Tulipa “Spring Break.” Photo by Kathy Sheehan
The Holy Spirit inspired our blog.
Wednesday of the Seventh Week in Extraordinary Time
First Reading
Beloved:
Come now, you who say,
“Today or tomorrow we shall go into such and such a town,
spend a year there doing business, and make a profit”–
you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow.
You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears.
Instead you should say,
“If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that.”
But now you are boasting in your arrogance.
All such boasting is evil.
So for one who knows the right thing to do
and does not do it, it is a sin. Jn 4: 13-17
Responsorial Psalm
R. (Matthew 5:3) Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs!
Hear this, all you peoples;
hearken, all who dwell in the world,
Of lowly birth or high degree,
rich and poor alike.
R. Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs!
Why should I fear in evil days
when my wicked ensnarers ring me round?
They trust in their wealth;
the abundance of their riches is their boast.
R. Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs!
Yet in no way can a man redeem himself,
or pay his own ransom to God;
Too high is the price to redeem one’s life; he would never have enough
to remain alive always and not see destruction.
R. Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs!
For he can see that wise men die,
and likewise the senseless and the stupid pass away,
leaving to others their wealth.
R. Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs!
Alleluia Ps 49:2-3, 6-7, 8-10, 11
Alleluia, refrain.
I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord;
no one comes to the Father except through me. Jn 14: 6
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Reading:
John said to Jesus,
“Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,
and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.”
Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him.
There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name
who can at the same time speak ill of me.
For whoever is not against us is for us.” Mk 9:38-40
All of the Emphasis and underlines were mine.
Of course, today is Monday, and something very interesting has happened. Usually, I read the readings trying to find out what the Holy Spirit wants to talk about, which is not a slow process, but an answer usually comes after we have read all of the readings.
Today, I started reading the First reading, and the phrase “If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that” jumped out at me. The Holy Spirit said,” Read on.”
The Response to the Responsorial Psalm was from the Gospel of Matthew; the Psalm was from Psalm 49, (I hadn’t realized the Church mixed the Old with the New Testament.)
The Response, Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs, ties in with the First Reading.
How?
By being poor in spirit, we are NOT depending on our wealth, status, or anything else BUT God to take us to where THEY want us to go.
By being poor in Spirit, you open yourself to fully realizing that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord; no one comes to the Father except through me.
And,
That life is life in the “Spirit World,” filled with Love, Joy, and Peace.
And,
For whoever is not against us is for us.” I chuckled as we copied and pasted this verse to our Blog, laughing because, in over two and one-half years, I had never seen a connection between all the readings as I have experienced today.
The bolded area begs a fundamental question.
I, we now believe that one of the problems with All religions is trying to make all people in that particular religion worship God in the same manner.
To fully demonstrate God is God, God chose to Create snowflakes, pine trees, and, most importantly, people different.
The fact that you are reading and, in some cases, participating with Pictures and Comments means you are trying to grow in your relationship with God.
Don’t spend time beating yourself up.
Celebrate your involvement, and let The Holy Spirit lead you to become more involved in what Your Father wants you to do.
Join Team Jesus:
We suggest starting every day, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.”
Sidebar:
Golf:
We have said in prior Blogs that Golf mirrors Life with God.
In prior Blogs, we talked about The Holy Spirit encouraging me to let them be part of my, now our game.
From this came the Weeeeeeeeeee prayer.
Which I am now trying to say before and after everything we endeavor to do.
Anyway, last year, we reported at the end of the Golf season that the Holy Spirit told me to STOP repeating all the steps I had to take before I swung at the ball.
I did, and our game started to improve.
This year, I continued NOT reminding myself about the steps necessary for a successful swing, and after three weeks, I realized that OUR game was a lot better.
Additionally, the Joy and Peace I lost by blowing a particular step were replaced by a continuous Joy and Peace on the Golf course that is even greater than anything I have experienced before.
I, yes, I now realize that satan had me repeat these steps, so when I made a mistake, I beat myself up for it. “You picked up your head” is an easy example.
I think we all do this in some aspect of our lives, and recognizing satan as the one trying to get this negative response is exactly the reason we should throw out satan, “Get behind me satan,” and stay with The Holy Spirit.
I was a cantor at church for many years and learned many beautiful chants and hymns, which I try to sing during the entire game.
The game is better, and I am playing filled with Joy and Peace. What’s not to love?
Mike, our oldest son, emailed me a YouTube story about a Southern Baptist who converted to Catholicism. What interested me was that at the beginning of his story, he relayed how he said prayers, read the Bible, went to church, and excused his sins. We just talked about my golf experience. What also interested me was that this was the Catholic Church I knew in the forties and fifties, and frankly, I enjoy our Church more today.
Notice his Joy!
Notice that this was precisely what we were commenting about in the Sidebar.
If you don’t think satan is very active in your life, maybe you need to stop and really think it over.
satan is always there, but you don’t have to worry because you have the Power of The Holy Spirit to defeat satan.
For our Protestant readers, we are in no way insinuating that the Catholic Church is the only Church. Read again the Bolded part of the Gospel reading. Mark 9: 38-40 is a setup for the Protestant and the Orthodox Churches.
Also:
Then John said in reply, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow in our company.” Jesus said to him, “Do not prevent him, for whoever is not against you is for you.” Emphasis mine Lk 9: 49-50
Both Mark and Luke tell of a person performing MIGHTY deeds, and Jesus tells them they
can’t perform mighty deeds and be against US.
Interestingly, We were writing the blog, and I had no idea we would justify our statement that the Catholic Church wasn’t the only true Christian church through the reading of the day.
Over two thousand years, some Clergy and Religious in the Catholic Church have committed many grave sins. After reading the Old Testament many times, I believe God doesn’t look the other way and say that’s alright. They’re good ol boys.
I believe that because of the Miracles being performed by many Protestants, some of which we have reported in our Blog, God is with them just as God is with us.
Our Monopoly has ended, just as the Jews were conquered by Nebuchadnezzar and sent into exile for seventy years, so our MONOPOLY on Healings and Casting out Demons has ended.
This is why I am so passionate about the Ecumenical movement being made by many churches to come together and fight satan as a coordinated group.
We have our differences, but I pray we all will realize that we are part of the BODY OF CHRIST and Christ is the HEAD.
Monday is Memorial Day, and Gail and I want to express our gratitude to all of you worldwide who have served our country and your country. Because of your service, the world is a better place.
Picture:
Tulipa “Spring Break.” It’s just one spectacular example of the many variations of tulips my daughter and I saw on vacation in The Netherlands. Picture by Kathy Sheehan
Please keep Snapping!
If you want a copy of the prayers we discussed, email me.
fprince101@gmail.com
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, no people, please, because we have to get permission from that person to use their photograph.
By submitting a picture, you agree to let us include it in our next God Thoughts 2024 book.
