Monday, October 17, 2011 {St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop, Martyr (Memorial)}

REFLECTION FOR TODAY
Listen to me for one moment and you will see that only the service of God will console us and make us happy in the midst of all the miseries of life. To accomplish it, you do not need to leave either your belongings, or your parents, or even your friends, unless they are leading you to sin. You have no need to go and spend the rest of your lives in the desert to weep there for your sins. If that were necessary for us, indeed, we should be very happy to have such a remedy for our ills. But no, a father and a mother of a family can serve God by living with their children and bringing them up in a Christian way. A servant can very easily serve God and his master, with nothing to stop him. No, my dear bretheren, The way of life that means serving God changes nothing in all that we have to do. On the contrary, we simply do better all the things we must do!
-- St. John Vianney

READINGS FOR TODAY
First Reading: Romans 4:20-25
20 His faith did not leave him, and he did not doubt God's promise; his faith filled him with power, and he gave praise to God.
21 He was absolutely sure that God would be able to do what he had promised.
22 That is why Abraham, through faith, “was accepted as righteous by God.”

23 The words “he was accepted as righteous” were not written for him alone.
24 They were written also for us who are to be accepted as righteous, who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from death.
25 Because of our sins he was given over to die, and he was raised to life in order to put us right with God.
Psalms: Luke 1:69-75
69 He has provided for us a mighty Savior, a descendant of his servant David.
70 He promised through his holy prophets long ago
71 that he would save us from our enemies, from the power of all those who hate us.
72 He said he would show mercy to our ancestors and remember his sacred covenant.
73-74 With a solemn oath to our ancestor Abraham he promised to rescue us from our enemies and allow us to serve him without fear,
75 so that we might be holy and righteous before him all the days of our life.
Gospel: Luke 12:13-21
(The Parable of the Rich Fool)
13 A man in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide with me the property our father left us.”
14 Jesus answered him, “Friend, who gave me the right to judge or to divide the property between you two?”
15 And he went on to say to them all, “Watch out and guard yourselves from every kind of greed; because your true life is not made up of the things you own, no matter how rich you may be.”
16 Then Jesus told them this parable: “There was once a rich man who had land which bore good crops.
17 He began to think to himself, ‘I don't have a place to keep all my crops. What can I do?
18 This is what I will do,’ he told himself; ‘I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, where I will store the grain and all my other goods.
19 Then I will say to myself, Lucky man! You have all the good things you need for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself’
20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night you will have to give up your life; then who will get all these things you have kept for yourself?’”
21 And Jesus concluded, “This is how it is with those who pile up riches for themselves but are not rich in God's sight.”