Quote/s of the Day – 11 January – The Sixth Day in the Octave of Epiphany, Readings: Hebrews 1:1-6, Psalms 97:1 and 2, 6 and 7, 9, Mark 1:14-20
“This is the time of fulfilment. The kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel.”
Mark 1:15
“And the people sought him and came to him and would have kept him from leaving them, but he said to them, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.”
Luke 4:42-43
” … For behold, the kingdom of God, is in the midst of you.”
Luke 17:21
“Proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand and encourage through all patience and teaching.”
2 Timothy 4:2
“Everyone without God, has a dead soul. You, who bewail the dead, rather, should bewail sin. Bewail ungodliness. Bewail disbelief.”
St Augustine (354-430) Father and Doctor of Grace
“There is still time for endurance, time for patience, time for healing, time for change. Have you slipped? Rise up! Have you sinned? Cease! Do not stand among sinners but leap aside!”
St Basil the Great (329-379) Father and Doctor of the Church
” …[The Kingdom of God] … is within you. That is, it depends on your own wills and is in your own power, whether or not you receive it. Everyone, that has attained to justification, by means of faith in Christ and decorated by every virtue, is counted worthy, of the kingdom of heaven.”
St Cyril of Alexandria (376-444) Father & Doctor of the Church
“Christ acts like a loving mother. To induce us to follow Him, He gives us Himself as an example and promises us a reward in His kingdom.”
St Anthony of Padua (1195-1231) Evangelical Doctor
“This is the time of fulfilment. The kingdom of God is at hand ”– Mark 1:15
REFLECTION – “After John had been arrested, Jesus came into Galilee ” According to our interpretation, John stands for the Law and Jesus the Gospel. Indeed, John says: “One mightier than I is coming after me …” (Mk 1:7) and elsewhere: “He must increase, I must decrease” (Jn 3:30): in this way he compares the Law with the Gospel. And afterwards he says: “I – that is, the Law – baptise you with water; he – that is the Gospel – will baptise you in the Holy Spirit” (Mk 1:8). And so, Jesus comes because John had been put in prison. In effect, the Law is finished, it has been brought to an end, it no longer has its former freedom. But we have passed from the Law to the Gospel …
“Jesus came to Galilee preaching the Gospel, the Good News of the Kingdom of God” … When I read the Law, prophets and psalms, I never heard them speak of the Kingdom of heaven, only in the gospel. For only when He came, of whom it is said “the Kingdom of God is in your midst” (Lk 17:21) that God’s Kingdom was thrown open … In fact, before the Saviour’s coming and the light of the Gospel, before Christ opened the gates of paradise with the thief (Lk 23:43), all holy souls descended to the place of the dead. Jacob himself said: “I will go down weeping and mourning to the nether world” (Gn 37:35) … In the Law, Abraham rests with the dead; in the Gospel, the thief is in paradise. We are not denigrating Abraham; we all want to rest in his bosom (Lk 16:23) but we prefer Christ to Abraham, the Gospel to the Law.
We read that after Christ’s Resurrection many saints appeared in the holy city (Mt 27:53). Our Lord and Saviour preached on earth and preached, too, to the underworld. He died and descended to hell to free the souls held captive there (1 Pt 3:18f.).” – St Jerome (347-420) Priest, Translator of Sacred Scripture, Father and Doctor of the Church – Homilies on Saint Mark’s Gospel, no.2A ; SC 494
PRAYER – Lord, be the beginning ad the end of all that we are and do and say. Prompty our actions with Your grace and complete them with Your all-powerful help. Let our hearts belong to You alone and make us Your obedient servants. By the intercession of the Blessed Mary our Hope and all the Saints and Angels, we make our prayer through Christ our Lord, amen.
Genesis 9:8-15, Psalms 25:4-9, 1 Peter 3:18-22, Mark 1:12-15
Mark 1:15 – “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.”
Psalm 25:4 – Make me to know thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths
Lent is a kind of desert. A time set apart to pray with greater focus and intensity.
A time to fast from what distracts us from what is most important – that good news!
When the outside noise is quietened, we are more in touch with the inner pulls that are going on inside of us.
It is not always a comfortable space to be!
We are used to be anaesthetised to the tugs of the Holy Spirit calling us to something new, something more and often we struggle to be free from the attachment to things, we would prefer them staying just as they are, thank you.
But now we seek to emerge, like Jesus, from our desert time of Lent, strengthened and renewed.
We have a new energy and courage to respond to whatever God is asking of us in this moment of our lives.
Part of that time is to spend true moments, as Jesus did, listening to the Father. We must create some desert space.
Is there a time we can safeguard each day for prayer?
Can we reduce the clutter of too much external stimulation from TV, social media, so that we can tune into what God is saying, what the Holy Spirit is wanting us to notice?
Be sure to find that “desert time and space” each day. What are those inner concerns, questions, worries with which the Spirit is driving you into that desert this Lent? Imagine yourself with Jesus in the desert. Enter into conversation with Him.
Fr Nicholas King SJ – Long Journey to the Resurrection
Christus.Behold a matter that is deeply displeasing to Me, namely, how few there are who recognise the value of time, the time that I lend to men for doing penance, for increasing the grace given them, for acquiring heavenly glory. Lo, the acceptable yet irrevocable time, passes and no one is considering it in his heart; the days of salvation are slipping by and no one makes the occasion of their flight a reason for using well what can never return.
But you, as far as you are able, flee the things of time, such as acquaintanceship, speech-making and occupations of small profit and because the days are evil, redeem the time that should be given rather to Me and to your soul than to others. Is My proposition hard and difficult? Observe how much time is given up to the body for food and sleep, to conversation, banquets and the rest, so that you cannot give ever so small a portion to God, to your soul, to eternity! Alas, how prodigal men are of time when it is a question of serving vanity, how sparing of it when it is a case of occupying themselves with His business to whom all time is owed.
Make me to know thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths…Psalm 25:4
Keep me, O God, from pettiness. Let us be large in thought, word and deed. Let us be done with fault-finding and leave off self-seeking. May we put away all pretense and meet each other face to face without self-pity and without prejudice. May we never be hasty in judgement and always generous. Let us take time for all things. Make us grow calm, serene, gentle. Teach us to put into action our better impulses and make us straight-forward and unafraid. Grant that we may realise that it is the little things in life that create differences; that in the big things we are all as one. And, O Lord God, Let us not forget to be kind. Amen
AnaStpaul 
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