Piety
Let us pray: Help us this day and every day to taste and see Your infinite goodness, Jesus. When we seek your Bread of Life and make it a part of our being, we know that You will answer us and calm all our fears no matter how weak we are in body, mind, or faith.
Let us then be imitators of you. Filled with Your spiritual nourishment, help us to share this meal with others as You and Your angel shared manna with Elijah to strengthen him for his journey. In this sharing palanca, we will support each other for their journeys each week especially in our small group reunion meetings and by leading others to share in the upcoming weekends for men and women in the fall.
Deliver us from evil and grant us peace today. Amen.
Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/081306.shtml
Living Bread
By Rev. Joe McCLoskey, S.J.
Years ago someone gave me the last piece of bread they had in their house. I was deeply touched by their generosity. I suppose I am still trying to say my thanks.
How much of our lives we share with others is learnt behavior. The Jews ask, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?
Do we not know his father and mother? Jesus points out that no one can come to him unless the Father draws him. Jesus claims he is the bread from heaven. If we eat of his body and drink of his blood, Jesus promises us we will live forever. Jesus is offering his very self to us that we might have his life. His gift is so much more than a single piece of bread. I can not forget. His gift is His very life.
Jesus would live in us even as we would live in him. The mystery of love is in how the total gift of self is given to the other. If we love Jesus we will keep the commandments. The invitation of his love is to live in him. But we must love one another as he has loved us. The challenge of Eucharist is in how well we give our lives for each other.
We are called to make Eucharist out of our lives. Time and energy measure how much of ourselves we give. The Jews thought they knew Christ even as we might think we know each other. But life is a being with another when love is shared. The call to be living bread is to be with Christ forever. I must live his life and be his life and share his life now and forever.
Action
The enormity and scope of the recovery in New Orleans reveals itself everyday.
When you head to the doctor, think about the conditions in Louisiana. According to a report on Friday, nearly a year after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the city still faces a shortage of doctors, nurses and hospital beds for the most vulnerable: the poor, the uninsured and those who are grappling with mental illness and substance abuse.
Most of us are not doctors or nurses and can’t move to New Orleans to fill in the shortage. However, we can make a contribution to a variety of clinics and charities in New Orleans which deal with health care for the poor. Your “manna” can give people strength for the continued task of rebuilding. Here are just a few of them:
Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans 504-371-7747
Children’s Bureau of New Orleans 504-525-2366
Covenant House, New Orleans (which is housing the Tulane Free Clinic) (504) 584-1111
Odyssey House Louisiana, Inc. 504-821-9211
Visiting Nurses Association of Greater New Orleans, Inc. 504-837-0377
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