Daily Catholic Reflection: Wednesday, March 1, 2023, Wednesday of the First Week in Lent, Year A

 

Jonah 3:1-10

Ps 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19

Lk 11:29-32                                      Full Readings

Saint David of Wales

No More Sign than Jesus

Brethren, the sign of Jonah is mostly understood by Matthew to mean the resurrection of Jesus after three days in the tomb, just as Jonah emerged from the belly of the sea beast after three days. But the story of Jonah has lovely value also for itself. The story of Jonah is written of course by a Jew but mocking the Jews for their complacency and their conviction that the Chosen Race were the only ones to be saved. The message is obvious: the gentiles are more responsive to the word of God than it is to the Jew. We, as Christians, have to be careful because we have all the gospel truth but if we don't take it seriously, other people, even have never heard the Gospel, will inherit the kingdom of God first before us.

Daily Catholic Reflection: Sunday, February 26, 2022, First Sunday of Lent, Year A

Gn 2:7-9; 3:1-7 

Ps 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 and 17  

Rom 5:12-19 or Rom 5:12, 17-19

Mt 4:1-11                                           Full Readings

Saint Maria Bertilla Boscardin

Jesus' Temptations Are Ours Too.

On every first Sunday of Lent, we are presented with the Gospel of Jesus being led to the desert by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by Satan as a preparation for his ministry. Today we read the Matthean version of the story of temptations. Something important to be aware of is that each of the temptations of Christ are the same temptations we all face daily. These particular temptations reveal what was at the heart of Jesus' desires and fears after His time in the wilderness. Perhaps, there were many temptations throughout the 40 days and nights, but the Gospels focus on these three. Jesus was tempted by these particular temptations because He struggled with the same struggles that we have: whether to live our life our way OR to live serving God wherever it will lead. Let us look at each and how they are our major temptations we face today.

Daily Catholic Reflection: Wednesday, February 22, 2023, Ash Wednesday, Year A

Joel 2:12-18,  

Ps 51:3-4.5-6ab.12- 13.14,

2 Corinthians 5:20 - 6:2,

Matthew 6: 1-6.16- 18                  Full Readings

Chair of Saint Peter

The Wonders of Faith and Prayer

Brethren, today we start our annual observance of the Lenten period, a period of forty days, a time for intense preparation of our hearts (and bodies) to receive the light of the risen Christ on Easter. The forty days of Lent is the annual retreat of the people of God in imitation of Jesus' forty days in the wilderness while he was being tempted. Forty is a significant number in the Scriptures. Moses went to the mountain to seek the face of God for forty days in prayer and fasting. The people of Israel were in the wilderness for forty years in preparation for their entry into the promised land. Elijah fasted for forty days as he journeyed in the wilderness to the mountain of God. We are called to journey with the Lord in a special season of prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and penitence (expressing true sorrow for sin and wrongdoing) as we prepare to celebrate the feast of Easter, the Christian Passover of Jesus' victory over sin, Satan, and death. Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 AD teaches us, "Christians must always live in this way, without any wish to come down from their cross - otherwise they will sink beneath the world's mire. But if we have to do so all our lives, we must make an even greater effort during the days of Lent. It is not a simple matter of living through forty days. Lent is the epitome of our whole life." (Excerpt from Sermon 205, 1)

Catholic Daily Reflection: Monday, February 20, 2023, Monday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time, Year A

Sir 1:1-10

Ps 93:1ab, 1cd-2, 5

Mk 9:14-29                     Full Readings

Saint Jacinta and Francisco Marto

The Wonders of Faith and Prayer

After an awesome experience of incredible glory on Mount Tabor when Jesus was transfigured, the experience which Peter wanted to postpone for as long it lasts, the three disciples went down happy but only to meet a sad situation of a faithless crowd arguing in top of their voices, perhaps challenging the other nine disciples who had remained at the foot of the mountain for not casting out the demon which had possessed the boy who was brought to them by his father. "O faithless generation...," cried Jesus. The crowd including the Apostles and the father of the boy did not only lacked faith but also never bothered to pray. How is this different from our generation of today? How many of us have great faith and are praying ceaselessly, or even when we pray how many of us are praying with great faith? You and I know where we fall.

Daily Catholic Reflection: Sunday, February 19, 2023, Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Lv 19:1-2, 17-18

Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13

1 Cor 3:16-23

Mt 5:38-48             Full Readings

Saint Conrad of Piacenza

Be Perfect Just as Your Heavenly Father is Perfect.

The fundamental call and the bottom line of a Christian is holiness. Christians are looking for nothing other than holiness, and a Christian who fundamental call is  not holiness is not a Christian. This Sunday's readings call us to that holiness in by imitating God our Father in heaven who is perfectly holy and Perfect. In the gospel, Jesus calls us to be perfect just as our heavenly father is perfect. The.  original meaning of "perfect" in Hebrew and the Aramaic dialect which Jesus spoke is "completeness" or "wholeness" that is, "not lacking in what is essential." Jesus invites our whole self to be perfectly holy as God is.

