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Sunday, January 26, 2014: (THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME) Readings for today: Isaiah 8:23- 9:3 / 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17 / Matthew 4:12-23:
Readings from: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/012614.cfm (Pics from elsewhere on the internet)
Reading 1 - A reading from the book of the Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 8:23 - 9:3):
First the Lord degraded the land of Zebulun
and the land of Naphtali;
but in the end he has glorified the seaward road,
the land west of the Jordan,
the District of the Gentiles.
Anguish has taken wing, dispelled is darkness:
for there is no gloom where but now there was distress.
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom
a light has shone.
You have brought them abundant joy
and great rejoicing,
as they rejoice before you as at the harvest,
as people make merry when dividing spoils.
For the yoke that burdened them,
the pole on their shoulder,
and the rod of their taskmaster
you have smashed, as on the day of Midian.
Responsorial Psalm - "The Lord is My Light" by David Haas (Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14):
From: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bcv9yfcIb_Y
Refrain: The Lord is my light and my salvation, of whom shall I be afraid?
1. The Lord is my light and my help; whom should I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life; before whom should I shrink?
Refrain: The Lord is my light and my salvation, of whom shall I be afraid?
2. There is one thing I ask of the Lord; for this I long;
to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
Refrain: The Lord is my light and my salvation, of whom shall I be afraid?
3. I believe I shall see the goodness of the Lord, in the land of the living;
hope in him and take heart, hope in the Lord!
Refrain: The Lord is my light and my salvation, of whom shall I be afraid?
Reading 2 - A reading from the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17):
I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that all of you agree in what you say,
and that there be no divisions among you,
but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.
For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers and sisters,
by Chloe’s people, that there are rivalries among you.
I mean that each of you is saying,
“I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,”
or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.”
Is Christ divided?
Was Paul crucified for you?
Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel,
and not with the wisdom of human eloquence,
so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning.
Gospel - A reading from the holy Gospel according to St. Matthew (Matthew 4:12-23):
he withdrew to Galilee.
He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea,
in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,
that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet
might be fulfilled:
Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles,
the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light,
on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death
light has arisen.
From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,
Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew,
casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.
He said to them,
“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
At once they left their nets and followed him.
He walked along from there and saw two other brothers,
James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets.
He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father
and followed him.
He went around all of Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness among the people.
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01/26/2014 - St. John Bosco (1815-1888): A.K.A The Dreaming Saint
From: http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=63
St.
John Bosco
Feastday: January 31
What do dreams have to with prayer? Aren't they just
random images of our mind?
In 1867 Pope Pius IX was upset with John Bosco because he wouldn't take his
dreams seriously enough. Nine years earlier when Pope Pius IX met with the
future saint who worked with neglected boys, he learned of the dreams that John
had been having since the age of nine, dreams that had revealed God's will for
John's life. So Pius IX had made a request, "Write down these dreams and
everything else you have told me, minutely and in their natural sense." Pius IX
saw John's dreams as a legacy for those John worked with and as an inspiration
for those he ministered to.
Despite Scripture evidence and Church tradition respecting dreams, John had
encountered skepticism when he had his first dream at the age of nine. The young
Bosco dreamed that he was in a field with a crowd of children. The children
started cursing and misbehaving. John jumped into the crowd to try to stop them
-- by fighting and shouting. Suddenly a man with a face filled with light
appeared dressed in a white flowing mantle. The man called John over and made
him leader of the boys. John was stunned at being put in charge of this unruly
gang. The man said, "You will have to win these friends of yours not with blows
but with gentleness and kindness." As adults, most of us would be reluctant to
take on such a mission -- and nine year old John was even less pleased. "I'm
just a boy," he argued, "how can you order me to do something that looks
impossible." The man answered, "What seems so impossible you must achieve by
being obedient and acquiring knowledge." Then the boys turned into the wild
animals they had been acting like. The man told John that this is the field of
John's life work. Once John changed and grew in humility, faithfulness, and
strength, he would see a change in the children -- a change that the man now
demonstrated. The wild animals suddenly turned into gentle lambs.
When John told his family about his dream, his brothers just laughed at him.
Everyone had a different interpretation of what it meant: he would become a
shepherd, a priest, a gang leader. His own grandmother echoed the sage advice we
have heard through the years, "You mustn't pay any attention to dreams." John
said, "I felt the same way about it, yet I could never get that dream out of my
head."
Eventually that first dream led him to minister to poor and neglected boys, to
use the love and guidance that seemed so impossible at age nine to lead them to
faithful and fulfilled lives. He started out by learning how to juggle and do
tricks to catch the attention of the children. Once he had their attention he
would teach them and take them to Mass. It wasn't always easy -- few people
wanted a crowd of loud, bedraggled boys hanging around. And he had so little
money and help that people thought he was crazy. Priests who promised to help
would get frustrated and leave.
Two "friends" even tried to commit him to an institution for the mentally ill.
They brought a carriage and were planning to trick him into coming with him. But
instead of getting in, John said, "After you" and politely let them go ahead.
When his friends were in the carriage he slammed the door and told the driver to
take off as fast as he could go!
Through
it all he found encouragement and support through his dreams. In one dream, Mary
led him into a beautiful garden. There were roses everywhere, crowding the
ground with their blooms and the air with their scent. He was told to take off
his shoes and walk along a path through a rose arbor. Before he had walked more
than a few steps, his naked feet were cut and bleeding from the thorns. When he
said he would have to wear shoes or turn back, Mary told him to put on sturdy
shoes. As he stepped forward a second time, he was followed by helpers. But the
walls of the arbor closed on him, the roof sank lower and the roses crept onto
the path. Thorns caught at him from all around. When he pushed them aside he
only got more cuts, until he was tangled in thorns. Yet those who watched said,
"How lucky Don John is! His path is forever strewn with roses! He hasn't a worry
in the world. No troubles at all!" Many of the helpers, who had been expecting
an easy journey, turned back, but some stayed with him. Finally he climbed
through the roses and thorns to find another incredible garden. A cool breeze
soothed his torn skin and healed his wounds.
In his interpretation, the path was his mission, the roses were his charity to
the boys, and the thorns were the distractions, the obstacles, and frustrations
that would stand in his way. The message of the dream was clear to John: he must
keep going, not lose faith in God or his mission, and he would come through to
the place he belonged.
Often John acted on his dreams simply by sharing them, sometimes repeating them
to several different individuals or groups he thought would be affected by the
dream. "Let me tell you about a dream that has absorbed my mind," he would say.
The groups he most often shared with were the boys he helped -- because so many
of the dreams involved them. For example, he used several dreams to remind the
boys to keep to a good and moral life. In one dream he saw the boys eating bread
of four kinds -- tasty rolls, ordinary bread, coarse bread, and moldy bread,
which represented the state of the boys' souls. He said he would be glad to talk
to any boys who wanted to know which bread they were eating and then proceeded
to use the occasion to give them moral guidance.
He died in 1888, at the age of seventy-two. His work lives on in the Salesian
order he founded.
In His Footsteps:
John Bosco found God's message in his dreams. If you have some question or
problem in your life, ask God to send you an answer or help in a dream. Then
write down your dreams. Ask God to help you remember and interpret the dreams
that come from God.
Prayer:
Saint John Bosco, you reached out to children whom no one cared for despite
ridicule and insults. Help us to care less about the laughter of the world and
care more about the joy of the Lord. Amen
Copyright 1996-2000 by Terry Matz. All
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