One Walk

Dear Lord God, God, who triest the minds and hearts, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardships as the pathway to peace, taking, as He, did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it. Trusting that He will make all things right. If I surrender to His Will, that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with him forever in the next. O Great Saint Joseph, you were completely obedient to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Obtain for me the grace to know the state of life that God in his providence has chosen for me. Since my happiness on earth, and perhaps even my final happiness in heaven, depends on this choice, let me not be deceived in making it. For I am truly blessed to have had my heart, eye and mind opened to You Lord God, Your truths, Your secrets; not only in this time with You and Your Word, but also through the men You have placed in my path, who You chose as You did Joseph to do Your work, men like my Abeulito and Dub who like Joseph would step into my life and father me, and like my brother Ralph be examples for me. O Saint Joseph in the name of thy heavenly Father who chose you, your earthly Son, Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who you protected and care for and Holy Spirit who guided you, I give thanks and praise. Amen

Let us faithfully transmit to posterity the example of virtue which we have received from our forefathers.

— St. Peter Damian

Jeremiah 11:18-20

18 The LORD made it known to me and I knew; then thou didst show me their evil deeds. 19 But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I did not know it was against me they devised schemes, saying, "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more." 20 But, O LORD of hosts, who judgest righteously, who triest the heart and the mind, let me see thy vengeance upon them, for to thee have I committed my cause.

Psalm 7:2-3, 9-12

2 lest like a lion they rend me, dragging me away, with none to rescue. 3 O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands, 9 O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish thou the righteous, thou who triest the minds and hearts, thou righteous God. 10 My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart. 11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day. 12 If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and strung his bow;

Bible Study: [Psalm 7] A plaintive song of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning Cush, the Benjaminite. An individual lament. The psalmist flees to God’s presence in the sanctuary for justice and protection (Psalm 7:2-3) and takes an oath that only the innocent can swear (Psalm 7:4-6). The innocent psalmist can thus hope for the just God’s protection (Psalm 7:7-14) and be confident that the actions of the wicked will come back upon their own heads (Psalm 7:15-17). The justice of God leads the psalmist to praise (Psalm 7:17)

John 7:40-53

40 When they heard these words, some of the people said, "This is really the prophet." 41 Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Is the Christ to come from Galilee? 42 Has not the scripture said that the Christ is descended from David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?" 43 So there was a division among the people over him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. 45 The officers then went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why did you not bring him?" 46 The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this man!" 47 The Pharisees answered them, "Are you led astray, you also? 48 Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd, who do not know the law, are accursed." 50 Nicode’mus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51 "Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?" 52 They replied, "Are you from Galilee too? Search and you will see that no prophet is to rise from Galilee." 53 They went each to his own house,

Bible Study: [40-53] Discussion of the Davidic lineage of the Messiah.

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Dear Lord God,  "Let us beset the just one, because he is inconvenient to us." Today’s readings reminds me of what I must expect if I walk with Christ, for as the world viewed and judged Him, so shall those of the world view us. I use parts from booth translations because I think ‘inconvenient’ is a better description for today’s times; but we must believe, accept and understand that we who seek Jesus’ image are not of this world. Under the sun they hated, insulted, tortured and crucified Him, unable to understand, unwilling to try. One could say, the world sees through ‘eyes of doubt’, while we see with ‘eyes of faith’. Faith that leads to hope, and hope that leads to love; love for Him and through and in our love for Him we must learn to release what He gives to us; the love that He through His passion gave for us, we must give to others. Lord Jesus help me to learn to love as You do. To see with "eyes of faith’ understanding that we are just visitors under the sun. In Your Holy name I pray, Amen.

Frequent and daily Communion is greatly desired by our Lord and the Church.

— Pope St. Pius X

Wisdom 2:1, 12-22

1 For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves, "Short and sorrowful is our life, and there is no remedy when a man comes to his end, and no one has been known to return from Hades. 12 "Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sins against the law, and accuses us of sins against our training. 13 He professes to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord. 14 He became to us a reproof of our thoughts; 15 the very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others, and his ways are strange. 16 We are considered by him as something base, and he avoids our ways as unclean; he calls the last end of the righteous happy, and boasts that God is his father. 17 Let us see if his words are true, and let us test what will happen at the end of his life; 18 for if the righteous man is God’s son, he will help him, and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries. 19 Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance. 20 Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for, according to what he says, he will be protected." 21 Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray, for their wickedness blinded them, 22 and they did not know the secret purposes of God, nor hope for the wages of holiness, nor discern the prize for blameless souls;

Bible Study: [12-20] Often applied to the Passion of our Lord; many have understood these verses as a direct prophecy. Cf Matthew 27:41-44

Psalm 34:17-21, 23

17 When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. 18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit. 19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the LORD delivers him out of them all. 20 He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken. 21 Evil shall slay the wicked; and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

Bible Study: [Psalm 34] Of David. A thanksgiving in acrostic form, each line beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In this psalm one letter is missing and two are in reverse order. The psalmist, fresh from the experience of being rescued (Psalm 34:5, 7), can teach the "poor," those who are defenseless, to trust in God alone (Psalm 34:4, 12). God will make them powerful (Psalm 34:5-11) and give them protection (Psalm 34:12-22).

