St. Bruno, priest 

Bl. Marie-Rose Durocher, virgin 

＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊   

Jonah 4:1-11

 But Jonah was greatly displeased at this,

And he was in­dignant. He prayed to Yahweh and said, “O Yah­weh, is this not what I said when I was yet in my own coun­try? This is why I fled to Tar­shish. I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and full of love, and you relent from imposing terrible punishment.

 I beseech you now, Yahweh, to take my life, for now it is better for me to die than to live.” But Yahweh replied, “What right have you to be angry?”

 Jonah  then  left  the  city.  He  went to a place east of it, built himself a shelter and sat under its shade to wait and see what would happen to Nine­veh. Then Yahweh God provided a castor-oil plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade over his head and to ease his discomfort. Jonah was very happy about the plant.

 But the next day, at dawn, God sent a worm which attacked the plant and made it wither. When the sun rose, God sent a scorching east wind; the sun blazed down upon Jo­nah’s head, and he grew faint. His death wish returned and he said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

 Then God asked Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry about the castor-oil plant?” Jonah answered, “I am right to be angry enough to wish to die.”

Yahweh said, “You are concerned about a plant which cost you no labor to make it grow. Overnight it sprang up, and overnight it perished. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot distinguish right from left and they have many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned for such a great city?”

 

Ps 86:3-4, 5-6, 9-10

Lord, you are merciful and gracious.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

  ＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊ 

Luke 11:1-4

 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”  And Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say this:

Father, hallowed be your name, may your kingdom come, give us each day the kind of bread we need,  and forgive us our sins, for we also for­give all who do us wrong,

and do not bring us to the test.”

 

Gospel Reflection：

In this gospel we have a peek into the prayer life of Jesus. Prayer seemed to be one of the most salient characteristics  of Jesus; life. Take for example the following gospel passages. In Luke 5:16, we’re told that “Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.”

In the next chapter, he “went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night” (6:12). In the ninth chapter, Jesus “Lift the crowds to pray alone”(9:18).

Shortly thereafter, he “took Peter, James, and John up on a mountain to pray” (9:28). No wonder, the gospel writers could not help  but incorporate these private acts of the Lord. they are too frequent to be ignored.

Because of this, His disciple is inspired to ask Jesus to teach him how to pray as He did. This disciple surely knew how to pray in the way common to the Jewish people.

Yet he sensed, quite rightly, that as a follower of Jesus he should pray in a distinctive way, a way that expessed the distinctive message and ministry of his Master.