This experience has given me the idea of providing a really brief daily reflection on the Mass readings. So as far as I am able I will attempt to do it from today on.
The readings are included and after you have read them and prayed to the Holy Spirit to give you some insights, it should only take you at most two minutes to read my thoughts (or more often the thoughts of someone far more holy than I).
Blessings to you for reading my blog.
Tuesday, 02 July 2013
Tuesday of the Thirteenth week in Ordinary Time
Genesis 19:15-29.
As dawn was breaking, the angels urged Lot on, saying, “On your way! Take with you your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city."
When he hesitated, the men, by the LORD'S mercy, seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters and led them to safety outside the city.
As soon as they had been brought outside, he was told: "Flee for your life! Don't look back or stop anywhere on the Plain. Get off to the hills at once, or you will be swept away."
"Oh, no, my lord!" replied Lot.
"You have already thought enough of your servant to do me the great kindness of intervening to save my life. But I cannot flee to the hills to keep the disaster from overtaking me, and so I shall die.
Look, this town ahead is near enough to escape to. It's only a small place. Let me flee there--it's a small place, isn't it?--that my life may be saved."
"Well, then," he replied, "I will also grant you the favor you now ask. I will not overthrow the town you speak of.
Hurry, escape there! I cannot do anything until you arrive there." That is why the town is called Zoar.
The sun was just rising over the earth as Lot arrived in Zoar;
at the same time the LORD rained down sulphurous fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah (from the LORD out of heaven).
He overthrew those cities and the whole Plain, together with the inhabitants of the cities and the produce of the soil.
But Lot's wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.
Early the next morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood in the LORD'S presence.
As he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole region of the Plain, he saw dense smoke over the land rising like fumes from a furnace.
Thus it came to pass: when God destroyed the Cities of the Plain, he was mindful of Abraham by sending Lot away from the upheaval by which God overthrew the cities where Lot had been living.
When he hesitated, the men, by the LORD'S mercy, seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters and led them to safety outside the city.
As soon as they had been brought outside, he was told: "Flee for your life! Don't look back or stop anywhere on the Plain. Get off to the hills at once, or you will be swept away."
"Oh, no, my lord!" replied Lot.
"You have already thought enough of your servant to do me the great kindness of intervening to save my life. But I cannot flee to the hills to keep the disaster from overtaking me, and so I shall die.
Look, this town ahead is near enough to escape to. It's only a small place. Let me flee there--it's a small place, isn't it?--that my life may be saved."
"Well, then," he replied, "I will also grant you the favor you now ask. I will not overthrow the town you speak of.
Hurry, escape there! I cannot do anything until you arrive there." That is why the town is called Zoar.
The sun was just rising over the earth as Lot arrived in Zoar;
at the same time the LORD rained down sulphurous fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah (from the LORD out of heaven).
He overthrew those cities and the whole Plain, together with the inhabitants of the cities and the produce of the soil.
But Lot's wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.
Early the next morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood in the LORD'S presence.
As he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole region of the Plain, he saw dense smoke over the land rising like fumes from a furnace.
Thus it came to pass: when God destroyed the Cities of the Plain, he was mindful of Abraham by sending Lot away from the upheaval by which God overthrew the cities where Lot had been living.
Ps 26(25):2-3.9-10.11-12.
Search me, O LORD, and try me;
test my soul and my heart.
For your mercy is before my eyes,
and I walk in your truth.
Gather not my soul with those of sinners,
nor with men of blood my life.
On their hands are crimes,
and their right hands are full of bribes.
But I walk in integrity;
redeem me, and have mercy on me.
My foot stands on level ground;
in the assemblies I will bless the LORD.
Matt 8:23-27.
test my soul and my heart.
For your mercy is before my eyes,
and I walk in your truth.
Gather not my soul with those of sinners,
nor with men of blood my life.
On their hands are crimes,
and their right hands are full of bribes.
But I walk in integrity;
redeem me, and have mercy on me.
My foot stands on level ground;
in the assemblies I will bless the LORD.
Matt 8:23-27.
As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him.
Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep.
They came and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!"
He said to them, "Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?" Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.
The men were amazed and said, "What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea
Commentary of the day :
Blessed Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916), hermit and missionary in the Sahara
Meditation « Eight days at Ephraim », the calming of the tempest (trans. Charlotte Balfour, 1930)
Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep.
They came and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!"
He said to them, "Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?" Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.
The men were amazed and said, "What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea
Commentary of the day :
Blessed Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916), hermit and missionary in the Sahara
Meditation « Eight days at Ephraim », the calming of the tempest (trans. Charlotte Balfour, 1930)
“My children, whatever happens to you, remember that I am always with you; remember whether you perceive me or not, whether I seem to be active or sleeping, forgetful of you, I am always watching and am always all-powerful. Never be afraid, never be anxious: I am there. I watch, I love... I am all-powerful. What more do you ask?.. Remember how many storms I have quieted by a word, making a great calm to follow. Remember how I held up Peter walking on the waters (Mt 14,28f). I am always as near to every person as I was then to him... Be confident, faithful, courageous; have no fear for your body and soul, for I am there, loving and all-powerful. But... do not let your confidence make you careless or neglectful of the dangers or confident in yourself or in others... You are in imminent danger. Evil spirits, those strong and crafty enemies, your own human nature, the world, make perpetual warfare upon you... In this life the tempest never ceases and your boat is ever ready to sink. But I am there, and with me it will never be wrecked. Trust nothing, yourself least of all; but in me have that perfect confidence that banishes fear.”
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