TLT's Small Christian Community; Mass readings for Sunday October 16th

tadoflamb

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I skipped last week since I put the Gospel reflection into my St. Vincent de Paul thread, but I wished I had gone over all the reading at mass last Sunday. So, here I am again, back at it.
For anyone new, go over the readings, reflect on them for a while, and then share with us how they apply to your daily life. We have some interesting readings this week.

Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 147

Reading 2 EX 17:8-13
In those days, Amalek came and waged war against Israel.
Moses, therefore, said to Joshua,
“Pick out certain men,
and tomorrow go out and engage Amalek in battle.
I will be standing on top of the hill
with the staff of God in my hand.”
So Joshua did as Moses told him:
he engaged Amalek in battle
after Moses had climbed to the top of the hill with Aaron and Hur.
As long as Moses kept his hands raised up,
Israel had the better of the fight,
but when he let his hands rest,
Amalek had the better of the fight.
Moses’hands, however, grew tired;
so they put a rock in place for him to sit on.
Meanwhile Aaron and Hur supported his hands,
one on one side and one on the other,
so that his hands remained steady till sunset.
And Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people
with the edge of the sword.

Reading 22 TM 3:14-4:2

Beloved:
Remain faithful to what you have learned and believed,
because you know from whom you learned it,
and that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures,
which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation
through faith in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is inspired by God
and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction,
and for training in righteousness,
so that one who belongs to God may be competent,
equipped for every good work.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,
who will judge the living and the dead,
and by his appearing and his kingly power:
proclaim the word;
be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient;
convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.

GospelLK 18:1-8
Jesus told his disciples a parable
about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.
He said, “There was a judge in a certain town
who neither feared God nor respected any human being.
And a widow in that town used to come to him and say,
‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’
For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought,
‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being,
because this widow keeps bothering me
I shall deliver a just decision for her
lest she finally come and strike me.’”
The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says.
Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones
who call out to him day and night?
Will he be slow to answer them?
I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily.
But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
 

Fish and Bread

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The lesson flowing from the readings seems to be that God will fight for you if you preservere, but if you don't, you're on your own.

That's just a first impression. The first sentence would not be universally applicable to all people in all circumstances in all times. It just seems to be the gist of what the lectionary is telling us this week- on a surface level. Hopefully some will dig deeper as we converse about these readings throughout the week.
 
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tadoflamb

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Just a few quick thoughts before I go off into next Sunday.

I'm always amused when the readings include the verses most often used to undermine the veracity of the Catholic faith. In this instance, it's our second reading the verse most commonly advanced as a defense of sola scriptura. You'd think the Church would cower away from letting the faithful hear this one, being they don't want us reading the bible for ourselves, but here it is.

I believe every thing the Sacred Scriptures say about themselves. That's why small Christian communities like this one are so valuable to me. It gives me a chance to meditate on the upcoming scriptures during the week and apply them to my daily life. So, by the time I hear them on Sunday, they've marinated for a while. It makes a difference for me.

Upon reading the Gospel for the first time I was reminded of the Spiritual Advisor for my Diocese's StVdeP council. He said when people tell them they're burned out he asks them, excitedly confused, "What, you were on fire?"

The Gospels from the last number of Sunday's are culminating for me into one thought...the necessity of hanging with it. Fishie was right in that the readings all point to perseverance, but not only that persevering in the faith. St. Paul exhorts Timothy to stay close to what he has learned and to the Sacred Scriptures which he has know from his infancy. This to me tells me how important it is to go to mass. That's the place, where I at least, have come to learn the most about the Sacred Scriptures and the most about our Catholic faith.
 
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tadoflamb

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One last thought since I've been thinking about it all week.

At mass, the first lines of the Responsorial popped out at me.

I lift up my eyes toward the mountains;
whence shall help come to me?
My help is from the LORD,

I found it interesting, for one, because we had been talking about mountains here on TLT in the picture thread and I'd been mulling over how important mountains have always been in my life. For two, I had gone on a wonderfully peaceful and beautiful hike on one of my favorite mountains the day before reinforcing in me how spirituality and mountains can be connected.

And finally, those lines seemed so familiar to me. I'm pretty sure they're one the lines in a song I can't remember by a contemporary Christian recording artist, who's name escapes me, but as I thought about it, I recalled a homeless woman who had given me a drawing of some mountains with that passage written on the backside of a brown paper lunch bag. I met her at my parish's winter homeless shelter. It was good to remember her. I hope she's doing OK. She was another one of those people who defied my perceptions of homelessness.
 
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Fish and Bread

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I found it interesting, for one, because we had been talking about mountains here on TLT in the picture thread and I'd been mulling over how important mountains have always been in my life. For two, I had gone on a wonderfully peaceful and beautiful hike on one of my favorite mountains the day before reinforcing in me how spirituality and mountains can be connected.

This is only tangentially related, but I felt compelled to post my favorite song about mountains, which is also spiritual, albeit in a generic way not specific to any particular religion:

 
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tadoflamb

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This is only tangentially related, but I felt compelled to post my favorite song about mountains, which is also spiritual, albeit in a generic way not specific to any particular religion:



Here's one I listened to a lot as climbing mountains as a young tad.

 
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