GOD’S WORD2021DAILY

REFLECTIONS

*with assistance from Maria Pineda (vdmf) and Molly Porter

GOD’S WORD 2021

ISBN: 978-1-925494-54-9

Copyright © St Pauls Publications 2021

Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible, published and © 1966, by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. are used by permission of the publishers

Cover design and internal layout by Domenika Fairy

Illustrations by Dorothy Woodward RSJ

Cover painting: Christ and the Rich Young Ruler (1889) by Heinrich Hofmann

Artwork: January 1, Our Lady of Vladimir, 12th century; February 2, Presentation of Christ in the Temple, German, 15th century; March 19, Saint Joseph with the Infant Jesus by Guido Reni, c. 1635; March 25, The Annunciation, Fra Angelico, c. 1440–1445; March 28, Entry into Jerusalem, Nativity of the Theotokos Church, Bitola, Macedonia; April 2, Christ on the Cross, by Carl Heinrich Bloch, c. 1871; May 31, The Visitation by Giotto 1311; June 29, Sts Peter and Paul by El Greco, c. 1590; July 22, Noli Me Tangere by Fra Angelico, c. 1440-1442; August, 6 Transfiguration by Cristofano Gherardi, 1555; September 8, Nativity of Mary, Spain, 17th century; October 2, Guardian Angel by Pietro da Cortona, 1656; November 1, All Saints by Fra Angelico, c. 1420; December 25, Nativity of Jesus, c. 1473-1475, by Sandro Botticelli; December 27: Peter and John running to the tomb by Eugène Burnand, 1898. All artwork in the public domain (source Wikimedia Commons).

ST PAULS PUBLICATIONS is an activity of the priests and brothers of the Society of St Paul who place at the centre of their lives the mission of evangelisation through the modern means of communication.

Editor: Michael Goonan SSP

Associate Editor: Julie Whiteford

Contributors: January Gil Alinsangan SSPFebruary Louise Byrne (vdmf)*March Michael Goonan SSPApril Debra SnoddyMay Francis J Moloney SDBJune Elizabeth Young RSM

July Joe Eruppakkatt, SSPAugust Teresa PirolaSeptember Brian Grenier CFCOctober Carmel Jones RSJNovember Judy McLeod RSMDecember Fr John O’Connor

Published by St Pauls Publications

P O Box 906, Strathfield NSW 2135, Australia www.stpauls.com.au

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MESSAGE

The Good News of Jesus Christ is the only news that is good for everyone.

The person of Jesus is not some historic figure from the past, nor are his words merely a collection of wise sayings. Jesus is the eternal Word of God who desires to visit us every day. He is alive

and active, the living Word who probes the heart (cf. Hebrews 4:12).

For the disciple of Christ, reading and listening to the Word requires dedication and commitment, but above all, a joyful and

attentive heart. The fifth century bishop and saint, John Chrysostom, urged Christian believers to pray before reading or listening to the

Word of God so that the eyes of the heart might hear the Word and understand God’s will in their lives.

I am pleased to be able to recommend this edition of God’s Word. It is a marvellous way of meeting the Lord every day. It will help us to be mindful of the difference that the Lord’s coming makes in us. It is also a very practical way to take time out from the busyness

of life and be still through prayer and discernment.

As we journey through this year, may God’s Word speak to us and by listening, may we know and cherish what is written. May the Good News of Jesus be in our minds, on our lips,

and in our hearts. Amen.

Bishop Anthony Randazzo Bishop of Broken Bay

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PRAYER FOR HEALINGLord, you invite all who are burdened to come to you.

Allow your healing hand to heal me.

Touch my soul with your compassion for others;

touch my heart with your courage and infinite love for all;

touch my mind with your wisdom,

and may my mouth always proclaim your praise.

Teach me to reach out to you in all my needs,

and help me to lead others to you by my example. 

Most loving Heart of Jesus,

bring me health in body and spirit 

that I may serve you with all my strength.

Touch gently this life which you have created, now and forever.

Amen.

