God in Others

The WORD today reminds me that I should live my love for God through others. 

Saying and doing are two different things. Words and actions are two different things. Saying we love God is different from actually living like we do. Saying we love God is different from actually loving God.

In the gospel, we saw Jesus explain the two greatest commandments. Pretty simple, but tough. First is of course, love God with all that we have. Second is to love others.  Jesus did not stop at the first. he did not say that we should just love God, and we’re all set. Love for God should be greater than lip service. Love for God should be more concrete than words.

Love for God should be lived through others.

The application of God’s love is us loving other people. In the first reading, Ruth lived this. She loved God by loving and serving her mother in law when she did not have to. We cannot say we love God and hate other people. We cannot say we love God but not care about the situation of other people in the world. God is alive in each person, and our love for God should be lived as we treat and relate to others – especially those who we feel are unlovable.

Do I love God? How do I express my love for him? Do I love it in other people? In what way? How do I show my love for others, especially during this pandemic? What is God telling me today? 

May we be encouraged to love God beyond words, and live that love by the way we treat others.

Father God,

Thank you for today. Thank you for another day to live. thank you for another day to love you and experience your love. Thank you for the reminder. Lord, sorry for the times I do not live my love for you. Sorry for just saying it. Help me be real. you know that I love you. and I ask that you help me live that love for you through others. May I treat others the way I would treat you. may I help others like it was you I was helping. May I love others as I love you. help me make you more alive in this world by seeing you in others and loving you through others.  Amen. 

Blessed Day!

In Christ,

-g-

Daily Readings

• AUGUST 19, 2021
• August 20, 2021
• AUGUST 21, 2021

• Readings for the Memorial of Saint Bernard, abbot and doctor of the Church

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Memorial of Saint Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church

Lectionary: 423

Reading I

Ru 1:1, 3-6, 14b-16, 22

Once in the time of the judges there was a famine in the land;
so a man from Bethlehem of Judah
departed with his wife and two sons
to reside on the plateau of Moab.
Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died,
and she was left with her two sons, who married Moabite women,
one named Orpah, the other Ruth.
When they had lived there about ten years,
both Mahlon and Chilion died also,
and the woman was left with neither her two sons nor her husband.
She then made ready to go back from the plateau of Moab
because word reached her there
that the LORD had visited his people and given them food.

Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye, but Ruth stayed with her.

Naomi said, “See now! 
Your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her god.
Go back after your sister-in-law!”
But Ruth said, “Do not ask me to abandon or forsake you!
For wherever you go, I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge,
your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”

Thus it was that Naomi returned
with the Moabite daughter-in-law, Ruth,
who accompanied her back from the plateau of Moab.
They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

Responsorial Psalm

146:5-6ab, 6c-7, 8-9a, 9bc-10

R.    (1b)  Praise the Lord, my soul!
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
    whose hope is in the LORD, his God,
Who made heaven and earth,
    the sea and all that is in them.
R.    Praise the Lord, my soul!
The LORD keeps faith forever,
    secures justice for the oppressed,
    gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.
R.    Praise the Lord, my soul!
The LORD gives sight to the blind.
The LORD raises up those who were bowed down;
    The LORD loves the just.
The LORD protects strangers.
R.    Praise the Lord, my soul!
The fatherless and the widow he sustains,
    but the way of the wicked he thwarts.
The LORD shall reign forever;
    your God, O Zion, through all generations. Alleluia.
R.    Praise the Lord, my soul!

Alleluia

Ps 25:4b, 5a

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Teach me your paths, my God,
guide me in your truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

Mt 22:34-40

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law, tested him by asking,
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
He said to him,
“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”