Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 30, 2018

Christ of Hagia Sofia
Lectionary: 137

Reading 1  NUMBERS 11:25-29

The LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses.  Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses,the LORD bestowed it on the seventy elders;and as the spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied.
Now two men, one named Eldad and the other Medad,were not in the gathering but had been left in the camp. They too had been on the list, but had not gone out to the tent;yet the spirit came to rest on them also,and they prophesied in the camp. So, when a young man quickly told Moses,"Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp, "Joshua, son of Nun, who from his youth had been Moses' aide, said,"Moses, my lord, stop them."  But Moses answered him,"Are you jealous for my sake?  Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets!  Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!"

Responsorial Psalm  PSALM 19:8, 10, 12-13, 14

R. (9a) The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.

The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul;
the decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.

R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.

The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the LORD are true,
all of them just.

R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.

Though your servant is careful of them,
very diligent in keeping them,
yet who can detect failings?
Cleanse me from my unknown faults!

R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.

From wanton sin especially, restrain your servant;
let it not rule over me.
Then shall I be blameless and innocent
of serious sin. 

R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.

Reading 2  JAMES 5:1-6

Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries.  Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten,your gold and silver have corroded,and that corrosion will be a testimony against you;it will devour your flesh like a fire. You have stored up treasure for the last days.
Behold, the wages you withheld from the workerswho harvested your fields are crying aloud;and the cries of the harvestershave reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on earth in luxury and pleasure;you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter. You have condemned;you have murdered the righteous one;he offers you no resistance.

Alleluia  COMPARE JOHN 17:17B, 17A

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Your word, O Lord, is truth;
consecrate us in the truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel  MK 9:38-43, 45, 47-48

At that time, John said to Jesus,"Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us."  Jesus replied, "Do not prevent him.  There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my namewho can at the same time speak ill of me.Wikipedia Jesus said For whoever is not against us is for us.  Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drinkbecause you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.
"Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,it would be better for him if a great millstonewere put around his neckand he were thrown into the sea.  If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.  It is better for you to enter into life maimedthan with two hands to go into Gehenna,into the unquenchable fire.  And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off.  It is better for you to enter into life crippledthan with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.
Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eyethan with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna,where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'"

Trinity  Christ of Hagia Sofia

Types of prayer

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 483

Ave Maria series

483  What are the names of the five main types of prayer?

The five main types of prayer are blessing and adoration, prayer of petition, prayer of intercession, prayer of thanksgiving, and prayer of praise.  [2626-2643]

“And as a forester, where would I be without Mother Nature?   How about a little love for God’s creation?”  --Photo and caption by Dr. Don C Bragg, Research Forester, U. S. Forest Service.…..483

[2626-2643]

PRAYER OF ADORATION

2626 Blessing expresses the basic movement of Christian prayer: it is an encounter between God and man. In blessing, God's gift and man's acceptance of it are united in dialogue with each other. The prayer of blessing is man's response to God's gifts: because God blesses, the human heart can in return bless the One who is the source of every blessing.--Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

2627 Two fundamental forms express this movement: our prayer ascends in the Holy Spirit through Christ to the Father - we bless him for having blessed us;⁹⁷ it implores the grace of the Holy Spirit that descends through Christ from the Father - he blesses us.⁹⁸–CCC

97  Compare Ephesians 1:3-14; 2 Corinthians 1:3-7; 1 Peter 1:3-9.

98  Compare 2 Corinthians 13:14; Romans 15:5-6,13; Ephesians 6:23-24.

2628 Adoration is the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is a creature before his Creator. It exalts the greatness of the Lord who made us⁹⁹ and the almighty power of the Savior who sets us free from evil. Adoration is homage of the spirit to the "King of Glory,"¹⁰⁰ respectful silence in the presence of the "ever greater" God.¹⁰¹ Adoration of the thrice-holy and sovereign God of love blends with humility and gives assurance to our supplications. –CCC

 99  Compare Psalm 95:1-6.

100  Psalm 24, 9-10.

101Compare St. Augustine, En. in Psalm 62,16:Patrologia Latina 36,757-758.

