Today’s letter from St Paul sounds almost anti-family. He says it’s easier for someone who is unmarried to be mindful of God’s will than it is for a married person. A spouse is distracted by the worldly things marriage brings..including obligations to your significant other. But in the context of today’s Old Testament reading from Deuteronomy and the Gospel reading from Mark, we see in Paul’s letter the very reason we have Brothers In Christ at our parish…for fathers to claim the authority granted by God the Father through God the Son, Jesus, to teach his word to OUR sons and daughters. That way, God’s word is passed from generation to generation of families. And in that way, all heads of families are prophets. That’s the true wisdom of the Sacrament of Marriage…and of all the sacraments. They are outward signs of God’s grace…and we are responsible for sharing that grace by making our families his living word for others to hear.
Well said Tom! I think we should mention your thoughts from this day at the next opportunity we have at a BIC meeting.
One of the things that I wrote in my mass log was when Fr. Pete spoke of how evil spirits tempt us to make bad decisions. I wish I was on board believing this when I was younger! I’ve made many decisions that I now know were not what God wanted. We really do have to pray when we make decisions. We must pray that we are making the decisions that God wants us to make. Praying over big decisions may be more obvious but I will now try to pray over all decisions big and small. Amen? Amen.
-Mark K
I made note of the evil spirits taking over our decision making as well, and was able to take the subject of evil spirit temptation into the PSR classroom on Monday. It not only opened some young eyes and minds, but I believe left a strong impression on some of the kids.
In regards to Tom’s well thought out comments, I agree that the family unit is and will continue to be the building blocks of the church. I pray that there will always be those select few who choose the Priesthood and Holy Orders while the rest of us answer our calls to whatever God has in mind for us.
Semper Fi
God, Family, Country, Corps
Kevin