Seeds on Rich Soil

Piety

Let us pray: Jesus, help soften our hard exterior shells so we can let in your life-giving water. Make us seeds that fall on rich soil so that piety and study and action will help spread the news of your Kingdom far and wide to all the people of the world. Amen.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/072806.shtml

I will appoint over you shepherds after my own heart, who will shepherd you wisely and prudently. Jeremiah 3:15

At that time they will call Jerusalem the LORD’s throne; there all nations will be gathered together to honor the name of the LORD at Jerusalem, and they will walk no longer in their hard-hearted wickedness. Jeremiah 3:17

The seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit. Matthew 13:23

Today, Matthews presents for us the weekend talk on the Cursillo method. A one-legged stool can not stand.

Piety without study and action:
The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the Kingdom without understanding it, and the Evil One comes and steals away what was sown in his heart.

Action without piety and study:
The seed sown on rocky groundis the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy. But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away.

Study without action and piety:
The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the wordand it bears no fruit.

Piety Study and Action working together:
But the seed sown on rich soilis the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.

Action

Today, Beirut and Haifa are torn apart. The cedars of Lebanon are under attack.

Ask your US Senator to urge an immediate cease-fire and the creation of a strong UN force guarding against attacks in either direction across the Lebanese-Israeli boundary. Pray for peace, making explicit that you mean not only peace in general but also specifically peace among the families of Abraham.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow points out that in the Jewish prayer of the kaddish, the last sentence traditionally asks for peace "among us and all the people of Israel." Some communities have been adding also "for all the children of Ishmael and all those who live upon this planet."