Category: Daily Reflections
“Let the sons of the household satisfy themselves at table first. It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” –Mark 7:27 The Jewish people were to have nothing to do with Gentiles so that they would not be seduced into worshipping the false gods of the Gentiles. Solomon disregarded this prohibition. He even married Gentile wives (1 Kgs 11:4ff). This led to idolatry, which led to wars and civil war. Solomon proved the point about how destructive it was for Jews to mix with Gentiles. Jesus called Jewish Christians not only...
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“Wicked designs come from the deep recesses of the heart.” –Mark 7:21 Mass Readings: February 7 First: 1 Kings 10:1-10; Resp: Psalm 37:5-6,30-31,39-40; Gospel: Mark 7:14-23 Listen to the Mass Readings Solomon had the wisest and most understanding heart ever (1 Kgs 3:12), but “when Solomon was old his wives had turned his heart to strange gods, and his heart was not entirely with the Lord, his God, as the heart of his father David had been” (1 Kgs 11:4). Solomon’s name means “peace,” and he had an exceptionally peaceful reign until he turned his heart away from the Lord. Then wars...
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“This people pays Me lip service but their heart is far from Me. Empty is the reverence they do Me because they teach as dogmas mere human precepts.” –Mark 7:6-7; Isaiah 29:13 Mass Readings: February 6 First: 1 Kings 8:22-23,27-30; Resp: Psalm 84:3-5,10-11; Gospel: Mark 7:1-13 Listen to the Mass Readings There are divine traditions – the magisterial teachings of the Church and the Bible. These divine traditions are the truth (see 2 Thes 2:15). They cannot be changed. We must conform our lives to these divine traditions. On Judgment Day, we will be judged according to these divine traditions....
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“The Lord intends to dwell in the dark cloud.” –1 Kings 8:12 Mass Readings: February 5 First: 1 Kings 8:1-7,9-13; Resp: Psalm 132:6-10; Gospel: Mark 6:53-56 Listen to the Mass Readings In today’s first Eucharistic reading and psalm response, God makes the Temple His home on earth. Yet in the process of dwelling among us, God hides in the dark cloud which fills the Temple (1 Kgs 8:10ff). In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus, God incarnate, leaves that Temple and goes out to Gentile territory. Yet shortly thereafter Jesus hides Himself and “wanted no one to recognize Him” (Mk 7:24). The...
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“I shall not see happiness again.” –Job 7:7 How many of you can identify with Job in his hopeless misery? (Jb 7:3) Your situation is so bad that you can say: “I loathe my life. I will give myself up to complaint; I will speak from the bitterness of my soul” (Jb 10:1). “I have been assigned months of misery, and troubled nights…I am filled with restlessness until the dawn…My days…come to an end without hope…I shall not see happiness again” (Jb 7:3, 4, 6, 7). God’s plan is not to spare us from difficult times; His plan is to...
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