Psalm for Sunday, July 23, 2017

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 16, 2017

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.

 

Psalm for Sunday, July 9, 2017

Reflections
 

Psalm 145: 1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14  (Read)

“The Lord lifts up all who are falling

and raises up all who are bowed down.”

We may question why God allows 

us to suffer, why he allows bad 

things to happen to good people. 

We may ask, as the early believers 

probably did,  “Why is it necessary 

to undergo such hardships

to enter the kingdom of God?”

Scripture tells us that afflictions are 

to be expected in our walk with 

the Lord.  We may not understand 

what God is up to, but we can be sure 

that our faith will be strengthened

if we stand fast in the face of suffering.

We will become better witnesses 

for Christ if we are humbled;

we become better servants

if we bear up with our difficulties

and trust in the Lord, as our psalmist tells us.

And as the Gospel says, we are raised up 

by getting 'yoked to Jesus.'  (Matthew 11:28-30)

That is how our burdens are made light,

by helping Jesus to carry His cross,

as Simon did that day on the road to Calvary.

Despite what we may think,

his 'yoke is easy and his burden light.'

Remember that endurance is a Godly quality

and will help us to get yoked to Jesus.

Having done that, we, like our psalmist David,

join with the faithful and

speak of the glory of God's reign

and bless his name.

Amen

Discussion Questions for Reflection

 
1.  Our psalmist assures us that the Lord will lift us up when we are falling.   

Speak of a time when you have undergone hardship and how your faith has

been strengthened.

2.  The Psalm says that the Lord is "good to all and compassionate toward all 

his works."  Tell how this verse inspires you to be more compassionate toward 

those in your life who may not always be lovable in your sight.

Psalm for Sunday, July 2, 2017

Reflections

Psalm 89: 2-3, 16-17, 18-19  (Read)

"The promises of the LORD I will sing forever."

Whatever our circumstances, 

we are encouraged to sing to 

the Lord of His goodness.

Just as Elisha promised the 

woman of Shunem, in Sunday’s

first reading, that she would bear 

a son, so does the Lord reach out

to us in unlikely circumstances.

The Lord surprises us when we are

barren; He renews us when we are spent;

He grants us a share in the life of the 

Messiah even though we are unworthy 

and sinful.

All we have to do is bear our cross and praise Him, 

sing of His promises forever, as our psalmist says. 

There may be interruptions in our joy, and there 

will be times when we will question, “How could 

the Lord allow this to happen to me?” But so long 

as we bear our cross with dignity and die to sin, 

then we are living for God in Christ Jesus, 

as St Paul reminds us. (Romans 6: 11)

Jesus says in today’s Gospel that we are not worthy

of Him if we do not take up our cross.  We must lose

our life for Christ in order to find it.  (Matthew 10: 38-39)

Despite the setbacks we face, we must endure;

for as St Paul tells us, endurance produces character

and character produces hope, which does not

disappoint. (Romans 5: 3-5)

Whatever it takes, our psalmist tells us, “Through

all generations my mouth shall proclaim your 

faithfulness.” Our job is to know the joyful shout;

to walk in the light of God’s countenance; and to

sing the goodness of the Lord forever.

Amen

 

Discussion Questions for Reflection

1. Are you able to sing of the promises of the Lord even when you have been 

disappointed or are suffering?  Explain

2. Are you one of the blessed people who walk in the light of the Lord’s 

countenance?  Speak of how His countenance is reflected in your own face.

 

Psalm for Sunday, June 25, 2017

Reflections

Psalm 69: 8-10, 14, 17, 33-35  (Read)

"You who seek God, may your hearts revive!"

 

Like Jeremiah, our psalmist cries out to the Lord

and seeks relief from suffering. The psalmist bears

insult for the sake of God as a consequence of his

zeal for the Lord. 

Yet the verses are a plea to God and a remedy 

for the distress into which the psalmist has sunk. 

Crying out to God with trust in God’s great love 

is the only answer for those lowly ones who are

cast down and persecuted. Seek the Lord and

your hearts will revive! The Lord hears the cry 

of the poor.

The Gospel echoes the confidence of the psalm's 

verses. Jesus affirms that we are to proclaim the 

Gospel from the housetops and fear not our 

enemies who are powerless to kill the soul.  

(Matthew 10:27-28)

As the psalm says, even if we are in bonds the 

Lord  will not spurn us. For the Lord in his great 

love will answer us. The psalmist stands on firm 

ground though he was cast out by family and friends.

In the Gospel Jesus confirms that He is on the side 

of those who acknowledge Him as Lord.

