Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Philippians 2:4 NIV
A Christian’s goal should be to create the Kingdom of God here on earth, as it is in Heaven. Not only, to get to Heaven.
To finish the Bible in one year, Read Wisdom of Solomon 8:19-12-27 and John 15:18-27.
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Verses for today – Listen here: For explanations
Reflection for Today.
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Wisdom of Solomon 8:19
19 I was a boy of happy disposition, I had received a good soul as my lot,
20 or rather, being good, I had entered an undefiled body;
21 but, realising that I could never possess Wisdom unless God gave her to me, -a sign of intelligence in itself, to know in whose gift she lay — I prayed to the Lord and entreated him, and with all my heart I said:
Wisdom of Solomon 9
1 ‘God of our ancestors, Lord of mercy, who by your word have made the universe,
2 and in your wisdom have fitted human beings to rule the creatures that you have made,
3 to govern the world in holiness and saving justice and in honesty of soul to dispense fair judgement,
4 grant me Wisdom, consort of your throne, and do not reject me from the number of your children.
5 For I am your servant, son of your serving maid, a feeble man, with little time to live, with small understanding of justice and the laws.
6 Indeed, were anyone perfect among the sons of men, if he lacked the Wisdom that comes from you, he would still count for nothing.
7 ‘You have chosen me to be king over your people, to be judge of your sons and daughters.
8 You have bidden me build a temple on your holy mountain, and an altar in the city where you have pitched your tent, a copy of the holy Tent which you prepared at the beginning.
9 With you is Wisdom, she who knows your works, she who was present when you made the world; she understands what is pleasing in your eyes and what agrees with your commandments.
10 Despatch her from the holy heavens, send her forth from your throne of glory to help me and to toil with me and teach me what is pleasing to you;
11 since she knows and understands everything she will guide me prudently in my actions and will protect me with her glory.
12 Then all I do will be acceptable, I shall govern your people justly and be worthy of my father’s throne.
13 ‘What human being indeed can know the intentions of God? And who can comprehend the will of the Lord?
14 For the reasoning of mortals is inadequate, our attitudes of mind unstable;
15 for a perishable body presses down the soul, and this tent of clay weighs down the mind with its many cares.
16 It is hard enough for us to work out what is on earth, laborious to know what lies within our reach; who, then, can discover what is in the heavens?
17 And who could ever have known your will, had you not given Wisdom and sent your holy Spirit from above?
18 Thus have the paths of those on earth been straightened and people have been taught what pleases you, and have been saved, by Wisdom.’
Wisdom of Solomon 10
1 It was Wisdom who protected the first man to be fashioned, the father of the world, who had been created all alone, she it was who rescued him from his fall
2 and gave him the strength to subjugate all things.
3 But when in his wrath a wicked man deserted her, he perished in his fratricidal fury.
4 When because of him the earth was drowned, it was Wisdom again who saved it, piloting the upright man on valueless timber.
5 Again, when, concurring in wickedness, the nations had been thrown into confusion, she singled out the upright man, preserved him blameless before God and fortified him against pity for his child.
6 She it was who, while the godless perished, saved the upright man as he fled from the fire raining down on the Five Cities,
7 in witness against whose evil ways a desolate land still smokes, where plants bear fruit that never ripens and where, monument to an unbelieving soul, there stands a pillar of salt.
8 For, by ignoring the path of Wisdom, not only did they suffer the loss of not knowing the good, but they left the world a memorial to their folly, so that their offences could not pass unnoticed.
9 But Wisdom delivered her servants from their ordeals.
10 The upright man, fleeing from the anger of his brother, was led by her along straight paths. She showed him the kingdom of God and taught him the knowledge of holy things. She brought him success in his labours and gave him full return for all his efforts;
11 she stood by him against grasping and oppressive men and she made him rich.
12 She preserved him from his enemies and saved him from the traps they set for him. In an arduous struggle she awarded him the prize, to teach him that piety is stronger than all.
13 She did not forsake the upright man when he was sold, but snatched him away from sin;
14 she accompanied him down into the pit, nor did she abandon him in his chains until she had brought him the sceptre of a kingdom and authority over his despotic masters, thus exposing as liars those who had traduced him, and giving him honour everlasting.
15 It was Wisdom who delivered a holy people, a blameless race, from a nation of oppressors.
16 She entered the soul of a servant of the Lord, and withstood fearsome kings with wonders and signs.
17 To the holy people she gave the wages of their labours; she guided them by a marvellous road, herself their shelter by day — and their starlight through the night.
18 She brought them across the Red Sea, leading them through an immensity of water,
19 whereas she drowned their enemies, then spat them out from the depths of the abyss.
20 So the upright despoiled the godless; Lord, they extolled your holy name, and with one accord praised your protecting hand;
21 for Wisdom opened the mouths of the dumb and made eloquent the tongues of babes.
