Saturday, February 15, 2020

Live The Concern


The WORD today reminds me that care and concern for others should always be lived and acted upon.

Some people say that it’s the thought that counts. However, this is not always correct. You can think and intend to do good or help others, but unless you act, nothing will happen. Other people will not be helped and nothing will change. We need to act and live our thoughts, not just think them.

Good thoughts should not stay on our heads. They should be realized and done by our bodies.

In the gospel Jesus showed this to us. First, he gave them spiritual food. He taught them for days. Not only that, after nourishing them with spiritual food, He was full of pity for the people because they were hungry. He was concerned about the people. He had good thoughts and good intentions, but those were not the important things. Those thoughts were not what we remember him for. We remember him for his actions – for his act of love, generosity, and concern for others. He did something concrete to help the people.

No matter how good our thoughts and intentions are, if we keep them in our heads, they would be useless. God needs us to live our thoughts and do good to others, no matter how little or seemingly insignificant we think of our actions. God is powerful, and like in the gospel, the seemingly little and insufficient bread and fish was used mightily by Jesus to feed thousands. 

How often do I feel for others? When I see poor people or victims of disasters, what do I feel inside? What do I do about those feelings? Do I help them and so something concrete, or do I just simply think of ways to help? What concrete thing can I do today for others?

May we be moved into action and concretize our thoughts to help out others.

Father God,
Thank you for today. Thank you for this day to live. Thank you for another weekend. Thank you for reminding me how much you love me. Lord, sorry for not acting. Sorry for having excuses not to act. Sorry for merely being concerned for others. Awaken me. I ask that you help me live my thoughts and intentions. Help me make my good thoughts move from my head to my body. Help me live it. I know that as I do, no matter how simple they may be, you would be the one to multiply them and make them great. Amen.



Blessed Weekend!



In Christ,

-g-










February 15 2020



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Saturday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 334


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.



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