Tag: matthew19:23-30

Posted in CARMELITES, DOCTORS of the Church, GOD ALONE!, ONE Minute REFLECTION, QUOTES on THE WORLD, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 17 August – ‘Seek for nothing … [save] love of Jesus’

Posted on by AnaStpaul

One Minute Reflection – 17 August – “Month of the Immaculate Heart” – Readings: Judges 6: 11-24a; Psalm 85: 9-14; Matthew 19: 23-30

“And everyone who has left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive back a hundredfold and shall possess life everlasting.” – Matthew 19:29

REFLECTION – “Seek for nothing, desiring to enter for love of Jesus, with detachment, emptiness and poverty in everything in this world. You will never have to do with necessities greater than those to which you made your heart yield itself – for the poor in spirit are most happy and joyful in a state of privation and he who has set his heart on nothing, finds satisfaction everywhere.

The poor in spirit (Mt 5:3) give generously all they have and their pleasure consists in being thus deprived of everything for God’s sake and out of love to their neighbour … Not only do temporal goods – the delights and tastes of the sense – hinder and thwart the way of God but spiritual delights and consolations also, if sought for or clung to eagerly, disturb the way of virtue.” – St John of the Cross (1542-1591) Carmelite, Doctor of the Church – Spiritual maxims, nos. 352, 355,356, 364; 1693 edition

PRAYER – Father of might and power, every good and perfect gift comes to us from You. Implant in our hearts the love of Your Name and Your creatures. Increase our zeal for Your service by following behind Your Son with determination and joy. Nourish in us what good and tend it with watchful care. Grant that the prayers and caring love of the Blessed Virgin, our Mother, may help us to follow Jesus our Saviour unreservedly and thus attain eternal life. We make our prayer through Christ, our Lord in the union of the Holy Spirit, one God for all eternity, amen.

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One Minute Reflection – 18 August – “… You who have followed me…” Matthew 19:28

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One Minute Reflection – 18 August – Tuesday of the Twentieth week in Ordinary Time, Readings: Ezekiel 28: 1-10, Responsorial Psalm Deuteronomy 32:26-27ab, 27cd-28, 30, 35cd-36ab, Matthew 19:23-30

“… Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” … Matthew 19:28matthew 19 28 amen i say to you that you who have followed me 18 aug 2020

REFLECTION – “In gift-giving it is not the gift itself, that God praises and approves but the will and sincerity of the giver.  He excuses and holds more acceptable, the one who gave less but gave it with more perfect sincerity, than the one who gave more, from a fuller store but with less pure affection.   Thus, from what is written about the gifts of the wealthy and from the two mites which the widow in the treasury sent for the poor, it is clear that the same also happens to those who leave everything that they possess, for the love of God, so as to follow undistractedly the Christ of God.   They will do everything according to His word.

The one who leaves the greater wealth is not more acceptable than the one who leaves the lesser.   This is especially so if he leaves the lesser with his whole heart.   What Peter left, along with his brother Andrew, was small and of no value but when they both heard, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men, immediately they left their nets and followed him.”   Yet they were not valued lightly by God, who knew that they had done this with great love.   God knew that even if they had been endowed with much wealth they would still not have been distracted by it, nor would their desire to follow Jesus have been thwarted by it ….

Those who follow the Saviour, therefore, will sit on the twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel and will receive this power in the resurrection of the dead.   For this is the regeneration, a new birth, when the new heaven and the new earth are established for those who renew themselves and a New Testament with it’s chalice is given.” … Origen (c 185-253) – Commentary on Matthew, 15the one who leaves the greater wealth - origen 18 aug 2020

PRAYER – Father of might and power, every good and perfect gift comes to us from You.  Implant in our hearts the love of Your name and Your creatures.   Increase our zeal for Your service by following behind Your Son with determination and joy.   Nourish in us what good and tend it with watchful care.   Grant that the prayers and caring love of the Blessed Virgin, our Mother, may help us to follow Jesus our Saviour unreservedly and thus attain eternal life.   We make our prayer through Christ, our Lord in the union of the Holy Spirit, one God for all eternity, amen.mary-mother-of-god-pray-for-us-27-july-2018 and 29 march 2020

Posted in FATHERS of the Church, MARTYRS, MORNING Prayers, QUOTES of the SAINTS, QUOTES on CONVERSION, QUOTES on FAITH, QUOTES on LOVE, QUOTES on OBEDIENCE, QUOTES on SANCTITY, SAINT of the DAY, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 21 August – “..we are illuminated and made shining by the light…”

Posted on by AnaStpaul

One Minute Reflection – 21 August – Tuesday of the Twentieth week in Ordinary Time, Year C – Today’s Gospel: Matthew 19:23–30 and the Memorial of St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) “Doctor of Light”

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life...Matthew 19:29and-everyone-who-has-left-matthew-19-29-21-aug-2018

REFLECTION – “Abraham became “the friend of God” (Jam 2,23) because he freely and generously followed the Word of God, his call.   It was not due to any lack on His part that God’s Word gained Abraham’s friendship.   He is perfect from the beginning; “Before Abraham was, I am” (Jn 5,58).   But it was that He, who is good, might give Abraham eternal life… Likewise, in the beginning, it was not because He had any need of man that God formed Adam but that He might have someone on whom to bestow His blessings.

Still less was it because He needed our service that He commanded us to follow Him but to win salvation for us.   For to follow our Saviour is to have a share in His salvation, just as following the light is to participate in the light.   When we stand in the light it is not we who illumine the light and cause it to shine but we are illuminated and made shining by the light…  God grants His blessings on those who serve Him because they are serving Him and on those who follow Him because they are following Him but He receives no blessing from them because He is perfect and without need.

If God asks for our service it is that He who is good and merciful might bestow His blessings on those who persevere in His service.   Because, if God has no need of anything, yet we have need of communion with God.   The glory of man is to persevere in the service of God.   That is why our Lord said to His disciples:  “You did not choose me, it was I who chose you” (Jn 15,16), thus indicating that… for having followed the Son of God they had been glorified by Him:  “Father, I will that where I am they also may be, that they may see my glory” (Jn 17,24). … St Irenaeus of Lyons (c.130-c.208) Bishop, theologian and Martyr – Against the heresies, IV, 14,1 ; SC 100when we stand in the light - st irenaeus 20 aug 2019.jpg

PRAYER – All-knowing God, let me be able to stand in Your presence with a good conscience.   Help me to avoid anything that would sully my conscience and do all I can to remain united with You  . You made St Bernard burn with zeal for Your house and gave him the grace to enkindle and enlighten others in Your Church.   Grant that by his prayer, we may be filled with the same spirit and always live as children of the Light. Through Christ our Lord, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever, amen. st bernard pray for us 2