Reflection: 8 Oct 2024 -- Ps 85

This morning (8 Oct 2024; Tuesday of the 27th week in ordinary time), while praying morning prayer from the Liturgy of The Hours, I was struck by a passage from Ps 85:

Show us, LORD, your mercy;
grant us your salvation.

The Liturgy of the Hours has:

Let us see, Oh Lord, your mercy

and give us your saving help.

The Mercy of God is Jesus.  As the Hail Holy Queen says of his mother:

Mother of Mercy

He is God come in the Flesh, the Word of God, who became flesh and dwelt among us, God present in the world, the marriage of God and man.

He was shown to Mary and Joseph at the Nativity, to the shepherds, to the Magi, and to Simeon and Anna.

Then we can recall that St Peter says of Jesus earthly ministry in the house of Cornelius:

He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

It is evident from this that Jesus was giving his saving help, and this passage from Ps 85 "Let us see, Oh Lord, your mercy and give us your saving help." has been fulfilled.

Reflection: Our Lady of Fatima

 A group from my parish, and here around, recently returned from a pilgrimage to France and Portugal, including Lourdes, and Fatima.

Additionally, before their departure, a travelling Statue of Our Lady of Fatima visited our parish.

I was reminded of an earlier post involving the 100th

anniversary of the final apparition at Fatima.  I remarked on a homily by the archbishop of San Francisco.  In his homily he said:

We cannot afford to do so ( ignore the request of Our Lady of Fatima) any longer. We have to pay attention. We have to do what she told the waiters at Cana: do whatever he tells you. And what does Christ tell us to do? He reveals this in the requests our Lady made at Fatima. It is now time to heed those requests. We might not have the power to change world history, but we can change what happens in our own families and communities if we heed the message. 

And:

What did she ask us to do? It should come as no surprise, because it is the central part of her message wherever and whenever she appears: prayer, penance and adoration. 

Let us then "do whatever he tells us," and respond to the requests by Our Lady of Fatima, engaging in prayer, penance and adoration "to save souls from hell, and to establish peace in the world."

reflection -- 30 July 2024 -- psalm 79

The readings at Mass this AM included some of psalm 79.  The psalmist, praying to God says:

Let the prisoners' sighing come before you;
with your great power free those doomed to death.
Then we, your people and the sheep of your pasture,
will give thanks to you forever;
through all generations we will declare your praise.

It is good to remember that we are all born, even conceived, in the grip of the devil.  Psalm 51 prays:

Behold, I was born in guilt, 
in sin my mother conceived me.

So, in Ps 79, all of us are the "prisoners sighing before you."  and as a consequence of the sin of Adam, we are all doomed to die.

And God comes to us in the Person of Jesus, and rising from the dead on Easter, by his great power, frees us.

And we, the sheep of His flock, give thanks to Him forever.  The great cloud of witnesses in heaven sing his praises Eternally, and we who are working out our salvation with fear and trembling offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving every day at Mass.

Reflection -- 28 July 2024, "They shall eat and there shall be some left over."

The 1st reading from Mass this morning is taken from the 2nd Book of Kings:

Elisha said, "Give it to the people to eat."  But his servant objected,  "How can I set this before a hundred people?"  Elisha insisted, "Give it to the people to eat."  "For thus says the LORD, 'They shall eat and there shall be some left over.'"

And when they had eaten, there was some left over, as the LORD had said.

This prophesy by Elisha the prophet is fulfilled in this passage, but is fulfilled more completely in the Gospel reading from St John:

When they had had their fill, he (Jesus) said to his disciples, "Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted."

So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.

Reflection -- 10 July 2024 "Cover Us" and "Fall Upon Us"

 Today's ( 10 July 24 ) 1st reading Reading from Mass includes:

The king of Samaria shall disappear,

like foam upon the waters.

The high places of Aven shall be destroyed,

the sin of Israel;

thorns and thistles shall overgrow their altars.

Then they shall cry out to the mountains, “Cover us!”

and to the hills, “Fall upon us!”

In the 8th Station of the Way of the Cross, Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem, St Luke's Gospel (Luke 23:27 ) presents:

A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him.  Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children, for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.’

At that time people will say to the mountains, ‘Fall upon us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry?”

St. Irenaeus, who died around the year 200 AD, tells us that scripture is recapitulated in Christ.  We can see that occurring for this passage from the book of the prophet Hosea in The 8th Station of the Cross.

Reflection -- Easter 2024 -- Who would believe what we have heard

The Saturday within the Octave of Easter ( 6 Apr 2024 ), the Mass readings included from the Gospel of St Mark:

But later, as the Eleven were at table, he (Jesus) appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised.

On the next day, Sunday, 7 Apr 2024, the Second Sunday of Easter, when we read of the doubt of St Thomas, we read from the Gospel Of St John:

Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.

So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord."  But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."

Frequently, this passage points to the doubt of Thomas, and his belief following his own observance of the risen Christ.

But, one can also see in both of the passages a fulfilment of the prophesy in the book of the prophet Isaiah:

Who would believe what we have heard?*

To whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

Stained glass window of the Resurrection in St Paul Catholic Church

This photograph shows the stained glass window that is behind the altar of St Paul Catholic Church, North Canton, OH.  You can also see the crucifix which hangs in the sanctuary.

The arm of Lord is clearly depicted in the window of the Resurrection.

Thomas looked at the end of Jesus arm, at the wounds in his hands.  Jesus' arm and the wounds in his hands were revealed to the eleven.

Reflection -- Friday 9 Feb 2024, the 5th week in ordinary time: "Ephphatha!"

The Readings from Mass this morning are an account of Jesus coming to the Decapolis, and the people bringing to him a man who was deaf and mute.

The Gospel contiues:

He (Jesus) took him (The man who was deaf and mute) off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man's ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, "Ephphatha!" (that is, "Be opened!") And immediately the man's ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.

As in my previous post which concerned in part "Talitha koum," Jesus speaks, and it happens.  

This is a fulfillment of the psalm (Ps 33;9):

For he spoke, and it came to be, commanded, and it stood in place

 It is also a fulfillment of Ps 148;5 which reads:

Let them all praise the LORD’s name;  for he commanded and they were created

The Book of Judith reads:

Let your every creature serve you; for you spoke, and they were made.  You sent forth your spirit, and it created them; no one can resist your voice.

As when Jesus said to the daughter of Jairus "Talitha Koum," when he says to deaf and mute man "Ephphatha" it happens.  The scriptures are fulfilled.