TODAYS GOD'S WORD
By
Fr. Aloysius Santiago sdb
Rector and Parish Priest
Don Bosco Shrine
Lingarajapuram, Bangalore
"It is written, 'My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it into a den of robbers'" (Lk 19: 46)
TODAYS REFLECTION
Jesus was full of zeal for his father’s house. He drove out those who made the Temple a den of robbers. The money changers charged extra money. Those selling animals often sold ten times more costly than the normal market prices. He certainly stepped on the toes of all those who benefited from this injustice and legalized robbery and the broad victimization of the poor pilgrims.
Even today we turn God’s house into a house of business and a den of robbers rather than a house of prayer.
According to the psalmist the law from the mouth of God means more to him than large quantities of silver and gold. This attitude of the psalmist should be ours too.
Let us revive the "Sense of the Sacred"...
Let us cleanse anything which diminishes this "Sense of the Sacred"
Let us become a people who radiate with joy and enthusiasm this "Sense of the Sacred"
In our spiritual journey, may we never neglect to carry the bag of holiness and sacredness because in them contain the tickets to heaven!
QUESTIONS TO PONDER
Is my Worship of God becoming merely external and losing its inner values?
Is my Preaching of God reduced to great talks but devoid of conviction and passion?
Is my Liturgy more a ritualistic and obligatory exercise than truly an experiential one?
TODAY'S SAINT
St. Felix of Valois
Confessor, Hermit and a Co-founder (with Saint John of Matha) of the Trinitarian Order:
Born: April 16, 1127
possibly Valois, France
Died: November 4, 1212 (Aged 85)
Monastery of Cerfroid, Brumetz, Picardy (now the department of Aisne), France
Venerated in: Catholic Church
Canonized: May 1, 1262
Pope Urban IV
Major shrine:
Monastery of Cerfroid, Brumetz, Department of Aisne, France
Feast: November 20
Let us ask St. Felix of Valois, who offered his life to save his brothers in the Faith, to help us not let this mentality conquer us. Let us ask him to help those Catholics to continue to be faithful even when their father – our father, the Pope – orders them to stop fighting for their faith.