Sunday, November 23rd, 2014
Post #1352
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A Prayer For Today
November 23rd, 2014
Father,We pray that You will help us to be people of integrity – the same on the outside as we are on the inside. We pray that we may be the same when we are alone and when people are watching us. We pray that we will know that God loves us no matter who we are, and the truth will enable us to remove the masks we have been wearing, and we will dare to be who we really are. We pray that we will learn to accept and love one another for who we really are. We ask You to help us to be free of any critical or judgmental spirit, so that we may be free to dare to be who we really are without fear of being judged or rejected. We ask these things in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
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Author of Today’s Gospel Reading
St Matthew the Apostle
St. Matthew, one of the twelve Apostles, is the author of the first Gospel. This has been the constant tradition of the Church and is confirmed by the Gospel itself. He was the son of Alpheus and was called to be an Apostle while sitting in the tax collector’s place at Capernaum. Before his conversion he was a publican, i.e., a tax collector by profession. He is to be identified with the “Levi” of Mark and Luke.
His apostolic activity was at first restricted to the communities of Palestine. Nothing definite is known about his later life. There is a tradition that points to Ethiopia as his field of labor; other traditions mention of Parthia and Persia. It is uncertain whether he died a natural death or received the crown of martyrdom.
St. Matthew’s Gospel was written to fill a sorely felt want for his fellow countrymen, both believers and unbelievers. For the former, it served as a token of his regard and as an encouragement in the trial to come, especially the danger of falling back to Judaism; for the latter, it was designed to convince them that the Messiah had come in the person of Jesus, our Lord, in Whom all the promises of the messianic Kingdom embracing all people had been fulfilled in a spiritual rather than in a carnal way: “My Kingdom is not of this world.” His Gospel, then, answered the question put by the disciples of St. John the Baptist, “Are You He Who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
Writing for his countrymen of Palestine, St. Matthew composed his Gospel in his native Aramaic, the “Hebrew tongue” mentioned in the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. Soon afterward, about the time of the persecution of Herod Agrippa I in 42 AD, he took his departure for other lands. Another tradition places the composition of his Gospel either between the time of this departure and the Council of Jerusalem, i.e., between 42 AD and 50 AD or even later. Definitely, however, the Gospel, depicting the Holy City with its altar and temple as still existing, and without any reference to the fulfillment of our Lord’s prophecy, shows that it was written before the destruction of the city by the Romans in 70 AD, and this internal evidence confirms the early traditions.
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Our Old Testament Reading
Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17 CEV
Thus says the Lord GOD:
I myself will look after and tend my sheep. As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep. I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark. I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest, says the Lord GOD. The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy, shepherding them rightly.As for you, my sheep, says the Lord GOD, I will judge between one sheep and another, between rams and goats.
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Our New Testament Reading
Matthew 25: 31-46 CEV
Jesus said to his disciples:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left,’Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
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Hymn For Today
“When I Needed A Neighbor Were You There, Were You There?”
Written by Sydney Carter
Performed by The Brothers of St. Gabriel1.
When I needed a neighbor
Were you there, were you there?
When I needed a neighbor
Were you there?
And the creed and the color
And the name won’t matter
Were you there?2.
I was hungry and thirsty
Were you there, were you there?
I was hungry and thirsty
Were you there?
And the creed and the color
And the name won’t matter
Were you there?3.
I was cold, I was naked
Were you there, were you there?
I was cold, I was naked
Were you there?
And the creed and the color
And the name won’t matter
Were you there?4.
When I needed a shelter
Were you there, were you there?
When I needed a shelter
Were you there?
And the creed and the color
And the name won’t matter
Were you there?5.
When I needed a healer
Were you there, were you there?
When I needed a healer
Were you there?
And the creed and the color
And the name won’t matter
Were you there?6.
Wherever you travel
I’ll be there, I’ll be there.
Wherever you travel
I’ll be there.
And the creed and the color
And the name won’t matter
I’ll be there.
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Thanks Be To God!
Amen
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