John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30

1 After this Jesus went about in Galilee; he would not go about in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him. 2 Now the Jews’ feast of Tabernacles was at hand. 10 But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. 25 Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, "Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? 26 And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? 27 Yet we know where this man comes from; and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from." 28 So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, "You know me, and you know where I come from? But I have not come of my own accord; he who sent me is true, and him you do not know. 29 I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me." 30 So they sought to arrest him; but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come.

Bible Study: [26] The authorities: the members of the Sanhedrin (same term as John 3:1).

Now my daily readings are posted to my blog at http://raagroup.blogspot.com/

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Dear Lord God, in today’s readings Your theme is a consistent reminder of our fallen nature, a nature that rejects You by refusing to do what we believe and trying to replace You with other more convenient and accommodating images of a god that servers his people as we see fit, rather than a people that server their God the way He commands them to. O Lord thank You for opening my heart, mind and soul to the truths of Jesus; that of renouncing myself and for continuing to teach and share with me what and how I am to replace my own senses, passions and will – all that is sinfully natural to me under the sun with that which is of You, pure, selfless, humble, giving and serving. You never told us tat seeking Your image would be easy, You blessed me wit men in my path like Pastor McCord that clearly and boldly said it would not, but You have given me the means and the ways to do my part and You walk with and in me; it is my task to continue to be less of me and more of You. So that is my prayer today, for me, for my love ones, for all those who You but in my path, help us to keep taking each step as if it was the first step a step of renouncement of ourselves for acceptance of You, Your will, Your purpose. O Lord for the sake of my Lords sorrowful passion, have mercy on me and on the whole world. Amen.

The first step to be taken by one who wishes to follow Christ is, according to Our Lord’s own words, that of renouncing himself – that is, his own senses, his own passions, his own will, his own judgment, and all the movements of nature, making to God a sacrifice of all these things, and of all their acts, which are surely sacrifices very acceptable to the Lord. And we must never grow weary of this; for if anyone having, so to speak, one foot already in Heaven, should abandon this exercise, when the time should come for him to put the other there, he would run much risk of being lost.

— St. Vincent de Paul

Exodus 32:7-14

7 And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down; for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves; 8 they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, `These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'” 9 And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people; 10 now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; but of you I will make a great nation.” 11 But Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, “O LORD, why does thy wrath burn hot against thy people, whom thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, `With evil intent did he bring them forth, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou didst swear by thine own self, and didst say to them, `I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it for ever.'” 14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do to his people.

Psalm 106:19-23

19 They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a molten image. 20 They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. 21 They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, 22 wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red Sea. 23 Therefore he said he would destroy them — had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them.

Bible Study: [Psalm 106] Israel is invited to praise the God whose mercy has always tempered judgment of Israel (Psalm 106:1-3). The speaker, on behalf of all, seeks solidarity with the people, who can always count on God’s fidelity despite their sin (Psalm 106:4-5). Confident of God’s mercy, the speaker invites national repentance (Psalm 106:6) by reciting from Israel’s history eight instances of sin, judgment, and forgiveness. The sins are the rebellion at the Red Sea (Psalm 106:6-12; see Exodus 14-15), the craving for meat in the desert (Psalm 106:13-15; see Numbers 11), the challenge to Moses’ authority (Psalm 106:16-18; see Numbers 16), the golden calf episode (Psalm 106:19-23; see Exodus 32-34), the refusal to take Canaan by the southern route (Psalm 106:24-27; see Numbers 13-14 and Deut 1-2), the rebellion at Baal-Peor (Psalm 106:28-31; see Numbers 25:1-10), the anger of Moses (Psalm 106:32-33; see Numbers 20:1-13), and mingling with the nations (Psalm 106:34-47). The last, as suggested by its length and generalized language, may be the sin that invites the repentance of the present generation. The text gives the site of each sin: Egypt (Psalm 106:7), the desert (Psalm 106:14), the camp (Psalm 106:16), Horeb (Psalm 106:19), in their tents (Psalm 106:25), Baal-Peor (Psalm 106:28), the waters of Meribah (Psalm 106:32), Canaan (Psalm 106:38).

John 5:31-47

31 If I bear witness to myself, my testimony is not true; 32 there is another who bears witness to me, and I know that the testimony which he bears to me is true. 33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. 34 Not that the testimony which I receive is from man; but I say this that you may be saved. 35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. 36 But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father has granted me to accomplish, these very works which I am doing, bear me witness that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness to me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen; 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe him whom he has sent. 39 You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me; 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 41 I do not receive glory from men. 42 But I know that you have not the love of God within you. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. 44 How can you believe, who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? 45 Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; it is Moses who accuses you, on whom you set your hope. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

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