Scripture for the day: 05 November 2020. Thursday of Week 31 | St Martin de Porres, religious (Opt. Mem)

1st Reading: Philippians 3:3-8

We who are the real people of the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh even though I, too, have a reason for confidence in the flesh.

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, so that I may gain Christ.

The Word of the Lord

Responsorial: from Psalm 104

R./: Let hearts that seek the Lord rejoice

O sing to the Lord, sing his praise;

tell all his wonderful works!

Be proud of his holy name,

let the hearts that seek the Lord rejoice. (R./)

Consider the Lord and his strength;

constantly seek his face.

Remember the wonders he has done,

his miracles, the judgements he spoke. (R./)

O children of Abraham, his servant,

O sons of the Jacob he chose.

He, the Lord, is our God:

his judgements prevail in all the earth. (R./)

Gospel: Luke 15:1-10

All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweeps the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

The Gospel of the Lord

Reflections - What are we looking for?

Do you often have to spend precious time looking for something you’ve lost? Have you had to search for your keys or your wallet, or even for friends who have wandered off? Many people spend years looking for someone to share their lives with. We all need people with whom we can journey and who want to journey with us. Beneath all this searching and longing is our yearning for what can satisfy our deepest longings.

Saint Augustine wrote that our hearts are restless until they rest in God. Deeper than our yearning for God is God’s yearning for us. That divine yearning took flesh in the person of Jesus. His whole purpose in life was “to seek and to save what was lost.” His search for us is like that of the shepherd searching for a lost sheep or a woman searching for her lost coin. These two parables describe God’s continuing search for us, to help us to fulfilment. We can take hope from this because each of us is lost in some way. Our desire for God arises from God’s desire for us. As St John used to say, We can only love because God first loved us.

Saint of the Day for November 5 | (c. 406 – c. 450) |Saint Peter Chrysologus

A man who vigorously pursues a goal may produce results far beyond his expectations and his intentions. Thus it was with Peter ” of the Golden Words,” as he was called, who as a young man became bishop of Ravenna, the capital of the empire in the West.

At the time there were abuses and vestiges of paganism evident in his diocese, and this Peter was determined to battle and overcome. His principal weapon was the short sermon, and many of them have come down to us. They do not contain great originality of thought. They are, however, full of moral applications, sound in doctrine, and historically significant in that they reveal Christian life in fifth-century Ravenna. So authentic were the contents of his sermons that some 13 centuries later, he was declared a doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XIII. He who had earnestly sought to teach and motivate his own flock was recognized as a teacher of the universal Church.

In addition to his zeal in the exercise of his office, Peter Chrysologus was distinguished by a fierce loyalty to the Church, not only in its teaching but in its authority as well. He looked upon learning not as a mere opportunity but as an obligation for all, both as a development of God-given faculties and as Sometimesolid support for the worship of God.

Sometime before his death around A.D. 450, Peter returned to his birthplace of Imola, in northern Italy. His liturgical feast is celebrated on July 30.

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