Intercom Magazine Thought for the Day
July/ August 2024
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
7 July 2024
Over-familiarity is a common and usual danger to all of us. It is due to the limitations of our human condition that can lead us to take many things, even the important ones, for granted. Instead of seeing God in everything and being amazed and excited about it, we only see the externals and go through some routine that usually has the bad trait of deadening our sensibilities, if not our faith, then our hope and charity.
We have to aggressively cultivate the art of always being amazed at God and at all his works. That should be the proper state for us to be in.
Fr Roy Cimagala
www.dailyguardian.com
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Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
14 July 2024
Do we really need all the baggage we carry through life? ‘Those are really rich whose needs are the least’. That is what Jesus is teaching us.
The disciples went off and did the three central works of Jesus:
They proclaimed the Kingdom and called for a radical change of heart from people, so that they might see life in the way that Jesus, the Son of God, was proclaiming.
They liberated many people from evil influences and compulsions.
They anointed the sick and brought them healing and wholeness.
This is what we too are all called to do within the circumstances of our life. Having little but giving much.
www.livingspace.sacredspace.ie
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Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
21 July 2024
Today’s gospel story is for people busy with caring for others. Jesus’ desire for peace and quiet was disturbed by the crowds who needed him. This is an image of many parents and people in helping professions. We need rest and time to recharge the energy and love of the heart; but at times the needs of others will take over. Prayer can unite both – the prayer of our action and the prayer of love. The place of our mind can be very crowded with the cares and concerns of life. We need time to give these over to God in prayer and then time just to be still. Stillness is of the essence of prayer.
www.sacredspace.com
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Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
28 July 2024 • World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly
Grandparents bestow upon their grandchildren the strength and wisdom that time and experience have given them. Grandchildren bless their grandparents with a youthful vitality and innocence that help them stay young at heart forever. Together they create a chain of love linking the past with the future. The chain may lengthen, but it will never part.
Grandparents are a family’s greatest treasure, The founders of a loving legacy, the greatest storytellers, The keepers of traditions that linger on in cherished memory. Grandparents are the family’s strong foundation. Their very special love sets them apart. Through happiness and sorrow, through their special love and caring, Grandparents keep a family close at heart.
(Author unknown)
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
4 August 2024
The hungry nations of the world cry out to the peoples blessed with abundance. And the Church, cut to the quick by this cry, asks each and every [person] to hear his brother’s plea and answer it lovingly. Countless millions are starving, countless families are destitute, countless men are steeped in ignorance; countless people need schools, hospitals, and homes worthy of the name. In such circumstances, we cannot tolerate public and private expenditures of a wasteful nature; we cannot but condemn lavish displays of wealth by nations or individuals; we cannot approve a debilitating arms race. It is our solemn duty to speak out against them.
Saint Pope Paul VI, Populorum Progressio
(On the development of peoples), 1967, para. 3 & 53
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
11 August 2024
Two hermits lived together for many years without a quarrel. One said to the other ‘Let’s have a quarrel as other men do.’ The other answered, ‘ I don’t know how a quarrel happens.’ The first said, ‘ Look here, I’ll put a brick between us and I’ll say ‘that’s mine.’ Then you say, ‘No, it’s mine. That’s how you begin a quarrel.’
So they put a brick between them and one of them said, ‘That’s mine.’ The other said, ‘No, it’s mine.’ He answered, ‘Yes, it’s yours. Take it away.’ They were unable to argue with each other.
Rowan Williams
Where God Happens – Discovering God in One Another
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
15 August 2024
All the feast days of Mary mark the great mysteries of her life and her part in the work of redemption. The central mystery of her life and person is her divine motherhood, celebrated both at Christmas and a week later (1 January) on the feast of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. The Immaculate Conception (8 December) marks the preparation for that motherhood, so that she had the fullness of grace from the first moment of her existence, completely untouched by sin. The Assumption completes God’s work in her since it was not fitting that the flesh that had given life to God himself should ever undergo corruption.
www.dioceseofvenice.org
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
18 August 2024
Every night I try to think of three things in the day that has passed that I can give thanks for. Sometimes it requires a bit of a struggle because something may have happened that has obscured any sense of gratitude. However there are always at least three things to be grateful for. The little bit of wisdom that ‘gratitude is often the shortest-lived emotion’ has forced me to dwell on those things I give thanks for, rather than swallow them quickly I savour them and dwell on them. I’ve often give this bit of advice to people who are struggling with a spot of depression and they’ve come back to me to say ‘thank you.’
Alan Hilliard,
Dipping into Life (Messenger Publications)
Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time
25 August 2024
Perhaps the best way of approaching the mystery of life commitments is by reflecting on God’s commitment to us. This is a commitment that will never be broken. I believe that because of God’s permanent commitment to us we can make a life commitment to God. There are some very dramatic actions such as religious vows or marriage vows that express that commitment. However, the commitment is repeated and renewed every time we bless ourselves, every time we pray even a prayer of petition, every time we celebrate a Eucharist. We will not know whether we have been faithful to our life commitment until we reach the end of our lives and stand before the presence of God.
Fr Robert Lauder
The Tablet