My Family Prayer Book

  Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary time  Opening prayer In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. O Lord, our rock and redeemer, you have the words of eternal life. Grant us the wisdom to meditate on your words and take them to heart, so that your light may always guide our thoughts, words and actions. Open our eyes to see clearly your wonderful truths, and fill us with the Spirit of understanding, so that day and night we may rejoice as we ponder your sacred mysteries, for the praise and glory of your name. Amen. Mother Mary, full of grace, pray for us. Saint Joseph, faithful guardian of Our Lord Jesus, watch over us. Saint Jerome, Lover of Sacred Scripture, pray for us. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today we are on page 132 - 26th Sunday in ordinary times. Let us pause for a moment to pray for those who cannot be with us today. Jean, Mary Jane and others who are in Greece and Turkey on a pilgrimage ...

 Seventeenth Sunday in ordinary time   2 Kings 4:42-44 The “food from the first fruits” is a holy offering (Leviticus 23:20) brought on the last day of the harvest. According to the festival instructions, it is to be delivered to the priest who is to offer it before the LORD.  In 2 Kings 4, however, it is brought to the prophet Elisha who instructs that it be offered to the people who number in their hundreds, saying that it will not only be enough but there will be leftovers. The abundance is made possible by  God’s grace of a bountiful harvest. It was initiated by the generosity of an anonymous giver from the village of Baal-shalishah, the modern village of Kafr Thulth near present-day Lod about 15 miles SE of Tel Aviv.  It is shared with others because of the recipient’s (Isiah) generosity. All are included because an administrator is concerned about equity. Through this sharing the community becomes holy. The passage depicts the miracle of daily existence: h...

 Ninth Sunday after Pentecost Jeremiah 23:1-6 Jeremiah prophesied in the final years of the Kingdom of Judah, through the reign of the final king, Zedekiah. Shepherds are responsible for protecting and providing sustenance for their flocks, keeping peace within the flock, defending against attackers, searching for sheep that have gone astray, and rescuing those in danger. Yet the opening verse of Jeremiah 23 accuses the shepherds of destroying and scattering God’s sheep! Shepherds in Jeremiah 23:1, are the kings — specifically the kings of Judah. God’s anger is aroused by the “evil doings” of the descendants of good King Josiah (640-609 BCE) who “judged the cause of the poor and the needy”, unfortunately, ruled Judah for dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for practising oppression and violence Shallum/Jehoahaz (ruled 3 months in 609 BCE) Jehoiakim (ruled for 11 years from 609-598 BCE) Jehoiachin (ruled 3 months in 597 BCE) Zedekiah (ruled for 10 years from 597-587 BCE...

  2023-Sep-24: The 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time     Isaiah 55:6-9 Isaiah 55:1-9, part of Deutero or Second Isaiah aka Book of Comfort, comprises most of the final hymn of the exilic portion of Isaiah, which invites exiles living outside of Judah in the sixth century B.C., at the dawn of Persian rule, to uproot themselves, move to a land their generation never knew, and reclaim their ancestral home. Despite the allowance of Cyrus and the Persian Empire for them to return, it was not a prosperous time. The city had not been rebuilt since its destruction by the Babylonians fifty years earlier, social and economic structures were weak, and there were struggles for the most desirable land between the returnees and those who had been in the land in the meantime. For me: the affirmation that God’s thoughts are not human thoughts, nor are human ways God’s ways  Psalms 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18 Psalm 145, is called an individual hymn of praise that tells the story of the Israelites...