PRAYER OF PETITION

2629 The vocabulary of supplication in the New Testament is rich in shades of meaning: ask, beseech, plead, invoke, entreat, cry out, even "struggle in prayer."¹⁰² Its most usual form, because the most spontaneous, is petition: by prayer of petition we express awareness of our relationship with God. We are creatures who are not our own beginning, not the masters of adversity, not our own last end. We are sinners who as Christians know that we have turned away from our Father. Our petition is already a turning back to him. –CCC

102  Compare Romans 15:30; Colossians 4:12.

2630 The New Testament contains scarcely any prayers of lamentation, so frequent in the Old Testament. In the risen Christ the Church's petition is buoyed by hope, even if we still wait in a state of expectation and must be converted anew every day. Christian petition, what St. Paul calls "groaning," arises from another depth, that of creation "in labor pains" and that of ourselves "as we wait for the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved."¹⁰³ In the end, however, "with sighs too deep for words" the Holy Spirit "helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.” (Romans 8:22-24.)¹⁰⁴–CCC

103  Romans 8:22-24.

104  Romans 8:22-24.

2631 The first movement of the prayer of petition is asking forgiveness, like the tax collector in the parable: "God, be merciful to me a sinner!”¹⁰⁵

 It is a prerequisite for righteous and pure prayer. A trusting humility brings us back into the light of communion between the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and with one another, so that "we receive from him whatever we ask."¹⁰⁶ Asking forgiveness is the prerequisite for both the Eucharistic liturgy and personal prayer.—CCC

105  Luke 18:9-14.

106   1 John 3:22; compare 1 Jn 1:7.

2632 Christian petition is centered on the desire and search for the Kingdom to come, in keeping with the teaching of Christ.¹⁰⁷ There is a hierarchy in these petitions: we pray first for the Kingdom, then for what is necessary to welcome it and cooperate with its coming. This collaboration with the mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit, which is now that of the Church, is the object of the prayer of the apostolic community.¹⁰⁸ It is the prayer of Paul, the apostle par excellence, which reveals to us how the divine solicitude for all the churches ought to inspire Christian prayer.¹⁰⁹ By prayer every baptized person works for the coming of the Kingdom. –CCC

107  Compare Matthew 6:10,33; Luke 11:2,13.

108  Compare Acts of the Apostles 6:6;  Acts 13:3.

109  Compare Romans 10:1; Ephesians 1:16-23; Philippians 1:9-11; Colossians 1:3-6; Col 4:3-4,12.

2633 When we share in God's saving love, we understand that every need can become the object of petition. Christ, who assumed all things in order to redeem all things, is glorified by what we ask the Father in his name.¹¹⁰ It is with this confidence that St. James and St. Paul exhort us to pray at all times.¹¹¹–CCC

110  CompareJohn 14:13.

111  Compare James 1:5-8; Ephesians 5:20; Philippians 4:6-7; Colossians 3:16-17; 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18.

PRAYER OF INTERCESSION

2634 Intercession is a prayer of petition which leads us to pray as Jesus did. He is the one intercessor with the Father on behalf of all men, especially sinners.¹¹² He is "able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them."¹¹³ The Holy Spirit "himself intercedes for us . . . and intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”¹¹⁴   --CCC

112  Compare Romans 8:34; 1 John 2:1; 1 Timothy 2:5-8.

113  Hebrews 7:25.

114  Romans 8:26-27.

2635 Since Abraham, intercession - asking on behalf of another has been characteristic of a heart attuned to God's mercy. In the age of the Church, Christian intercession participates in Christ's, as an expression of the communion of saints. In intercession, he who prays looks "not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others," even to the point of praying for those who do him harm.¹¹⁵–CCC

115  Philippians 2:4; compare Acts of the Apostles 7:60; Luke 23:28,34.

2636 The first Christian communities lived this form of fellowship intensely.¹¹⁶ Thus the Apostle Paul gives them a share in his ministry of preaching the Gospel¹¹⁷ but also intercedes for them.¹¹⁸ The intercession of Christians recognizes no boundaries: "for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions," for persecutors, for the salvation of those who reject the Gospel.¹¹⁹–CCC

116  Compare Acts of the Apostles 12:5; Acts 20:36; Acts 21:5; 2 Corinthians 9:14.

117  Compare Ephesians 6:18-20; Colossians 4:3-4; 1 Thessalonians 5:25.

118  Compare 2 Thessalonians 1:11; Colossians 1:3; Philippians 1:3-4.

119  2 Timothy 2:1; compare Romans 12:14; Rom 10:1.

PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

2637 Thanksgiving characterizes the prayer of the Church which, in celebrating the Eucharist, reveals and becomes more fully what she is. Indeed, in the work of salvation, Christ sets creation free from sin and death to consecrate it anew and make it return to the Father, for his glory. The thanksgiving of the members of the Body participates in that of their Head.--CCC

2638 As in the prayer of petition, every event and need can become an offering of thanksgiving. The letters of St. Paul often begin and end with thanksgiving, and the Lord Jesus is always present in it: "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you"; "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”¹²⁰–CCC

120  1 Thessalonians 5:18; Colossians 4:2.

PRAYER OF PRAISE

2639 Praise is the form of prayer which recognizes most immediately that God is God. It lauds God for his own sake and gives him glory, quite beyond what he does, but simply because HE IS. It shares in the blessed happiness of the pure of heart who love God in faith before seeing him in glory. By praise, the Spirit is joined to our spirits to bear witness that we are children of God,¹²¹ testifying to the only Son in whom we are adopted and by whom we glorify the Father. Praise embraces the other forms of prayer and carries them toward him who is its source and goal: the "one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist."¹²²–CCC

121  Compare Romans 8:16.

122  1 Corinthians 8:6.

2640 St. Luke in his gospel often expresses wonder and praise at the marvels of Christ and in his Acts of the Apostles stresses them as actions of the Holy Spirit: the community of Jerusalem, the invalid healed by Peter and John, the crowd that gives glory to God for that, and the pagans of Pisidia who "were glad and glorified the word of God."¹²³ –CCC

123  Acts of the Apostles 2:47; Acts 3:9; Acts 4:21; Acts 13:48.

2641 "[Address] one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart."¹²⁴ Like the inspired writers of the New Testament, the first Christian communities read the Book of Psalms in a new way, singing in it the mystery of Christ. In the newness of the Spirit, they also composed hymns and canticles in the light of the unheard-of event that God accomplished in his Son: his Incarnation, his death which conquered death, his Resurrection, and Ascension to the right hand of the Father.¹²⁵ Doxology, the praise of God, arises from this "marvelous work" of the whole economy of salvation.¹²⁶–CCC

124  Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16.

125 Compare Philippians 2:6-11; Colossians 1:15-20; Ephesians 5:14; 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Tim 6:15-16; 2 Tim 2:11-13.

126  Compare Ephesians 1:3-14; Romans 16:25-27; Eph 3:20-21; Jude 24-25.)

2642 The Revelation of "what must soon take place," the Apocalypse, is borne along by the songs of the heavenly liturgy¹²⁷ but also by the intercession of the "witnesses" (martyrs).¹²⁸ The prophets and the saints, all those who were slain on earth for their witness to Jesus, the vast throng of those who, having come through the great tribulation, have gone before us into the Kingdom, all sing the praise and glory of him who sits on the throne, and of the Lamb.¹²⁹ In communion with them, the Church on earth also sings these songs with faith in the midst of trial. By means of petition and intercession, faith hopes against all hope and gives thanks to the "Father of lights," from whom "every perfect gift" comes down.¹³⁰  Thus faith is pure praise. –CCC

127  Compare Revelation 4:8-11; Rev 5:9-14; Rev 7:10-12.

128  Revelation 6:10.

129  Compare Revelation 18:24; Rev 19:1-8.

130  James 1:17.

2643 The Eucharist contains and expresses all forms of prayer: it is "the pure offering" of the whole Body of Christ to the glory of God's name¹³¹ and, according to the traditions of East and West, it is the "sacrifice of praise."–CCC

131  Compare Malachi 1:11.

Nature  People Don C Bragg