Are we bearing insult for our God; do our brothers 

cast us out because of the our faith; have we become 

a stranger to our children because zeal for the Lord

consumes us? If so, we are in good company because

Jesus suffered the insults of those who denied him.

What is our remedy? There is only one way to turn,

as our psalmist says. Pray to the Lord, that in His 

great love He will answer us, that He will favor us, 

and that He will help us. No one else is merciful like 

the Lord; no one else has unlimited amounts of 

kindness; no one else has the power to revive us 

from the inside out. We are His own and His

own who are in bonds He spurns not. 

Amen

Discussion Questions for Reflection

1.  Have you been spurned by family or friends because of your faith?

How do you respond?

2.  Have you born insult for the sake of the Lord?  How did you handle it?

 

Psalm for Sunday, June 18, 2017

Reflections

Psalm 147: 12-13, 14-15, 19-20  (Read)

“With the best of wheat he fills you.”

God has been a provider to His 

people ever since He created us. 

But the beauty of His providence 

is that He provides for us spiritually 

as well as physically. During the 

Liturgy of the Eucharist, as the gifts 

are being prepared, the priest says,

“Through your goodness we have this 

bread to offer, which earth has given, 

it will become for us the bread of life.”

We are nourished by the Eucharist, by the body

and blood of our Lord Jesus. And that is where

our life comes from, our hope, our salvation.

All we have to do is receive Him with a clean heart

and avoid partaking of the “table of demons” (1 Cor 10: 20).

Our Lord's body is real food, and when we eat it

we are given a share in the divine life. During

the Mass the celebrant prays, “By the mystery

of this water and wine may we come to share in

the divinity of Christ, who humbled Himself

to share in our humanity.”

St Paul says in this Sunday's 2^nd reading

that we all “partake of the one loaf” (1 Cor 10: 17).

We share in the bread of life, and our Savior's body 

is a source of nourishment for us. This Sunday's

Gospel reminds us that Jesus is the living bread

from heaven. (John 6: 51-58)  Praise God!

Amen

Discussion Questions for Reflection

1.  The Psalm speaks of our Lord as being a good provider; He fills us with the 
best of wheat.  Speak of how you are nourished by the real  food of the Eucharist.

2.  Our psalmist declares that God's word runs swiftly as the Lord sends forth His 
command to the earth.  These verses allude to the power of God's word in our lives.   
Tell of how you receive the word of God and how it affects you.

Psalm for Sunday, June 11, 2017

Reflections

Daniel 3: 52, 53, 54, 55, 56  (Read)

“Blessed are you, O Lord, praiseworthy

and exalted above all forever.”

 

 

This week's Responsorial is taken from the book

of Daniel. The verses are an excerpt

from the songs of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

who have been thrown into the fiery furnace

by king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

These three young Jewish men

refuse to worship the god of Nebuchadnezzar,

nor will they worship the golden statue

that has been set up by the King.

As a consequence they are cast into

a white hot furnace by the King.

But these brave young men are seen

walking about in the flames, singing to God

and blessing the Lord, using the words

in this week's Responsorial.

An angel of the Lord goes down into the furnace and

makes the inside of the furnace as though a

“dew laden breeze were blowing through it.”

So the fire in no way touches or causes them pain or harm.

These three in the furnace with one voice sing,

glorifying and blessing God. The unwavering faith of

the three makes a strong impression on King Nebuchadnezzar

when he sees that these three young servants

of God have trusted in God and yielded their bodies,

rather than serve or worship the Babylonian god or

a golden statue. The King himself is so overwhelmed

that he undergoes a conversion and

exclaims, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach,

Meshach, and Abednego.”

The verses of the Responsorial affirm the power of God's

love for us.  Each day we encounter our own trial by fire 
and emerge unscathed, then we too are inspired to respond 
with the words of the three young Jewish men in the fiery 
furnace, “Blessed are you, O Lord, praiseworthy and

exalted above all forever.”

Just as the men in the furnace were in awe of the glory

of the Lord, who sent an angel to rescue them, we too

stand in awe of the loving presence of our God. Helpless

without the strength of God in our lives, let us not focus on

our own predicaments, but on the greatness of our God,

“Blessed are you O Lord. Glory and praise forever!”

Amen

 

Discussion Questions for Reflection

1.  The verses of the Responsorial are songs of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, 
who are rescued from the fiery furnace.  We all encounter trial by fire when we live 
our faith.  Speak of your own rescue by the power of the Lord.

2.  Daniel relates the story of King Nebuchadnezzar's conversion after he observes 
the inspiring witness of the three young Jewish men.   Tell of how your own witness 
inspires others to become people of faith.