PRAYER IN A TIME OF PANDEMICLord Jesus Christ, you travelled through towns and villages curing every disease and illness. At your command, the sick were made well. Come to our aid during this time of pandemic that we may experience your healing love.

Heal those who are sick with the virus. May they regain their strength.

May those who have died from the virus rest in peace and, through your mercy, rise in glory.

Be with the loved ones of those who are sick or have died. As they worry and grieve, protect them from illness and despair.

Be with the doctors, nurses, researchers and all medical professionals who seek to heal and help those affected and who put themselves at risk in the process. May they know your protection and peace.

Be with the leaders of all nations. Give them the foresight to act with prudence and charity for the well-being of the people they are called to serve.

Stay with us, Lord, and grant us your peace. Amen.

JANuARY

1FRIDAY

ReflectionOn the first day of the year, we ask for God’s people the maternal protection of Mary, the Mother of God. The first terms of endearment we experience in this world come from our mothers. On the spiritual level, this should also hold true. We need the loving gaze of Mary, first directed to Jesus, and then to us who are entrusted to her as her children. No one is outside the sphere of Mary’s loving protection; all are her children in Christ, even those who are not aware of it. She waits for Jesus’ disciples to go to her. Devotion to Mary does not lessen or detract from our devotion to Jesus, the Saviour of the World. She does not point to herself but to her Son, as she once did at the wedding at Cana when she directed the servants to Jesus: ‘Do whatever he tells you’ (John 2: 5).

Mary, The Holy Mother of God

SolemnityWhite

Numbers 6: 22-27The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ‘Say this to Aaron and his sons: “This is how you are to bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord uncover his face and bring you peace.” This is how they are to call down my name on the sons of Israel, and I will bless them.’

Psalm 66: 2-3, 5, 6, 8. R. v. 2May God bless us in his mercy.

Galatians 4: 4-7When the appointed time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law, to redeem the subjects of the Law and to enable us to be adopted as sons. The proof that you are sons is that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts: the Spirit that cries, ‘Abba, Father’, and it is this that makes you a son, you are not a slave anymore; and if God has made you son, then he has made you heir.

Luke 2: 16-21The shepherds hurried away to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. When they saw the child they repeated what they had been told about him, and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds had to say. As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen; it was exactly as they had been told.

When the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised, they gave him the name Jesus, the name the angel had given him before his conception.

JANuARY

2SATuRDAY

ReflectionJohn, the son of Zechariah, is so associated with his baptising ministry in the Jordan River that he is known as the Baptist. But in the Fourth Gospel, the fact that John baptises is subordinated to his role as a ‘witness’ (martys in Greek). He calls himself a witness to the one who is coming after him—soon to be identified as Jesus (John 1: 29). The implication is that anyone who follows John should heed his testimony and accept Jesus as the Messiah, as one greater than John. John also points to Jesus as the Lamb of redemption and will bear supreme witness by the shedding of his blood. Do we in turn give witness to our Christian faith by our good example? St Paul VI rightly pointed out that people today listen to ‘witnesses’ rather than ‘teachers’.

Saturday before Epiphany

Sts Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen,

bishops, doctorsMemorial

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1 John 2: 22-28The man who denies that Jesus is the Christ – he is the liar, he is Antichrist; and he is denying the Father as well as the Son, because no one who has the Father can deny the Son, and to acknowledge the Son is to have the Father as well. Keep alive in yourselves what you were taught in the beginning: as long as what you were taught in the beginning is alive in you, you will live in the Son and in the Father; and what is promised to you by his own promise is eternal life. This is all that I am writing to you about the people who are trying to lead you astray. But you have not lost the anointing that he gave you, and you do not need anyone to teach you; the anointing he gave teaches you everything; you are anointed with truth, not with a lie, and as it has taught you, so you must stay in him. Live in Christ, then, my children, so that if he appears, we may have full confidence, and not turn from him in shame at his coming.

Psalm 97: 1-4. R. v. 3All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.

John 1: 19-25This is how John appeared as a witness. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ he not only declared, but he declared quite openly, ‘I am not the Christ.’ ‘Well then, ’ they asked ‘are you Elijah?’ ‘I am not’ he said. ‘Are you the Prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ So they said to him, ‘Who are you? We must take back an answer to those who sent us. What have you to say about yourself?’ So John said, ‘I am, as Isaiah prophesied: a voice that cries in the wilderness: Make a straight way for the Lord.’

