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| Breaking the Bread Feeding Program and Prayer |
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| Rev. Fr. Richard founder of the Breaking the Bread.. |
the 24th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, I can say that this gospel generally will strike the very core of our selves as followers of Christ. Many or majority of us still do not or cannot fulfill this teaching of Christ, hard it maybe, it is truely the litmus test for ourselves to fully become a true follower of Him.
This is about the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, where this Sunday's Gospel is dealing with forgiveness. Unless you do not forgive, you are not forgiven, a simple mathematical equation or formula which, everyone of us don't mind. We don't mind about dealing with our spiritual life, on which our level of spirituality depends on how we forgive others. We often spoke of our relationship with God, we often tell others about our faith, our love to the almighty, how very good are we on how we carry on with our christian life, but the main core of our Christianity is in this Sunday's gospel reading. Not only that, in the 24th Sunday in Ordinary time take moment to read and reflect on the first reading on the book of Sirach which profoundly and strongly emphasize the contrast of our relationship to God by staying within anger and hatred with our neighbors and brothers.
the family of Barbara Navasca was our BTB sponsor last March 26, 2011. The sponsoring of food and giving short messages of inspiration for our little children gives rise to their moral strength and hope for life. Their presence in sharing their blessings to the children is something that God had made it happen so the BTB will go on strongly as according to God's purpose and plans for all of us, big or small in economic stature in life. Even though all of us has each own struggles in life, the sharing and and love-giving which is God's commandment is very much natural in our hearts, a mark of a true Christian. The cost and quantity of how much you share is not the matter, what is important is the spring of love and willingness to do it. To take a step and time to give the effort to fulfill that urge of heart is enough to please God. "Please do not forget to share what you have, because with such sacrifices God is pleased" Hebrews 13:16. Yes we please God, because we've acted according to His will. May the Lord bless us all.
Rev 2:2 I know your works, your labor, and your endurance ...
1 Pet 2:12 Maintain good conduct among the Gentiles, so that if they speak of you as evildoers, they may observe your good works and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Mt 5:16 Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.
Mt 16:27 For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct.
Mt 25:34-36 Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.'
1 Cor 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Heb 6:10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love you have demonstrated for his name by having served and continuing to serve the holy ones.
James 2:20-22 Do you want proof, you ignoramus, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by the works.
1 Cor 3:8 The one who plants and the one who waters are equal, and each will receive wages in proportion to his labor.
Col 3:23-24 Whatever you do, do from the heart, as for the Lord and not for others, knowing that you will receive from the Lord the due payment of the inheritance.
James 2:26 For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
James 2:14-18 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well," but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Indeed someone might say, "You have faith and I have works." Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.
God said,
“Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures,
and on the earth let birds fly beneath the dome of the sky.”
And so it happened:
God created the great sea monsters
and all kinds of swimming creatures with which the water teems,
and all kinds of winged birds.
God saw how good it was, and God blessed them, saying,
“Be fertile, multiply, and fill the water of the seas;
and let the birds multiply on the earth.”
Evening came, and morning followed–the fifth day.
Then God said,
“Let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures:
cattle, creeping things, and wild animals of all kinds.”
And so it happened:
God made all kinds of wild animals, all kinds of cattle,
and all kinds of creeping things of the earth.
God saw how good it was.
Then God said:
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
the birds of the air, and the cattle,
and over all the wild animals
and all the creatures that crawl on the ground.”
God created man in his image;
in the divine image he created him;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them, saying:
“Be fertile and multiply;
fill the earth and subdue it.
Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air,
and all the living things that move on the earth.”
God also said:
“See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth
and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food;
and to all the animals of the land, all the birds of the air,
and all the living creatures that crawl on the ground,
I give all the green plants for food.”
And so it happened.
God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.
Evening came, and morning followed–the sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth and all their array were completed.
Since on the seventh day God was finished with the work he had been doing,
he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken.
So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy,
because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation.
Such is the story of the heavens and the earth at their creation.
R. (2ab) O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars which you set in place—
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
All sheep and oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
(For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,
do not eat without carefully washing their hands,
keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace
they do not eat without purifying themselves.
And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,
the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.)
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
“Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?”
He responded,
“Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites,
as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.
You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
He went on to say,
“How well you have set aside the commandment of God
in order to uphold your tradition!
For Moses said,
Honor your father and your mother,
and Whoever curses father or mother shall die.
Yet you say,
‘If someone says to father or mother,
“Any support you might have had from me is qorban”’
(meaning, dedicated to God),
you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.
You nullify the word of God
in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.
And you do many such things.”
Mother Josephine Bakhita was born in Sudan in 1869 and died in Schio (Vicenza) in 1947.This African flower, who knew the anguish of kidnapping and slavery, bloomed marvelously in Italy, in response to God's grace, with the Daughters of Charity.
