Roman Catholic The Word Among Us Daily Mass Reading & Daily Meditation for Monday, 26 January 2015

Roman Catholic The Word Among Us Daily Mass Reading & Daily Meditation for Monday, 26 January 2015
Meditation - 2 Timothy 1:1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus.
God himself chose me to be an apostle, and he gave me the promised life that Jesus Christ makes possible.
2 Timothy, you are like a dear child to me. I pray that God our Father and our Lord Christ Jesus will be kind and merciful to you and will bless you with peace!
Do Not Be Ashamed of the Lord
3 Night and day I mention you in my prayers. I am always grateful for you, as I pray to the God my ancestors and I have served with a clear conscience. 4 I remember how you cried, and I want to see you, because that will make me truly happy. 5 I also remember the genuine faith of your mother Eunice. Your grandmother Lois had the same sort of faith, and I am sure that you have it as well. 6 So I ask you to make full use of the gift that God gave you when I placed my hands on you.[a] Use it well. 7 God’s Spirit[b] doesn’t make cowards out of us. The Spirit gives us power, love, and self-control.
8 Don’t be ashamed to speak for our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me, just because I am in jail for serving him. Use the power that comes from God and join with me in suffering for telling the good news.[Footnotes:
1.6 when I placed my hands on you: Church leaders placed their hands on people who were being appointed to preach or teach (see 1 Timothy 4.14).
1.7 God’s Spirit: Or “God.”]
Saints Timothy and Titus, Bishops
God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. (2 Timothy 1:7)
That’s quite a spirit, isn’t it? It’s the spirit that sustained Timothy and Titus through arduous missionary journeys with Paul. It enabled them to preach the gospel effectively and to play a major role in the direction of the early Church. Both of these men lived extraordinary, difficult, and generous lives—true heroes of the faith!
As disciples of Paul, Timothy and Titus were instrumental in spreading the gospel throughout Macedonia. Timothy led the church at Ephesus, becoming its first bishop in ad 64. He was stoned to death around ad 95 because he tried to stop a procession to the goddess Diana.
Titus is known best for his pastoral skills. Paul relied on him to help bring unity to the divided church in Corinth, and later he sent him to Crete to help the struggling church there. Titus is also credited with evangelizing the region of Dalmatia, in modern-day Croatia. He is said to have died peacefully on Crete, when he was around ninety years old.
But today’s feast is not meant just to admire these two men. God wants us to imitate them as well. After all, the same spirit of power, love, and self-control has been given to us, too. It’s the Holy Spirit!
Few of us are called to serve as Timothy and Titus did, but we can still testify to the gospel wherever we are. It may mean caring for an elderly parent, being patient with a difficult child or a wearisome neighbor, or working faithfully at our everyday tasks. It doesn’t have to look heroic in order to be heroic. Any time we rely on God’s power, love, and self-control, we can make the ordinary parts of our lives extraordinary.
Timothy, Titus, and all the saints show us that God wants to be a part of our lives. They tell us that he wants to take everything that appears ordinary and make it extraordinary. What a marvelous, generous God we serve!
“Holy Spirit, thank you for giving me a share in your power, love, and self-control! Come and fill me, as you filled Timothy and Titus, so that my life can become extraordinary.” Amen!
Psalm 96: Sing a New Song to the Lord
96 Sing a new song to the Lord!
Everyone on this earth,
    sing praises to the Lord,
2     sing and praise his name.
Day after day announce,
    “The Lord has saved us!”
3 Tell every nation on earth,
“The Lord is wonderful
    and does marvelous things!
7 Tell everyone of every nation,
    “Praise the glorious power
    of the Lord.
8 He is wonderful! Praise him
    and bring an offering
    into his temple.
10 Announce to the nations,
    “The Lord is King!
The world stands firm,
    never to be shaken,
    and he will judge its people
    with fairness.”

Mark 3:22 Some teachers of the Law of Moses came from Jerusalem and said, “This man is under the power of Beelzebul, the ruler of demons! He is even forcing out demons with the help of Beelzebul.”
23 Jesus told the people to gather around him. Then he spoke to them in riddles and said:
How can Satan force himself out? 24 A nation whose people fight each other won’t last very long. 25 And a family that fights won’t last long either. 26 So if Satan fights against himself, that will be the end of him.
27 How can anyone break into the house of a strong man and steal his things, unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can take everything.
28 I promise you that any of the sinful things you say or do can be forgiven, no matter how terrible those things are. 29 But if you speak against the Holy Spirit, you can never be forgiven. That sin will be held against you forever.
30 Jesus said this because the people were saying that he had an evil spirit in him.
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