Nourishment

The WORD (see http://usccb.org/bible/readings/021018.cfm) today reminds me that God can give me the nourishment I need. 

We Filipinos have a special love for food. During the holidays, a lot gained weight because of all the eating and parties. people look forward to gatherings and get togethers not just because of the company but because of the food as well. We all love to eat. We love food, and we need food for nourishment. In the gospel, we see how Jesus gives us nourishment as well. 

The gospel tells us one of the more famous gospels – Jesus feeding thousands. We see Jesus feeding the people, not just physically when he multiplied food for them, but first, spiritually, which was the primary food he gave them, even before the physical food. Then when it was late and dark already, Christ gave them physical food for their bodies.

God loves us so much that he gives us not only spiritual nourishment, but also physical nourishment. 

In life, it is easy to get busy. We just stared the year but we are very busy already. It's easy to lose focus. It is easy to be distracted. We may forget what is essential. Unlike our body that tells us when we need physical nourishment, our souls are not always that explicit. Or we do not always recognize it when our souls are telling us we need spiritual food. But we should remember that we need not look anywhere else. Jesus will give us everything. He can, and he will. We just need to come to him. We just need to trust him.  

May we be inspired to not only nourish our bodies, but more importantly, our souls.

Father God,

Thank you for today. Thank you for another day to live. Thank you for another weekend. Thank you for the reminder that you nourish not only our body but our spirit as well. Lord, sorry for the times I ignore the hunger of my soul, of my spirit. Sorry for being lazy to feed my spirit. Lord, I ask that you be with me in a special way this weekend. Help me always be reminded to nourish not only my body, but more importantly, my spirit as well. Lord, it is easy to know and be reminded when my body is weak, when I am hungry, but not as easy to detect spiritual hunger…so I ask you Lord that you disturb me, wake me up and give me warnings when my spirit is running low, when I am spiritually hungry as well. And Lord, may I be sensitive and respond to it. Amen.

Blessed Weekend!

In Christ,

-g-

February 10, 2018

Memorial of Saint Scholastica, Virgin
Lectionary: 334

Reading 1 1 KGS12:26-32; 13:33-34

Jeroboam thought to himself:
"The kingdom will return to David's house.
If now this people go up to offer sacrifices
in the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem,
the hearts of this people will return to their master,
Rehoboam, king of Judah,
and they will kill me."
After taking counsel, the king made two calves of gold
and said to the people:
"You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough.
Here is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt."
And he put one in Bethel, the other in Dan.
This led to sin, because the people frequented those calves
in Bethel and in Dan.
He also built temples on the high places
and made priests from among the people who were not Levites.
Jeroboam established a feast in the eighth month
on the fifteenth day of the month
to duplicate in Bethel the pilgrimage feast of Judah,
with sacrifices to the calves he had made;
and he stationed in Bethel priests of the high places he had built.

Jeroboam did not give up his evil ways after this,
but again made priests for the high places
from among the common people.
Whoever desired it was consecrated
and became a priest of the high places.
This was a sin on the part of the house of Jeroboam
for which it was to be cut off and destroyed from the earth.

Responsorial Psalm  PS 106:6-7AB, 19-20, 21-22

R. (4a) Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
We have sinned, we and our fathers;
we have committed crimes; we have done wrong.
Our fathers in Egypt
considered not your wonders.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
They made a calf in Horeb
and adored a molten image;
They exchanged their glory
for the image of a grass-eating bullock.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
They forgot the God who had saved them,
who had done great deeds in Egypt,
Wondrous deeds in the land of Ham,
terrible things at the Red Sea.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

Alleluia MT 4:4B

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
One does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MK 8:1-10

In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat,
Jesus summoned the disciples and said,
“My heart is moved with pity for the crowd,
because they have been with me now for three days
and have nothing to eat.
If I send them away hungry to their homes,
they will collapse on the way,
and some of them have come a great distance.”
His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread
to satisfy them here in this deserted place?”
Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?”
They replied, “Seven.”
He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground.
Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them,
and gave them to his disciples to distribute,
and they distributed them to the crowd.
They also had a few fish.
He said the blessing over them
and ordered them distributed also.
They ate and were satisfied.
They picked up the fragments left over–seven baskets.
There were about four thousand people.

He dismissed the crowd and got into the boat with his disciples
and came to the region of Dalmanutha.