Wisdom of Solomon 11
1 She made their actions successful, by means of a holy prophet.
2 They journeyed through an unpeopled desert and pitched their tents in inaccessible places.
3 They stood firm against their enemies, fought off their foes.
4 On you they called when they were thirsty, and from the rocky cliff water was given them, from hard stone a remedy for their thirst.
5 Thus, what had served to punish their enemies became a benefit for them in their difficulties.
6 Whereas their enemies had only the ever-flowing source of a river fouled with mingled blood and mud,
7 to punish them for their decree of infanticide, you gave your people, against all hope, water in abundance,
8 once you had shown by the thirst that they were experiencing how severely you were punishing their enemies.
9 From their own ordeals, which were only loving correction, they realised how an angry sentence was tormenting the godless;
10 for you had tested your own as a father admonishes, but the others you had punished as a pitiless king condemns,
11 and, whether far or near, they were equally afflicted.
12 For a double sorrow seized on them, and a groaning at the memory of the past;
13 when they learned that the punishments they were receiving were beneficial to the others, they realised it was the Lord,
14 while for the man whom long before they had exposed and later mockingly rebuffed, they felt only admiration when all was done, having suffered a thirst so different from that of the upright.
15 For their foolish and wicked notions which led them astray into worshipping mindless reptiles and contemptible beetles, you sent a horde of mindless animals to punish them
16 and to teach them that the agent of sin is the agent of punishment.
17 And indeed your all-powerful hand which created the world from formless matter, did not lack means to unleash a horde of bears or savage lions on them
18 or unknown beasts, newly created, full of rage, breathing out fire, or puffing out stinking smoke, or flashing fearful sparks from their eyes,
19 beasts able not only to destroy them, being so savage, but even to strike them dead by their terrifying appearance.
20 However, without these, one breath could have blown them over, pursued by Justice, whirled away by the breath of your power. You, however, ordered all things by measure, number and weight.
21 For your great power is always at your service, and who can withstand the might of your arm?
22 The whole world, for you, can no more than tip a balance, like a drop of morning dew falling on the ground.
23 Yet you are merciful to all, because you are almighty, you overlook people’s sins, so that they can repent.
24 Yes, you love everything that exists, and nothing that you have made disgusts you, since, if you had hated something, you would not have made it.
25 And how could a thing subsist, had you not willed it? Or how be preserved, if not called forth by you?
26 No, you spare all, since all is yours, Lord, lover of life!
Wisdom of Solomon 12:27
1 For your imperishable spirit is in everything!
2 And thus, gradually, you correct those who offend; you admonish and remind them of how they have sinned, so that they may abstain from evil and trust in you, Lord.
3 The ancient inhabitants of your holy land
4 you hated for their loathsome practices, their acts of sorcery, and unholy rites.
5 Those ruthless murderers of children, those eaters of entrails at feasts of human flesh and of blood, those initiates of secret brotherhoods,
6 those murderous parents of defenceless beings, you determined to destroy at our ancestors’ hands,
7 so that this land, dearer to you than any other, might receive a worthy colony of God’s children.
8 Even so, since these were human, you treated them leniently, sending hornets as forerunners of your army, to exterminate them little by little.
9 Not that you were unable to hand the godless over to the upright in pitched battle or destroy them at once by savage beasts or one harsh word;
10 but, by carrying out your sentences gradually, you gave them a chance to repent, although you knew that they were inherently evil, innately wicked,
11 and fixed in their cast of mind; for they were a race accursed from the beginning. Nor was it from awe of anyone that you let their sins go unpunished.
12 For who is there to ask, ‘What have you done?’ Or who is there to disagree with your sentence? Who to arraign you for destroying nations which you have created? Who to confront you by championing the wicked?
13 For there is no god, other than you, who cares for every one, to whom you have to prove that your sentences have been just.
14 No more could any king or despot challenge you over those whom you have punished.
15 For, being upright yourself, you rule the universe uprightly, and hold it as incompatible with your power to condemn anyone who has not deserved to be punished.
16 For your strength is the basis of your saving justice, and your sovereignty over all makes you lenient to all.
17 You show your strength when people will not believe in your absolute power, and you confound any insolence in those who do know it.
18 But you, controlling your strength, are mild in judgement, and govern us with great lenience, for you have only to will, and your power is there.
19 By acting thus, you have taught your people that the upright must be kindly to his fellows, and you have given your children the good hope that after sins you will grant repentance.
20 For, if with such care and indulgence you have punished your children’s enemies, though doomed to death, and have given them time and place to be rid of their wickedness,
21 with what exact attention have you not judged your children, to whose ancestors, by oaths and covenants, you made such generous promises?
22 Thus, you instruct us, when you punish our enemies in moderation, that we should reflect on your kindness when we judge, and, when we are judged, we should look for mercy.
23 And this is why people leading foolish and wicked lives were tortured by you with their own abominations;
24 for they had strayed too far on the paths of error by taking the vilest and most despicable of animals for gods, being deluded like silly little children.
