Message of the Week

What is the Greatest Commandment?

The Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

According to Jesus, the first commandment is to love God with heart, mind, soul, and strength.  This is usually taken to mean loving God with your whole being.  But it wouldn’t hurt to look at the modern meanings of those words to see how we can apply them.

The heart is the symbol of our desires and love.   To love God with all your heart can mean recognizing God as the one source of your life. That means you love God above everything and everyone. How many of us can say we would rather spend time with God, than with our friends, family, or loved ones?

To love God with all your mind can mean that you never stop thinking of God.  You can ask God to help you any time you decide, whether it is what to watch next on TV, or what to do for a living.  The better you know God, the more likely you will hear God in your decisions.  You can get to know God through the scriptures and other spiritual readings.

If the soul is the center of your spiritual life, then loving God with all your soul can remind you to listen to God when you pray.  You might remember how annoying it can be to converse with someone who does all the talking.  At first, it is easy, but eventually, you get nervous because you have things you would like to say.   Think of that when you pray; give God a chance to put in a few words, too.

Finally, to love God with all your strength can mean you put as much energy into loving God as you do with exercising, doing your day job, cleaning the house, or mowing the lawn.  Remember that no matter how hard you work for the Lord, God loves you even more than you love Him.

Tom Schmidt, Diocesan Publications.

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110324.cfm

 

 

She Contributed her Whole Livelihood

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