OXYGEN

06 July - Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

____________________

Zec 9:9-10

Rejoice heart and soul, daughter of Zion!
Shout with gladness, daughter of Jerusalem!
See now, your king comes to you;
he is victorious, he is triumphant,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
He’ will banish chariots from Ephraim
and horses from Jerusalem;
the bow of war will be banished.
He will proclaim peace for the nations.
His empire shall stretch from sea to sea,
from the River to the ends of the earth. 

____________________

Romans 8:9. 11-13

Your interests are not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made his home in you. In fact, unless you possessed the Spirit of Christ you would not belong to him, and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.

So then, my brothers, there is no necessity for us to obey our unspiritual selves or to live unspiritual lives. If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die; but if by the Spirit you put an end to the misdeeds of the body you will live.

____________________

Matthew 11:25-30

At that time Jesus exclaimed, ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.’

____________________

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

“No God, no peace. Know God, know peace!” I read somewhere. I experienced this deeply when, after a few weeks of not spending silent time with God, I felt harassed by people, and eventually tired and distant from God. My heart was restless. Eventually, I visited a church on a weekday, and sat in the pews in the grand silence. I encountered God intimately again there, and received again the peace that I used to know.

Are you looking for peace too? Today’s readings can be reflected upon as an invitation to experience rest - peace - in God. We are first called to rejoice because of the hope that is Christ, who comes to promise us something better than what the world does. In his letter to the Romans, Paul advises them to live by the Spirit, a lifestyle that requires that they seek peace.

Jesus makes it clear that those who seek peace can find it in Him. The wise and understanding are self-assured of what they do, but those who recognise that God is wisest and most understanding will realise that they can never have peace apart from Him. How do you intimately experience God? Being the Lord’s day today, let us seek Him in the places where we experience His peace most tangibly.

(Today’s reflection by Regina Xie)
___________

Prayer: We pray to the Lord for His peace.

Thanksgiving: We give thanks to the Lord for the opportunities where we can find Him.

____________________
Upcoming readings:
07 Jul, Mon - Hosea 2:16. 17-18. 21-22, Matthew 9:18-26
08 Jul, Tue - Hosea 8:4-7, 11-13, Matthew 9:32-38
09 Jul, Wed - Hosea 10:1-3. 7-8. 12, Matthew 10:1-7
10 Jul, Thu - Hosea 11:1-4. 8-9, Matthew 10:7-15
11 Jul, Fri - Hosea 14:2-10, Matthew 10:16-23
12 Jul, Sat - Isaiah 6:1-8, Matthew 10:24-33
13 Jul, Sun - Isaiah 55:10-11, Romans 8:18-23, Matthew 13:1-23 - Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
____________________
To subscribe to this mailing list, send a blank e-mail to this address:
Godismyoxygen-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe to this mailing list, send a blank e-mail to this address:
Godismyoxygen-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
____________________