"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
Saints of the day:
Sts. Joachim & Anne, Parents of the Bl. Virgin Mary 
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
2nd book of Kings 4:42 A man came from Ba‘al-Shalishah bringing the man of God twenty loaves of bread made from the barley firstfruits and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give this to the people to eat.” 43 His servant said, “How am I to serve this to a hundred men?” But he said, “Give it to the people to eat; for Adonai says that they will eat and have some left over.” 44 So he served them, and they ate and had some left over, as Adonai had said.
Psalms 145:10 All your creatures will thank you, Adonai,
SAINT JOACHIM and SAINT ANNE
Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Memorial
Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Memorial
These names are given to the mother and father of the Blessed Virgin by a tradition dating back to the second century.
By tradition Joachim and Anne are considered to be the names of the parents of Mary, the Mother of God. We have no historical evidence, however, of any elements of their lives, including their names. Any stories about Mary's father and mother come to us through legend and tradition. We get the oldest story from a document called the Gospel of James, though this document is not ahistorical source, nor the Word of God. The legend told in this document says that after years of childlessness, an angel appeared to tell Anne and Joachim that they would have a child. Anne promised to dedicate this child to God (much the way that Samuel was dedicated by his mother Hannah -- Anne -- in 1 Kings).
As St. John Damascene wrote: "Joachim and Ann, how blessed a couple! All creation is indebted to you. For at your hands the Creator was offered a gift excelling all other gifts: a chaste mother, who alone was worthy of him."
Whatever their names or the facts of their lives, the truth is that it was the parents of Mary who nurtured Mary, taught her, brought her up to be a worthy Mother of God. It was their teaching that led her to respond to God's request with faith, "Let it be done to me as you will." It was their example of parenting that Mary must have followed as she brought up her own son, Jesus. It was their faith that laid the foundation of courage and strength that allowed her to stand by the cross as her son was crucified and still believe.
Such parents can be examples and models for all parents.
Anne (or Ann) is the patron saint of Christian mothers and of women in labor.
Catholic OnlineSeventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
2nd book of Kings 4:42 A man came from Ba‘al-Shalishah bringing the man of God twenty loaves of bread made from the barley firstfruits and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give this to the people to eat.” 43 His servant said, “How am I to serve this to a hundred men?” But he said, “Give it to the people to eat; for Adonai says that they will eat and have some left over.” 44 So he served them, and they ate and had some left over, as Adonai had said.
Psalms 145:10 All your creatures will thank you, Adonai,
and your faithful servants will bless you.
11 They will speak of the glory of your kingship,
and they will tell about your might;
15 The eyes of all are looking to you;
you give them their food at the right time.
16 You open your hand
and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
17 Adonai is righteous in all his ways,
full of grace in all he does.
18 Adonai is close to all who call on him,
to all who sincerely call on him.
Letter to the Ephesians 4:1 Therefore I, the prisoner united with the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
2 Always be humble, gentle and patient, bearing with one another in love, 3 and making every effort to preserve the unity the Spirit gives through the binding power of shalom. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as when you were called you were called to one hope. 5 And there is one Lord, one trust, one immersion, 6 and one God, the Father of all, who rules over all, works through all and is in all.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 6:1 Some time later, Yeshua went over to the far side of Lake Kinneret (that is, Lake Tiberias), 2 and a large crowd followed him, because they had seen the miracles he had performed on the sick. 3 Yeshua went up into the hills and sat down there with his talmidim. 4 Now the Judean festival of Pesach was coming up; 5 so when Yeshua looked up and saw that a large crowd was approaching, he said to Philip, “Where will we be able to buy bread, so that these people can eat?” 6 (Now Yeshua said this to test Philip, for Yeshua himself knew what he was about to do.) 7 Philip answered, “Half a year’s wages wouldn’t buy enough bread for them — each one would get only a bite!” 8 One of the talmidim, Andrew the brother of Shim‘on Kefa, said to him, 9 “There’s a young fellow here who has five loaves of barley bread and two fish. But how far will they go among so many?”
10 Yeshua said, “Have the people sit down.” There was a lot of grass there, so they sat down. The number of men was about five thousand. 11 Then Yeshua took the loaves of bread, and, after making a b’rakhah, gave to all who were sitting there, and likewise with the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 After they had eaten their fill, he told his talmidim, “Gather the leftover pieces, so that nothing gets wasted.” 13 They gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.
14 When the people saw the miracle he had performed, they said, “This has to be ‘the prophet’ who is supposed to come into the world.” 15 Yeshua knew that they were on the point of coming and seizing him, in order to make him king; so he went back to the hills again. This time he went by himself.
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
Commentary of the day:
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Commentary on Saint John’s Gospel, 24,1 ; CCL 36, 244 (trans. ©Friends of Henry Ashworth)
“Who covers the heavens with clouds, who provides rain for the earth; who makes grass sprout on the mountains and herbs for the service of men” (Ps 147[146],8)
The miracles wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ are truly divine works, (which lead the human mind through visible things to a perception of the Godhead. God is not the kind of being that can be seen with the eyes, and small account is taken of the miracles by which he rules the entire universe and governs all creation because they recur so regularly. Scarcely anyone bothers to consider God's marvelous, his amazing artistry in every tiny seed.
And so certain works are excluded from the ordinary course of nature, works which God in his mercy has reserved for himself, so as to perform them at appropriate times. People who hold cheap what they see every day are dumbfounded at the sight of extraordinary works even though they are no more wonderful than the others. Governing the entire universe is a greater miracle than feeding five thousand people with five loaves of bread, yet no one marvels at it… Who is even now providing nourishment for the whole world if not the God who creates a field of wheat from a few seeds?
Christ did what God does. Just as God multiplies a few seeds into a whole field of wheat so Christ multiplied the five loaves in his hands. For there was power in the hands of Christ Those five loaves were like seeds, not because they were cast on the earth but because they were multiplied by the one who made the earth. ____________________________
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Commentary on Saint John’s Gospel, 24,1 ; CCL 36, 244 (trans. ©Friends of Henry Ashworth)
“Who covers the heavens with clouds, who provides rain for the earth; who makes grass sprout on the mountains and herbs for the service of men” (Ps 147[146],8)
The miracles wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ are truly divine works, (which lead the human mind through visible things to a perception of the Godhead. God is not the kind of being that can be seen with the eyes, and small account is taken of the miracles by which he rules the entire universe and governs all creation because they recur so regularly. Scarcely anyone bothers to consider God's marvelous, his amazing artistry in every tiny seed.
And so certain works are excluded from the ordinary course of nature, works which God in his mercy has reserved for himself, so as to perform them at appropriate times. People who hold cheap what they see every day are dumbfounded at the sight of extraordinary works even though they are no more wonderful than the others. Governing the entire universe is a greater miracle than feeding five thousand people with five loaves of bread, yet no one marvels at it… Who is even now providing nourishment for the whole world if not the God who creates a field of wheat from a few seeds?
Christ did what God does. Just as God multiplies a few seeds into a whole field of wheat so Christ multiplied the five loaves in his hands. For there was power in the hands of Christ Those five loaves were like seeds, not because they were cast on the earth but because they were multiplied by the one who made the earth. ____________________________
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