleasures of life and do not reach maturity. As for the part in the rich soil, this is people with a noble and generous heart who have heard the word and take it to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance.’

The Gospel of the Lord

R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

----------------------------------------

Saint Robert Bellarmine, Bishop, Doctor

(Liturgical Colour: White)

(Readings for the memorial)

(There is a choice today between the readings for the ferial day (Saturday) and those for the memorial. The ferial readings are recommended unless pastoral reasons suggest otherwise)

First Reading

Wisdom 7:7-10,15-16

I esteemed Wisdom more than sceptres or thrones.

I prayed, and understanding was given me; I entreated, and the spirit of Wisdom came to me. I esteemed her more than sceptres and thrones; compared with her, I held riches as nothing. I reckoned no priceless stone to be her peer, for compared with her, all gold is a pinch of sand, and beside her silver ranks as mud. I loved her more than health or beauty, preferred her to the light, since her radiance never sleeps.

May God grant me to speak as he would wish and express thoughts worthy of his gifts, since he himself is the guide of Wisdom, since he directs the sages. We are indeed in his hand, we ourselves and our words, with all our understanding, too, and technical knowledge.

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 18(19):8-11

R/ The decrees of the Lord are truth and all of them just. or R/ Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life.

The law of the Lord is perfect,    it revives the soul. The rule of the Lord is to be trusted,    it gives wisdom to the simple.

R/ The decrees of the Lord are truth and all of them just. or R/ Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life.

The precepts of the Lord are right,    they gladden the heart. The command of the Lord is clear,    it gives light to the eyes.

R/ The decrees of the Lord are truth and all of them just. or R/ Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life.

The fear of the Lord is holy,    abiding for ever. The decrees of the Lord are truth    and all of them just.

R/ The decrees of the Lord are truth and all of them just. or R/ Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life.

They are more to be desired than gold,    than the purest of gold and sweeter are they than honey,    than honey from the comb.

R/ The decrees of the Lord are truth and all of them just. or R/ Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life.

Gospel Acclamation

cf. John 6:63,68

Alleluia, alleluia! Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life; you have the message of eternal life. Alleluia!

Gospel

Matthew 7:21-29

The wise man built his house on a rock.

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘It is not those who say to me, “Lord, Lord,” who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven. When the day comes many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name?” Then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you; away from me, you evil men!

   ‘Therefore, everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock. Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and hurled themselves against that house, and it did not fall: it was founded on rock. But everyone who listens to these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a stupid man who built his house on sand. Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and struck that house, and it fell; and what a fall it had!’

   Jesus had now finished what he wanted to say, and his teaching made a deep impression on the people because he taught them with authority, and not like their own scribes.

The Gospel of the Lord

R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

----------------------------------------------

Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Virgin, Doctor

(Liturgical Colour: White)

(Readings for the memorial)

(There is a choice today between the readings for the ferial day (Saturday) and those for the memorial. The ferial readings are recommended unless pastoral reasons suggest otherwise)

First Reading

Song of Songs 8:6-7

The flash of love is a flame of the Lord himself.

Set me like a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is strong as Death, jealousy as relentless as Sheol. The flash of it is a flash of fire, a flame of the Lord himself. Love no floods can quench, no torrents drown.

Were a man to offer all the wealth of his house to buy love, contempt is all he would purchase.

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 44(45):11-12,14-17

R/ Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words. or R/ The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet Christ the Lord.

Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words:    forget your own people and your father’s house. So will the king desire your beauty:    He is your lord, pay homage to him.

R/ Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words. or R/ The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet Christ the Lord.

The daughter of the king is clothed with splendour,    her robes embroidered with pearls set in gold. She is led to the king with her maiden companions.

R/ Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words. or R/ he bridegroom is here! Go out and meet Christ the Lord.

They are escorted amid gladness and joy;    they pass within the palace of the king. Sons shall be yours in place of your fathers:    you will make them princes over all the earth.

R/ Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words. or R/ The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet Christ the Lord.

Gospel Acclamation

Matthew 5:8

Alleluia, alleluia! Happy the pure in heart: they shall see God. Alleluia!

