Daily Reading and Questions for Reflection November 12, 2024

Daily Reading for Tuesday, November 12th, 2024

Reading 1, Titus 2:1-8, 11-14 

1 It is for you, then, to preach the behaviour which goes with healthy doctrine. 

2 Older men should be reserved, dignified, moderate, sound in faith and love and perseverance. 

3 Similarly, older women should behave as befits religious people, with no scandal-mongering and no addiction to wine -- they must be the teachers of right behaviour 

4 and show younger women how they should love their husbands and love their children, 

5 how they must be sensible and chaste, and how to work in their homes, and be gentle, and obey their husbands, so that the message of God is not disgraced. 

6 Similarly, urge younger men to be moderate in everything that they do, 

7 and you yourself set an example of good works, by sincerity and earnestness, when you are teaching, and by a message sound and irreproachable 

8 so that any opponent will be at a loss, with no accusation to make against us. 

11 You see, God's grace has been revealed to save the whole human race; 

12 it has taught us that we should give up everything contrary to true religion and all our worldly passions; we must be self-restrained and live upright and religious lives in this present world, 

13 waiting in hope for the blessing which will come with the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Christ Jesus. 

14 He offered himself for us in order to ransom us from all our faults and to purify a people to be his very own and eager to do good. 

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 37:3-4, 18, 23, 27, 29 

3 Put your trust in Yahweh and do right, make your home in the land and live secure. 

4 Make Yahweh your joy and he will give you your heart's desires. 

18 The lives of the just are in Yahweh's care, their birthright will endure for ever; 

23 Yahweh guides a strong man's steps and keeps them firm; and takes pleasure in him. 

27 Turn your back on evil and do good, you will have a home for ever, 

29 but the upright shall have the land for their own, there they shall live for ever.  

Gospel, Luke 17:7-10 

7 'Which of you, with a servant ploughing or minding sheep, would say to him when he returned from the fields, "Come and have your meal at once"? 

8 Would he not be more likely to say, "Get my supper ready; fasten your belt and wait on me while I eat and drink. You yourself can eat and drink afterwards"? 

9 Must he be grateful to the servant for doing what he was told? 

10 So with you: when you have done all you have been told to do, say, "We are useless servants: we have done no more than our duty."  

Questions for Reflection for 12, 2024

1. In his instructions to Titus, Paul addresses the practical reality of the Christian life, that how we behave must correspond to what we profess and that the call to holiness is for everyone, manifesting itself in a changed lifestyle. Further, that the natural relationships and differences in our life together are gifts.  

God still wants to save the whole human race, and He reveals His Love through you and me, in the real stuff of our daily lives. Do we understand this robust vision of living as a Christian? Are we living it? 

2. Put your trust in the Lord and do good. Turn your back on evil and do good, then you will have a home forever. These practical exaltations spoken through the psalmist are addressed to each one of us. Are we choosing every day to turn away from evil and turn toward good? When we fail and fall, when we make wrong choices, are we repentant, turning to God and beginning again. Are we taking every opportunity to receive the grace of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Eucharist in our response of Discipleship.   

3. Jesus teaches His disciples - and we are His disciples - to live their lives as Servants. Of course, 

He also showed us the way, through a life poured out completely for all of us, in response to the Fathers Will. Then, through His passion, death and resurrection, he made it possible by freeing us from sin and death and empowering us, by the Holy Spirit, to continue His ministry in and through the Church, as members of His Body.  

That is why He is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6) Do we view our lives as a call to serve God by following Jesus Christ? Or, is "religion" something we do on the weekends and keep compartmentalized?