Catholic Caucus: Sunday Mass Readings, 06-26-05

USCCB.org/New American Bible ^ | 06-26-05 | New American Bible

[Salvation]

June 26, 2005
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Psalm: Sunday 29

Reading I
2 Kgs 4:8-11, 14-16a

One day Elisha came to Shunem,
where there was a woman of influence, who urged him to dine with her.
Afterward, whenever he passed by, he used to stop there to dine.
So she said to her husband, "I know that Elisha is a holy man of God.
Since he visits us often, let us arrange a little room on the roof
and furnish it for him with a bed, table, chair, and lamp,
so that when he comes to us he can stay there."
Sometime later Elisha arrived and stayed in the room overnight.

Later Elisha asked, "Can something be done for her?"
His servant Gehazi answered, "Yes!
She has no son, and her husband is getting on in years."
Elisha said, "Call her."
When the woman had been called and stood at the door,
Elisha promised, "This time next year
you will be fondling a baby son."

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 89:2-3, 16-17, 18-19

R. (2a) For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
The promises of the LORD I will sing forever,
through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness.
For you have said, "My kindness is established forever;"
in heaven you have confirmed your faithfulness.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
Blessed the people who know the joyful shout;
in the light of your countenance, O LORD, they walk.
At your name they rejoice all the day,
and through your justice they are exalted.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
You are the splendor of their strength,
and by your favor our horn is exalted.
For to the LORD belongs our shield,
and the Holy One of Israel, our king.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

Reading II
Rom 6:3-4, 8-11

Brothers and sisters:
Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?
We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death,
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father,
we too might live in newness of life.

If, then, we have died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him.
We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more;
death no longer has power over him.
As to his death, he died to sin once and for all;
as to his life, he lives for God.
Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as dead to sin
and living for God in Christ Jesus.

Gospel
Mt 10:37-42

Jesus said to his apostles:
"Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,
and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever does not take up his cross
and follow after me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Whoever receives you receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet
will receive a prophet's reward,
and whoever receives a righteous man
because he is a righteous man
will receive a righteous man's reward.
And whoever gives only a cup of cold water
to one of these little ones to drink
because the little one is a disciple--
amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward."

[Salvation]

For your reading, reflection, faith-sharing, comments, questions, discussion.

[Salvation]

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[Salvation]

My apologies to all for posting three days readings in one day.

I am going on a retreat this weekend and have asked some people to add to the Daily Readings threads.

Talk to all of you next Sunday evening (late).

Thanks in advance for bearing with me here.

[Salvation]

Sunday, June 26, 2005
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading: Psalm: Second Reading: Gospel:

2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16 Psalm 89:2-3, 16-19 Romans 6:3-4, 8-11 Matthew 10:37-42 Oh my God! Would I might prevent all from offending Thee! Rather, would I could make Thee known, loved and served by all Thy creatures! This is the sole object of my desire, for all things else are unworthy of attention. -- St Anthony Mary Claret

[Ciexyz]

Hope you have a good time on your retreat, Salvation. See ya when you get back online.

[Ciexyz]

Faith-sharing bump.

[Smartass]

In the city of Chicago, one cold-dark night, a blizzard was setting in. A little boy was selling newspapers on the corner; the people were in and out of the the cold. The little boy was so cold that he wasn't trying to sell many papers. He walked up to a policeman and said, "Mister, you wouldn't happen to know where a poor boy could find a warm place to sleep tonight, would you? You see, I sleep in a box up around the corner there and down the alley and it's awful cold in there, of a night. Sure would be nice to have a warm place to stay."

The policeman looked down at the little boy and said, "You go down the street to that big white house and you knock on the door. When they come out the door you just say John 3:16 and they will let you in." So he did, he walked up the steps to the door, and knocked on the door and a lady answered. He looked up and said, "John 3:16." The lady said, "Come on in, Son." She took him in and sat him down in a split bottom rocker in front of a great big old fireplace and she went off. He sat there for a while, and thought to himself, "John 3:16... I don't understand it, but it sure makes a cold boy warm." Later she came back and asked him, "Are you hungry?" He said, "Well, just a little. I haven't eaten in a couple of days and I guess I could stand a little bit of food." The lady took him in the kitchen and sat him down to a table full of wonderful food. He ate and ate until he couldn't eat anymore. Then he thought to himself, "John 3:16... Boy, I sure don't understand it, but it sure makes a hungry boy full." She took him upstairs to a bathroom to a huge bathtub filled with warm water and he sat there and soaked for a while. As he soaked, he thought to himself, "John 3:16...