Gospel

Matthew 25:1-13

The wise and foolish virgins.

Jesus told this parable to his disciples: ‘The kingdom of heaven will be like this: Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were sensible: the foolish ones did take their lamps, but they brought no oil, whereas the sensible ones took flasks of oil as well as their lamps. The bridegroom was late, and they all grew drowsy and fell asleep. But at midnight there was a cry, “The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet him.” At this, all those bridesmaids woke up and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, “Give us some of your oil: our lamps are going out.” But they replied, “There may not be enough for us and for you; you had better go to those who sell it and buy some for yourselves.” They had gone off to buy it when the bridegroom arrived. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding hall and the door was closed. The other bridesmaids arrived later. “Lord, Lord,” they said “open the door for us.” But he replied, “I tell you solemnly, I do not know you.” So stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour.’

The Gospel of the Lord

R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

-------------------------------------------------

Saturday memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary

(Liturgical Colour: White)

(Readings for the memorial)

(There is a choice today between the readings for the ferial day (Saturday) and those for the memorial. The ferial readings are recommended unless pastoral reasons suggest otherwise)

Either:

First Reading

Genesis 3:9-15,20

The mother of all those who live.

After Adam had eaten of the tree the Lord God called to him. ‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden;’ he replied ‘I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.’ ‘Who told you that you were naked?’ he asked ‘Have you been eating of the tree I forbade you to eat?’ The man replied, ‘It was the woman you put with me; she gave me the fruit, and I ate it.’ Then the Lord God asked the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman replied, ‘The serpent tempted me and I ate.’

   Then the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this,

‘Be accursed beyond all cattle, all wild beasts. You shall crawl on your belly and eat dust every day of your life. I will make you enemies of each other: you and the woman, your offspring and her offspring. It will crush your head and you will strike its heel.’

The man named his wife ‘Eve’ because she was the mother of all those who live.

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

OR: --------

First reading Genesis 12:1-7 All the tribes of the earth shall bless themselves by you

The Lord said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your family and your father’s house, for the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name so famous that it will be used as a blessing.

‘I will bless those who bless you: I will curse those who slight you. All the tribes of the earth shall bless themselves by you.’

So Abram went as the Lord told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had amassed and the people they had acquired in Haran. They set off for the land of Canaan, and arrived there.    Abram passed through the land as far as Shechem’s holy place, the Oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘It is to your descendants that I will give this land.’ So Abram built there an altar for the Lord who had appeared to him.

OR: --------

First reading 2 Samuel 7:1-5,8-11,16 The Lord will make you great; the Lord will make you a House

Once David had settled into his house and the Lord had given him rest from all the enemies surrounding him, the king said to the prophet Nathan, ‘Look, I am living in a house of cedar while the ark of God dwells in a tent.’ Nathan said to the king, ‘Go and do all that is in your mind, for the Lord is with you.’    But that very night the word of the Lord came to Nathan:    ‘Go and tell my servant David, “Thus the Lord speaks: Are you the man to build me a house to dwell in? I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be leader of my people Israel; I have been with you on all your expeditions; I have cut off all your enemies before you. I will give you fame as great as the fame of the greatest on earth. I will provide a place for my people Israel; I will plant them there and they shall dwell in that place and never be disturbed again; nor shall the wicked continue to oppress them as they did, in the days when I appointed judges over my people Israel; I will give them rest from all their enemies. The Lord will make you great; the Lord will make you a House. Your House and your sovereignty will always stand secure before me and your throne be established for ever.”’

OR: --------

First reading 1 Chronicles 15:3-4,15-16,16:1-2 They brought in the ark of God and put it inside the tent that David had pitched for it

David gathered all Israel together to bring the ark of God up to the place he had prepared for it. David called together the sons of Aaron and the sons of Levi. And the Levites carried the ark of God with the shafts on their shoulders, as Moses had ordered in accordance with the word of the Lord.    David then told the heads of the Levites to assign duties for their kinsmen as cantors, with their various instruments of music, harps and lyres and cymbals, to play joyful tunes.    They brought the ark of God in and put it inside the tent that David had pitched for it; and they offered holocausts before God, and communion sacrifices. And when David had finished offering holocausts and communion sacrifices, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord.

