“Your word, O Lord, is truth……consecrate us in the truth.”

Gospel text for daily Mass: (Mk 10:1-12)

Jesus came into the district of Judea and across the Jordan.
Again crowds gathered around him and, as was his custom,
he again taught them.
The Pharisees approached him and asked,
“Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?”
They were testing him.
He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?”
They replied,
“Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce
and dismiss her.”
But Jesus told them,
“Because of the hardness of your hearts
he wrote you this commandment.
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
            and be joined to his wife,
            and the two shall become one flesh.
So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate.”
In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this.
He said to them,
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her;
and if she divorces her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery.”

 

You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church; the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it…..Don’t get lost…..Where there is the Pope, there is the Church…..The Church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners and the Sacraments are the medicine……Mankind (that means YOU & ME) cannot “cure” itself. Its been tried throughout history and it has FAILED every time; tried by both nation and man alike…Christ came and built a Church for sinners…You can not save yourself from your worst enemy…Your very self……..Those who have ears, let them hear!

Gospel Text from Daily Mass: (Mt 16:13-19)

When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi
he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter said in reply,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

 

“A practicing Catholic is bound to perform many good works if he is living a Sacramental life, but one must always remember, all “good works” stem from Sacramental grace received and daily prayer, for without daily prayer you will find your desire to serve others will diminish………… Without daily prayer and the Sacraments (Weekly reception of the Eucharist and regular confession) we will not find the way to the Lord, we cannot nor will we understand the Truth, we cannot crucify the flesh with its passions and lusts, our heart will not be enlightened with the light of Christ and ultimately, we will not be united to God…….. None of those things can be affected unless they are preceded by daily prayer and the Sacraments....Mother Teresa put it best….” When you look at the inner workings of electrical things, you see wires. Until the current passes through them, there will be no light. That wire is you and me. The current is God. We have the power to let the current pass through us, use us, to produce the light of the world, Jesus, in us. Or we can refuse to be used and allow darkness to spread.”

Gospel Text: (Mk 7:1-13)

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
(For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,
do not eat without carefully washing their hands,
keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace
they do not eat without purifying themselves.
And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,
the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.)
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
“Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?”  
He responded,
“Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites,
as it is written:

            This people honors me with their lips,
                        but their hearts are far from me;
            In vain do they worship me,
                        teaching as doctrines human precepts.

You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
He went on to say,
“How well you have set aside the commandment of God
in order to uphold your tradition!
For Moses said,
Honor your father and your mother,
and Whoever curses father or mother shall die.
Yet you say,
‘If someone says to father or mother,
“Any support you might have had from me is qorban”’
(meaning, dedicated to God),
you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.
You nullify the word of God
in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.
And you do many such things.” 

 

Reflect, today, upon whether or not you are willing to humbly embrace all of the truths that God has revealed and whether you are willing to make them the foundation of your life.  If you do this, all else will flow forth in love and worship.

 

“If you want change then make changes, if you want to be treated well then treat others well, if you want to be loved than love others. Don’t expect to get something when you aren’t doing it yourself………. “Good seeds” bear “good fruit”..It’s that simple!”

Gospel Text: (Mk 4:1-20)

On another occasion, Jesus began to teach by the sea.

A very large crowd gathered around him 

so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down.

And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land.

And he taught them at length in parables, 

and in the course of his instruction he said to them, 

“Hear this! A sower went out to sow.

And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, 

and the birds came and ate it up.

Other seed 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 

and it produced no grain.

And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit.

It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”

He added, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”

And when he was alone, 

those present along with the Twelve 

questioned him about the parables.

He answered them, 

“The mystery of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you.

But to those outside everything comes in parables, so that

            they may look and see but not perceive,

                        and hear and listen but not understand,

                        in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.”

Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable?

Then how will you understand any of the parables?

The sower sows the word.

These are the ones on the path where the word is sown.

As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once 

and takes away the word sown in them.

And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who, 

when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy.

But they have no roots; they last only for a time.

Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, 

they quickly fall away.

Those sown among thorns are another sort.

They are the people who hear the word, 

but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, 

and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, 

and it bears no fruit.

But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it

and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”

Reflect, today, upon the mission you have been given by Christ to spread His Word.  Say “Yes” to that mission and then look for ways, each and every day, to sow His Word.  Expect much of the effort you give to unfortunately bear little fruit in a manifest way.  However, have deep hope and confidence in the fact that some of that seed will reach the soil that our Lord desires it to reach.  Commit yourself to the sowing; God will worry about the rest.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen rightfully stated: There are not a hundred people in America who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions of people who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church — which is, of course, quite a different thing……..The Church doesn’t have a mission; the mission has a Church…… About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they’re just one thing, and we shouldn’t complicate the matter…… When we ask, “Can I disagree with the teachings of the Church and still be Catholic?” what we’re really asking is, “Can I not be Catholic and still be Catholic?”

Gospel text: (Mk 3:7-12)

Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples.
A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea.
Hearing what he was doing, 
a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem, 
from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan, 
and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.
He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, 
so that they would not crush him.
He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases
were pressing upon him to touch him.
And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him 
and shout, “You are the Son of God.”
He warned them sternly not to make him known.

 

So the first thing we should take from this passage is that we must always listen carefully to what is preached and try to discern whether or not what is said is fully in union with what Jesus has revealed.  This is the main reason we should always rely upon the preaching of Jesus as it is revealed through our Church.  Jesus guarantees that His truth is spoken through His Church.  Therefore, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the lives of the saints, and the wisdom of the teaching authority of the Magisterium must always be used as a basis for all we listen to and preach to others.

 

Reflect, today, upon how completely you trust our Church.  Sure, our Church is filled with sinners; we are all sinners.  But our Church is also filled with the fullness of the truth and you must enter into a deep trust of all that Jesus has and continues to reveal to you through His Church.  Offer a prayer of gratitude this day for the teaching authority of the Church and recommit yourself to a full acceptance of that authority.