Today we celebrate the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time. In our daily lives we are looking for our own happiness. We can find different ways for it because the world offers for us the incredible amount of the different kinds of happiness.
Today in the Gospel we get offer from Jesus – the new law for his disciples, this is the 8 or better 9 Beatitudes. We know Ten Commandments very well but sometimes we don’t know the Beatitudes, which are the new rules for us. The Beatitudes are a series of invitations to generosity and virtue. It is no longer enough to say that we did not do anything terribly wrong; we now must ask whether we have done everything that we could possibly do for others. The power of the Beatitudes is great when we use them. We can share in these 9 Blest when we work together especially as the Body of Christ – the Church.
In our Church the Eucharist is the strongest power, for the people who are looking for true happiness.
Holy Masses
January 29, 2023 – 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time
HC 10:00 AM for +Ed Macek from Jenny Macek
February 5, 2023 – 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
HC 10:00 AM for +Edwin F Swieczkowski from Mr &Mrs. John Chriest
Welcome Our Visitors
Announcements
- Do you have anyone of any reason (for example: someone in Hospital) or life event you would like to pray for – Please ask and see Fr. Andrew.
- As the members of our Church we are responsible for our past and future and we will pray and look for new active members of our Community of Holy Cross Church in Baltimore, MD.
- Please check the Blog of our web site: www.holycrosspncc.org
- My Warmly Thank You to all of the people who remember of me and my family by the presents and the donations. Be sure that you are in my prayers before the Alter.
The latest issue of God’s Field is now available online at http://www.pncc.org. Click on the God’s Field link at the top of the home page and follow the directions to access the latest issue.
- It was necessary that men should be perfect in the law, not by the exterior observeance of precepts but by the interior transformation of their whoel being into sons of God. Then they would be children of their Father in Heaven, perfect as He is perfect.(Thomas Merton – No Man is an Island)
- Thank you to all donors and sponsors for support of our Church. – God bless you.
As I pray, my attitude should be one of silent expectation.
(Andrew Murray – Treasures of Wisdom )
One Main Point
CHRIST WILL COME AGAIN TO SAVE THE POOR
The eight beatitudes express poetically one main idea: those who know that they need God (the poor in spirit) will inherit the Kingdom of God when He comes again. All eight rewards have to do with final coming of Christ. The first and last rewards are the same: Kingdom of Heaven (meaning Kingdom of God). The third reward, land, meaning earth, forms a pair with Heaven (heaven and earth) to mean everything. Other rewards (full justice, mercy, seeing God) are awarded on judgment day [Cleary, Harrington].
Reflections
- Observe the setting, the words, the gestures, the tone of voice, etc. of Jesus on the mount. How does he feel? How do people around him react? Where am I in the scene, and how do I react?
- Looking at the way I live, do I recognize my poverty, my dependence on God? Do I rely on my brain, beauty, and bucks instead?
- Once recognizing my helplessness, do I trust in the promise of the Kingdom of God? If I do, should I experience peace? When?
- If this culture advocates brain, beauty and buck while I rely on God instead, I might be persecuted the way Christians were persecuted by Jews at the time this Gospel was written. What forms of persecution may fall my way, and would I be willing to accept them?