OR: --------

First reading Proverbs 8:22-31 Before the earth came into being, Wisdom was born

The Wisdom of God cries aloud:

The Lord created me when his purpose first unfolded,    before the oldest of his works. From everlasting I was firmly set,    from the beginning, before earth came into being. The deep was not, when I was born,    there were no springs to gush with water. Before the mountains were settled,    before the hills, I came to birth; before he made the earth, the countryside,    or the first grains of the world’s dust. When he fixed the heavens firm, I was there,    when he drew a ring on the surface of the deep, when he thickened the clouds above,    when he fixed fast the springs of the deep, when he assigned the sea its boundaries – and the waters will not invade the shore –    when he laid down the foundations of the earth, I was by his side, a master craftsman,    delighting him day after day,    ever at play in his presence, at play everywhere in his world,    delighting to be with the sons of men.

OR: --------

First reading Ecclesiasticus 24:1-4,8-12,18-21 From eternity, in the beginning, God created wisdom

Wisdom speaks her own praises,    in the midst of her people she glories in herself. She opens her mouth in the assembly of the Most High,    she glories in herself in the presence of the Mighty One: ‘I came forth from the mouth of the Most High,    and I covered the earth like a mist. I had my tent in the heights,    and my throne in a pillar of cloud. Then the creator of all things instructed me,    and he who created me fixed a place for my tent. He said, “Pitch your tent in Jacob,    make Israel your inheritance.” From eternity, in the beginning, he created me,    and for eternity I shall remain. I ministered before him in the holy tabernacle,    and thus was I established on Zion. In the beloved city he has given me rest,    and in Jerusalem I wield my authority. I have taken root in a privileged people,    in the Lord’s property, in his inheritance. Approach me, you who desire me,    and take your fill of my fruits, for memories of me are sweeter than honey,    inheriting me is sweeter than the honeycomb. They who eat me will hunger for more,    they who drink me will thirst for more. Whoever listens to me will never have to blush,    whoever acts as I dictate will never sin.’

OR: --------

First reading Isaiah 7:10-14,8:10 The maiden is with child

The Lord spoke to Ahaz and said, ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign for yourself coming either from the depths of Sheol or from the heights above.’ ‘No,’ Ahaz answered ‘I will not put the Lord to the test.’    Then Isaiah said:

‘Listen now, House of David: are you not satisfied with trying the patience of men without trying the patience of my God, too? The Lord himself, therefore, will give you a sign. It is this: the maiden is with child and will soon give birth to a son whom she will call Immanuel, a name which means “God-is-with-us.”’

OR: --------

First reading Isaiah 9:1-6 A Son is given to us

The people that walked in darkness has seen a great light; on those who live in a land of deep shadow a light has shone. You have made their gladness greater, you have made their joy increase; they rejoice in your presence as men rejoice at harvest time, as men are happy when they are dividing the spoils.

For the yoke that was weighing on him, the bar across his shoulders, the rod of his oppressor, these you break as on the day of Midian.

For all the footgear of battle, every cloak rolled in blood, is burnt, and consumed by fire.

For there is a child born for us, a son given to us and dominion is laid on his shoulders; and this is the name they give him: Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace.

OR: --------

First reading Isaiah 61:9-11 I exult for joy in the Lord

Their race will be famous throughout the nations, their descendants throughout the peoples. All who see them will admit that they are a race whom the Lord has blessed.

‘I exult for joy in the Lord, my soul rejoices in my God, for he has clothed me in the garments of salvation, he has wrapped me in the cloak of integrity, like a bridegroom wearing his wreath, like a bride adorned in her jewels.

‘For as the earth makes fresh things grow, as a garden makes seeds spring up, so will the Lord make both integrity and praise spring up in the sight of the nations.’

