Denying one’s self and taking up one’s cross are the small gate and narrow path that leads to life.

Only by uniting our suffering in life to that of Jesus can we carry our crosses.

There is a “self-forgetfulness” as you relativize your own life

and care for the life of others – a true death that we let in without violence.

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, virgin & martyr

1st Reading: Nahum 2:1, 3; 3:1-3, 6-7

See, there on the mountains,

 Jesus  offers himself as someone who quenches our thirst, strengthens us against trials, and fills us in our hunger.

He does not only fill us, he gives us endless reserves if we stick with him.

The bread that filled their stomachs, The sign is about who Jesus is. 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊     

Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15

In the desert the whole community

 Saint Dominic

Canonized 13 July 1234,

Dominic came face to face with the then virulent Albigensian heresy at Languedoc.

His fellow preachers gradually became a community, and in 1215 Dominic founded a religious house at Toulouse,

the beginning of the Order of Preachers or Dominicans.

Saint Dominic, was a Castilian-French Catholic priest and the founder of the Dominican Order.

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊     

Jeremiah 31:31-34

The time is coming – it is Yahweh

 This is what we see in King Herod.

John comes alive with many heads and tongues in the mind of Herod,

Herod’s guilt keeps eating him away.

Only a genuine confession of sins and reparation,

repent and turn back to the Lord, can heal us of such internal wounds. 

Blessed Virgin Mary

 ＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊    

Jeremiah 26:11-16, 24

Then the priests and the prophets said

 "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David."

"Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."

The woman persists, and Jesus praises her for her for faith.

She insists she deserves to be amongst God’s children even if her circumstance denies it.

Jesus said, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish."

St. Sixtus II, pope & martyr/ St. Cajetan, priest

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊     

Jeremiah 31:1-7 

Yahweh declares

 I suggested he sincerely ask God for the gift of faith and to reveal his son to him.

 he would know Jesus exists and who Jesus is when he experiences genuine love.

St. Eusebius of Vercelli, bishop/ St. Peter Julian Eymard, priest

 ＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊     

Jeremiah 26:1-9

At the beginning of the reign

 In the Jewish tradition, if three witnesses agree to a common account, it should be treated as a fact.

Peter, James, and John consider that glorious moment a confirmation of Jesus’ authority alongside Moses and Elijah.

What is common to these experiences is that it opens up the mind and heart to a realm where one encounters the divine.

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊     

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14

I looked and saw the following:

  For, nothing is more precious for a potter than the clay in his hands.

Being a professional, he knows what to do with the clay;

If we could keep surrendering to God’s will on a daily basis!

Totally surrendering itself to be shaped the way .

St. Alphonsus Liguori, bishop & doctor

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊     

Jeremiah 18:1-6

This is the word of Yahweh

Build on the Christological theme of “Who is Jesus”?

The crowd demands the bread. Jesus claims to be the bread .

The crowd wants to know something, and Jesus answers with a different kind of information.

Evolving revelation of who Jesus is through encounter.

Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome

 ＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊     

Jeremiah 28:1-17

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure

The Kingdom of God is worth far more than anything else.

St. Ignatius of Loyola, priest

 ＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊     

Jeremiah 15:10, 16-21

Woe is me, Mother,