Now these men had been sent by the Pharisees, and they put this further question to him, ‘Why are you baptising if you are not the Christ, and not Elijah, and not the prophet?’ John replied ‘I baptise with water; but there stands among you – unknown to you – the one who is coming after me; and I am not fit to undo his sandal-strap.’ This happened at Bethany, on the far side of the Jordan, where John was baptising.

JANuARY

3SuNDAY

The Epiphany of the LordSolemnity

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Isaiah 60: 1-6Arise, shine out Jerusalem, for your light has come, the glory of the Lord is rising on you, though night still covers the earth and darkness the peoples. Above you the Lord now rises and above you his glory appears. The nations come to your light and kings to your dawning brightness. Lift up your eyes and look round: all are assembling and coming towards you, your sons from far away and daughters being tenderly carried. At this sight you will grow radiant, your heart throbbing and full; since the riches of the sea will flow to you; the wealth of the nations come to you; camels in throngs will cover you, and dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; everyone in Sheba will come, bringing gold and incense and singing the praise of the Lord.

Psalm 71: 1-2, 7-8, 10-13. R. v. 11Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

Ephesians 3: 2-3, 5-6You have probably heard how I have been entrusted by God with the grace he meant for you, and that it was by a revelation that I was given the knowledge of the mystery. This mystery that has now been revealed through the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets was unknown to any men

ReflectionIn telling the story of the birth of the Messiah, Matthew looks back to the Jewish Scriptures (what we call the Old Testament) and forward to the events in Jesus’ later life.

In the Book of Numbers, King Balak of Moab summons Balaam, an occult visionary from the east, to curse Israel. But this seer ends up blessing the Israelites instead. In ecstasy, he sees that ‘a star from Jacob takes the leadership, a scepter arises from Israel’ (Numbers 24: 17). Scholars suggest that this oracle speaks of the emergence of the Davidic dynasty: David is the star and the scepter ruling over the kingdom of Judah and Israel. Now, Matthew tells the story of the magoi (‘magi’ or ‘wise men’) who, like Balaam, speak of the star of the newborn king of the Jews: Jesus, the Messiah of the house of David.

Other details point to the later story of Jesus. The Jewish rulers, represented by Herod and his cohort, refuse to believe in Jesus and persecute him. Israel, in general, will not recognise the day of ‘their visitation’ by God in Jesus. But the Gentiles accepted the Gospel when it was preached to them. The wise men represent the Gentile worshipers in Matthew’s community.

The star can also symbolise the revelation of God in nature. God can be known and understood in the things that he has made (Romans 1: 20). Creation can lead us to Jesus. But to know him as the Messiah, we must be directed to him by a special revelation: God’s word in the Sacred Scriptures.

Like the wise men we are invited to approach Jesus and pay homage to him. We do this through our participation in the Eucharist and by bringing to him the gifts of our ordinary life.

in past generations; it means that pagans now share the same inheritance, that they are parts of the same body, and that the same promise has been made to them, in Christ Jesus, through the gospel.

Matthew 2: 1-12After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east. ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews?’ they asked. ‘We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.’ When King Herod heard this he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem. He called together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, and enquired of them where the Christ was to be born. ‘At Bethlehem in Judaea, ’ they told him ‘for this is what the prophet wrote: And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, you are by no means least among the leaders of Judah, for out of you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel.’

Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared, and sent them on to Bethlehem. ‘Go and find out all about the child’, he said ‘and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage.’ Having listened to what the king had to say, they set out. And there in front of them was the star they had seen rising; it went forward and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. But they were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, and returned to their own country by a different way.

