My Family Prayer Book

 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...

   2024-Mar-31: Easter Sunday Acts 10:34-43 The book of Acts is an epic tale of how a small group of Jesus followers develops into “the church.” In a book that describes miracle after miracle and takes its readers on adventure after adventure, it is in these few verses that Peter declares the complete gospel. Jesus of Nazareth was anointed and chosen by God. He received the Holy Spirit and with its power he goes around doing good and healing those who were oppressed. He was put to death, dying on a tree. God raised him on the third day and he appeared to a chosen few. Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins. The good news or gospel is simple: it is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  But it is the context of this declaration that is important. Peter begins his homily by saying: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God.” If we read this declaration with...

  2024-Mar-24: Palm Sunday of the Passion of Our Lord Isaiah 50:4-7 Isaiah 50:4-9a is part of the third of four “Servant Songs” in Isaiah 40-55 (a section of the book commonly called Second Isaiah). We can see that the servant of God fits into a familiar pattern, as that of many messengers of God who suffer in their mission - they are given words to hearten the disheartened when their ears were open to hearing the voice of God but their message was not well received.  Instead they faced ridicule and abuse from the people. Through it all the messenger of God has to persist in his mission to the very end knowing that the hand of the Lord is with him, he has nothing to fear. Source: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/sunday-of-the-passion-palm-sunday/commentary-on-isaiah-504-9a-17 Philippians 2:6-11 The name Jesus, of course, is the Greek version of the Hebrew name Joshua, which means “he saves.” Christ Jesus “emptied himself" means while both ...

   2024-Mar-17: Fifth Sunday in Lent Jeremiah 31:31-34 The book of Jeremiah was written in a specific place and context, offering hope to the exiled Judeans that the covenant with their God would continue in a new fashion, mended after the disaster of 587 BCE. Jeremiah 31:31-34 is part of a collection of hopeful words addressed to exiled Judeans in Babylon and is sometimes called the “Book of Consolation” According to the book of Jeremiah, his call occurred in the “thirteenth year” of King Josiah’s reign (Jeremiah 1:1), approximately 627 BCE, and he was active through the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon in 587 BCE, remaining in the land until after the assassination of Gedaliah (Jeremiah 41), at which point he is forced into exile in Egypt and the book ends without recounting the prophet’s ultimate fate. In other words, according to the book, the prophet lived through one of the most turbulent and catastrophic moments in ancient Israel’s history centuries before the author of Heb...

 2024-Mar-10: Fourth Sunday in Lent 2 Chronicles 36 This reading tells of Judah’s demise under its last three leaders, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. Like most of their predecessors, these leaders embraced evil - relying not on God but on their own judgment, ignoring the repeated warning of prophets like Urijah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel thereby spurring Yahweh and entering into alliances with Egypt to secure their future. This resulted in idolatry and heavy taxation by Egypt who installed puppet Kings they could control.  God then removed His hand of protection and allowed Nebuchadnezzar II to gain control of Judah, plunder and destroy the Temple which had become defiled and send its people into exile for 70 years. The people, including God's prophets, suffered because of the sins of these evil leaders. Finally, God was faithful not to abandon His people in exile.  After 70 years of captivity, He used a Persian king named Cyrus to free His people. God wants you to place...

      2024-Feb-25: Second Sunday in Lent   Welcome to our Faith sharing meeting. Today we will be discussing the readings for the Second Sunday in Lent on page 50 of our book, 'At Home with the Word 2024'. Let us begin our faith-sharing meeting today with a prayer attributed to Pope Francis.  In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. This Lenten season let us embrace the opportunity to: Fast from hurting words and say kind words. Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude. Fast from anger and be filled with patience. Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope. Fast from worries and have trust in God. Fast from complaints and contemplate simplicity. Fast from pressures and be prayerful. Fast from bitterness and fill our hearts with joy. Fast from selfishness and be compassionate to others. Fast from grudges and be reconciled. Fast from words and be silent so we can listen. We pray that our only desire and our one choice is to choose what better l...

 2022-Jan-2: The Epiphany of the Lord Welcome - Who shall we pray for today ... Opening prayer Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us together today to study your Word. Help us to find the true meaning of your mysteries. May your peace be in our hearts, your grace be in our thoughts, your love be in our words and your joy be in our souls. May your Spirit guide us, your words bring us your peace, your shield protect us, your wisdom arm us, wherever you may lead us. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen. Significance of Feast of the Epiphany:  Up until the 4th century, Christmas or Jesus’ birth was celebrated on January 6 (it still is in most parts of the Orthodox Church around the world). However, in 325 AD Emperor Constantine (the first to convert to Christianity through the influence of his mother Saint Helena) moved the observance of Christmas in the Western Church to December 25, the day of the Sol Invictus or the Unconquered Sun. Epiphany (from the Greek ' epiphaneia ' ...

  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...

  Aug-15: Feast of The Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary to Heaven In 1950, Pope Pius XII defined  Mary's Assumption into Heaven  as a dogma of Roman Catholicism, in the encyclical:  Munificentissimus Deus . I quote: " The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven. " Unquote. The word  Assumption  comes from the Latin verb  assumere , meaning "to take to oneself." Our Lord, Jesus Christ took Mary home to himself where he is when she died, just as Enoch and Elijah had been taken up body and soul to Heaven at the end of their lives (Genesis 5:24; 2 Kings 2:11). The Assumption of Mary (“ Dormition of Mary ” in the Eastern Churches) to Heaven is unlike the Ascension of Jesus to Heaven. Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven by His own power. In contrast, Mary is believed to have been taken up into Heaven by God. Furthermore, Pope Pius XII declared, "The Most Bl...