Reform and Believe in the Gospel

First Sunday of Lent (Year B)

Mark 1: 12-15    “Reform your lives and believe in the good news!”

February 26, 2012

            Why did Jesus go into the desert? Scripture says the Spirit “drove” him there. Why did the Spirit not plunge him into his preaching at once? Why delay Jesus with an experience that could only weaken him physically? What then can we learn from Jesus?

            From all this, we see the importance of occasionally moving out of the world of our daily life to do what Jesus did --- to reflect, to pray, to plan. If a man like Jesus needed time alone to get ready for his mission in life, surely we need time to get ready for whatever task God has for us. This is the reason why many Catholics make a yearly retreat – to listen to what God has to tell them. We need to find out what we can do to bring God more into our world and a good time to do this is during the season of Lent. What Jesus did in the desert prepared him for his mission. What we do in our retreat will also prepare us for the task God has for each one of us.

            As we enter the season of Lent, we ask God’s help in our struggle with the forces of evil – 

“LOVING FATHER, CONTINUES TO SHOW US YOUR LOVE AS WE NOW RESPOND TO YOUR CALL NOT ONLY TO CLEANSE OURSELVES BY SELF-DENIAL BUT ALSO TO DEEPEN OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU. WE ASK THIS THROUGH JESUS YOUR SON OUR LORD. AMEN.”

Your Sins are Forgiven

7^th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B  

Mark 2:1-12          “My Son, your sins are forgiven.”

February 19, 2012

Jesus has returned to Capernaum. Hearing this, a great crowd of people gathers where Jesus is. Finally, seeing that it is impossible for them to see Jesus, some friends of the paralytic carry the man to the roof, making an opening and lowering the stretcher down where Jesus is. Seeing the faith of the stretcher-bearers, Jesus heals the paralytic right then and there.

Have you noticed Mark’s focal word – the word “open?” The paralytic’s friends “made an opening” in the roof and lowered the stretcher. Jesus “sees their faith.” Now Mark seems to be connecting in the closest possible way the words “open” and “faith”. By their faith in Jesus, both the friends of the paralytic and the paralytic himself open themselves to the miraculous healing power of Jesus. How open are you to the miraculous powers of Jesus?

We now approach the Father and ask for his love:

“HEAVENLY FATHER, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SON’S FORGIVENESS. ACCEPT OUR GRATITUDE THROUGH YOUR SON OUR LORD. AMEN.”

I Do Will It

 6^th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year  B

Mk1 1:40-45          Moved with pity, Jesus said, “I do will it. Be cured.”

February 12, 2012

Mark tells us that the leper came to Jesus. Knowing that Jesus had the power to heal him, the leper knelt down in front of Jesus and begged him, “If you wish, you can make me clean.”

This deeply affected Jesus. Mark writes: “Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said: “I do will it. Be cured.”

It is coincidental that the word “leper” written backwards spells “repel” – for that was truly the effect of leprosy – the fear of contracting the dreaded disease and the leper’s unsightly appearance. The primary concern of the Church in discussing leprosy because of faith. Have you ever seriously reflected on the effect of fin on yourself? Leprosy does to the face what sin does to the soul – it makes one ugly and repelling. By the blood of Christ, however, we have been cleansed of that ugliness. So the story is really not about the leper who was cured. Rather, it is about you and me – right here and now – who have been healed of sin and eternal death by our compassionate Savior.

Like the leper who cried out for healing, we now pray:

ALMIGHTY FATHER, HELP US TO REACH OUT TO PEOPLE WE IGNORE. INCREASE OUR FAITH AND ACCEPT OUR PRAYERS IN THE NAME OF YOUR SON JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN

Jesus prayed

5^th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
Mk: 1:29-39    “Jesus went off to a lonely ... and was absorbed in prayer."

February 5, 2012                                                           

 

This is the only place in Mark’s Gospel where we find the word “absorbed”; Jesus was “absorbed in prayer.” His whole being was filled with a sense of the reality and of the love of God. This means that when Jesus prayed, he met God. It was more like a deep awareness of the reality of God. This experience was supremely important to Jesus. And so from time to time Jesus would escape from everybody so that He could be with his Father and open his heart and his deepest feelings to God.

