Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time



On the day of 24 July
Of Saint Charbel (Joseph) Makhlouf, priest of the Lebanese Maronite Order, who, zealous for strict solitude and greater perfection, withdrew from the monastery of Annaya in Lebanon to a hermitage in which he served God with the greatest severity of life, fasting and praying night and day. On the twenty-fourth day of December he found rest in the Lord.





Yes, I did cut and paste that from the USCCB website.





Reading 1: Jeremiah 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13

Well, Jeremiah is pretty new to me. Yes, I know, everything is. But reading all of these old testament passages makes me think that if I don't do what God wants, it will really hurt his feelings. I know that it is not that simple, and God doesn't have emotions that we can fathom, but this is the way that his prophet is presenting it to us. Maybe this is what God is trying to convey. There is an old story about my patron saint, Zita. Apparently when she was a little kid, her mother taught her how to be good by explaining that certain of her actions would "be pleasing to God", while other things she did "would be displeasing to God". Maybe if I broke it down for myself like that daily, this whole Christianity thing would be simpler. Not easier, but much more simple.

Gospel: Matthew 13:10-17

After reading the footnotes for this whole passage, I think this is about "being prepared to explore" the true meaning of parables and biblical passages. Jesus is telling us that all of our instructions and everything that we need to understand is all laid out before us, but we have to "see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and be converted". That is Jesus quoting Isaiah, which we read pretty recently. I wonder why that wasn't our first reading today? Anyway, I think that today we are being told to have the courage to explore the meaning of all of these passages so that we can make God happy. Well, now I think I have my title.

I've got a few news items today, because I couldn't choose between them:

• Cardinal accuses Anglican Communion of 'spiritual Alzheimer's'


• Colombia bishop: guerillas should pay attention to massive protests


• Muslim ‘warriors’ threaten harm if Catholic bishop does not convert to Islam