  2022-Sep-11: Twenty-fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time   Opening prayer Heavenly Father, send forth your Spirit to enlighten our minds and dispose our hearts to accept your truth. Help us to listen to one another with openness and honesty, eager to learn from the talents and intuitions that you have given each of us. Never let differences of opinion diminish our mutual esteem and love. May we leave this meeting with more knowledge and love for you and your Son. In the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The theme of the  liturgy   The theme is the forgiveness and exuberance of God when sinners return to the fold. We will do well to pray, “Create in us clean hearts, O God, and put a new and right spirit within us” (Psalm 51:10). Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14 In moments of triumph, the people clearly point to God and God’s saving action (think Miriam and all of the women in Exodus 15). When fear overwhelms them, their senses get muddled and they can no longer sense their Savior, rem...

  2022-Sep-4: Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time   Opening prayer Heavenly Father, send forth your Spirit to enlighten our minds and dispose our hearts to accept your truth. Help us to listen to one another with openness and honesty, eager to learn from the talents and intuitions that you have given each of us. Never let differences of opinion diminish our mutual esteem and love. May we leave this meeting with more knowledge and love for you and your Son. In the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The theme of the  liturgy   The theme is Human limitation in understanding the true purpose of God's divine plan. Wisdom 9:13-18b This passage explains most clearly why humans cannot divine, predict, forecast or even understand what God plans or will do. Put plainly humans cannot fathom God's intentions or plans because humans always see things through the filter of their own limited lives and ultimate death. Thus humans project their worries and temporal concerns upon any qu...

  2022-Aug-28: Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time   Opening prayer  Litany of Humility      Author: Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val y Zulueta O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, Hear me. From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being loved, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being extolled, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being honored, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being praised, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being preferred to others, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being consulted, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the desire of being approved, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of being humiliated, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of being despised, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of suffering rebukes, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of being calumniated, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of being forgotten, Deliver me, O Jesus. From the fear of being...

  2022-Aug-21: Twenty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time   Opening prayer Heavenly Father, send forth your Spirit to enlighten our minds and dispose our hearts to accept your truth. Help us to listen to one another with openness and honesty, eager to learn from the talents and intuitions that you have given each of us. Never let differences of opinion diminish our mutual esteem and love. May we leave this meeting with more knowledge and love for you and your Son. In the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The theme of the  liturgy   The theme is God's salvific message is for all mankind - Jews and Gentiles alike. Isaiah 66:18-21 Isaiah prophesies about God who has promised a great gathering - not just of the Jewish nation but indeed of the whole world. This includes Tarshish (sometimes interpreted as lands beyond the sea. Others take it to mean Spain, France and Italy). Some take Pul and Lud together to mean all of Africa. Tubal was a son of Japheth, whose descendants settled...

  2022-Aug-14: Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time   Opening prayer Heavenly Father, send forth your Spirit to enlighten our minds and dispose our hearts to accept your truth. Help us to listen to one another with openness and honesty, eager to learn from the talents and intuitions that you have given each of us. Never let differences of opinion diminish our mutual esteem and love. May we leave this meeting with more knowledge and love for you and your Son. In the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Theme of the  liturgy   The theme is persistence in doing the work of God even at great personal cost. Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10 Jeremiah went on preaching to King Zedekiah as his privy-counsellor. Shephatiah the son of Mattan, Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchiah, who were princes went on with their wicked ways and conspired with the insecure and unpopular puppet King Zedekiah, set up by Nebuchadnezzar after the exile of Jehoiach...

  2022-Aug-7: Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time   Opening prayer Heavenly Father, send forth your Spirit to enlighten our minds and dispose our hearts to accept your truth. Help us to listen to one another with openness and honesty, eager to learn from the talents and intuitions that you have given each of us. Never let differences of opinion diminish our mutual esteem and love. May we leave this meeting with more knowledge and love for you and your Son. In the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Theme of the  liturgy   The readings invite us to reflect on how our Christian faith today demands a serious examination and estrangement from modern American ideals of exceptionalism and unbridled consumerism values, just as it caused the estrangement of Abraham from the land of his father, the Israelites from false Gods and later from the pax Romana and the imperial cult in the first century. Wisdom 18:6-9 The Book of Wisdom, or the Wisdom of Solomon, is a Jewish work written...