IntroductionWe are starting a new month and we welcome it with attitudes full of hope. We are invited for this month to enter in God’s vision and renew his plan for us as a person, as a disciple, as a community and as a family Verbum Dei. This week in particular is to ask the Lord to renew his plan for our lives as a person. What is his plan for me? What is his dream for me as a person? It’s true that we cannot see clearly our future. …what we shall be in the future has not yet been revealed. But when Christ appears, we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as he really is. (1 John 3:2) I believe no one can say that he sees clearly the future of his life. But God assures us that his plan for us is full of hope. This is our assurance and this is what moves us to live each day. Let us pray that this week we can allow God to bring us deeper in his plans and dreams for each one of us as a person. Who am I for you Lord? What do you see of me? What do you know of my future? He knows what is in store for us. So let us live these days full of hope and courage, striving always to do the greater works. MondayThe plan I have for you is full of Hope(Feast of the Presentation of the Lord) 11 Yes, I know what plans I have in mind for you, Yahweh declares, plans for peace, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 When you call to me and come and pray to me, I shall listen to you. 13 When you search for me, you will find me; when you search wholeheartedly for me, 14 I shall let you find me (Yahweh declares. I shall restore your fortunes and gather you in from all the nations and wherever I have driven you, Yahweh declares. I shall bring you back to the place from which I exiled you). (Jeremiah 29:11-14) With this feast today, we are symbolically at the midpoint between Christmas and Easter. Christmas was forty days ago and soon we will begin the season of Lent which is forty days of preparation for Easter. We reflect on Jesus as the Light that came into the world. He is what fills us with hope. What are you hoping for? TuesdayYou have made him little less than a god (Memorial of Sts. Blaise and Ansgar) Yahweh our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the world! Whoever keeps singing of your majesty higher than the heavens, 2 even through the mouths of children, or of babes in arms, you make him a fortress, firm against your foes, to subdue the enemy and the rebel. 3 I look up at your heavens, shaped by your fingers, at the moon and the stars you set firm- 4 what are human beings that you spare a thought for them, or the child of Adam that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him little less than a god, you have crowned him with glory and beauty, 6 made him lord of the works of your hands, put all things under his feet, 7 sheep and cattle, all of them, and even the wild beasts, 8 birds in the sky, fish in the sea, when he makes his way across the ocean. 9 Yahweh our Lord, how majestic your name throughout the world! (Psalm 8:1-9) What are human beings? What are we that you think of us and care for us? Help us Lord to be more aware of what we are made of. You have made us inferior only to yourself. You have made us for a divine life. How do I see myself? Am I living my life only with worldly perspectives? WednesdayGod wanted that we become like Him26 God said, 'Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild animals and all the creatures that creep along the ground.' 27 God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27) You must see what great love the Father has lavished on us by letting us be called God's children -- which is what we are! The reason why the world does not acknowledge us is that it did not acknowledge him. 2 My dear friends, we are already God's children, but what we shall be in the future has not yet been revealed. We are well aware that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he really is. (1 John 3:1-2) We have a Master and he is the one who created us. From the very beginning, he wanted that we will grow and become like Him. Help us Lord to have the same desire you have in us. ThursdayMy grace is manifesting in you(Memorial of St. Agatha) 7 Wherefore, so that I should not get above myself, I was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger from Satan to batter me and prevent me from getting above myself. 8 About this, I have three times pleaded with the Lord that it might leave me; 9 but he has answered me, 'My grace is enough for you: for power is at full stretch in weakness.' It is, then, about my weaknesses that I am happiest of all to boast, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me; 10 and that is why I am glad of weaknesses, insults, constraints, persecutions and distress for Christ's sake. For it is when I am weak that I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) 12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength. By calling me into his service he has judged me trustworthy, 13 even though I used to be a blasphemer and a persecutor and contemptuous. Mercy, however, was shown me, because while I lacked faith I acted in ignorance; 14 but the grace of our Lord filled me with faith and with the love that is in Christ Jesus. 15 Here is a saying that you can rely on and nobody should doubt: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I myself am the greatest of them; 16 and if mercy has been shown to me, it is because Jesus Christ meant to make me the leading example of his inexhaustible patience for all the other people who were later to trust in him for eternal life. 17 To the eternal King, the undying, invisible and only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Timothy 1:12-17) In the midst of many realities of life and many personal issues, how wonderful if the grace of God be manifested and seen clearly through our little claypots. Yes, we can experience weaknesses and limitations but do I allow his grace to be the light that shines brightly through my life – brighter than the limitations and sins? FridayWhoever sees you sees me(Memorial of St. Pedro Bautista, St. Paul Miki) 40 'Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 'Anyone who welcomes a prophet because he is a prophet will have a prophet's reward; and anyone who welcomes an upright person because he is upright will have the reward of an upright person. 42 'If anyone gives so much as a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple, then in truth I tell you, he will most certainly not go without his reward.' (Matthew 10:40-42) Jesus has become so one with each one of us that, wherever we go, whoever we meet, they will see Him and they will know that we are his disciples. This is the hope we have for each day. We are his living presence in the world that people see, touch and relate with. SaturdayYou will do greater works8 Philip said, 'Lord, show us the Father and then we shall be satisfied.' Jesus said to him, 9 'Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? 'Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father, so how can you say, "Show us the Father"? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? What I say to you I do not speak of my own accord: it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his works. 11 You must believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe it on the evidence of these works. 12 In all truth I tell you, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, and will perform even greater works, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. (John 14:8-14) Let us not be contented and strive only for the little things of this world and even of the faith that we already have. Let us aim for the greater works. We were made to do great things. This is a to open the doors of our faith for the greater things that the Lord has envisioned in us. Sunday5th Sunday in Ordinary Time1st Reading: Job 7:1-4, 6-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 147 2nd Reading: 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23 Gospel: Mark 1:29-39 Comments are closed.
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