 | Daily Bible Reflections
for March 11, 2011 |
|  Dear Lordie,
Offer your hardships and trials to the Lord this Friday.
Praying for you,
Bo Sanchez
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| | TRUE FASTING “The kind of fasting I want is this: Remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice and let the oppressed go free.” – Isaiah 58:6 When I was younger, I used to dread the season of Lent. People seemed sad and sometimes irritable, perhaps a result of hunger pangs. As I grew mature in my faith, I started to look forward to Lent and saw how beautiful a time it truly was. It is a special time to draw closer to God and get to know Him more deeply. Controlling our physical desires creates the space and time we need to be with Him in prayer. In truth, Lent is a spiritual feast, a time to receive special graces and to grow in virtue as we spend more time with the Lord . I also realized that the money we save from fasting from things or food we like should be used to feed the hungry, to share with those who are in need, to bring them closer to God by caring for them so that they may know that God loves them, too. Indeed, God is clear in the kind of fasting that He desires from us: “Share your food with the hungry and open your homes to the homeless poor. Give clothes to those who have nothing to wear and do not refuse to help your own relatives.” (Isaiah 58: 7). Lent, like Christmas, is a time to love! Marjorie Ann Duterte (marjorie.travels@gmail.com) REFLECTION: Does my fasting lead me to love God and my neighbor? Jesus, as we journey with You in Your suffering, help us to love the Father and our brother like You do. Amen. | |
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| | COMPANION | 1st READING Repentance is a matter of life and death. If we fail to repent of our sins we will end up in hell. Penance is also important as it demonstrates our commitment to change our past sinful ways. In and through penance we both teach ourselves the way of holiness and seek to repair some of the wrong we have done through our sins. We can never repair the wrong fully and thus are always reliant upon the grace of God, but that does not excuse us from doing what we can to right our wrongs. Deuteronomy 30:15-20 15 Moses said to the people: “Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. 16 If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the LORD, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy. 17 If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen, but are led astray and adore and serve other gods, 18 I tell you now that you will certainly perish; you will not have a long life on the land which you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy. 19 I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, 20 by loving the LORD, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land which the LORD swore he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” P S A L M Psalms 1:1-2, 3, 4, 6 R: Blessed are they who hope in the Lord. 1 Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, 2 but delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on his law day and night. (R) 3 He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. (R) 4 Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away. 6 For the LORD watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes. (R) G O S P E L One of the ways we lose our lives in order to save them is by doing penance. Any penance we undertake ought to be directed towards a spiritual goal, including something like overcoming a particular sin we may have found troublesome in our lives. During Lent we are encouraged to focus our attention on something like this so that we can grow closer to God and become a more faithful disciple. VERSE BEFORE THE GOSPEL Repent, says the Lord; the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. Luke 9:22-25 22 Jesus said to his disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” 23 Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself? my reflections t h i n k : In and through penance we both teach ourselves the way of holiness and seek to repair some of the wrong we have caused through our sins. God’s special verse/thought for me today________________ _________________________________________________________
T O D A Y ’ S BLESSING LIST Thank You Lord for: ____________________________________ _______________________________________________________ READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR Judges 9-12 | |
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| | SABBATH | ON ASCETICAL PRACTICES The question of asceticism is one that perplexes a modern world that is fixated on pleasure. Why on earth would anyone choose to freely embrace pain for no immediate and tangible reward? Yet, there is a history of ascetical practices in the Church that demonstrates otherwise. Jesus hints at this when He affirms that there will be a time for fasting when the bridegroom has been taken from them. It is probably true that, to a certain degree, ascetical practices, and especially those that cause physical pain to one’s body, find their roots in the Manichaean belief that the physical body needs to be beaten into submission and that the spirit of a person is all that counts. The challenge of the Church is to teach against such error and try to remove it as a motive for any ascetical practice. This causes me to ask myself what role asceticism plays in my life. Do I want it to have a role? The answer to the first question is, not a big enough role, and to the second, yes. Why? I have read enough of the lives of the saints to realize that there is a valid role for ascetical practices in the life of a Christian. We rarely question the sacrifices and ascetical practices of athletes, so why do we have such a problem when the saints employ such means to draw hemselves closer to God? There is an obvious double standard here and it is time to put an end to it. Of course, any such practices must be used with moderation and due care for one’s body and general health. The Church teaches that any ascetical practices, particularly corporal ones, ought to be undertaken only with the supervision of one’s spiritual director. This will help guard against abuse and also keep in mind the overall health of the individual concerned. Ascetical practices heighten one’s spiritual awareness as they teach us that our bodies are not in control of our choices — our minds are. Let us seek the mind of God on this matter and seek to follow His lead.Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL Reflection Question: What place do I want asceticism to have in my spiritual life? Surely fasting is a possibility once in a while? Father in heaven, You have given me a body with which to engage the world. Help me to respect it and keep its passions under control. St. Amunia, pray for us. | |
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