In the "New Covenant" made by our Creator God with humanity, as reported in Jeremiah 31:31-34, every human being can know God from within - because the Holy Spirit is revealing our Creator to all who are willing to know the Lord and trust in Him. We can still help each other along the way; so please feel free to share with others these homilies and your own personal faith in God through Jesus Christ. G.S.
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13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
VOCATION: Jesus calls us - He calls you to follow Him, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and become a missionary disciple....
Gospel & Homily MP3 version - PDF version
What are the offerings that we bring to God? What is the meaning of "HOSANNAH!" We acclaim God for his greatness and praise Him, while at the same time calling upon Him to rescue us in our distress.... "HOSANNAH!" MP3 version
“Lord, I declare that your steadfast love
is established for ever;
your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens!”
Well now, who does Jesus think He is to tell us we must love Him more than our families? Actually, Jesus doesn’t think, but He knows that He is the Son of God, our Creator. That means that He wants for us the absolute best, while we often are willing to settle for much less. He knows us all too well and He sees us all too often flirting with danger not only in this life, but even risking the loss of eternal life in communion with God and all the saints.
When we become overly absorbed or even obsessed with our own comfort or in a race to satisfy our numerous passions; we risk loving poorly or even failing to love our loved ones, our own family. What is more, if we become obsessed with the need to love our loved ones, our family, at all cost; we risk ignoring the Lord God as well as his holy will for our salvation here and now and our eternal happiness.
The wealthy woman of Shunem recognized that Elisha was a holy man of God, a prophet, and she saw the opportunity to serve both the holy man and the Lord by offering Elisha a place to stay when he had to travel through their town. For them to build Elisha a chamber on their roof would certainly have resulted in a significant outlay of money, which, for her, would have been interfering with her husband’s administration of their goods. Her husband was old; yet she was willing to risk stirring up his wrath in order to serve both the holy man and God.
That woman put all her trust in the Lord her God. “For our shield belongs to the Lord, our king to the Holy One of Israel.”
“Lord, I declare that your steadfast love is
established for ever;
your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens!”
Is it not true, at least some of the time, that we care more about what our family and others think of us than we care about what God thinks of us? If we haven’t learned this hard lesson by now, then it’s about time we learn it: trying to please others at all cost will get us into trouble.
The only One we must
always please is our God and Creator, the Most Holy Trinity. That is because we
can please God only by becoming the best version of ourselves. This we can do
by taking good care of our own life, and out of whatever health, strength, and
energy we have, to do our best to also care for others, beginning with our own
family, but also for neighbours.
“Lord, I declare that your steadfast love
is established for ever;
your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens!”
As we do our best to keep our life in relatively good order and to do the will of God, then the Holy Spirit fills us with the peace of divine love, and our life – however imperfect – becomes a personal witness to the mercy and goodness of God and a living proclamation of Good News.
“Lord, I declare that your steadfast love
is established for ever;
your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens!”
Finally, at the end of each day, as we prepare for sleep, and when we review our day, we can ask God our Father to forgive us for our faults, and give Him thanks for his Presence, his help, and his love. It is as we pray that we can become conscious of the Presence of the Most Holy Trinity within us, and that we can realize that all is grace; all is gift. God shows us that we have control over nothing; so, why keep trying to carry the weight of the whole world on our shoulders, when Jesus is already carrying the world? Since all that we are, and all that comes to us, and all that we have is gift from God; we can relax, we can rest, and we can breathe.
“Lord, I declare that your steadfast love
is established for ever;
your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens!”
That is why it is so important for us to participate well in the Sunday Liturgy, at Holy Mass. We can prepare the day before and Sunday morning by remembering all that we have lived since our last presence at the Sacred Liturgy. We can dispose ourselves to place on the altar the offering of ourselves: our efforts during the week to live as daughters, sons of God; all that we accept to endure out of love; our trials, sorrows, and losses; our worries, prayers, and temptations; our disappointments, and our repentance; putting all our trust in God.
“Lord, I
declare that your steadfast love is established for ever;
your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens!”
“Mary Mother of God, St. Joseph, walk with us in the steps of Jesus. O my Jesus, I trust in You! Thank You; You who are God, the Father, + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
In silence now, the Holy
Spirit helps us to lay down our offering together with that of Jesus….
https://frgilleshomilies.blogspot.com https://homeliesabbegilles.blogspot.com
In the "New Covenant" made by our Creator God with humanity, as reported in Jeremiah 31:31-34, every human being can know God from within - because the Holy Spirit is revealing our Creator to all who are willing to know the Lord and trust in Him. We can still help each other along the way; so please feel free to share with others these homilies and your own personal faith in God through Jesus Christ. G.S.
© 2006-2023 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
© 2006-2023 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC
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