25 So, as to children with no sense, you gave them a sentence making fools of them.
26 Those, however, who would not take warning from a mocking reproof were soon to endure a sentence worthy of God.
27 The creatures that made them suffer and against which they protested, those very creatures that they had taken for gods and by which they were punished they saw in their true light; and he whom hitherto they had refused to know, they realised was true God. And this is why the final condemnation fell on them.
John 15:18-27
Sermons by various teachers about these verses.
Catholic Daily Readings and Reflections
Reading 1, Revelation 11:19; 12:1-6, 10
19 Then the sanctuary of God in heaven opened, and the ark of the covenant could be seen inside it. Then came flashes of lightning, peals of thunder and an earthquake and violent hail.
1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, robed with the sun, standing on the moon, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
2 She was pregnant, and in labour, crying aloud in the pangs of childbirth.
3 Then a second sign appeared in the sky: there was a huge red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and each of the seven heads crowned with a coronet.
4 Its tail swept a third of the stars from the sky and hurled them to the ground, and the dragon stopped in front of the woman as she was at the point of giving birth, so that it could eat the child as soon as it was born.
5 The woman was delivered of a boy, the son who was to rule all the nations with an iron sceptre, and the child was taken straight up to God and to his throne,
6 while the woman escaped into the desert, where God had prepared a place for her to be looked after for twelve hundred and sixty days.
10 Then I heard a voice shout from heaven, ‘Salvation and power and empire for ever have been won by our God, and all authority for his Christ, now that the accuser, who accused our brothers day and night before our God, has been brought down.
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 45:10, 11, 12, 16
10 Listen, my daughter, attend to my words and hear; forget your own nation and your ancestral home,
11 then the king will fall in love with your beauty; he is your lord, bow down before him.
12 The daughter of Tyre will court your favour with gifts, and the richest of peoples
16 Instead of your ancestors you will have sons; you will make them rulers over the whole world.
Gospel, Luke 1:39-56
39 Mary set out at that time and went as quickly as she could into the hill country to a town in Judah.
40 She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth.
41 Now it happened that as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
42 She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
43 Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord?
44 Look, the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy.
45 Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’
46 And Mary said: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour;
48 because he has looked upon the humiliation of his servant. Yes, from now onwards all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Almighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name,
50 and his faithful love extends age after age to those who fear him.
51 He has used the power of his arm, he has routed the arrogant of heart.
52 He has pulled down princes from their thrones and raised high the lowly.
53 He has filled the starving with good things, sent the rich away empty.
54 He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his faithful love
55 -according to the promise he made to our ancestors — of his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.
56 Mary stayed with her some three months and then went home.
Reading 2, First Corinthians 15:20-26
20 In fact, however, Christ has been raised from the dead, as the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep.
21 As it was by one man that death came, so through one man has come the resurrection of the dead.
22 Just as all die in Adam, so in Christ all will be brought to life;
23 but all of them in their proper order: Christ the first-fruits, and next, at his coming, those who belong to him.
24 After that will come the end, when he will hand over the kingdom to God the Father, having abolished every principality, every ruling force and power.
25 For he is to be king until he has made his enemies his footstool,
26 and the last of the enemies to be done away with is death, for he has put all things under his feet.
Dr. Myles Munroe
I am including a video by Dr. Myles Munroe, I’ve listened to him back in the nineties, and rediscovered him recently. Now his perspective seems to be a good way to also look at scripture. In Pursuit of Purpose – Book Highlights
Sermons Rosary Prayers Catholic Answers
Did Mary have other children? No, Listen here
Called to Communion
Pray the Rosary
Rosary Mysteries
The following 4 videos are the 4 Mysteries that we pray on certain days of the week. I like these videos, because I can pray it alone, with only the images, or go along with the sound. The images help me to focus on the particular mystery that I am contemplating as I say the Hail Mary on each bead.
Joyful Mysteries
Luminous Mysteries
Sorrowful Mysteries
Glorious Mysteries
Prayers of the Rosary
Links to “How to pray the rosary” Popular Catholic Prayers
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord;
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried,
He descended into hell; the third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.
Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
(this prayer is optional and may be said after all Glory Be to the Fathers…..)
O my Jesus, forgive us our sins. Save us from the fires of hell.
Lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are in most need of thy mercy.
Console the souls in Purgatory, particularly those most abandoned. Amen
Hail Mary,
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
The Hail, Holy Queen
Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life our sweetness and our hope.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve;
To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!
That we maybe made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Closing Prayer
O God, whose only begotten Son, by His life, death, and resurrection, has purchased for us the rewards of eternal salvation.
Grant, we beseech Thee, that while meditating on these mysteries of the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
that we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(The Fatima Prayer:)
Most Holy Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – I adore thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference’s whereby He is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners.
Prayer to St. Michael
Saint Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do you, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.
Thurzo Gizella Bible Study 
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