I sure don't understand it, but it sure makes a dirty boy clean. You know, I've not had a bath, a real bath, in my whole life. The only bath I ever had was when I stood in front of that old fire hydrant as they flushed it out." The lady came in and got him, and took him to a room and tucked him into a big old feather bed and pulled the covers up around his neck and kissed him goodnight and turned out the lights. As he laid in the darkness and looked out the window at the snow coming down on that cold night he thought to himself, "John 3:16... I don't understand it, but it sure makes a tired boy rested."

The next morning she came back up and took him down again to that same big table full of food. After he ate she took him back to that same big old split bottom rocker in front of the fireplace and she took a big old Bible and sat down in front of him and she looked up at him and she asked, "Do you understand John 3:16," and she began to explain to him about Jesus. Right there in front of that big old fireplace he gave his heart and life to Jesus. He sat there and thought, "John 3:16. I don't understand it, but it sure makes a lost boy feel safe." You know, I have to confess I don't understand it either, how God would be willing to send His Son to die for me, and how Jesus would agree to do such a thing. I don't understand it either, but it sure does make life worth living.

Author Unknown

[Smartass]

by Fr. Frank Pavone Other Articles by Fr. Frank Pavone
Justice Rehnquist's Dissent
06/25/05
		The 1973 Supreme Court abortion decision Roe vs. Wade was decided by a 7-2 margin, legalizing abortion throughout pregnancy. One of the two dissenters from that decision was the current Chief Justice, William Rehnquist, who has served on the Supreme Court since 1971, and as Chief Justice since 1986.
His dissent from Roe is less than 1500 words, and points out several of the many errors and weaknesses of what is, beyond doubt, the most damaging decision the Court has ever issued. Justice Rehnquist objected both to the conclusions of the majority and to the methods they used to reach those conclusions. The so-called "right to abortion" is not, he objected, what the majority makes it out to be. The Court must be wrong to find any basis for this right in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, for the simple reason, as he explains, that at least 36 laws enacted by state or territorial legislatures were in force at the time that the 14th Amendment was adopted in 1868. Moreover, some 21 of these laws were still in effect when Roe vs. Wade was decided. How, then, could they be at odds with the 14th Amendment? In the words of Justice Rehnquist, "To reach its result, the Court necessarily has had to find within the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment a right that was apparently completely unknown to the drafters of the Amendment." The willingness of states to protect the unborn for a century before Roe, and the intensity of the abortion debate itself, were clear signs to Justice Rehnquist in 1973 that the existence of an abortion right was not so clear-cut as the appellant, and certainly as many advocacy groups, were suggesting. In his dissent, Justice Rehnquist mentions several times that the Court is engaging in the kind of analysis and judgment that should be left to legislatures. To be able to discern the difference is a critical skill for anyone on our Federal courts to have. If the people are to have self-governance, then the legislative process should be allowed to function through the legislatures, and not be short-circuited by Court decisions that create policy without the input of the people and their elected representatives. The fact that Justice Rehnquist was not afraid to criticize the Roe court on this point is yet another reason why his dissent is a valuable teaching tool in many contexts. Justice Rehnquist's dissent raises a question about current confirmation hearings for Federal judges and eventually for Supreme Court Justices. Nominees who oppose Roe vs. Wade are routinely criticized bitterly for that position. But if the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court for the past 19 years has been a dissenter from Roe, why can't a new federal judge also be? It is a respectable position, not only for moral and religious reasons, but for legal and Constitutional ones as well. Thank you, Justice Rehnquist, for taking and maintaining that position. Long live the dissenters! For the full text of the Roe vs. Wade decision, including Justice Rehnquist's dissent, click here. Fr. Pavone is the Founding Director of Priests for Life. You may contact Priests for Life at PO Box 141172, Staten Island, NY 10314; Tel: 888-PFL-3448 or 718-980-4400; Fax: 718-980-6515; Email: mail@priestsforlife.org; Website: www.priestsforlife.org.

[anonymoussierra]

thank you

[anonymoussierra]

""In the city of Chicago, one cold-dark night, a blizzard was setting in. A little boy was selling newspapers on the corner; the people were in and out of the the cold. The little boy was so cold that he wasn't trying to sell many papers. He walked up to a policeman and said, "Mister, you wouldn't happen to know where a poor boy could find a warm place to sleep tonight, would you? You see, I sleep in a box up around the corner there and down the alley and it's awful cold in there, of a night. Sure would be nice to have a warm place to stay."

