Jesus' disciples are not to seek honourable titles like 'father' and 'teacher' and 'rabbi'.

Our teacher is God, and the true disciples learns only from God.

Jesus calls on his followers to be humble. Our church is to be a humble church. 

 

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Malachi 1:14b-2:2b, 8-10 

Cursed be the cheater,

God and His kingdom often follow the dynamics of the mustard seed and the yeast in today’s gospel parables:

small, subtle, almost invisible; but they keep transforming the world around.

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel”

“I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”

 

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Romans 8:18-25

I consider that the suffering of

 The jockeying for the position of honor is evident.

This preoccupation for the choice seats happens too with Jesus’ own disciples, James and John.

Their mother tries to intervene for them so they would have the preferred places in seating order in the kingdom of Jesus,

one on his right and the other on his left.

We must not boast our position and must always settle

at the bottom which will in turn protect our dignity and nourish the humbleness inside us.

 

St. Charles Borromeo, bishop

 ＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊ 

 Romans 11:1-2a, 11-12, 25-29

And so I ask:

An old woman as bent-over, She is bent-over double, crippled and unable to stand up straight or look people in the eye.

Yet Jesus sees her and decides to free her from her affliction. On the day she least expects, God visits her and heals her.

No Sabbath could stop the goodness of God pouring on His people. 

 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊  

Romans 8:12-17

30TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

Then, brothers,

The sabbath day Christ would not forbear doing good,

though he knews the Pharisees would carp and cavil at it,

nor omit any opportunity of helping and healing the distressed

calumniate and reproach him for it; it being the constant guise of hypocrites,

to prefer ceremonial and ritual observation, before necessary and moral duties.

 

 St. Martin de Porres, religious

 ＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊  

Romans 9:1-5

I tell you sincerely,

 The first 3 commandments of the Decalogue contain the law to love God and

the other 7 are commandments that ensure the proper love of neighbor.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,

and with all your might.” Loving God is linked inextricably to loving other people.

All the rules in the Law flow from the ideas of loving God and loving others.

Placing God right at the center of our lives practicing fraternity,

Love alone can triumph over the power of death.

 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊  

Exodus 22:20-26

You shall not wrong

 Death is but a passage to life, to the real life where all of us are destined to reach.

Today we pray for all of those who have gone ahead of us in death,

that through God’s mercy they will receive the reward of eternal life with him.

We pray for ourselves too that when our time comes, we will share in the same reward. 

 

 ＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊  

Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9

The souls of the just are in the hands of God

 Today, the Church honors Saints Simon and Jude, Simon was called “the Zealot.”Simon is not Simon Peter, the Prince of the Apostles,

but rather “Simon the Cananean” and “Simon the Zealot”. As a zealot,

Simon would have been very committed to his Jewish identity and would have been firmly opposed to Roman oppression and taxation.

Jude is referred to as “Judas, not the Iscariot…”

Jude was the patron saint of hopeless cases. He was a brother of St. James the Lesser, and a relative of Jesus.

During the Last Supper, asked Jesus, “Master, what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”

Saint Jude the Apostle which he warns all Christians against immorality and heresy trying to enter the early Church.

They bore the sacred responsibility of transmitting the Sacraments and the teachings of Jesus to a nascent Church.

Simon is traditionally believed to have been sawed in half, Jude have been beaten with a club. 

 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊  

Ephesians 2:19-22

Now, you are no longer strangers or guests,

 They are the ones who have been washed by the blood of the Lamb, those who have remained faithful under trial,

who, like Christ, have offered their lives for truth, justice, charity, and peace.

Each of us challenges us to desire to become Saints, for only by being Saints can we be counted amongst the Saved!

 

 ＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊  

Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14

I saw another angel,

We are living in a kind of world that was unimaginable a few decades ago,

thanks to the radical and lightning-fast developments in science and technology.

when it comes to discerning matters of the spirit,

we live in denial of the existence of God or live as if our earthly life would go on forever,

failing to store up treasures in heaven. Jesus calls for better discernment today.

 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊  

Romans 7:18-25a

I know