General Theme: Verbum Dei – Proclaim the Lord’s year of favour. General Objective: - To be full of gratitude to God for all the work He has done in the past 3 years of the VD Family. - To trust and place in the hands of God all what lies ahead for the VD Family. - To learn to entrust under the care of our Mother Mary the growth of our charism Objective of the week: To learn to place in the hands of God all what lies ahead for Verbum Dei Family.
INTRODUCTION
Jeremiah 29:11-13 11 For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare, not for woe! plans to give you a future full of hope. 12 When you call me, when you go to pray to me, I will listen to you. 13 When you look for me, you will find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart… Last week has been a week filled with thanksgiving. This should be the life of every person and in every moment – a life full of thanksgiving to God. God must receive a huge dosage of thanksgiving everyday for he has done so much and is doing still. With hearts full of gratitude, we put our trust in Him knowing that He knows very well our lives and our future. With this awareness as a Verbum Dei family, we move forward growing in this habit of placing in the hands of God all what lies ahead. First of all, God became one with us. To bring us further as a Verbum Dei Family, He became one with us and sends us to show to everyone that we have a God who is with us. He gave us Wisdom to live and give the charism as a Family and sends us bring salvation through the preaching of His Word. Of course, he also lets us experience the joy as his disciples. Furthermore, by doing the mission, it is saying that we trust all what He has given us and trusting that He will do His wonderful work as we are faithful to ours. MONDAY God-is-with-us. He came to us. Matthew 1:18-23 18 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. 19 Her husband Joseph, being an upright man and wanting to spare her disgrace, decided to divorce her informally. 20 He had made up his mind to do this when suddenly 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. 21 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.' 22 Now all this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: 23 Look! the virgin is with child and will give birth to a son whom they will call Immanuel, a name which means 'God-is-with-us'. The greatest gift God gave is himself with us through Jesus. Let us trust first of all knowing that in the mission, we are never alone because He is with us. TUESDAY You have granted us Wisdom Wisdom 9:13-18 13 'What human being indeed can know the intentions of God? And who can comprehend the will of the Lord? 14 For the reasoning of mortals is inadequate, our attitudes of mind unstable; 15 for a perishable body presses down the soul, and this tent of clay weighs down the mind with its many cares. 16 It is hard enough for us to work out what is on earth, laborious to know what lies within our reach; who, then, can discover what is in the heavens? 17 And who could ever have known your will, had you not given Wisdom and sent your holy Spirit from above? 18 Thus have the paths of those on earth been straightened and people have been taught what pleases you, and have been saved, by Wisdom.' We trust and we place everything in His hands because we believe that He has already given us the wisdom needed to live out the charism and mission as a Verbum Dei Family. Let us continue to thank the Holy Spirit given to us from above and continues to guide us. WEDNESDAY Called to save lives Luke 6:6-11 6 Now on another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and began to teach, and a man was present, and his right hand was withered. 7 The scribes and the Pharisees were watching him to see if he would cure somebody on the Sabbath, hoping to find something to charge him with. 8 But he knew their thoughts; and he said to the man with the withered hand, 'Get up and stand out in the middle!' And he came forward and stood there. 9 Then Jesus said to them, 'I put it to you: is it permitted on the Sabbath to do good, or to do evil; to save life, or to destroy it?' 10 Then he looked round at them all and said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' He did so, and his hand was restored. 11 But they were furious and began to discuss the best way of dealing with Jesus. 1 Corinthians 9:16-19 16 In fact, preaching the gospel gives me nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion and I should be in trouble if I failed to do it. 17 If I did it on my own initiative I would deserve a reward; but if I do it under compulsion I am simply accepting a task entrusted to me. 18 What reward do I have, then? That in my preaching I offer the gospel free of charge to avoid using the rights which the gospel allows me. 19 So though I was not a slave to any human being, I put myself in slavery to all people, to win as many as I could. We have been entrusted with the gift to save lives through preaching the Gospel. We place our lives in the Word of God believing that the Word saves and gives life. Help us Lord to believe and trust more in your Word. THURSDAY Chosen for the world (Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary) Luke 6:12-19 12 Now it happened in those days that he went onto the mountain to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God. 13 When day came he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he called them 'apostles': 14 Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot, 16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot who became a traitor. 17 He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples, with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon 18 who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured, 19 and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all. The Lord has chosen us for peoples from all parts of the world. Whatever situations each one may bring, sickness, problems, challenges, we believe that what the Lord has given us can be applied to all of them. FRIDAY The blessedness of a disciple (St. Peter Claver) Luke 6:20-26 20 Then fixing his eyes on his disciples he said: How blessed are you who are poor: the kingdom of God is yours. 21 Blessed are you who are hungry now: you shall have your fill. Blessed are you who are weeping now: you shall laugh. 22 'Blessed are you when people hate you, drive you out, abuse you, denounce your name as criminal, on account of the Son of man. 23 Rejoice when that day comes and dance for joy, look!-your reward will be great in heaven. This was the way their ancestors treated the prophets. 24 But alas for you who are rich: you are having your consolation now. 25 Alas for you who have plenty to eat now: you shall go hungry. Alas for you who are laughing now: you shall mourn and weep. 26 'Alas for you when everyone speaks well of you! This was the way their ancestors treated the false prophets. Our lives with Jesus as his disciples also bring a huge amount of encouragement and hope in a world full of fear and disappointments. SATURDAY My life with others as a disciple Luke 6:39-45 39 He also told them a parable, 'Can one blind person guide another? Surely both will fall into a pit? 40 Disciple is not superior to teacher; but fully trained disciple will be like teacher. 41 Why do you observe the splinter in your brother's eye and never notice the great log in your own? 42 How can you say to your brother, "Brother, let me take out that splinter in your eye," when you cannot see the great log in your own? Hypocrite! Take the log out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take out the splinter in your brother's eye. 43 'There is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces sound fruit. 44 Every tree can be told by its own fruit: people do not pick figs from thorns, nor gather grapes from brambles. 45 Good people draw what is good from the store of goodness in their hearts; bad people draw what is bad from the store of badness. For the words of the mouth flow out of what fills the heart. As disciples of Christ, let us continue to learn his ways. Let us continue to draw from all the goodness we have experienced with Him from within. There is so much goodness that the Lord has in store for us and has planted in our hearts. Let us not be afraid to draw them all out for others to see. SUNDAY 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time 1st Reading: Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14 Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 51 2nd Reading: 1 Timothy 1:12-17 Gospel: Luke 15:1-32 Comments are closed.
|
Weekly Prayer GuidelinesRead this week's guidelines to help you deepen in the Word of God for today. Archives
December 2016
Categories
All
|