The policeman looked down at the little boy and said, "You go down the street to that big white house and you knock on the door. When they come out the door you just say John 3:16 and they will let you in." So he did, he walked up the steps to the door, and knocked on the door and a lady answered. He looked up and said, "John 3:16." The lady said, "Come on in, Son." She took him in and sat him down in a split bottom rocker in front of a great big old fireplace and she went off. He sat there for a while, and thought to himself, "John 3:16... I don't understand it, but it sure makes a cold boy warm." Later she came back and asked him, "Are you hungry?" He said, "Well, just a little. I haven't eaten in a couple of days and I guess I could stand a little bit of food." The lady took him in the kitchen and sat him down to a table full of wonderful food. He ate and ate until he couldn't eat anymore. Then he thought to himself, "John 3:16...

[Smartass]

Homily of the Day

Title:   Your Heart Is the Final Record of All Your Deeds!

Author:   Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.

Date:   Saturday, June 25, 2005

Mt 10:37-42

There was a charming little village in the middle of one of the finest wine producing areas in the world. One year, at the end of an especially bountiful harvest, the villagers decided to have a great festival to which everyone was invited. Each villager was asked to bring a bottle of his own wine and to pour it into a giant barrel from which everyone would fill their glasses.

One of the villagers had the inspiration, "If I pour a bottle of water in that giant barrel, no one will notice the difference, and I'll save the wine for myself later." So that's what he did: poured in his bottle of water when no one was watching too closely. And then he waited to drink the wine that everybody else had brought. There was just one catch: Every single person in the village had thought no one would notice if they did the same thing. So when the banquet began and the giant barrel was tapped, what came out was water.

+ + +

Sunday's Gospel seems confusing and not at all happy. It seems to declare war on the family: If you love father or mother too much, you can't be Jesus' friend. It seems to go looking for pain and suffering: Pick up your cross and follow Jesus. And it seems to be hostile to self-esteem and success: Bring yourself to nought.

Well, fortunately, that's not at all what Jesus is saying. Though it doesn't sound like it, he is telling us how to have a happy life, now and always. And he's is saying that the price for the kind of happiness we want is, quite simply, everything we've got. Nothing less than the investment of our whole selves will do. Why? For two reasons.

The first is common sense: You don't get fat dividends from a skinny investment. If I want to be a concert pianist, I practice twelve hours a day for years. A weekend won't do it. If I want a good sermon, I start thinking and writing a long time before the congregation arrives. If I want a gourmet meal, I buy the best ingredients and take no shortcuts.

Now we all know this principle very well, but look at how many lousy pianists, wretched preachers, and rotten cooks there are. And think of how many parts of our lives are littered with the wreckage of failures and mediocrities which didn't have to happen, but were the inevitable result of our half baked commitment and half hearted effort. We do keep trying to buy a beautiful future on the cheap, and we're oh so surprised when it never works out.

There's another more complicated reason why happiness can't be had for anything less than all we've got. And this reason is built inside us. Remember the villager who decided not to put his share of the wine into the barrel. He said, "No one will notice." He was wrong: Nothing goes unnoticed. It's not that there's a little, winged accountant keeping a careful record somewhere. No accountant is needed because a perfect record of our every choice is kept inside us, in our heart. Just as we are what we eat, we become what we do. And when any of our choices begin with a question like, "What's the least I can do and get away with it?", we can be sure that major damage is being done to our hearts at that very moment. With each half-hearted or mean-spirited choice, our hearts are being shriveled and hardened before our very eyes. And as the heart shrinks and shrivels, it has less and less capacity for receiving and experiencing the joy it craves. There's no room for the joy it thought it somehow could secure by holding onto as much and investing as little as possible.

Jesus knows we have this trouble this endless temptation to try to get by on the cheap. So his formula for happiness goes right to the heart of the matter. He says, "Love the Lord with your whole heart, whole soul, and your whole mind. And love your neighbor as you love yourself." Hold nothing back. Set no limits on what you're willing to expend on life. The heart that has withheld nothing, that has given its all, will be huge indeed, ready at each moment to take in the vast amounts of happiness we crave. That's not an arbitrary rule. That's just the way it works.

So listen to Jesus. He knows what he's talking about and he was willing to die to make certain you got the message!

