Daily Reflection (Monday 27th November, 2017)

MONDAY OF THE THIRTY FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME (Year I)
First Reading: Dan 1:1-6. 8-20
Psalm: Dan 3. R. v.29b
Gospel: Lk 21:1-4
As Jesus was teaching in the Women's Court of the Temple, he observed a poor widow putting two mites (lepta, the smallest coins in circulation) into the treasury box. The widow gave every penny she had to live on, and placed her hope and trust in God. The charity of this lowly woman stood in sharp contrast to the prideful religious leaders who loved to be honoured and respected for their generosity, yet failed to carry out the law that required them to care for God's poor (Lk 20:45-47). Jesus said that the woman's gift was worth more than the large offerings of those who gave from their surplus wealth.

The spirit behind offering is not determined by the abundance of resources. It is not marked by a sheer display of our magnanimity. The religious leaders who gave from their abundance may have done well but the poor widow did better than them because she gave all she had. And unlike the religious leaders, she gave her offering seeking no attention.
So in giving, we need not wait until we have in abundance. We can give to God even from the very little we have. And while we give to God or even help others with our resources, it should be between us and our God and not trumpeted about. We need to also understand that the generosity of this widow does not encourage us to submit all our earnings and resources to God but that we should trust and depend on God who can provide all our needs even as we give to him.

PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Lord God, help us to give with a pure motive and to solely trust in you in our giving. Amen.
FR VALENTINE EGBUONU, MSP

Comments

UNDERSTANDING THE HOLY EUCHARIST: The Real Presence of Christ.

The sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, is a sacrament instituted by Christ at the Last Supper when he told his Apostles: " This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19) While the other sacraments (Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders, Holy Matrimony, Anointing of the Sick, Penance) give us grace, the Holy Eucharist gives us not just but grace, but also the author of grace, Jesus, God and Man. It is the center of all else the Church has and does.

DEATH IS A CERTAINTY.

"It is appointed unto men once to die."(Hebr: 9:27 The sentence of death has been written against all men: you are a man; you must die. “Our other goods and evils,” says St. Augustine, “are uncertain; death alone is certain” (Serm.97, E.H.). It is uncertain whether the infant that is just born will be poor or rich, whether he will have good or bad health, whether he will die in youth or in old age.

POPE FRANCIS APPOINTS NEW ARCHBISHOPS OF PARIS AND MEXICO

Pope Francis on Thursday named the next archbishops of two major metropolitan sees – Archbishop Michel Aupetit to Paris and Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes to Mexico City, the world’s largest diocese. The appointments were announced in a press release from the Vatican Dec. 7. Both prelates are replacing bishops who have retired upon reaching the age of 75, the normal retirement age for clergy. Cardinal Aguiar, 67, has held top roles in both the Mexican bishops’ conference and the Latin American bishops’ conference and is a member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. Cardinal Aguiar has been archbishop of Tlalnepantla, Mexico since 2009. He replaces Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, whose retirement was accepted by Pope Francis after reaching the age of 75. Aguiar was born on Jan. 9, 1950 in Tepic, Mexico. He studied at the Seminary of Tepic, followed by the seminaries of Montezuma in the United States and of Tula. On A...

CATHOLIC UPDATES

Search This Blog