JANuARY

4MONDAY

ReflectionGalilee, the region of northern Palestine, came under the control of the Assyrians in 722 BC. Many of the inhabitants were exiled to Nineveh, and pagan foreigners were brought in to settle in the land. The region experienced more foreign influence than the southern kingdom of Judea, and its inhabitants intermarried with the pagans. The prophet Isaiah referred to it as ‘Galilee of the nations’ (Isaiah 8: 23) precisely because of its pagan elements. Galileans were seen as an impure race, and the suspect orthodoxy of their belief made Galilee a ‘land in darkness’. Jesus begins his public ministry in this region. His presence and teaching in Galilee are like the star of his birth. Jesus is the light that has arisen in Galilee populated by both Jews and pagans. His presence there marks the new dawn of hope.

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1 John 3: 22–4: 6Whatever we ask God, we shall receive, because we keep his commandments and live the kind of life that he wants. His commandments are these: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and that we love one another as he told us to. Whoever keeps his commandments lives in God and God lives in him. We know that he lives in us by the Spirit that he has given us. It is not every spirit, my dear people, that you can trust; test them, to see if they come

from God, there are many false prophets, now, in the world. You can tell the spirits that come from God by this: every spirit which acknowledges that Jesus the Christ has come in the flesh is from God; but any spirit which will not say this of Jesus is not from God, but is the spirit of Antichrist, whose coming you were warned about. Well, now he is here, in the world. Children, you have already overcome these false prophets, because you are from God and you have in you one who is greater than anyone in this world; as for them, they are of the world, and so they speak the language of the world and the world listens to them. But we are children of God, and those who know God listen to us; those who are not of God refuse to listen to us. This is how we can tell the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood.

Psalm 2: 7-8, 10-11. R. v. 8I will give you all the nations for your heritage.

Matthew 4: 12-17, 23-25Hearing that John had been arrested, Jesus went back to Galilee, and leaving Nazareth he went and settled in Capernaum, a lakeside town on the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali. In this way the prophecy of Isaiah was to be fulfilled: Land of Zebulun! Land of Naphtali! Way of the sea on the far side of Jordan, Galilee of the nations! The people that lived in darkness has seen a great light; on those who dwell in the land and shadow of death a light has dawned.

From that moment Jesus began his preaching with the message, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.’

He went round the whole of Galilee teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom and curing all kinds of diseases and sickness among the people. His fame spread throughout Syria, and those who were suffering from diseases and painful complaints of one kind or another, the possessed, epileptics, the paralysed, were all brought to him, and he cured them. Large crowds followed him, coming from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judaea and Transjordania.

JANuARY

5TuESDAY

ReflectionJesus’ heart is moved with pity for the people because they are like sheep without a shepherd. The people are hungry and seem to be walking aimlessly. The need for a shepherd points to Moses who prays to the Lord to appoint a leader to take his place before he dies ‘so that the community of the Lord may not be like sheep without a shepherd’ (Numbers 27: 17). Jesus cares for his disciples with the solicitude of a true shepherd and he reveals himself as the Good Shepherd (John 10). As the Good Shepherd, Jesus, according to Pope Francis, ‘is attentive to each one of us, he seeks and loves us, addressing to us his word, knowing the depths of our hearts, our desires and our hopes, as well as our failures and our disappointments.’

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1 John 4: 7-10My dear people, let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love. God’s love for us was revealed when God sent into the world his only Son so that we could have life through him; this is the love I mean: not our love for God, but God’s love for us when he sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away.

Psalm 71: 1-4, 7-8. R. cf. v. 11Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

Mark 6: 34-44As Jesus stepped ashore he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length. By now it was getting very late, and his disciples came up to him and said, ‘This is a lonely place and it is getting very late, so send them away, and they can go to the farms and villages round about, to buy themselves something to eat.’ He replied, ‘Give them something to eat yourselves.’ They answered, ‘Are we to go and spend two hundred denarii on bread for them to eat?’ ‘How many loaves have you?’ he asked. ‘Go and see.’ And when they had found out they said, ‘Five, and two fish.’ Then he ordered them to get all the people together in groups on the green grass, and they sat down on the ground in squares of hundreds and fifties. Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven and said the blessing; then he broke the loaves and handed them to his disciples to distribute among the people. He also shared out the two fish among them all. They all ate as much as they wanted. They collected twelve basketfuls of scraps of bread and pieces of fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.

