Thursday, October 23, 2014
Thursday 29th Week in Ordinary Time
October 23, 2014
Thursday 29th Week in Ordinary Time
[St. John of Capistrano]
Eph 3: 14-21 / Ps 33: 1-2, 4-5, 11-12, 18-19 / Lk 12: 49-53
Reading: Eph 3: 14-21
And now I kneel in the presence of the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth has received its name. May he strengthen in you the inner self through his Spirit, according to the riches of his glory; may Christ dwell in your hearts through faith; may you be rooted and founded in love. All of this so that you may understand with all the holy ones the width, the length, the height and the depth-in a word, that you may know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, that you may be filled and reach the fullness of God. Glory to God who shows his power in us and can do much more than we could ask or imagine; glory to him in the Church and in Christ Jesus through all generations for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel: Luke 12: 49-53
Jesus said to his disciples, "I have come to bring fire upon the earth and how I wish it were already kindled; but I have a baptism to undergo and what anguish I feel until it is over! Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on, in one house five will be divided; three against two, and two against three. They will be divided, father against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter against mother; mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."
Reflection:
Today's Gospel reading is regarded by many as being harsh. "I have come to bring fire upon the earth and how I wish it were already kindled! Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division."
What does this mean? The Gospel seems to contradict what we believe about Jesus. We believe he is the Prince of Peace, Lord of Love who came to make all things new, bright, beautiful, and virtuous. Yet here in the Gospel, he comes to bring division. Jesus is telling us that the challenge of his Gospel must purify us and separate us before it unites us and brings the peace and happiness that we are seeking. Jesus makes it very clear by these words that there can be no indifference or neutrality to his words. You are either for him or against him. There is no in-between.
In the early Church, when a Jew became a Christian, he was excommunicated from the
synagogue and disowned by the family. He was considered dead. So here Jesus asks us to make the choice. Are we for him or against him? Do we seek to be purified by the fire of the Gospel, or do we reject this idea of being cleansed and raised from our human inclinations? Are we for Jesus or against Jesus? This is the choice we have to make many times in our life.
Prayer Requests:
We pray ...
... for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the unborn
... for all the prayer intentions in the MTQ Dailyprayer Diary
... for families who are in need of healing
... for world peace and reconciliation
... for wisdom, perseverance and clarity of mind for those who prepare and take their exams:
* Karen Tuala and Lisette Mandocdoc who will take the bar exams on the four (4) consecutive weekends of October
* Elmer and Liza who will take their exams on October 25, 26, 28
Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.
Have a good day!
**************************************************
These reflections are distributed free and are for personal use only. Feel free to send the Daily Prayer reflections to your friends, colleagues and relatives; however, if you do, please include the following:
+================================================+
| The Daily Prayer, a service and an apostolate of the
| priests, laity and friends of Mary the Queen Parish
| Distributed free and for personal use only.
+================================================+
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GoogleGroup Address: http://groups.google.com/group/daily_homily
Archive: http://biblereflection.blogspot.com/
To subscribe from this free mailing service, send email to: dailyhomily@earthlink.net
To unsubscribe: daily_homily-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
© 2014 Daily-Homily
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "DAILY-HOMILY" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to daily_homily+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
# posted by F O O D F O R T H O U G H T @ 4:18 AM 
