Dress to God's Word / "Liturgical Dress": June 7

June 7, 2017: Wednesday, 9th week, Ordinary Time

See 11 connections with today?
Legend below

Listen

God of the living, in whose eyes/ Ellerton: lyrics+ , to MELITA (Eternal Father, strong to save ), SWEET SACRAMENT (Jesus, my Lord, my God, my all ) or ST. CHRYSOSTOM (We have not known Thee as we ought) tune (gospel)

For Psalm 25

Teach me your ways/ Lynch
Remember your love/ Balhoff, Daigle, Ducote
Psalm 25: 1-10: Prayer for deliverance, the sins of my youth/ Silver
To you, O God, I lift up my soul/ Hurd: sheet music
To you, O Lord/ Haugen

Pope Francis General Audience

God's fatherhood is the source of Christian hope. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, he taught them to call God "our Father." Christianity introduced a religious revolution: taught by the Savior’s command, we dare to speak to the transcendent and all-holy God as children speak to a loving father, with complete trust. In the parable of the merciful father, who welcomes his son with forgiveness, Jesus speaks to us of the Father’s love. Paul twice repeats the Aramaic word Jesus used in the prayer 'Abba.' As God’s adoptive children in the Holy Spirit, we share in the intimate relationship between Jesus and the Father; this is the basis of our hope in God’s saving help. Whenever we pray the Lord’s Prayer, may we be confirmed in the knowledge that, in his merciful love, our Father will watch over us, respond to our petitions, and never abandon us.

Read

Tb 3:1-11a, 16-17a Tobit wept and prayed: “Lord, look with favor on me. We sinned, so you made us the reproach of nations. Your judgments are true. Deal with me as you please. It's better that I die; I'm overwhelmed with grief. Deliver me from anguish!” Sarah also heard abuse; she'd been married to 7 husbands, but a demon killed them before they could have intercourse with her: “You strangle your husbands!” She planned to hang herself but reconsidered: “People would level this insult against my father, and he'd die sorrow-laden. It's better that I beg the Lord to have me die.” She prayed, “Blessed are you, Lord, in your works forever!” God heard their prayer. Raphael healed them, restoring Tobit's sight and driving the demon from Sarah. Sarah married Tobit’s son Tobiah.

Tobias heals his father's blindness/ Sequiera

Ps 25:2-5ab, 6, 7bc, 8-9 "To you, O Lord, I lift my soul." Teach me your ways. Your compassion and kindness are from of old. Remember me....

Mk 12:18-27 Sadducees, who deny the resurrection / Jesus: “Moses wrote that if someone’s brother dies leaving no child, his brother must take the wife. Seven brothers married the same woman in succession; all died leaving no descendants. When they all die, whose wife will she be?” / “You don't know Scripture or God's power! When they rise, they don't marry; they're like angels. As for the dead being raised, God told Moses, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is God of the living, not the dead.”

Reflect

Fr. Gerardo Galaviz homily video: Reasons to pray: joy, power

Creighton: Tobit and Sarah had experienced such grief and sorrow that both wanted to die, but both trusted and prayed to God, and he sent Raphael to heal them. People of faith look at death in a unique way. "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me will never die." "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God of the living." May we have living hope.

One Bread, One Body: "Power pack": Tobit was mistaken, believing he should die because he'd never be cured of his blindness or have happiness in his marriage. Sarah was mistaken; she contemplated suicide, believing she'd never be delivered from the demon who killed her husbands on their wedding night. The Sadducees were mistaken; they didn't believe in the resurrection, so they had no hope for the future and little joy in the present. None understood God's power. If we don't believe God can heal the sick, restore marriages, drive out demons, and raise the dead, we'll come to the wrong conclusions, give up, and settle for a culture of death rather than create a new civilization of life and love. Lord, give us faith, and help us know your power....

Tobias heals his blind father's eyes
(Malmström)

DailyScripture.net: "You know neither Scripture nor God's power": Sadducees didn't believe in immortal beings, whether humans, angels, or spirits. Like them, we can try to make heaven into an earthly image. They tested Jesus to make the resurrection look ridiculous. He responded that God is a living God of a living people. God's friendship with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob didn't end with death. David also spoke of immortal life: "I am continually with you. You guide me, and afterward will receive me to glory." God wants to share his love with us forever: Paul quotes Isaiah, “No eye has seen, ear heard, nor heart conceived what God has prepared for those who love him....” The promise of unending life with God is beyond our understanding. "May the Lord Jesus put his hands on our eyes, so we may look at the unseen. May he open eyes concerned with the future not the present, unseal our vision, that we may gaze on God in the Spirit, through the Lord, Jesus Christ, whose glory and power endures forever." (Origen)