Sunday, January 25, 2015: (THIRD SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME) Readings for today: Jonah 3:1-5, 10 / 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 / Mark 1:14-20:
Readings from: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/012515.cfm (Pics from elsewhere on the internet)
Reading 1 - A reading from the book of the Prophet Jonah (Jonah 3:1-5, 10):
The word of the LORD came to Jonah, saying:
“Set out for the great city of Nineveh,
and announce to it the message that I will tell you.”
So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh,
according to the LORD’S bidding.
Now Nineveh was an enormously large city;
it took three days to go through it.
Jonah began his journey through the city,
and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing,
“Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed, “
when the people of Nineveh believed God;
they proclaimed a fast
and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,
he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them;
he did not carry it out.
Responsorial Psalm - (Psalm 25: "Teach Me Your Ways, O Lord" by David Haas):
Video From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM9sYVL2Bc0
Lyrics From: http://www.sweetslyrics.com/474184.David Haas - Remember Your Mercies.html
Refrain: Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Alternate Refrain: Teach me your ways O Lord.
1. Your ways, O Lord, make known to me, teach me your paths.
Guide me, teach me, for you are my Savior.
Refrain: Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Alternate Refrain: Teach me your ways O Lord.
2. Remember your compassion, Lord, and your kindness of old.
Remember this, and not my sins, in your goodness, O Lord.
Refrain: Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Alternate Refrain: Teach me your ways O Lord.
3. Good and just is the Lord, the sinners know his way.
He guides the meek to justice, he teaches the humble.
Refrain: Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Alternate Refrain: Teach me your ways O Lord.
Thanks to Joe Donahue for correcting these lyrics
Reading 2 - A reading from the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 7:29-31):
I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out.
From now on, let those having wives act as not having them,
those weeping as not weeping,
those rejoicing as not rejoicing,
those buying as not owning,
those using the world as not using it fully.
For the world in its present form is passing away.
Alleluia (Mark 1:15)
Video From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5IKpMlyApU
Alleluia Video:
R. Alleluia, alleluia, Alleluia.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent and believe in the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia, Alleluia.
Gospel - A reading from the holy Gospel according to St. Mark (Mark 1:14-20):
After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
“This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
As he passed by the Sea of Galilee,
he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea;
they were fishermen.
Jesus said to them,
“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Then they abandoned their nets and followed him.
He walked along a little farther
and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They too were in a boat mending their nets.
Then he called them.
So they left their father Zebedee in the boat
along with the hired men and followed him.
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01/25/2015: Conversion of St. Paul - (Feast Day: January 25)-
From: http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintofDay/default.aspx
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Conversion of St. Paul
Paul’s entire life can be explained in terms of one experience—his meeting with Jesus on the road to Damascus. In an instant, he saw that all the zeal of his dynamic personality was being wasted, like the strength of a boxer swinging wildly. Perhaps he had never seen Jesus, who was only a few years older. But he had acquired a zealot’s hatred of all Jesus stood for, as he began to harass the Church: “...entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment” (Acts 8:3b). Now he himself was “entered,” possessed, all his energy harnessed to one goal—being a slave of Christ in the ministry of reconciliation, an instrument to help others experience the one Savior.
One sentence determined his theology: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:5b). Jesus was mysteriously identified with people—the loving group of people Saul had been running down like criminals. Jesus, he saw, was the mysterious fulfillment of all he had been blindly pursuing.
From then on, his only work was to “present everyone perfect in Christ. For this I labor and struggle, in accord with the exercise of his power working within me” (Colossians 1:28b-29). “For our gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and [with] much conviction” (1 Thessalonians 1:5a).
Paul’s life became a tireless proclaiming and living out of the message of the cross: Christians die baptismally to sin and are buried with Christ; they are dead to all that is sinful and unredeemed in the world. They are made into a new creation, already sharing Christ’s victory and someday to rise from the dead like him. Through this risen Christ the Father pours out the Spirit on them, making them completely new.
So Paul’s great message to the world was: You are saved entirely by God, not by anything you can do. Saving faith is the gift of total, free, personal and loving commitment to Christ, a commitment that then bears fruit in more “works” than the Law could ever contemplate.
Comment:
Paul is undoubtedly hard to understand. His style often reflects the rabbinical style of argument of his day, and often his thought skips on mountaintops while we plod below. But perhaps our problems are accentuated by the fact that so many beautiful jewels have become part of the everyday coin in our Christian language (see quote, below).
Quote:
“Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).
