Un-Quiet Word for Today
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UN-QUIET WORD FOR TODAY, July 4TH, 2021fourteenth sunday in ordinary time
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When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished.
Mark 6:2
Introduction to the Liturgy of the Day
We gather together today before the Lord and beside each other to listen to God’s word and to share in this Eucharistic meal. In remembrance of Jesus’ wonderful gift of his very self, we join in communion with the Church around the world. This weekend, we come together on the anniversary of our country’s founding, appreciative of our freedom to worship as we desire, while continually aspiring to build a more perfect union. In places of worship across this country, we gather to give praise to God.
Reflection
It is a paradox of Christian life that in weakness we are made strong. Saint Paul recognized this phenomenon. He endured frequent hardships on his three lengthy missionary journeys, routinely traveling through hostile territory. He relied on the generosity of others for his basic needs, choosing to dedicate his life to preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth. He was arrested and imprisoned more than once, and constantly had to worry that he would not be able to con tinue his missionary activity. Those who knew him must have wondered how he could keep doing it. Gradually they came to realize that it could not have been some innate ability of Paul’s that sustained him through all his difficulties. It must be the power of Christ. His faith, his reliance on the Lord, made the presence of Christ stronger within him, making Christ’s power more apparent to others.
Question of the Week:
How is Christ made manifest in me through my own weaknesses?
-from the pages of Pastoral Patterns
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readings of the Mass
SELECT HERE for the Audio recording of the Readings of Sunday, July 4th, 2021, Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
SELECT HERE for the Readings of Sunday, July 4th, 2021, Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
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reflections
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Independence Day
In God's plan of history—that mysterious drama that unites God's providential care with our freedom—there are particular moments that reveal with glittering clarity that God is in charge. For Americans, Independence Day marks the anniversary of such a moment.
Nearly two and a half centuries ago, on July 4,1776, members of the Continental Congress approved Jefferson's magnificent Declaration of Independence, proclaiming "these truths
to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."
For the first time a nation sprang forth, not simply from the bond of people living together in a place for years, but rather from an idea, the principle of the truth of the human person as sacred and unrepeatable. The Declaration acknowledged our origin as beings made by God, with rights God himself gave us. It is God's law—his plan—that declares unequivocally that in our creation by the divine hand rests our equal liberty and the rights inherent in us as God's creatures. Our liberty arises not from us, but from the one who made us.
Independence Day honors not our own artificial schemes of liberty and equality but the founding principle of natural law that alone protects who we are: each one of us chosen, loved, and created as free beings by God our Father. No other authority will do: nothing other than divine truth provides proper grounding for ordered liberty. On God's authority, then, the American founders in 1776, "with a firm reliance on the Protection of divine providence," ventured forth in the great experiment, mutually pledging "to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor."
-by Anne Hested Burleigh. Ann is a long-time witer, among whose books is a biography of one of the American founders, John Adams. She and her husband live in Cincinnati near their children and grandchildren.
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The voice said to me: Son of man, stand up! I wish to speak to you. As he spoke to me, the spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard the one who was speaking say to me: Son of man, I am sending you...
Ezekiel 2: 1-3
God has a plan for each of us. He calls us to do something for Him. But, He doesn’t leave us on our own to figure it out. He gives us the resources we need to do His work.Are you listening for God’s call? When you hear it, do you get on your feet and do the work He asks of you? Do not be afraid. God does not call the equipped, he equips the called.
Answer His call.
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"What are you looking for?", Christ asked of his disciples.
If you are new or have been away from the Church, we welcome and invite you to LEARN MORE about the faith that Jesus Christ founded.
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