Scripture of the Week
DAILY SCRIPTURES
Reflection on the DAILY SCRIPTURES can be found at the following links:
'Our Daily Meditation' from Madonna Magazine - Jesuit Communications (Australia) Commentaries on the Daily Readings from SACREDSPACE (Ireland) Readings and Reflections on the day's Scripture (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) Daily Readings and Reflections (Passionist Fathers - USA) Commentary on the Gospel Reading for each day of the month (Dominican Fathers - Ireland)
SUNDAY SCRIPTURES
Reflect on the Sunday Scriptures with:
Sr. Veronica Lawson rsm SEE BELOW
Fr. John McKinnon HERE
Fr. John Thornhill HERE
Sunday, 25 May 2013: The Most Holy Trinity - Year C
First Reading - Proverbs 8:22-31
Wisdom was born before the earth was made.
The Wisdom of God cries aloud:
The Lord created me when his purpose first unfolded,
before the oldest of his works.
From everlasting I was firmly set,
from the beginning, before earth came into being.
The deep was not, when I was born,
there were no springs to gush with water.
Before the mountains were settled,
before the hills, I came to birth;
before he made the earth, the countryside,
or the first grains of the world's dust.
When he fixed the heavens firm, I was there,
when he drew a ring on the surface of the deep,
when he thickened the clouds above,
when he fixed fast the springs of the deep,
when he assigned the sea its boundaries
– and the waters will not invade the shore –
when he laid down the foundations of the earth,
I was by his side, a master craftsman,
delighting him day after day,
ever at play in his presence,
at play everywhere in his world,
delighting to be with the sons of men.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 8:4-9. R. v.2
(R.) O Lord, our God,
how wonderful your name in all the earth!
Second Reading - Romans 5:1-5
To God through Christ in the love which is poured out through the Spirit.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, by faith we are judged righteous and at peace with God, since it is by faith and through Jesus that we have entered this state of grace in which we can boast about looking forward to God’s glory. But that is not all we can boast about; we can boast about our sufferings. These sufferings bring patience, as we know, and patience brings perseverance, and perseverance brings hope, and this hope is not deceptive, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us.
Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia, alleluia!
Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit:
to God who is, who was, and who is to come.
Alleluia!
Gospel - John 16:12-15
Whatever the Father has is mine. The Spirit will receive what I give and tell you about it.
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘I still have many things to say to you
but they would be too much for you now.
But when the Spirit of truth comes
he will lead you to the complete truth,
since he will not be speaking as from himself
but will say only what he has learnt;
and he will tell you of the things to come.
He will glorify me,
since all he tells you
will be taken from what is mine.
Everything the Father has is mine;
that is why I said:
All he tells you
will be taken from what is mine.’
REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL - Veronica Lawson rsm
The opening sentence of today’s gospel touches something very deep in human experience. Jesus tells his disciples: "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” In John’s gospel, Jesus is depicted as sensitive to the anguish of his friends and to their limited capacity to absorb the enormity of what was happening to him and to them. There was only so much they could “bear” as the inevitability of Jesus’ death dawned on them. They will come to understand who he is and what he has taught them, but only through the power of God’s “Spirit of truth” who will guide them into “all the truth”.
As we think back on our own lives and tell stories of the past, we realize how little we understood of what was happening in our world and in our own lives at the time of the events we recount. We become wise with the knowledge of hindsight. As Christians, we credit any insight and understanding we may have to the power of God’s Spirit at work in our lives. We believe in the Triune God and, along with the whole Earth community, we are caught up into a wonderful dance of Trinitarian life.
Perichoresis, a Greek term suggestive of dancing or of figures interweaving, is one of the earliest and probably one of the most striking images used to explain this Trinitarian life of God. The life that is in God is three and yet one in a totally harmonious dance of equals. The wonder is that we are invited to join the dance. Trinity Sunday is the day that we set aside to celebrate who God is in Godself and who God is in relation to the whole of creation. We celebrate the nearness of the Triune God who draws us as participants into the dance of life and love. The Spirit of truth guides us “into all the truth”. We continue to listen to the Spirit so that we might understand more fully the “things that are to come” and the relatedness we are called to live. The dance of Trinitarian love casts out hatred and enmity and wanton destruction. It calls us to live in harmony with one another and with the whole of the Earth community.
© The scriptural quotations are taken from the Lectionary for Mass, Copyright © 1970, 1986, 1992, 1998, 2001 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; All rights reserved. The English translation of the Psalm Responses, the Alleluia and Gospel Verses, and the Lenten Gospel Acclamations, and the Titles, Summaries, and Conclusion of the Readings, from the Lectionary for Mass © 1997, 1981, 1968, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved.
