Ordinary Time: February 17th

MASS READINGS

February 17, 2019 (Readings on USCCB website)

COLLECT PRAYER

O God, who teach us that you abide in hearts that are just and true, grant that we may be so fashioned by your grace as to become a dwelling pleasing to you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

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Recipes (1)

• Spring, Fall or Winter Sunday Dinner Menu

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Activities (1)

• Teaching Children About Sickness and Death

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Prayers (4)

• Prayer for a Sick Person
• Ordinary Time, Pre-Lent: Table Blessing 2
• Book of Blessings: Blessing Before and After Meals: Ordinary Time (2nd Plan)
• Litany for the Sick and Afflicted

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Library (7)

• Mental Illness: 'A Real and Authentic Social Health Care Emergency' | Pope Benedict XVI
• Mercy Cleanses the Heart | Pope Francis
• Message for the 56th World Leprosy Day | Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers
• On Healing the World | Pope Francis
• On Visiting the Sick | Pope Francis
• Rediscovering the Sacrament of Penance | Pope Benedict XVI
• The Way of the Church Is That of Mercy and Inclusion | Pope Francis

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Blog & Podcasts (3)

• Luke’s Gospel: The Radical Challenge of Jesus Christ
• Repentance: A refusal to remain on the peripheries
• Scratch and Sniff Sainthood

» Enjoy our Liturgical Seasons series of e-books!

"And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground. A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured (Luke 6:17-18)."

The feast of the Seven Founders of the Orders of Servites, which is ordinarily celebrated today, is superseded by the Sunday liturgy.

Click here for commentary on the readings in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

Sunday Readings
The first reading is from the book of Jeremiah (Jer 17:5-8). Jeremiah lived through one of the most troubled periods of the ancient Near East as he witnessed the fall of Assyria and the rising of Babylon. In the midst of this turmoil, the kingdom of Judah, came to its downfall by resisting this overwhelming force of history. The two predominant themes of Jeremiah's message are to precisely define true Yahwehism, and to proclaim the imminent wars as punishments of Judah's aberrations. Today's reading falls into the category of true Yahwehism and is a wisdom saying on true justice.

The second reading is from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians (1 Cor 15:12, 16-20). This reading continues the teaching we heard last week on the resurrection of the dead. St. Paul addresses the Corinthian claim that there is no such thing as resurrection from the dead.

The Gospel reading is taken from St. Luke (Lk 6:17, 20-26). Jesus then went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also designated apostles: Simon, his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot. He then came down the mountain with them and delivered the sermon on the plain which is our reading for today.

Things to Do:

• Read the more detailed, corresponding passage in Matthew 5:3-12 on the Beatitudes. Choose a beatitude to focus on for the rest of this month. Write it in conspicuous places throughout your house — desk, home altar, fridge, bathroom mirror. Think of some small practical ways to put this beatitude into action in your daily life. For some ideas on how to live the poverty and detachment prescribed by the first beatitude (Blessed are the poor in spirit), read this interview with spiritual director and writer Fr. Dubay.

• Read a summary of St. Bernard's advice for living the Beatitudes, and the Holy Father's exhortation to the youth at Toronto's World Youth Day to be people of the Beatitudes.