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This plan follows the Sunday liturgy:  reading + psalm + reading + gospel       From  www.simplebible.info         Previous R-R-P 

O Holy Spirit, please guide me as I read these passages for today.                     
May these passages give me hope, strength, wisdom, compassion, courage and peace for my daily life     Chinese text

Please feel free to add  insights and prayers in the comment box below. 

 Reading - Reflection - Prayer   June 19, 2013 
With readers' comments, below  

  Reading:  Ezekiel 1- 3

About 5 years after the first group of Jews were exiled to Babylon,
Ezekiel received a vision while he was with the exiles in Babylon.

Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord and he heard a voice saying:
"I am choosing you to speak my message to the people.

Whether the people listen to you or not,
you must keep on proclaiming my message.

You are to be a sentry to the House of Israel,
a lookout who warns them of danger coming."


Reflection: 
Ezekiel, at the age of 25, was amongst 3,000 upper class Jews who were exiled to Babylon. On the bank of the Chebar River,  Ezekiel and his wife dwelt in their own home where exiled Judaic visitors came to seek his prophetic insights. There is no mention of him having any offspring, only that his wife died rather young, in the ninth year of exile, when Ezekiel was 34 years of age - from this Wikipedia article which is a good introduction to Ezekiel

Prayer:
Lord, please help people listen to your message and obey it

 

 

   Reading:  Psalm 101

My song is of mercy and justice.
I sing to you, O Lord.

I will try to walk with blameless heart.
I will try to give my attention to what is good, not what is bad.

People who slander others, people of proud looks,
these will not be my friends.

People who are good and do good,
these will be my friends.

Reflection: 
The above words give us a definition of "walking with a blameless heart":
- being interested in good things, not bad things
- avoiding slanderers and proud people
- associating with good people who do good

Prayer:  Dear Lord, please help me to "walk with a blameless heart"

 

Reading:  Romans 2

People become holy in God's sight by doing what is right.
Listening to God's Law is not enough. We have to put it into practice in our lives

Non-Jewish people who follow a good conscience and do what is right, have God's Law engraved on their hearts

What matters is not circumcision of the body, but circumcision of the heart.
The real Jew is one who is a Jew in his heart

Reflection: The real Christian is one who is a Christian in his heart

Prayer: Jesus, help me to love you with all my heart. May my love for you not be just something external, but something real, in my heart

 

Reading: Mark 2     

One Sabbath day Jesus and his disciples were walking through a cornfield.
The disciples were hungry. They picked some ears of corn and ate them.

Picking corn on the Sabbath was regarded as unlawful by the Pharisees.
So the Pharisees said to Jesus "Your disciples are breaking the Sabbath law".

Jesus replied "Don't you remember what King David and his followers once did when they were hungry? 
They ate the Temple bread which only the priests were allowed to eat.

Go and learn the meaning  of these words
'What I want is mercy, not superficial external offerings'.

The Son of Man  is master of the Sabbath."

Reflection:
The Pharisees had turned the Sabbath into a prisoner of human laws.
Religious leaders must be careful not to turn religion into a prisoner of human laws

Prayer: Jesus, Son of Man, please help me understand  that love is more important than law.

Comments welcome here