Dear Lord God, You know I am struggling with myself, with others and with Your calling me. There is so much I want to talk about and feel I need to express; all that I am thinking, trying to doing, dealing with and want to pray for. As always even in the this time of tribulation, self doubt and feeling of isolation Your Words speaks to me whether in my readings, study or through the daily video reflection, bringing all the new information about You, Jesus, the Apostles, the Church and Your Holy Bible into perspective for me. It is just as today’s gospel reading tells us about Mary Magdalene, even in her despair, darkness and loneliness after the crucifixion of Jesus she sought and found Him, as I (we) can today. She is our first apostolic witness to our Lord’s resurrection and her role and impact as with the other apostles, the Blesses Mother and early church leaders is something to be meditated on and about. We must trust our faith and allow our beliefs to be challenged if we are to truly grow in You and find understanding in the secrets of Jesus’ teachings. Just as the challenges under the sun test our faith in the earthly (physical) world, we must allow ourselves to be challenged and tested if we are to find ourselves and who we are in the spiritual world; for I am beginning to see Your will applies to both, You have a purpose for us under the sun and in Your heavenly kingdom. We must keep seeking if we are to find. We must have faith if we are to understand. So Lord again today I pray that for the sake of Your beloved Son’s sorrowful passion, have mercy on me (us) and on the whole world. Help me not to give up, continue the work You have begun in me, and let Your will be done with me, and let my faith in Jesus and trust in You as the source of source, my source carry me forward no matter what tomorrow brings. And let all the glory and honor be Yours now and forever. Amen.
References:
History Channels Banned from The Bible Series
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels (Anyone wanting a copy of audio book just let me know.)
To love our neighbor in charity is to love God in man.
— St. Francis de Sales
36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." 37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?" 38 And Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the Lord our God calls to him." 40 And he testified with many other words and exhorted them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation." 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
Bible Study: [1-41] Luke’s pentecostal narrative consists of an introduction (Acts 2:1-13), a speech ascribed to Peter declaring the resurrection of Jesus and its messianic significance (Acts 2:14-36), and a favorable response from the audience (Acts 2:37-41). It is likely that the narrative telescopes events that took place over a period of time and on a less dramatic scale. The Twelve were not originally in a position to proclaim publicly the messianic office of Jesus without incurring immediate reprisal from those religious authorities in Jerusalem who had brought about Jesus’ death precisely to stem the rising tide in his favor. [14-36] The first of six discourses in Acts (along with Acts 3:12-26; 4:8-12; 5:29-32; 10:34-43; 13:16-41) dealing with the resurrection of Jesus and its messianic import. Five of these are attributed to Peter, the final one to Paul. Modern scholars term these discourses in Acts the "kerygma," the Greek word for proclamation (cf 1 Cor 15:11). [38] Repent and be baptized: repentance is a positive concept, a change of mind and heart toward God reflected in the actual goodness of one’s life. It is in accord with the apostolic teaching derived from Jesus (Acts 2:42) and ultimately recorded in the four gospels. Luke presents baptism in Acts as the expected response to the apostolic preaching about Jesus and associates it with the conferring of the Spirit (Acts 1:5; 10:44-48; 11:16). [42-47] The first of three summary passages (along with Acts 4:32-37; 5:12-16) that outline, somewhat idyllically, the chief characteristics of the Jerusalem community: adherence to the teachings of the Twelve and the centering of its religious life in the eucharistic liturgy (Acts 2:42); a system of distribution of goods that led wealthier Christians to sell their possessions when the needs of the community’s poor required it (Acts 2:44 and the note on Acts 4:32-37); and continued attendance at the temple, since in this initial stage there was little or no thought of any dividing line between Christianity and Judaism (Acts 2:46).
4 For the word of the LORD is upright; and all his work is done in faithfulness. 5 He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD. 18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, 19 that he may deliver their soul from death, and keep them alive in famine. 20 Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and shield. 22 Let thy steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in thee.
Bible Study: [Psalm 33] A hymn in which the just are invited (Psalm 33:1-3) to praise God, who by a mere word (Psalm 33:4-5) created the three-tiered universe of the heavens, the cosmic waters, and the earth (Psalm 33:6-9). Human words, in contrast, effect nothing (Psalm 33:10-11). The greatness of human beings consists in God’s choosing them as a special people and their faithful response (Psalm 33:12-22).
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." 14 Saying this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." 16 Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rab-bo’ni!" (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, "Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." 18 Mary Mag’dalene went and said to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
Bible Study: [1-31] The risen Jesus reveals his glory and confers the Spirit. This story fulfills the basic need for testimony to the resurrection. What we have here is not a record but a series of single stories. [1-10] The story of the empty tomb is found in both the Matthean and the Lucan traditions; John’s version seems to be a fusion of the two. [11-18] This appearance to Mary is found only in John, but cf Matthew 28:8-10 and Mark 16:9-11. [17] Stop holding on to me: see Matthew 28:9, where the women take hold of his feet. I have not yet ascended: for John and many of the New Testament writers, the ascension in the theological sense of going to the Father to be glorified took place with the resurrection as one action. This scene in John dramatizes such an understanding, for by Easter night Jesus is glorified and can give the Spirit. Therefore his ascension takes place immediately after he has talked to Mary. In such a view, the ascension after forty days described in Acts 1:1-11 would be simply a termination of earthly appearances or, perhaps better, an introduction to the conferral of the Spirit upon the early church, modeled on Elisha’s being able to have a (double) share in the spirit of Elijah if he saw him being taken up (same verb as ascending) into heaven (2 Kings 2:9-12). To my Father and your Father, to my God and your God: this echoes Ruth 1:16: "Your people shall be my people, and your God my God." The Father of Jesus will now become the Father of the disciples because, once ascended, Jesus can give them the Spirit that comes from the Father and they can be reborn as God’s children (John 3:5). That is why he calls them my brothers.
/ raangulo
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