Daily Catholic Reflection: Saturday, February 18, 2023, Saturday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time, Year A

Heb 11:1-7

Ps 145:2-3, 4-5, 10-11

Mk 9:2-13                     Full Readings

Blessed John of Fiesole

Faith Leads to God's Glory

It is easy to see why faith is the main theme of today's reading in the first reading, though it is more difficult to discover this theme in the gospel. The Letter to the Hebrews is praising the faith or the faithfulness of the ancestors of Israel, our fathers in faith. It was by faith that Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain and though he is dead he still speaks to us by faith (in mass prayers and songs). It was by faith in God that Enoch was never tasted death and was taken up by God. It was by faith that Noah felt holy fear when warned by God of the flood and built the ark to save his family and thus humanity; he was saved by his faith. These and more ancestors of our faith like Abraham, achieved righteousness by acting purely on God's promises and putting their whole trust in God; they saw the glory of the Lord in their lives by their faith. Can we be able to imitate them?

Daily Catholic Reflection: Friday, February 17, 2023, Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time, Year A

Gn 11:1-9

Ps 33:10-11, 12-13, 14-15

Mk 8:34—9:1                      Full Readings

The Seven Founders of the Servite Order

Deny Yourself

Today, we come to the end of the aetiological myths (story explaining a familiar but unusual feature) which we have been reading from the book of Genesis 1-12. We have seen how the world was formed, how sin entered into the world, why a snake has no legs, why there is hard work and labour, why there is pain during giving birth and many others and today we see why there are many different languages. God after blessing Noah with many descendants, God portioned the lands to Noah's descendants to live apart from each other and fill the earth. But these people wanted to stay together since they spoke the same language, and so they decided to build a tall tower (Tower of Babel) which reaches the sky (perhaps they wanted to reach where God stays) to stay together and not to be scattered through the earth.  This again is a determined disobedience of God who had scattered them around the earth. As a divine punishment, God confused their language into different languages so that they could no longer communicate with each and so they had to slink off to cover the face of the world. That is why we have many languages. Our disobedience to God and to what he tells and teaches us will always come with a cost. May the Holy Spirit always guide us to discern God's will in our lives and do it so that we shall remain blessed.

Daily Catholic Reflection: Wednesday, February 8, 2023, Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, Year A

Genesis 2:4b-9. 15- 17,

Psalm 104:1 -2a.27-28.29bc-30,

Mark 7: 14-23                   Full Readings

Saint Josephine Bakhita

It's Our Inner self that Matters.

The second creation account which we read today in the first reading is somehow different from the first. In the previous account no material had been used for the creation of Adam (or of anything else), but here the LORD God uses dust or crumbly earth, and the likeness to God is expressed by the breath of God breathed directly into the nostrils of the man. In the previous account the Spirit was there already, hovering over the waters, but in this case, it is the spirit of God that gives life to the man. The man actually receives the life of God. The application of this reading in today's world of vices and immoralities especially murder and suicide, is that man cannot create his own life and also, he may not take his own life; this is a unique gift of God, given in trust, the symbol and guarantee of dependence on God.

Daily Catholic Reflection: Sunday, February 5, 2023, Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Is 58:7-10

Ps 112:4-5, 6-7, 8-9

1 Cor 2:1-5

Mt 5:13-16                        Full Readings

Saint Agatha

We are the Light and Salt of the World

Brethren, we need to start or to continue thinking, if we have started already about genuine Christianity, genuine conversion, genuine turning back to God, genuine and authentic Christian life and our fundamental call as Christians. Jesus, the Sun of righteousness, came to the world a light of the world to dispel the darkness that covered people and bring them to the light of the gospel. This is the mission he handed over to us and in today's gospel, he clearly put it that we are the light and slat of the world. He uses these simple and ordinary images to pass on a fundamental message and challenge to us his disciples. Today, let us ask ourselves: how are we the light and salt of the world? How can we become one? How will people know that truly we are the light and salt of the world? The bottom line is that our light must shine so that people seeing our good works may give glory and praise to God our Father in heaven.

Daily Catholic Reflection: Saturday, February 4, 2023, Saturday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Hebrews 13:15-17.20-21;

Psalm 23:1-3a. 3b-4.5.6;

Mark 6:30-34                         Full Readings

Saint Joseph of Leonissa

Come Away and Rest

Today we come to the final reading of the Letter to the Hebrews. The letter has dealt with various issues but most especially focusing on the high priesthood of Jesus, showing that the purpose of the old sacrifices and the rituals of the Old Law has been so much better fulfilled by the once and for all sacrifice and the blood of Christ. Now in concluding the Letter (esp. from Ch 12 - last four readings) the author turns to the practical advice and encouragement to the recipients of the letter and all of us in general. Today, he gives us these pieces of advice: to always have the unending sacrifice of praise of Christ, to keep on doing good works and sharing our resources (genuine acts of charity and Christian generosity) and finally to obey our religious leaders.