Reflection for  THURSDAY, 15th Week, Ordinary Time.

Today's Word

By


Fr. Aloysius Santiago sdb
Rector and Parish Priest
Don Bosco Shrine
Lingarajapuram, Bangalore

Genesis: 3:14 "God said to Moses, “I AM who I AM.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM  has sent me to you.'"


Today's Reflection

Most of us are employees. We work for someone else, or for a company.

If that is the case, how long have we been working with that company?

Nowadays, given the many opportunities and the changing landscape of the economy, to be with a company for 10 years would be considered a long service.

If 10 years seems like a long time, then how about 40 years?

And what if those 40 years were a difficult time with a hard-headed people who complained at everything?

Moses answered the call from God to go back to Egypt to deliver God's people from slavery and to lead them into freedom.

If Moses had known that it was going to be 40 long years of leading the people in the desert, he would have certainly considered carefully.

Nonetheless, in the end he was rewarded, not by stepping foot on the Promised Land, but with eternal rest with the Lord after a lifetime of hardships.

That is also what we long for - eternal rest with the Lord - at the end of the labours of life.


Resolution

Let's resolve to  remember that our sufferings on earth cannot be compared to the glory of above.

What is temporary cannot be compared at all with what is in eternity.


Today's Saint

ST. BONAVENTURE (BONA VENTURA: GOOD LUCK)

Sanctity and learning raised BONAVENTURE to the Church’s highest honors, and from a child he was the companion of Saints. Yet at heart he was ever the poor Franciscan friar, and practiced and taught humility and mortification. Saint Francis gave him his name; for, having miraculously cured him of a mortal sickness, he prophetically exclaimed of the child, “O bona ventura!”—good luck. He is known also as the “Seraphic Doctor,” from the fervor of divine love which breathes in his writings. He was the friend of Saint Thomas Aquinas, who asked him one day from where he drew his great learning. He replied by pointing to his crucifix. At another time Saint Thomas found him in ecstasy while writing the life of Saint Francis, and exclaimed, “Let us leave a Saint to write of a Saint.” They received the Doctor’s cap together. He was the guest and adviser of Saint Louis, and the director of Saint Isabella, the king’s sister. At the age of thirty-five he was made general of his Order; and only escaped another dignity, the Archbishopric of York, by tears and entreaties. Gregory X appointed him Cardinal Bishop of Albano. When the Saint heard of the Pope’s resolve to create him a Cardinal, he quietly made his escape from Italy. But Gregory sent him a summons to return to Rome. On his way, he stopped to rest himself at a convent of his Order near Florence; and there two Papal messengers, sent to meet him with the Cardinal’s hat, found him washing the dishes. The Saint desired them to hang the hat on a bush that was near, and take a walk in the garden until he had finished what he was about. Then taking up the hat with unfeigned sorrow, he joined the messengers, and paid them the respect due to their character. He sat at the Pontiff’s right hand, and spoke first at the Council of Lyons. His piety and eloquence won over the Greeks to Catholic union, and then his strength failed. He died while the Council was sitting, and was buried by the assembled bishops in 1274.

GOD BLESS YOU 

Good morning. Have a nice safe day

HAPPY FEAST!