OR: --------

First reading Micah 5:1-4 He will stand and feed his flock with the power of the Lord

The Lord says this:

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, the least of the clans of Judah, out of you will be born for me the one who is to rule over Israel; his origin goes back to the distant past, to the days of old. The Lord is therefore going to abandon them till the time when she who is to give birth gives birth. Then the remnant of his brothers will come back to the sons of Israel. He will stand and feed his flock with the power of the Lord, with the majesty of the name of his God. They will live secure, for from then on he will extend his power to the ends of the land. He himself will be peace.

OR: --------

First reading Zechariah 2:14-17 'I am coming', says the Lord

Sing, rejoice, daughter of Zion; for I am coming to dwell in the middle of you – it is the Lord who speaks. Many nations will join the Lord, on that day; they will become his people. But he will remain among you, and you will know that the Lord of Hosts has sent me to you. But the Lord will hold Judah as his portion in the Holy Land, and again make Jerusalem his very own. Let all mankind be silent before the Lord! For he is awaking and is coming from his holy dwelling.

-------- ________

EITHER: --------

Responsorial Psalm 1 Samuel 2:1,4-8

My heart exults in the Lord my Saviour.

My heart exults in the Lord.    I find my strength in my God; my mouth laughs at my enemies    as I rejoice in your saving help.

My heart exults in the Lord my Saviour.

The bows of the mighty are broken,    but the weak are clothed with strength. Those with plenty must labour for bread,    but the hungry need work no more. The childless wife has children now    but the fruitful wife bears no more.

My heart exults in the Lord my Saviour.

It is the Lord who gives life and death,    he brings men to the grave and back; it is the Lord who gives poverty and riches.    He brings men low and raises them on high.

My heart exults in the Lord my Saviour.

He lifts up the lowly from the dust,    from the dungheap he raises the poor to set him in the company of princes    to give him a glorious throne. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s,    on them he has set the world.

My heart exults in the Lord my Saviour.

OR: --------

Responsorial Psalm Judith 13:18a-19

You are the highest honour of our race!

May you be blessed, my daughter, by God Most High, beyond all women on earth; and may the Lord God be blessed, the Creator of heaven and earth.

You are the highest honour of our race!

The trust you have shown shall not pass from the memories of men, but shall ever remind them of the power of God.

You are the highest honour of our race!

OR: --------

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 44(45):11-12,14-17

Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words.

Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words:    forget your own people and your father’s house. So will the king desire your beauty:    He is your lord, pay homage to him.

Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words.

The daughter of the king is clothed with splendour,    her robes embroidered with pearls set in gold. She is led to the king with her maiden companions.

Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words.

They are escorted amid gladness and joy;    they pass within the palace of the king. Sons shall be yours in place of your fathers:    you will make them princes over all the earth.

Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words.

OR: --------

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 112(113):1-7

May the name of the Lord be blessed for evermore! or Alleluia!

Praise, O servants of the Lord,    praise the name of the Lord! May the name of the Lord be blessed    both now and for evermore!

May the name of the Lord be blessed for evermore! or Alleluia!

From the rising of the sun to its setting    praised be the name of the Lord! High above all nations is the Lord,    above the heavens his glory.

May the name of the Lord be blessed for evermore! or Alleluia!

Who is like the Lord, our God,    who has risen on high to his throne yet stoops from the heights to look down,    to look down upon heaven and earth? From the dust he lifts up the lowly,    from the dungheap he raises the poor

May the name of the Lord be blessed for evermore! or Alleluia!

OR: --------

Responsorial Psalm Luke 1:46-55

The Almighty works marvels for me. Holy is his name! or Blessed is the Virgin Mary, who bore the Son of the eternal Father.

My soul glorifies the Lord,    my spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour.

The Almighty works marvels for me. Holy is his name! or Blessed is the Virgin Mary, who bore the Son of the eternal Father.

He looks on his servant in her nothingness;    henceforth all ages will call me blessed. The Almighty works marvels for me.    Holy his name!

The Almighty works marvels for me. Holy is his name! or Blessed is the Virgin Mary, who bore the Son of the eternal Father.

His mercy is from age to age,    on those who fear him. He puts forth his arm in strength    and scatters the proud-hearted.

The Almighty works marvels for me. Holy is his name! or Blessed is the Virgin Mary, who bore the Son of the eternal Father.

He casts the mighty from their thrones    and raises the lowly. He fills the starving with good things,    sends the rich away empty.

The Almighty works marvels for me. Holy is his name! or Blessed is the Virgin Mary, who bore the Son of the eternal Father.

He protects Israel, his servant,    remembering his mercy, the mercy promised to our fathers,    to Abraham and his sons for ever.

The Almighty works marvels for me. Holy is his name! or Blessed is the Virgin Mary, who bore the Son of the eternal Father.

-------- ________

Gospel Acclamation cf.Lk1:28

Alleluia, alleluia! Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee! Blessed art thou among women. Alleluia!

Or: cf.Lk1:45

Alleluia, alleluia! Blessed is the Virgin Mary, who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled. Alleluia!

Or: cf.Lk2:19

Alleluia, alleluia! Blessed is the Virgin Mary, who treasured the word of God and pondered it in her heart. Alleluia!

Or: Lk11:28

Alleluia, alleluia! Happy are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Alleluia!

Or:

Alleluia, alleluia! Blessed are you, holy Virgin Mary, and most worthy of all praise, for the sun of justice, Christ our God, was born of you. Alleluia!

Or:

Alleluia, alleluia! Happy is the Virgin Mary, who, without dying, won the palm of martyrdom beneath the cross of the Lord. Alleluia!

________

EITHER: --------

Gospel Matthew 1:1-16,18-23 The ancestry and conception of Jesus Christ

A genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham:

Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah, Tamar being their mother, Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon was the father of Boaz, Rahab being his mother, Boaz was the father of Obed, Ruth being his mother, Obed was the father of Jesse; and Jesse was the father of King David.

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife, Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, Joram the father of Azariah, Azariah was the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah; and Josiah was the father of Jechoniah and his brothers. Then the deportation to Babylon took place.

After the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Achim, Achim the father of Eliud, Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob; and Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary; of her was born Jesus who is called Christ.

This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel,

a name which means ‘God-is-with-us.’

OR: --------

Gospel Matthew 1:18-23 How Jesus Christ came to be born

This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel,

a name which means ‘God-is-with-us.’

OR: --------

Gospel Matthew 2:13-15,19-23 The flight into Egypt and the return to Nazareth

After the wise men had left, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him.’ So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until Herod was dead. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet:

I called my son out of Egypt.

After Herod’s death, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother with you and go back to the land of Israel, for those who wanted to kill the child are dead.’ So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, went back to the land of Israel. But when he learnt that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as ruler of Judaea he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he left for the region of Galilee. There he settled in a town called Nazareth. In this way the words spoken through the prophets were to be fulfilled:

‘He will be called a Nazarene.’

OR: --------

Gospel Matthew 12:46-50 My mother and my brothers are anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven

Jesus was speaking to the crowds when his mother and his brothers appeared; they were standing outside and were anxious to have a word with him. But to the man who told him this Jesus replied, ‘Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?’ And stretching out his hand towards his disciples he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.’

OR: --------

Gospel Luke 1:26-38 'I am the handmaid of the Lord'

The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to her, ‘Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’ She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ the angel answered ‘and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.’ ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.’ And the angel left her.

OR: --------

Gospel Luke 1:39-47 Blessed is she who believed the promise

Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’    And Mary said:

‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit exults in God my saviour.’

OR: --------

Gospel Luke 2:1-14 'In the town of David a saviour has been born to you'

Caesar Augustus issued a decree for a census of the whole world to be taken. This census – the first – took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria, and everyone went to his own town to be registered. So Joseph set out from the town of Nazareth in Galilee and travelled up to Judaea, to the town of David called Bethlehem, since he was of David’s House and line, in order to be registered together with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to a son, her first born. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them at the inn.    In the countryside close by there were shepherds who lived in the fields and took it in turns to watch their flocks during the night. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone round them. They were terrified, but the angel said, ‘Do not be afraid. Listen, I bring you news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole people. Today in the town of David a saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. And here is a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly with the angel there was a great throng of the heavenly host, praising God and singing:

‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace to men who enjoy his favour.’

OR: --------

Gospel Luke 2:15-19 The shepherds hurried to Bethlehem and found the baby lying in the manger

Now when the angels had gone from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.’ So they hurried away and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. When they saw the child they repeated what they had been told about him, and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds had to say. As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.

OR: --------

Gospel Luke 2:27-35 'A sword will pierce your soul too'

Prompted by the Spirit Simeon came to the Temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the Law required, he took him into his arms and blessed God; and he said:

‘Now, Master, you can let your servant go in peace, just as you promised; because my eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared for all the nations to see, a light to enlighten the pagans and the glory of your people Israel.’

As the child’s father and mother stood there wondering at the things that were being said about him, Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, ‘You see this child: he is destined for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is rejected – and a sword will pierce your own soul too – so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare.’

OR: --------

Gospel Luke 2:41-52 Mary stored up all these things in her heart

Every year the parents of Jesus used to go to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up for the feast as usual. When they were on their way home after the feast, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without his parents knowing it. They assumed he was with the caravan, and it was only after a day’s journey that they went to look for him among their relations and acquaintances. When they failed to find him they went back to Jerusalem looking for him everywhere.    Three days later, they found him in the Temple, sitting among the doctors, listening to them, and asking them questions; and all those who heard him were astounded at his intelligence and his replies. They were overcome when they saw him, and his mother said to him, ‘My child, why have, you done this to us? See how worried your father and I have been, looking for you.’    ‘Why were you looking for me?’ he replied. ‘Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father’s affairs?’ But they did not understand what he meant.    He then went down with them and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority.    His mother stored up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and men.

OR: --------

Gospel Luke 11:27-28 'Happy the womb that bore you and the breasts you sucked!'

As Jesus was speaking, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, ‘Happy the womb that bore you and the breasts you sucked!’ But he replied, ‘Still happier those who hear the word of God and keep it!’

OR: --------

Gospel John 2:1-11 'My hour has not come yet' - 'Do whatever he tells you'

There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited. When they ran out of wine, since the wine provided for the wedding was all finished, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ Jesus said ‘Woman, why turn to me? My hour has not come yet.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ There were six stone water jars standing there, meant for the ablutions that are customary among the Jews: each could hold twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water’, and they filled them to the brim. ‘Draw some out now’ he told them ‘and take it to the steward.’ They did this; the steward tasted the water, and it had turned into wine. Having no idea where it came from – only the servants who had drawn the water knew – the steward called the bridegroom and said, ‘People generally serve the best wine first, and keep the cheaper sort till the guests have had plenty to drink; but you have kept the best wine till now.’    This was the first of the signs given by Jesus: it was given at Cana in Galilee. He let his glory be seen, and his disciples believed in him.

OR: --------

Gospel John 19:25-27 'Woman, this is your son'

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Seeing his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, this is your son.’ Then to the disciple he said, ‘This is your mother.’ And from that moment the disciple made a place for her in his home.

The Gospel of the Lord

R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

[mstexalicious1961]

Press Play

DOTK

devotion by Kesha Trippett

Press Play

“They who sow in tears shall reap in joy and singing. He who goes forth bearing seed and weeping [at needing his precious supply of grain for sowing] shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him” Psalms 126:5-6, Amplified.

When I got married and began to start a family at 23 years old, I poured all of my time and energy into my growing family. Fast forward 19 years and now I’m seeing the rewards of my years of sacrifice. I’m just now pressing play on me. My sister, there is a time to sow and there’s a time to reap on everything you’ve sown. Your Father has watched you sow precious seed in tears for many years and now you will get to do things you’ve always wanted to do. You will get to enjoy the things you’ve wanted to enjoy. You will go places you’ve dreamed of going. You will discover more and more of God’s purpose for your life, and you will be all He created you to be. Your life was put on hold for those you love, but your Father has perfectly timed your due season and harvest, and it’s your time, my sister! You’re going to be over the moon happy at how the Lord causes you to experience His divine favor. You have been on pause, but you are pressing play by God’s grace. You will walk out your purpose, and you will thrive in Jesus’ name!