Do we set aside time for prayer? Mother Teresa once said, “We need to find God and God cannot be found in noise or in restlessness. For Jesus, prayer was the way he received strength, wisdom, and joy. It was his way of being in the most intimate communication possible with his Father. And, as Jesus himself said, what happened to him can also happen to us.

We now pray that God will watch over us and protect us:

“FATHER, WE WATCH OVER YOUR FAMILY AND KEEP US SAFE IN YOUR CARE, FOR ALL OUR HOPE IS IN YOU. THIS IS OUR PRAYER THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN.

Be Quiet and Listen

4^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

Mark 1: 21-28     “Be quiet! Come out of that man!”

January 29, 2012:  

In today’s section of Mark’s Gospel, “the people were fascinated by the teaching of Jesus- a new teaching in spirit of authority.” The prophets, including the great Moses, used to say: “Thus says the Lord.” Jesus now says: “I tell you…” the exorcism accompanying Jesus’ teaching in Mark’s account emphasizes this authority. Where God’s word breaks through in human history, announcing the coming of his kingdom of justice, of love, and of peace, there evil must certainly cease!

Listen often and with faith to the Lord Jesus and to his teaching with authority, as we have it in Scripture. “Spellbound” by his words, you will keep balance in a society where so much cheap “wisdom” is for sale. We now ask ourselves: “Frankly speaking, how attentively do we listen to the word of God when we attend the Mass? Do we prepare to receive the message that God has for us?

In prayer, we now approach God the Father who has the power and the authority over all things especially over the burdens that weigh us down: “O COMPASSIONATE FATHER, WE REJOICE IN YOUR ABUNDANT LOVE FOR US. ESTABLISH YOUR AUTHORITY WITHIN US AND BE OUR COMPANION ON THE ROAD OF LIFE. THIS IS OUR PRAYER THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN.

Fishers of Men

3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B. 

January 22, 2011

Mark. 1: 14 - 20    “Come after me; I will make your fishers of men.”

In today’s Gospel, Mark deals with two calls. He first sets forth the call to repentance to all of us: “Reform your lives and believe in the good news.” Conversion is a truly lifetime job which requires daily perseverance! Secondly, Mark relates another call of the disciples referring to “call-vocation,” in particular, the call to total, lifetime dedication to Christ, including one’s sexuality, as an ongoing process. The disciples have just spent the entire day with the Lord and in today’s Gospel reading we witness a definitive decision on the part of the disciples. “They abandoned their father Zebedee who was in boat with the hired men and went off in the company of Jesus!”

            We now ask ourselves: Have we ever experienced the call to genuine conversion? As we have been living our life from day to day, have we encountered clear signs that the Lord is calling us to his service?

            We now turn in prayer to God: “O GOD, GRANT US THE GRACE TO TRULY CHANGE OUR LIVES AND TO FIRMLY BELIEVE IN CHRIST’S CALL TO REPENTANCE AND TO CONVERSION. THIS WE ASK OF YOU THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN.

Let the Children Come to Me

Feast of Santo Niño 
January 15, 2012: 
Luke 18/16       “Let the children come to me…” 


When Jesus said the traits of the child make up the Kingdom of God, we then ask, what are the qualities of the child? 1) The child never loses the sense of wonder. One morning Tennyson went into the bedroom of his grandson and saw the child “worshipping the sunbeam playing on the bedpost.” 2) The child’s whole life is founded on trust. The child never doubts where the next meal will come from. 3.) The child is obedient. The child often disobeys his parent’s bidding, but his instinct is to obey. To keep the sense of wonder, to live in total trust, and to obey – these are the traits of the child, the passport the Kingdom of God. Stern is the warming of Jesus in becoming like a child: “Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”

“ O LOVING FATHER, LET US NEVER FORGET THE TRAITS OF OUR OWN CHILDHOOD- SENSE OF WONDER, TRUST, & OBEDIENCE- THIS IS OUR PRAYER THROUGH JESUS YOUR SON OUR LORD. AMEN.”