JANuARY

6WEDNESDAY

ReflectionWhen they encounter Jesus walking on the water, the disciples think they are seeing a water spirit and, understandably, they are afraid. Jesus allays the fears of the disciples with a summons to courage, saying, ‘It is I.’ While this can be understood as a normal statement of identity (‘It is I, Jesus’), it also possesses a deeper significance as the well-known formula of God’s self-revelation. When Moses asks God in the burning bush, what is your name, God replies: ‘I am who I am’ (Exodus 3: 14). By walking upon the water in today’s Gospel and using the emphatic ‘I’, Jesus is revealed as possessing divine power. Moreover, the admonition to take courage is an integral part of the divine formula of self-revelation. God promises to Israel: ‘Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you… Should you pass through the sea, I will be with you… For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your saviour’ (Isaiah 43: 1-3). Let us, therefore, draw courage from the words of St Paul: ‘With God on our side who can be against us?’ (Romans 8: 31).

Wednesday after Epiphany

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1 John 4: 11-18My dear people, since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another. No one has ever seen God; but as long as we love one another God will live in us and his love will be complete in us. We can know that we are living in him and he is living in us because he lets us share his Spirit. We ourselves saw and we testify that the Father sent his Son as saviour of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he in God. We ourselves have known and put our faith in God’s love towards ourselves. God is love and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him. Love will come to its perfection in us when we can face the day of Judgement without fear; because even in this world we have become as he is. In love there can be no fear, but fear is driven out by perfect love: because to fear is to expect punishment, and anyone who is afraid is still imperfect in love.

Psalm 71: 1-2, 10-13. R. cf. v. 11Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

Mark 6: 45-52After the five thousand had eaten and were filled, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to

Bethsaida, while he himself sent the crowd away. After saying good-bye to them he went off into the hills to pray. When evening came, the boat was far out on the lake, and he was alone on the land. He could see they were worn out with rowing, for the wind was against them; and about the fourth watch of the night he came towards them, walking on the lake. He was going to pass them by, but when they saw him walking on the lake they thought it was a ghost and cried out, for they had all seen him and were terrified. But he at once spoke to them, and said, ‘Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid.’ Then he got into the boat with them, and the wind dropped. They were utterly and completely dumbfounded, because they had not seen what the miracle of the loaves meant; their minds were closed.

JANuARY

7THuRSDAY

ReflectionJesus’ sermon in the synagogue of Nazareth is programmatic of his entire ministry. Jesus’ teaching is the fulfillment not only of the prophecy of Isaiah but of the whole of the Hebrew Scriptures. He comes as the fulfillment of the story and hopes of God’s people.

The time of God’s salvation, the Lord’s year of favour (that is, the ‘Jubilee year’), has come with his presence as expressed by the emphatic ‘today’—not in some future time. As people respond to Jesus’ message, salvation is at work in them. And so Jesus tells Zacchaeus, who promises to share his possessions with the poor and repay what he might have extorted, ‘Today salvation has come to this house’ (Luke 19: 9). And to the criminal who owns up to his crimes and asks to be remembered, Jesus declares, ‘Today, you will be with me in paradise’ (Luke 23: 43).

Thursday after EpiphanyWhite

orSt Raymond of

Penyafort, priest(Optional, White)

1 John 4: 19–5: 4We are to love, because God loved us first. Anyone who says, ‘I love God’, and hates his brother, is a liar, since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God, whom he has never seen. So this is the commandment that he has given us, that anyone who loves God must also love his brother. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten by God, and whoever loves the Father that begot him loves the child whom he begets. We can be sure that we love God’s children if we love God himself and do what he has commanded us; this is what loving God is – keeping his commandments; and his commandments are not difficult, because anyone who has been begotten by God has already overcome the world; this is the victory over the world – our faith.

Psalm 71: 1-2, 14-15, 17. R. cf. v. 11Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

Luke 4: 14-22Jesus, with the power of the Spirit in him, returned to Galilee; and his reputation spread throughout the countryside. He taught in their synagogues and everyone praised him.

He came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read, and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written: The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.

He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’ And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips.