Tag: pride

Daily Reading: 01 April – The Tower of Babel – Genesis 11:1-9 ~ orchestrated confusion

First Friday of Easter

+ In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!

This is the day which was made by the Lord: let us rejoice and be glad, alleluia.

E100:1.e In the Beginning:
The Tower of Babel – Genesis 11:1-9 (NLT)

Genesis 11 At one time all the people of the world spoke the same language and used the same words. 2 As the people migrated to the east, they found a plain in the land of Babylonia and settled there.

The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563)
The Tower of Babel
by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563) Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

3 They began saying to each other, “Let’s make bricks and harden them with fire.” (In this region bricks were used instead of stone, and tar was used for mortar.) 4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world.”

5 But the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building. 6 “Look!” he said. “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them! 7 Come, let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won’t be able to understand each other.”

8 In that way, the Lord scattered them all over the world, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why the city was called Babel, because that is where the Lord confused the people with different languages. In this way he scattered them all over the world.

Catherine Tate – The Offensive Translator
(A CEO is desperate to find someone who knows how to speak 7 languages.)

Prayer

I give thanks to You, heavenly Father, for protecting me through the night and granting me another day. I ask You to fortify me with the grace of Your Holy Spirit, and give Your peace to my soul, that I may be free from all needless anxiety and worry. Help me to desire always that which is pleasing and acceptable to You, so that Your will may be my will.

+ Today, make known to me, and take from my heart, every kind, form and degree of pride.

+ Today, empty me of self, and awaken in me the deepest depth and truth of that humility which can make me capable of your revealing light.

+ Today, do not allow attribution to me, for the good that you perform in me and through me, but rather, that all honor be to you.

+ Today, may your presence in me, and your work through me, testify of your holiness and saving grace.

Help me to die to self each day, and continuously seek your glorification in all that I think or do. This I ask in the name of Jesus Christ, the exemplar of humility. Amen.

Closing Sentence

Cleanse our hearts by your truth and guide our lives by your holiness; may we do what is right and pleasing to you.

+ In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Morning Prayer: 11 Feb – Gn 2:4b-9, 15-17; Mk 7:14-23 ~ warned in Eden

Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentences:

Lord, God, Your light which dims the stars awakes all things, and all that springs to life in You Your glory sings. Your peaceful presence, giving strength, is everywhere, and fallen men may rise again on wings of prayer. You are the God whose mercy rests on all You made; You gave us Christ, whose love through death our ransom paid. We praise You, Father, with your Son and Spirit blest, in whom creation lives and moves, and finds its rest.
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A Reading from the Old Testamet: Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-17 (NLT)

When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil. Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land. Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.

Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground — trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
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warning label

The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden — except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”
__________

Your word, O Lord, is truth: consecrate us in the truth. (John 17:17)
__________

A Reading from the Gospels: Mark 7:14-23 (NLT)

Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.”

5 Indicators of an Evil and Wicked Heart
5 Indicators of an Evil and Wicked Heart (click on pic)

Then Jesus went into a house to get away from the crowd, and his disciples asked him what he meant by the parable he had just used. “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.)

And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”
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__________

Canticle

Christ, as a light illumine and guide me. Christ as a shield overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.

Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing:

May the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

+ In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen

Morning Prayer: 23 August – Psalm 101:4-5; Proverbs 30:12-13; John 8:3-9 – on my need for prayer

Morning Prayer

+ In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentences

One thing I have asked of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory.

Psalm 101:4-5

We prostrate ourselves before the life-giving cross.
We prostrate ourselves before the life-giving cross.

I will reject perverse ideas and stay away from every evil. I will not tolerate people who slander their neighbors. I will not endure conceit and pride.

Proverbs 30:12-13

They are pure in their own eyes, but they are filthy and unwashed. They look proudly around, casting disdainful glances.

John 8:3-9

As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.

“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman.

Reflection

IONA

‘Pray for me. I ask you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me.’ If ever you go to a black church that’s a phrase you’ll hear almost every person use when they stand up or come forward to testify – sometimes it’s just like punctuation, not heart-felt at all, but it’s still an important reminder.

If you attend mass you will say, ‘I ask… all the angels and saints and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.’

And George MacLeod, founder of the Iona Community, as he quotes the old spiritual, echoes the same words:

It’s not my brother or my sister
but it’s me, O Lord:
standing in the need of prayer.
We are so warm in our own self-esteem
that we freeze the folks around us.
We get so high in our own estimation
that we stand isolated on a mountain
top of self-righteousness.
That is why you came: Lord Jesus:
not to save the lecherous but to turn
the righteous to repentance
And it is me, O Lord.

From Where Freedom is and Laughter
__________

Before the world began one Word was there; grounded in God he was, rooted in care; by him all things were made; in him was love displayed; through him God spoke and said, ‘I am for you.’

Life found in him its source; death found its end; light found in him its course, darkness its friend, for neither death nor doubt nor darkness can put out the glow of God, the shout: ‘I am for you.’

The Word was in the world which from him came; unrecognized he was, unknown by name; one with all humankind, with the unloved aligned, convincing sight and mind: ‘I am for you.’

All who received the Word by God were blessed; sisters and brothers they of earth’s fond guest. So did the Word of Grace proclaim in time and space and with a human face, ‘I am for you.’
__________

Canticle:

Christ, as a light
illumine and guide me.
Christ, as a shield
overshadow me.
Christ under me;
Christ over me;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Be in the heart of each to whom I speak;
in the mouth of each who speaks unto me.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Christ as a light;
Christ as a shield;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.

Blessing

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you,
wherever He may send you.
May He guide you through the wilderness,
protect you through the storm.
May He bring you home rejoicing
at the wonders He has shown you.
May He bring you home rejoicing
once again into our doors.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

_____________________________________

Peanut Gallery: The general format for Morning Prayer is adapted from the Northumbrian Community‘s Daily Office, as found in Celtic Daily Prayer (see online resources here.) Our Scripture readings and reflections will be taken from the Aidan Daily Readings (Celtic Daily Prayer) during the month of August. On Sundays, we’ll return to the USCCB readings (see online resources here) and various liturgical resources in order to reflect the Church’s worship and concerns throughout the world. Photo illustrations and music videos, available online, are included as they illustrate or illuminate the readings. I will try to give credit and link to sources as best I can.