September 11
Saturday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Give a Mass Offering
Mass Intentions
9:00 AM – Bob Hopkins, Sr. / A Classmate
Prayer for Spiritual Communion
My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the most Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there, and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.
Readings
First Reading
1 Timothy 1:15-17
Beloved: This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these I am the foremost. But for that reason I was mercifully treated, so that in me, as the foremost, Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example for those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life. To the king of ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only God, honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalms 113:1b-2, 3-4, 5 and 6-7
R. (2) Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever.
Praise, you servants of the LORD,
praise the name of the LORD.
Blessed be the name of the LORD
both now and forever.
R. Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever.
From the rising to the setting of the sun
is the name of the LORD to be praised.
High above all nations is the LORD;
above the heavens is his glory.
R. Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever.
Who is like the LORD, our God,
and looks upon the heavens and the earth below?
He raises up the lowly from the dust;
from the dunghill he lifts up the poor.
R. Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever.
Gospel Acclamation
John 14:23
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Whoever loves me will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we will come to him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Luke 6:43-49
Jesus said to his disciples: “A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not pick figs from thornbushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles. A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I command? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, listens to my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when the flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built. But the one who listens and does not act is like a person who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed.”
“Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever.”
Reflection
Paul's letter to Timothy today provides us with a great snapshot of the essence of our identity in Christ. If we remember these simple sentences of his and allow them to inform our attitude toward life each day, we can rest assured that we are not "rotten trees" nor are we producing "rotten fruit" (cf. Luke 6:43ff). We must remember these things Paul teaches: 1) Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 2) I am (yes, me!) the foremost of these sinners in need of saving. 3) Yet because of who Jesus Christ is, because the nature of God is LOVE, I have been treated with great mercy. 4) By being treated with mercy, Jesus reveals his great patience. 5) All of this is so that all others may come to know the goodness and hope of everlasting life. "This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance!" (1 Tm. 1:15).
Peace,
Fr. Foley
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