17th Week, Monday, Jul 27

Jeremiah 13:1-11 / Matthew 13:31-35

God talks about his people: "I made them cling to me closely."

One approach to prayer is to get in touch with ourselves before trying to get in touch with God. For example, we sit in a chair and relax. We become aware of our clothes gripping our shoulders, legs, arms. We feel the chair gripping our body, shoes gripping our feet. When we are in touch with ourselves, we then try getting in touch with God. For example, we pray to God like this:

St James, Apostle - A quick Look

17th Sunday - Video Notes

17th Sunday A: Hidden Treasure - Video

17 Sunday A - Liturgical Prayers

Greeting  (See Second Reading)

God chose us specially long ago
and destined us to become true images of his Son,
so that Jesus might be the eldest
of many brothers and sisters.
May our brother Jesus be always with you.

17 Sunday A: The Hidden Treasure - Parables of the KOG

There is a price for relationship - Treasure Hidden Rabindra Nath Tagore, the mystic poet of India, tells a memorable story from his own life which illustrates the truth of what Jesus teaches in today’s gospel, namely, that there is a price we have to pay in order to be in his kingdom, to keep a relationship with him.

A Shrinking Church?

16th Week: July 20-25: - Reflections

July 20 Monday:

 (St. Apollinaris, Bishop, Martyr)

 https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-apollinaris/ : 

Mt 12:38-42: 38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.  41 The men of Nineveh will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the Wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. USCCB video reflections: http://www.usccb.org/bible/reflections/index.cfm

16th Sunday: WHEAT & WEEDS: Notes on the Video

16^th Sunday: WHEAT and WEEDS: Mt 13:24-43:

The Lord in Mathew’s “Kingdom of God” discourse speaks about the seeds, soil, weeds, treasure and food for all (Eucharist) for four Sundays. That is the Word of God despite many oppositions, resistances, disturbances, persecutions would become food for the soul. Our sowing is o feed the spiritual hunger or the nourishment of the world. 

15th Week, Saturday, Jul 18

Micah 2:1-5 / Matthew 12:14-21

Micah warns Judah: “What you take will be taken from you.”

Micah bears a striking resemblance to Amos. He preached around 700 B.C., just before Assyria destroyed Israel in the north. Like Amos, who lived some 50 years before him, he came from the vicinity of Bethlehem. Micah also spoke out in the same blunt, unpolished way as did Amos. But where Amos preached to Israel, Micah preached to Judah in the south.