Prayer: Father, thank you for your perfect love and your perfect timing in my life. You’ve helped me sow all these years, now, help me reach out my hand to receive from you the harvest you’ve promised. Thank you for causing me to thrive! In Jesus’ name, Amen!

[scarletxvision]

Super Bowl!!

Super Bowl!!

Super Bowl!!

Super Bowl!!

#WandaVision #scarlet vision #wanda maximoff #scarlet witch #vision #paul bettany #elizabeth olsen #marvel #avengers #disney+ #i have sown the seed and i shall see it harvest #its got to be during the super bowl right?!! #im buzzing!!

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

28th January >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Mark 4:26-34 for Friday, Third Week in Ordinary Time: ‘This is what the kingdom of God is like’.

Friday, Third Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA)

Mark 4:26-34

The kingdom of God is a mustard seed growing into the biggest shrub of all.

Jesus said to the crowds: ‘This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man throws seed on the land. Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know. Of its own accord the land produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the crop is ready, he loses no time: he starts to reap because the harvest has come.’

   He also said, ‘What can we say the kingdom of God is like? What parable can we find for it? It is like a mustard seed which at the time of its sowing in the soil is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade.’

   Using many parables like these, he spoke the word to them, so far as they were capable of understanding it. He would not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything to his disciples when they were alone.

Gospel (USA)

Mark 4:26-34

A man scatters seed on the land and would sleep and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how.

Jesus said to the crowds: “This is how it is with the Kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.”

   He said, “To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.

Reflections (6)

(i) Friday, Third Week in Ordinary Time

We are all familiar with how those in power can abuse their power, using it to serve their own interests. We have a very clear instance of that in today’s first reading. David had many fine qualities; he was the Lord’s anointed. Yet, he used his power to take the wife of one of his commanders to live with him and then to arrange for the death of that commander in battle. When we see such shocking abuse of power in our world we can get very discouraged. The parable of the seed growing secretly in today’s gospel reading can be a source of encouragement to us when we are tempted to get despondent about all that is happening around us. The farmer sows the seed, but for the period of the seeds germination and growth, there is nothing much for him to do. It is only when what he sowed is ready to be harvested that he can swing back into action again. Between the sowing and the harvesting, something wonderful is happening in the life of the seed, much of which the farmer doesn’t understand. ‘Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know’. Jesus may be saying to us through this parable, if we do what we can, sowing the seed of faith by our faithfulness to him, God will work away through our faith, even faith the size of a mustard seed. How God is working among us may not be very visible, just as the sprouting and growing of the seed was happening below the surface, yet, God can be bringing something wonderful to pass. In other words, the doing of God’s work, the coming of God’s kingdom, is not all down to us. We have a contribution to make, but the primary work is God’s. The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, is always at work in ways that we can never fully understand. If we do some sowing, the Spirit will work through our efforts, small as they may seem to us, in ways that will surprise us.

And/Or

(ii) Friday, Third Week in Ordinary Time

The first of the two parables that Jesus speaks in this morning’s gospel reading seems to suggest that once the farmer has sown the seed he has to step back and allow nature to take over as it were. As he sleeps at night and goes about his business during the day the seed is quietly growing until the day comes when the crop is ready to be harvested. Jesus says that the kingdom of God is like that. In what sense is this true? Jesus seems to be saying that we have a part to play in the coming about of God’s kingdom among us; the seed has to be sown and only we can do it. Yet, the coming to pass of God’s kingdom in our midst is more God’s work than ours. Like the farmer, we cannot force the growth of God’s kingdom. We have to step back and allow God to do the work that only God can do. Saint Paul understood this truth very clearly and he expressed it very simply in his first letter to the Corinthians when referring to the coming to pass of the church of God in Corinth he said, ‘I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth’. The conclusion Paul draws from this reality is that people should not make too much of Paul or Apollos or any other labourer in the harvest, because it is always God who is the prime mover when any good is being done. Our contribution is very important, but it is God’s contribution that really brings the kingdom to earth. That is why we need to do all we can to further God’s work while at the same time leaving a great deal of space for God to work, and if something good comes out of it all, let the Lord be glorified and not ourselves.