 

[anonymoussierra]

""There's another more complicated reason why happiness can't be had for anything less than all we've got. And this reason is built inside us. Remember the villager who decided not to put his share of the wine into the barrel. He said, "No one will notice." He was wrong: Nothing goes unnoticed. It's not that there's a little, winged accountant keeping a careful record somewhere. No accountant is needed because a perfect record of our every choice is kept inside us, in our heart. Just as we are what we eat, we become what we do. And when any of our choices begin with a question like, "What's the least I can do and get away with it?", we can be sure that major damage is being done to our hearts at that very moment. With each half-hearted or mean-spirited choice, our hearts are being shriveled and hardened before our very eyes. And as the heart shrinks and shrivels, it has less and less capacity for receiving and experiencing the joy it craves. There's no room for the joy it thought it somehow could secure by holding onto as much and investing as little as possible.

Jesus knows we have this trouble this endless temptation to try to get by on the cheap. So his formula for happiness goes right to the heart of the matter. He says, "Love the Lord with your whole heart, whole soul, and your whole mind. And love your neighbor as you love yourself." Hold nothing back. Set no limits on what you're willing to expend on life. The heart that has withheld nothing, that has given its all, will be huge indeed, ready at each moment to take in the vast amounts of happiness we crave. That's not an arbitrary rule. That's just the way it works.

So listen to Jesus. He knows what he's talking about and he was willing to die to make certain you got the message!""!!!!!

[Siobhan]

Bump

[oceanperch]

Bump

[Smartass]

Prayer to End Abortion

Lord God, I thank you today for the gift of my life,
And for the lives of all my brothers and sisters.

I know there is nothing that destroys more life than abortion,
Yet I rejoice that you have conquered death
by the Resurrection of Your Son.

I am ready to do my part in ending abortion.
Today I commit myself
Never to be silent,
Never to be passive,
Never to be forgetful of the unborn.

I commit myself to be active in the pro-life movement,
And never to stop defending life
Until all my brothers and sisters are protected,
And our nation once again becomes
A nation with liberty and justice
Not just for some, but for all.

Through Christ our Lord.   Amen.

 

 

[A CA Guy]

That is a wonderful and correct prayer, but the religious community blew the abortion issue the first time around and here is how...

IF they went for NO ABORTION except for rape and incest...
You could have gotten the American majority to vote that in.
Instead real religious types went for all or nothing and of course got NOTHING.

IF the religious community could be practical and logical using their heads in the future with this issue, here is how as Americans and Christians we can get something accomplished.

In each state go for no abortion except for in the cases of rape, incest or the proved fact that the mother would die in the birth.
That right there gets over 98% of abortion halted. Saves about 750,000 a year.

Now, we don't give up on the rest at all, but the rest becomes one on one personal attempts to get the mother to change her mind about abortion.

If people want to be stubborn about getting no abortion all at once, I can guarantee you'll continue to kill the extra 750,000 a year from splintering the voting block.

Just my opinion.

[Smartass]

"Now, we don't give up on the rest at all, but the rest becomes one on one personal attempts to get the mother to change her mind about abortion."

Where a picture[s] is worth a thousand words, then, any reasonable person that are graphically exposed to the partial birth technique, change their mind...immediately. The problem comes from the left, or pro-choice demagogues that withhold that information from a mother to be. A woman that is seeking abortion is never shown the procedure, then given a choice to proceed or reject. Clearly, partial birth abortion is a horrific, gruesome murder. Animals have been given more rights than a fetus. Bear in mind, Planned Parenthood is a big, huge blood thirsty business, that will do everything, and/or anything in their power to protect that base. If federal dollars dried up, so would they!

[Bahbah]

Minds CAN be changed, with time and patience and love and dedication. It can happen.

[A CA Guy]

How would partial birth be related to rape, incest or the life and death of the mother exactly? I think if we focused on eliminating all but the three things I mentioned, the partial birth abortion would be gone.

Yes, Planned Parenthood is a big bloodthirsty company that is found 4-500% more in minority communities. It's founders hated blacks and the thought of aborting all their babies probably was a delight to them.

Bottom line is the key to make a permanent law change is to first do "No abortion except for the few things", then as I said, it becomes a ministry to fight for the few that are aborted still one at a time.

Though it is a sacred issue IMO, it still has to be won with traditional politics, which is win the battles you can, and to later try to win what you couldn't bet done to begin with.

I would like zero abortions, but in a vast society where not all people have a sacred view of life, it IMO will NEVER happen. At best we can hope to get it way down to 2% of what it is today.

[Smartass]

Obviously, the answer to your question, is that partial birth abortion does not equate/relate to incest and rape.

That question should always be asked and answered religiously, legally and morally, by having the victim counseled thoroughly on all aspects of what happened to her, and the long term affects. In those instances, I would have to go with the choice of the victim. And that victim, since having to forever bear that burden, should alway be given an unfettered choice.