Psalm for Sunday, August 2, 2020

Reflections                                                        

     

Psalm 145:  8-9, 15-16, 17-18   (Read)

“The hand of the Lord feeds us; 
He answers all our needs."

We are like sheep, dependent on our 
Good Shepherd to give us nourishment.   
As the prophet Isaiah says, if we heed the 
Lord, we shall eat well, and we shall delight
in rich fare. (1st reading, Isaiah 55:1-3)

Just as Jesus fed five thousand men 
from a few loaves and two fish, so Jesus 
feeds a multitude of us even today.  
We too are among the hopeful ones 
who look to the Lord for our food 
in due season. 
“The eyes of all look hopefully to you; 
you give them their food in due season.”

The Lord satisfies the desire of every living thing,
as our psalmist says.  He opens wide His hand for us.
His presence is shown in the help, nourishment,
and salvation that He shows to us.  We are dependent 
on our Lord to feed us.  He nourishes us physically, 
spiritually, and emotionally.

We are His faithful ones, and we praise God and give 
Him thanks because of His divine attributes of 
compassion and love.  Our psalmist dwells on the 
everlasting nature of God, on His love and presence 
throughout all time, and we are called to praise the 
Lord forever and ever.
 
Our psalmist reminds us, “The Lord is good to all and
compassionate toward all His works.”  We know this 
inherently because we live our lives with an unending 
stream of divine love.

Amen


Discussion Questions for Reflection

1.  Our psalmist says the Lord gives us our food in due season.
Tell of how you have been fed by the Lord and nourished by Him.

2.  The Psalm's verses affirm that the Lord is full of compassion
and love for every living thing.  Speak of how God's love has
changed your life and made you a better person.

Psalm for Sunday, July 26, 2020

Reflections 

Psalm 119: 57, 72, 76-77, 127-128, 129-130   (Read)

"Lord, I love your commands."

Our psalmist is in prayer, 

expressing his love for the Lord's 

commands, and promising to keep 

His words.

We may not have the wisdom 

of Solomon, but we have enough 

discernment to recognize how 

powerful the Lord's decrees can be 

in our spiritual lives. Just as the law 

of the Lord is precious to our psalmist, 

so too is the law of the Lord central 

to our lives and to our faith.

Our psalmist says that the Lord's decrees are

wonderful, and therefore he observes them.
We may not always think of the law as wonderful

(some people may consider it restrictive), 

but if we learn to do His will, 

we find that we are liberated,
set free from the sin that drags us down.  

We choose life instead of death.

Doing God's will (keeping his commandments) 

isn't easy, but having received His grace,  

and having been granted discernment 

to know right from wrong, good from evil, 

we can follow Him with conviction.  

Our 'yes' will mean 'yes' to the Lord,

and our 'no' will mean 

'no' to the devil and his minions.

Having decided to do His will, 

we take delight in keeping His statutes; 

they are like honey to us.
And the blessings we receive 

are part of what God has prepared 

for those who love Him. 

Amen

Discussion Questions for Reflection 

1.  Our psalmist says he observes the Lord's commandments because 

they are wonderful and they shed light.   Explain why you are committed 

to follow the Lord's decrees.

 2.  The Psalm assures us that we go forward if we follow God's precepts, 

and in so doing we avoid every false way.  Speak of  how God's 

commandments protect you on your journey of faith and draw you 

closer to God.

Psalm for Sunday, July 19, 2020

Reflections 

Psalm 86:  5-6, 9-10, 15-16  (Read)

“Turn toward me, and have pity on me, 

give your strength to your servant.”

We pray, as does our psalmist David,

for the Lord to attend to the 'sound of

our pleading.' We take refuge in the same 

heavenly Father that Christ did. Even 

when we are far away, the Lord has pity 

on us. Even though we forget Him, He 

does not forget us. He searches our hearts; 

He gathers us into His mansion 

at the end of the age. 

He empowers us to fight a good fight. 

God saves us from our enemies, and also 

from ourselves. All we have to do is 

open our hearts to Him and do His will 

by striving to be saved. For God gives 

His children good ground for hope, and 

He permits repentance for their sins.

(Wisdom 12:19, 1st reading)

Our Psalmist never stops asking, 

and He is rightly sure, 

that God could never stop giving. 

God could scarcely resist our prayers.

Even though we do not know how to pray 

as we ought, as St Paul says, the Holy Spirit

Himself intercedes with inexpressible 

groanings.  (Romans 8:26, 2^nd reading)

The Lord is present to us;

He listens; He pardons; He saves. 

God's goodness overwhelms us. 

Even nonbelievers will come to worship 

God and glorify His name.

Amen

   

Discussion Questions for Reflection

1.  Our psalmist is overwhelmed with the goodness of our merciful Lord.   

Give an example of how God has attended to the sound of your pleading 

and done a wondrous deed in your life.

2.  The Psalm is a prayer that God will strengthen and empower His servant.  

Speak of how the Lord has empowered you to do His will.

Psalm for Sunday, July 12, 2020

Reflections 

Psalm 65: 10, 11, 12-13, 14  (Read)

“The Lord has visited the land 

and watered it; greatly has He 

enriched it.” 

  

Water is so critical for a 

place like the Holy Land, 

as it is here in the arid 

climate of Southern 

California.  Without water 

we could not produce any fruit.   We are blessed that “God's watercourses are filled” and He provides us with an abundant harvest.

We also depend upon the Lord to supply us with what 

Jesus called the living water

that satisfies our spiritual thirst. 

Jesus is the Word that drenches us, 

adorns our year with plenty.  

How else could we bear fruit?  

With his showers He softens the land, 

blessing its young sprouts (that is us). 

We are like untilled meadows without 

his word and his grace.  How else 

could we expect our pastures 

to be blanketed with grain? 

The Lord prepares the earth;

He adorns our paths with fruitful rain. 

The hills are robed in joy.

God’s Word is showered down upon us, 

and does not return to God void; 

we do his will;

we are his witnesses; 

we keep the faith. 

Amen

Discussion Questions for Reflection

1.  Our psalmist speaks about the Lord having visited the land and watered it.   

Tell of how the Lord has drenched you with His living water that yields a fruitful 

harvest.

2.  The Psalm assures us that the Lord breaks up the clods of the land and 

softens it with showers.  Give an example of how God's Word has softened 

you up spiritually and led you to do His will.