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Sunday, January 30, 2011

The Beatitudes - Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time



Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Happy are you when you are drawn to the
One who alone can fulfill your happiness.


Today our Gospel message is from Matthew 5:1-12.  Here Jesus gives the prologue to the Sermon on the Mount in the Beatitudes a series of eight invitations to live a life of generosity and virtue by following Jesus. 



 
 
"As Americans, we often measure our success by how much we produce (even in our spiritual lives).  We expect ourselves to be perfect every  moment of every day.  We view our brokenness as a failure for we have not measured up to what we believe that we should be.  The Beatitudes were a Jewish way of thinking.  They were goals that we should always keep in mind but might never actually reach.  Holiness lies not so much in being perfect as in trying our best.  We are all just "works in progress."  God knows this, and only expects us to do what we can.  This should not be an excuse for complacency, but it is a consolation in our journey." ( New St. Joseph Handbook for Proclaimers of the Word, Liturgical Year A 2011, Rev. Jude Winkler, OFM, page 75)


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Art
Sistine Chapel Northern Wall-Sermon on the Mount - Cosimo Rosselli

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