Tagged: verse of the day

“God chose us in Him.” –Ephesians 1:4 Mass Readings: October 13 First: Ephesians 1:1-10; Resp: Psalm 98:1-6; Gospel: Luke 11:47-54 We have been baptized into Christ (Rm 6:3). Therefore, we are baptized into His Body, the Church (1 Cor 12:13), which has been given “every spiritual blessing in the heavens” (Eph 1:3). In Jesus, we have been chosen by God “before the world began, to be holy and blameless in His sight, to be full of love; He likewise predestined us through Christ Jesus to be His adopted sons” and daughters (Eph 1:4-5). “It is in Christ and through His...

“If you give what you have as alms, all will be wiped clean for you.” –Luke 11:41 Mass Readings: October 11 First: Galatians 5:1-6; Resp: Psalm 119:41,43,45,47-48; Gospel: Luke 11:37-41 After Jesus told the Pharisees to cleanse the inside as well as the outside (Lk 11:39-40), He surprisingly encouraged them to give alms, an external activity. By this, Jesus showed that the way to cleanse the inside can be through the outside. For example, drinking to excess is an outside symptom of an inside problem. However, by dealing with the excessive drinking, you may get to its root and thereby...

“So stand firm, and do not take on yourselves the yoke of slavery a second time.” –Galatians 5:1 Mass Readings: October 10 First: Galatians 4:22-24,26-27,31–5:1; Resp: Psalm 113:1-7; Gospel: Luke 11:29-32 Would a free man who once had been a prisoner of war ever voluntarily return to his former concentration camp to live? “Unthinkable!” (Gal 2:17) Yet God’s people do this constantly. The Israelites escaped the slavery of Egypt, but when times got rough, they preferred to return to flogging and constant brickmaking as long as they could eat their fish, cucumbers, melons, and garlic (Nm 11:4-5). The Galatians began...