Dear Lord God, O Lord as St. Augustine remind us today, ‘There is something in humility that strangely exalts the heart’. It is with this humility that I seek to walk each day, free of myself and those who by their own nature bring out the old ways I seek to leave behind. For I seek the truths of my Lord God, who through Jesus Christ is Son, My Lord, I am able to now approach to confess, repent and ask for the past, the now and the future; all them time going in the now, aware that it is in the now that I can find You my Lord God. For You are the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. You are not bound by times past or future for You are in the now; the eternal now of God where all time is embraced by You and all my love one’s who have passed on to be with You in eternity. O Lord God in Jesus name I ask Your guidance, grace, mercy and blessing; not so much for me but for those who may look to see You in me. For I , I am content just to be with You! In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
There is something in humility that strangely exalts the heart.
— St. Augustine
Video Reflection Link: http://www.atlanticvideo.com/clients/ccom/playreal_b2.php?file=clay0606.rpm&cat=1&desc=Msgr.%20Michael%20Clay%20(1:21)
1 Then in my grief I wept, and I prayed in anguish, saying, 2 "Righteous art thou, O Lord; all thy deeds and all they ways are mercy and truth, and thou dost render true and righteous judgment for ever. 3 Remember me and look favorably upon me; do not punish me for my sins and for my unwitting offences and those which my fathers committed before thee. 4 For they disobeyed thy commandments, and thou gavest us over to plunder, captivity, and death; thou madest us a byword of reproach in all the nations among which we have been dispersed. 5 And now thy many judgments are true in exacting penalty from me for my sins and those of my fathers, because we did not keep thy commandments. For we did not walk in truth before thee. 6 And now deal with me according to thy pleasure; command my spirit to be taken up, that I may depart and become dust. For it is better for me to die than to live, because I have heard false reproaches, and great is the sorrow within me. Command that I now be released from my distress to go to the eternal abode; do not turn thy face away from me." 7 On the same day, at Ecbatana in Media, it also happened that Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, was reproached by her father’s maids, 8 because she had been given to seven husbands, and the evil demon Asmodeus had slain each of them before he had been with her as his wife. So the maids said to her, "Do you not know that you strangle your husbands? You already have had seven and have had no benefit from any of them. 9 Why do you beat us? If they are dead, go with them! May we never see a son or daughter of yours!" 10 When she heard these things she was deeply grieved, even to the thought of hanging herself. But she said, "I am the only child of my father; if I do this, it will be a disgrace to him, and I shall bring his old age down in sorrow to the grave. 11 So she prayed by her window and said, "Blessed art thou, O Lord my God, and blessed is thy holy and honored name for ever. May all thy works praise thee for ever. 16 The prayer of both was heard in the presence of the glory of the great God. 17 And Raphael was sent to heal the two of them: to scale away the white films of Tobit’s eyes; to give Sarah the daughter of Raguel in marriage to Tobias the son of Tobit, and to bind Asmodeus the evil demon, because Tobias was entitled to possess her. At that very moment Tobit returned and entered his house and Sarah the daughter of Raguel came down from her upper room.
Bible Study: [6] It is better for me to die than to live: in his distress Tobit uses the words of the petulant Jonah (Jonah 4:3, 8), who wished to die because God did not destroy the hated Ninevites. In similar circumstances, Moses (Numbers 11:15), Elijah (1 Kings 19:4), and Job (Job 7:15) also prayed for death. Everlasting abode: a reference to Sheol, the dismal abode of the dead from which no one returns (Job 7:9-10; 14:12; Isaiah 26:14). The revelation of a blessed immortality had not yet been made. See note on Tobit 4:6. [7] From here on, the story is told in the third person. Tobit 3:7 relates one of the several marvelous coincidences which the story teller uses to heighten interest; see also Tobit 3:16, 17; 4:1; 5:4. Ecbatana: Hamadan in modern Iran; this was the capital of ancient Media. Raguel: "friend of God." [8] Asmodeus: in Persian aeshma daeva, "demon of wrath," adopted into Aramaic with the sense of "the Destroyer." He will be subdued (Tobit 8:3) by Raphael (Tobit 3:17) "God heals." [11] Facing the window: that is, looking toward Jerusalem; cf Daniel 6:11: Blessed are you and "Blessed be God" are traditional openings of Jewish prayers (Tobit 8:5, 15; 11:14; 13:1). [17] Tobiah had the right: according to the patriarchal custom of marriage within the family group. Tobiah was Sarah’s closest eligible relative (Tobit 6:12). Cf Tobit 4:12-13; Genesis 24.
2 O my God, in thee I trust, let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. 3 Yea, let none that wait for thee be put to shame; let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. 4 Make me to know thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths. 5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation; for thee I wait all the day long. 6 Be mindful of thy mercy, O LORD, and of thy steadfast love, for they have been from of old. 7 Remember not the sins of my youth, or my transgressions; according to thy steadfast love remember me, for thy goodness’ sake, O LORD! 8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. 9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.
Bible Study: [Psalm 25] A lament. Each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Such acrostic psalms are often a series of statements only loosely connected. The psalmist mixes ardent pleas (Psalm 25:1-2, 16-22) with expressions of confidence in God who forgives and guides.
See CS Lewis’s Reflection of the Psalms
18 And Sad’ducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question, saying, 19 "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the wife, and raise up children for his brother. 20 There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no children; 21 and the second took her, and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise; 22 and the seven left no children. Last of all the woman also died. 23 In the resurrection whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife." 24 Jesus said to them, "Is not this why you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, `I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not God of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong."
Bible Study: [18-27] See the note on Matthew 22:23-33. [[23-33] Here Jesus’ opponents are the Sadducees, members of the powerful priestly party of his time; see the note on Matthew 3:7. Denying the resurrection of the dead, a teaching of relatively late origin in Judaism (cf Daniel 12:2), they appeal to a law of the Pentateuch (First five Books of the Old Testament) (Deut 25:5-10) and present a case based on it that would make resurrection from the dead ridiculous (Matthew 22:24-28). Jesus chides them for knowing neither the scriptures nor the power of God (Matthew 22:29). His argument in respect to God’s power contradicts the notion, held even by many proponents as well as by opponents of the teaching, that the life of those raised from the dead would be essentially a continuation of the type of life they had had before death (Matthew 22:30). His argument based on the scriptures (Matthew 22:31-32) is of a sort that was accepted as valid among Jews of the time. [23] Saying that there is no resurrection: in the Marcan parallel (Matthew 22:12, 18) the Sadducees are correctly defined as those "who say there is no resurrection"; see also Luke 20:27. Matthew’s rewording of Mark can mean that these particular Sadducees deny the resurrection, which would imply that he was not aware that the denial was characteristic of the party. For some scholars this is an indication of his being a Gentile Christian; see the note on Matthew 21:4-5.]
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