 And/Or

(iii) Friday, Third Week in Ordinary Time

The first parable that Jesus speaks in this morning’s gospel is often called ‘the parable of the seed growing secretly’. Jesus is saying that there is some correspondence between the coming of the kingdom of God and the way the farmer, having thrown seed on the land, then has nothing much to do, until the crop is ready for harvest. Yet, even though the farmer is doing very little in between sowing and harvesting, the seed is working away during that time, producing first a shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. Jesus appears to be saying that God can be powerfully at work in our lives even in those times when we ourselves appear to be doing very little. Sometimes we equate God’s work with our own exercise of energy. Yet, there are times in our lives when we can do very little, whether for reasons of health or for some other reason. Jesus suggests in that parable that even in those quiet times when we appear to have very little to show for ourselves, God can be working away in our lives for the good, working in us and through us. It was Paul who said that God’s power is made perfect in weakness.

 And/Or

(iv) Friday, Third Week in Ordinary Time

The first of the two parables in this morning’s gospel reading, the parable of the seed growing secretly, is only to be found in the gospel of Mark. It is an intriguing parable. Parables are like that; they are meant to make us think. Rather than telling us the message straight, they tease us into reflection. In the parable, once the farmer sows the seed he has to wait until the harvest. There is very little he can do between sowing and harvesting. He has to stand back and let the seed grow of its own accord. There are times in life when we too will need to stand back; there is a time to act and there is a time to wait and to recognize that the real action is happening away from us and without us. In our relationship with the Lord there is also a time to act and a time to step back and allow the Lord to act without any direct involvement from us. There are times when we need the humility to recognize that the Lord can work better in some situations if we do nothing rather than if we do something. What we do need and what we can pray for is the wisdom to know when to act, when to sow and to reap, and when to refrain from acting so that the Lord can work more effectively.

 And/Or

(v) Friday, Third Week in Ordinary Time

That first parable of the seed growing secretly suggests the mystery of growth. The farmer works hard to sow the seed, but then he has to wait. In a way he does not fully understand, the seed grows of his own accord. It is only when the seed is fully grown and the crop is ripe that the farmer can get down to work again. The wise farmer knows when it is time to work, and when it is time to stand back and wait patiently, and allow nature to take its course. We are not all farmers, but like the farmer in the parable we all have to try and get that balance between working to make something happen and standing back to allow something to happen. The balance between engagement and disengagement is important when it comes to all growth, including human growth, our own growth and the growth of others. The process of growth is not something we can fully control. That is especially true of our growth in Christ. There are certain things we can do to bring that about, but there are some things only the Lord can do. There comes at time when we have the allow the Lord to work his growth in us; that will often mean for us, easing up a little, doing less, making room for the Lord to work.

 And/Or

(vi) Friday, Third Week in Ordinary Time

There are times when less is better. We can want sometime to happen so much that we try to force it and in doing so we only manage to hold it back or even derail it. There is a time to be active and a time to be still and let be. In the first parable of today’s gospel reading, the farmer needed to be active in sowing the seed but then he needed to step back and allow the soil to interact with the seed in nature’s way. Jesus says that the kingdom of God is like that. Yes, God needs labourers for his harvest. Jesus once called on those he was sending out as his messengers to pray to God to send more labourers into his harvest. However, our labour is not the decisive factor in the coming of God’s kingdom into our world. It is ultimately God who will see to the coming of God’s kingdom. Like the farmer in the parable there will be times when, after our labour, all we can do is step back and allow God to do what only God can do. The farmer in the parable did not understand how the seed he had sown comes to maturity as full grain, ‘how, he does not know’. There is much about how the Lord works that we will not understand either. Saint Paul said of his ministry and that of his co-worker Apollo in his first letter to the Corinthians, ‘I planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the growth’. We do what we can and then we trust that the Lord will do what the Lord can, which is much more significant. The Lord is always at work beyond our human efforts. He will continue to work for the coming of his kingdom, even when our efforts seem insufficient to the task.

Fr. Martin Hogan.