Wisdom breathes life into her children and admonishes those who seek her. He who loves her loves life; those who seek her will be embraced by the Lord. He who holds her fast inherits glory; wherever he dwells, the LORD bestows blessings. Those who serve her serve the Holy One; those who love her the LORD loves. He who obeys her judges nations; he who hearkens to her dwells in her inmost chambers. If one trusts her, he will possess her; his descendants too will inherit her. She walks with him as a stranger and at first she puts him to the test; Fear and dread she brings upon him and tries him with her discipline until she try him by her laws and trust his soul. Then she comes back to bring him happiness and reveal her secrets to them and she will heap upon him treasures of knowledge and an understanding of justice. But if he fails her, she will abandon him and deliver him into the hands of despoilers.
John said to Jesus,
"Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.” Jesus replied, "Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us."
REFLECTION:
We read both of the readings for today, before starting our family discussion. We began our discussion by saying which of the readings we wanted to talk about more. Two of us liked Sirach the best, and two liked the Gospel of Mark the best.
My husband liked the Gospel and said that the apostles were very protective of Jesus. They wanted to make sure that if these people were not following Jesus and getting instruction from Him, they were not suppose to be using Jesus’ name to cast out demons. My husband also said that Jesus had His work cut out for Himself with the Apostles. Jesus chose these men knowing they had a lot to learn and we get to learn along with them in the Gospels.
The first reading from Sirach talks about Wisdom. My girls liked the reading from Sirach best. It is a very interesting reading, and they agreed, they would like to have Wisdom. In our PAPA handbook there is a section with our PAPA acronyms (page 67 of the PAPA Handbook); one of them says, “How to gain wisdom? PSB - Pray, Serve, Bless”. I find it very interesting that the Gospel reading from Sunday is actually PSB, and then today’s reading is about wisdom and the disciples learning from the wisdom of Jesus.
How many of us would like to have Wisdom with us? What did the Apostles have to do to gain Wisdom? All of these readings are our guide and with tools like PSB in our PAPA handbook to remind us daily, we too can gain Wisdom.
As we discussed these readings and about PSB, the girls put it all together and said, "we already pray, and we serve by helping at church, at school, or even at home. But how can we bless?" My husband said that is probably one of the easiest things to do, and one of the hardest. It is easy to bless those you love, you give them a hug and will good for them. It is hard when you need to bless your enemy and will them good. How many of us do this today? This is what the Apostles went around doing throughout their days here on earth. I can see how Praying, serving and blessing would help you to gain Wisdom.
Praying for our Priests daily, Serving the Lord through PAPA (through PWD - Prayer, Words or Deeds) and blessing everyone we come in contact with through out our days. This is our PAPA Philosophy (handbook page 22). We pray that we all gain the Wisdom that we seek as we PSB.
May God Bless us all!
