“I can do all things in him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).
With these words, St. Paul expresses how, in all the situations of his apostolic life, he found a way out because he knew how to face them in the Lord. In this way, he also gives us the wise counsel to trust in God firmly and unwaveringly.
1Kgs 11:4-13
When Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ash′toreth the goddess of the Sido′nians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
Mk 7:14-23
In that time, Jesus called the people to him again and said, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that goes into someone from outside can make that person unclean; it is the things that come out of someone that make that person unclean. Anyone who has ears for listening should listen!’ When he had gone into the house, away from the crowd, his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, ‘Even you – don’t you understand? Can’t you see that nothing that goes into someone from outside can make that person unclean, because it goes not into the heart but into the stomach and passes into the sewer? And he went on, ‘It is what comes out of someone that makes that person unclean.
To serve our Heavenly Father means to take part in His loving concern for mankind. He excludes no one from His love. However, man can close himself off from this love. This is precisely what the Father wants to avoid, and to this end He calls His “apostles” to bear true witness to Him.
God created us from nothing. His only motivation was His love for us. That is why He created man in the image of Himself (Gen 1:27) and clothed him with great dignity.
1 Kgs 8:22- 23,27-30
Then, in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel, Solomon stood facing the altar of Yahweh and, stretching out his hands towards heaven, said, ‘Yahweh, God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, as loyal to the covenant and faithful in love to your servants as long as they walk wholeheartedly in your way. Yet will God really live with human beings on earth? Why, the heavens, the highest of the heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple built by me!
1 Cor 1:26-31
Reading for the memorial of Saint Agatha
For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth; but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. Read More
“Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:19-20).
Jesus invites us to live in true unity with Him. He Himself is the foundation of this unity, because our Father has made Him the link between all humanity. Read More
“It is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish” (Mt 18:14).
Jesus uttered this sentence in the context of the parable of the lost sheep, for whose sake He was willing to leave the other ninety-nine to go in search of it and find it. Read More
1 Cor 9:16-19,22-23 (Reading from the Novus Ordo)
In fact, preaching the gospel gives me nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion and I should be in trouble if I failed to do it. If I did it on my own initiative I would deserve a reward; but if I do it under compulsion I am simply accepting a task entrusted to me. What reward do I have, then? That in my preaching I offer the gospel free of charge to avoid using the rights which the gospel allows me. Read More
