My Family Prayer Book

  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...

  Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary time Isaiah 53 Isaiah 53:4-12 belongs to the final and longest of the so-called “Songs of the servant” written during the Babylonian exile of the early 6th century BCE. In these poetic passages an unnamed figure suffers on behalf of Israel. He silently receives brutal punishment from God, and it results in redemption, joy, and reward.   “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45; cf. Isaiah 53:11). The fact that God the Father chose for his only begotten Son to suffer and die on the cross for the redemption of Mankind has been seen by some as unfathomable. Could he not have found a better solution? Alas, who are we to question the wisdom and ways of the Almighty. The sufferings of Jesus, the sinless servant, are not by chance or fate, or even the wickedness of his persecutors, but due to the absolute will of God the Father. It pleased God to put Him to death so that His plan...

  The Most Holy Trinity Reading 1: Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40 The Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Pentateuch or the Jewish Torah (the first four being Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers). It contains the sermons of Moses and songs of praise but most scholars believe it was written long after the actual events by Levites. Christian theology holds that the Mosaic covenant with Yahweh was superseded by faith in Jesus Christ and the Gospel Psalm 33 Is a song of praise by an unknown psalmist. But it also has a reference to the Holy Spirit. In Genesis, we find that the Father, the Word, and Holy Spirit were all involved in the creation of the Heavens and the Earth. Breath in Psalm 33 verse 6, refers to the Holy Spirit. The Word of the Lord was made flesh in Jesus.  Reading 2: Romans 8:14-17 Through the Holy Spirit we enter into a filial relationship as sons of a loving God (Abba, Father) not out of bondage or fear but out of love and grace Gospel Matthew 28:16-20 Ma...