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Extracted from the book of Ecclesiastes 1:2,2:21-23: Vanity of vanities, Qoheleth says. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity! For so it is that a man who has laboured wisely, skilfully and successfully must leave what is his own to someone who has not toiled for it at all. This, too, is vanity and great injustice; for what does he gain for all the toil and strain that he has undergone under the sun? What of all his laborious days, his cares of office, his restless nights? This, too, is vanity. Other Interesting Extracts: All I have toiled for and now bequeath to my successor I have come to hate; who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will be master of all the work into which I have put my efforts and wisdom under the sun. That, too, is vanity. (Ecclesiastes 2:18-20) 8-( Extracted from Ecclesiastes 5: 9 No one who loves money ever has enough, no one who loves luxury has any income; this, too, is futile. 10 Where goods abound, parasites abound: where is the owner's profit, apart from feasting his eyes? 11 The labourer's sleep is sweet, whether he has eaten little or much, but the surfeit of the rich will not let him sleep at all. 12 Something grossly unjust I observe under the sun: riches stored and turning to loss for their owner. 13 An unlucky venture, and those riches are lost; a son is born to him, and he has nothing to leave him. 8-( 14 Naked from his mother's womb he came; as naked as he came will he depart; not one of his achievements can he take with him. |
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Extracted from Psalm 90:3-6, 12-14,17: You turn men back to dust and say: ‘Go back, sons of men.’ To your eyes a thousand years are like yesterday, come and gone, no more than a watch in the night.
You sweep men away like a dream, like the grass which springs up in the morning. In the morning it springs up and flowers: by evening it withers and fades. Make us know the shortness of our life that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Lord, relent! Is your anger for ever? Show pity to your servants. In the morning, fill us with your love; we shall exult and rejoice all our days. Let the favour of the Lord be upon us: give success to the work of our hands.
Extracted from Psalm 95:1-2,6-9: O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’
Come, ring out our joy to the Lord; hail the rock who saves us. Let us come before him, giving thanks, with songs let us hail the Lord.
Come in; let us bow and bend low; let us kneel before the God who made us: for he is our God and we the people who belong to his pasture, the flock that is led by his hand.
O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah in the desert when your fathers put me to the test; when they tried me, though they saw my work.’ |
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Extracted from the letter of Saint Paul to the Colossians 3:1-5,9-11: Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ, you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand. Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on the earth, because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ is revealed – and he is your life – you too will be revealed in all your glory with him. That is why you must kill everything in you that belongs only to earthly life: fornication, impurity, guilty passion, evil desires and especially greed, which is the same thing as worshipping a false god; and never tell each other lies. You have stripped off your old behaviour with your old self, and you have put on a new self which will progress towards true knowledge the more it is renewed in the image of its creator; and in that image there is no room for distinction between Greek and Jew, between the circumcised or the uncircumcised, or between barbarian and Scythian, slave and free man. There is only Christ: he is everything and he is in everything. |
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Hoarding more than I need don’t guarantee life & happiness because many things including my life, health, my destiny & all others are in God’s hands & outside my control. Dear Daddy God, please bend my will to cooperate with You as now I have decided to hoard up Life and Your Blessings, I want to serve you always to win Life. “The man who with his whole heart serves God will be accepted, his petition will carry to the clouds.” (Sirach 35: 16) |
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Extracted from the holy Gospel according to Luke 12:13-21: A man in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance.’ ‘My friend,’ he replied, ‘who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?’ Then he said to them, ‘Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for a man’s life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than he needs.’ Then he told them a parable: ‘There was once a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land, thought to himself, “What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops.” Then he said, “This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them, and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time.” But God said to him, “Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?.” So it is when a man stores up treasure for himself in place of making himself rich in the sight of God.’ After note: See the actual happenings through the eyes of Visionary Maria Valtorta Sharing: It was the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time on 4 August 2013. Here are the Readings that were read in the Eucharistic Celebrations all over the world on the same day (see above): 1st Reading: Ecclesiastes 1:2,2:21-23, Responsorial: Psalm 90:3-6, 12-14,17 or Psalm 95:1-2,6-9, 2nd Reading: Colossians 3:1-5,9-11 & Gospel Reading: Luke 12:13-21.
We have extracted the Homilies Blessed Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI & Pope Francis I based on the aforesaid Readings to share with you, so that you could similarly be encouraged:
JOHN PAUL II ANGELUS Castel Gandolfo
1. This Sunday the liturgy presents to us anew Jesus' teaching on what true riches are: not the wealth of material goods, but the spiritual treasure that consists in recognizing the primacy of God in our lives, letting his Gospel guide us in all our daily decisions. Jesus explained to the crowd following him that the person is a fool who "lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God" (cf. Luke 12: 21).
2. Dear Brothers and Sisters, Mary, who describes herself as "the handmaid" of the Lord and totally abandons herself to the divine will, is a unique witness and an eloquent example of this spiritual "treasure". May the Blessed Virgin guide us on the arduous but liberating path of Christian holiness, a source of peace and inner joy.
I will ask this grace for all believers during my pilgrimage to Lourdes, where I shall be going on 14 and 15 August, and then at Loreto, where on 5 September, I shall be joining the national pilgrimage of the Italian Catholic Action, in which the Italian Sports Centre will also be taking part.
3. I thank the Italian Bishops' Conference, the Archbishop of Loreto and the directors of Catholic Action in Italy, represented by the President and the General Chaplain, for their invitation to take part in the Loreto pilgrimage. On that occasion, I will have the joy of adding to the Roll of Blesseds three members of this Association: the doctor who became a priest, Pedro Tarrés y Claret of Barcelona, and the Italian young man and woman, Alberto Marvelli and Pina Suriano. I urge the members of Catholic Action to come in large numbers. I will be expecting you at Loreto, dear friends! I expect the children, boys and girls, young people and families! Together we will ask Our Lady of Loreto to obtain for the Association and for the entire Christian people a new springtime of grace and commitment.
Acknowledgment: We thank the Vatican Publisher for allowing us to publish the Homily of Blessed Pope John Paul II, so that it could be accessed by more people all over the world; as a source of God’s encouragements to all of us.
9 August 2013 |