Jan. 29

January 29, 2019:  Tuesday, 3rd week, Ordinary Time

• 'Scroll' pin:  "As is written of me in the scroll, I come to do your will, O God." (1st reading)

• 'Blood drop' pin:  Bull and goat blood can't take away sins (1st reading)

• 'Heart' clip:  "I didn't hide your justice in my heart" (psalm)

• 'Skeleton' tie pin:  "...offering you didn't desire, but a body you prepared for me" (1st reading)

• 'Clock' tie bar:  "I've waited for the Lord" (psalm)

• 'Clef' tie pin:  God put a new song into my mouth (psalm)

• 'People' tie:  Crowds (though they weren't playing golf :-) (gospel)

• 'Mary' pin:  The mother of Jesus (gospel)

• Green shirt:  Ordinary Time season

Listen

• Who is my mother?/ Murray:  To KINDRED tune (gospel)

• I say yes, Lord/Digo Sí, Señor/ Peña

• Not all the blood of beasts/ Watts:  FESTAL SONG tune, SOUTHWELL tune, contemporary (1st reading)

• Here I am, Lord/ Ward (about), Schutte (psalm-inspired)

• Psalm 40:  Here am I, Lord/ Celoni:  sheet music; more settings

Pope Francis

To Roman Rota:  Fidelity is possible; it's a gift for spouses and priests.  Secular society often doesn't help couples live unity and fidelity.  Catholic faithful must struggle to be witnesses of Gospel living.  Unity and fidelity are necessary in all interpersonal and societal relations.  We know the inconveniences when promises are not kept.  The Church’s ministers need to help prepare couples for a life of unity and faithful love, long before and near the wedding date, and throughout their married life.  Pastors and all layers of the Church community need to be involved.

SS. Aquila and Priscilla, a married couple, helped Paul in his evangelizing mission; he called them his synergoi, fellow workers.  This synergy was a gift of the Spirit to the first Christian communities.  We can help married couples live in unity and fidelity through nearness to the Word of God, catechesis, reception of the Sacraments, spiritual direction, and charitable works towards other families and those most in need.  Married couples who live unity and faithful love are a special resource for the Church’s pastoral work, offering everyone an example of love, they become witnesses and co-workers in the Church.  This type of couple reflects God's image and likeness.

To world balance conference:  Many events have endangered the equilibrium of civilization.  Come together in dialogue, in a framework of plurality, to achieve authentic human promotion.  Those committed to defend the dignity of persons can find in the Christian faith the deepest arguments for the commitment.

The human environment and the natural environment go hand in hand and can be degraded together. We can't address environmental degradation without understanding the causes of human and social degradation.  Foster a culture of encounter, especially in youth, by promoting friendship that unites people in the common objective of the promotion of persons.

Read

• Heb 10:1-10  Since the law has only a shadow of things to come, it can't perfect those who worship with annual sacrifices; bull and goat blood can't take away sins.  He says, You didn't want sacrifices and [burnt and sin] offerings [offered according to the law], then I come to do your will; he takes away the first to establish the second.

• Ps 40:2, 4ab, 7-8a, 10, 11  "Here am I Lord; I come to do your will."  I waited for the Lord; he stooped toward me and put a hymn to God in my mouth.  You didn't want sacrifice or oblation, but you opened me to obedience.  I announced your justice, faithfulness, salvation, kindness, and truth in the vast assembly.

• Mk 3:31-35  Jesus, after crowd told him his family called him from outside:  “Who are my mother and brothers?  Whoever does God's will....”

Reflect

• Fr. Jim Clarke homily video:  Pray to discern God's unfolding will, then do it today.  Love works with us as we are.  Be dedicated to God.

• Creighton:  We often feel we have to come to God perfect lest we be ashamed or unworthy, but that will just lead us away.  Today's readings remind us to keep showing up to Jesus, as we are, avoiding the temptation to present ourselves as all together.  Jesus redirects attention away from his family asking for him to those inside spending time with him; this defines you as family.  "Sacrifice you wished not, but ears open to obedience you gave me." The sacrifice God wants is our time and attention.  May we "Show up and shut up," spending time in God's company with open ears, saying only "Here I am Lord; I come to do your will."

• One Bread, One Body:  God is Love.  He made us in his image, in the image of Love, so we're made for love and look for love.  We're happy to know we're loved, brokenhearted and depressed if we think we're not.  The Lord, wanting us to abide in Love and in him, became man, and died and rose for love of us, giving us intimacy with him beyond words and ideas.  God even adopted us.  If we do his will, we become Jesus' family.  He loves us so much, he gives us us his Body and Blood and will come back to take us to be with him in heaven.  The Lord's love for us is perfect, unconditional, and eternal.  We are to enter into and live in his love and "grasp... the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ's love, and experience this love."  May we live in love, happy in God forever.

• Passionist:  People love independence; they don't generally turn their will over to someone else.  But at Baptism we became God's children and are to listen to God's word as children listen to their parents.  God gives us the freedom to choose to follow his will or not.  Christ, open to God's will, allowed himself to be sacrificed for our salvation.  Mary was also open to God’s plan and so brought Christ into the world.  When we say “thy will be done,” we open ourselves to God's plan for us and to freedom to live more closely to God.  It may demand things we're not sure we can do or be, but it'll surely mold us into the person God created us to be.

• DailyScripture.net:  "Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister":  In today's gospel Jesus points to a reality of relationships higher than blood:  our relationship with God and his people.  God offers us union of heart, mind, and spirit with himself, author and source of love.  God's love never fails, forgets, compromises, lies, or disappoints; it's consistent, unconditional, unstoppable, though we may choose to separate ourselves from him.  He pursues, loves, and calls us no matter what.  He created us to be united with him and share in his love and unity.  He wants all our relationships to be rooted in his love.  The baptized who live as Jesus' disciples enter into a new family, a family of "saints" here and in heaven.  Jesus shows that true kinship is more than flesh and blood; our adoption as God's children transforms our relationships and requires loyalty to God and his kingdom of justice and peace....

• Universalis:  Bl. Archangela Girlani (Eleanor Girlani), religious, prioress, mystic:  "Jesus, my Love."

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