So let's talk about today's readings 10/7/09

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cheeto1

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October 7, 2009
Reading 1
Jon 4:1-11

Jonah was greatly displeased
and became angry that God did not carry out the evil
he threatened against Nineveh.
He prayed, “I beseech you, LORD,
is not this what I said while I was still in my own country?
This is why I fled at first to Tarshish.
I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God,
slow to anger, rich in clemency, loathe to punish.
And now, LORD, please take my life from me;
for it is better for me to die than to live.”
But the LORD asked, “Have you reason to be angry?”
Jonah then left the city for a place to the east of it,
where he built himself a hut and waited under it in the shade,
to see what would happen to the city.
And when the LORD God provided a gourd plant
that grew up over Jonah’s head,
giving shade that relieved him of any discomfort,
Jonah was very happy over the plant.
But the next morning at dawn
God sent a worm that attacked the plant,
so that it withered.
And when the sun arose, God sent a burning east wind;
and the sun beat upon Jonah’s head till he became faint.
Then Jonah asked for death, saying,
“I would be better off dead than alive.”
But God said to Jonah,
“Have you reason to be angry over the plant?”
“I have reason to be angry,” Jonah answered, “angry enough to die.”
Then the LORD said,
“You are concerned over the plant which cost you no labor
and which you did not raise;
it came up in one night and in one night it perished.
And should I not be concerned over Nineveh, the great city,
in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons
who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left,
not to mention the many cattle?”

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 86:3-4, 5-6, 9-10

R. (15)** Lord, you are merciful and gracious.**
Have mercy on me, O Lord,
for to you I call all the day.
Gladden the soul of your servant,
for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
R. Lord, you are merciful and gracious.
For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.
Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my pleading.
R. Lord, you are merciful and gracious.
All the nations you have made shall come
and worship you, O Lord,
and glorify your name.
For you are great, and you do wondrous deeds;
you alone are God.
R. Lord, you are merciful and gracious.

Gospel
Lk 11:1-4

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
“Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”
He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name,
your Kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test.”
 
“Jonah…became angry that God did not carry out the evil
he threatened against Nineveh”
– What kind of a blood-thirsty prophet was he? And what did God mean when He
said the Ninevites didn’t know their right hand from their left? They were not
innocent of knowing their evil, since they repented of it.

“For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in kindness to all who call upon you”
– And this is how we have to be, if we want to be like God.

"and do not subject us to the final test.”
– Who in this world can escape being tested, if Jesus couldn’t?

Today is the day of “Our Lady of the Rosary”

So what struck you about today’s readings? :bible1::twocents:
 
“Jonah…became angry that God did not carry out the evil
he threatened against Nineveh”
– What kind of a blood-thirsty prophet was he? And what did God mean when He
said the Ninevites didn’t know their right hand from their left? They were not
innocent of knowing their evil, since they repented of it.

“For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in kindness to all who call upon you”
– And this is how we have to be, if we want to be like God.

"and do not subject us to the final test.”
– Who in this world can escape being tested, if Jesus couldn’t?

Today is the day of “Our Lady of the Rosary”

So what struck you about today’s readings? :bible1::twocents:
I love the book of Jonah. It is one of the funniest reads in the Bible. Jonah gets so mad at God for taking pity on the Ninevans, and God tricks Jonah with the tree and the worm.

I especially like today’s readings because of Jonah, but also because Jesus teaches his people to say the Our Father, that perfect prayer.🙂
 
The readings from Jonah confuse me but here’s what I think
  • Jonah figured his work (proclaiming God’s wrath was coming) did not do any good. He figured the people would have turned around and God would have had mercy on them even if he (Jonah) had done nothing.
  • God says Jonah should be more angry if Nineveh fell because he put work into it than be upset about a bush he didn’t grow.
  • Therefore, our work for the Lord does matter. It will NOT just happen anyway.
Psalm
  • God is all that matters.
  • From him comes all that is good.
  • Praise God!
Luke
  • Jesus prayed.
  • He was God and he still prayed. (That really boggles my mind.)
  • And he taught us how to pray as well. (Thank you Lord :D.)
 
The readings from Jonah confuse me but here’s what I think
  • Jonah figured his work (proclaiming God’s wrath was coming) did not do any good. He figured the people would have turned around and God would have had mercy on them even if he (Jonah) had done nothing.
  • God says Jonah should be more angry if Nineveh fell because he put work into it than be upset about a bush he didn’t grow.
  • Therefore, our work for the Lord does matter. It will NOT just happen anyway.
Well, that’s a very interesting and charitable idea. You give Jonah a lot more
credit than I do. I think Jonah hated the Ninevites so much that he wanted them dead,
and nothing else would satisfy him! He wasn’t proud that he saved their lives, like
most of us would be, but he wanted them punished as harshly as possible…
 
Jonah comes across as a bit of a drama queen, doesn’t he-“angry enough to die(!)”-over a PLANT! 😛

I agree that Jonah didn’t want the Ninevites to repent and be saved-he went through preaching that in 40 days their city would be destroyed. There was no promise made of “repent, and it won’t be”, the King just took it upon himself to make the city repent (as an aside-am I the only one who feels sorry the the poor animals that had to fast too?? They didn’t know what was going on!).

I can relate to Jonah b/c I tend to get upset over little things, too (“man, it’s hot” “oh, good, some shade” “AW MAN, what happened to the shade??!!! Nothing ever works out for me!” :().

The psalm is just beautiful (well, they all are, really!), I love to be reminded of God’s mercy!

In Christ,

Ellen
 
Jonah comes across as a bit of a drama queen, doesn’t he-
You’ve got a point there, maybe that’s why God chose him, so he would make the
coming destruction sound really scary!

(I’m sorry for the animals too!)
 
I hope he isn’t as stubborn as his namesake!!
Come to think of it, he had a very unusual way of having a temper tantrum. He would
curl up in a ball and just sit there quietly like a little turtle with his head down, instead
of yelling and screaming like the other kids… I guess that’s kind of like Jonah, who
was going to just sit there till he died!
 
Come to think of it, he had a very unusual way of having a temper tantrum. He would
curl up in a ball and just sit there quietly like a little turtle with his head down, instead
of yelling and screaming like the other kids… I guess that’s kind of like Jonah, who
was going to just sit there till he died!
aw. I can just see it - what a cutie!🙂
 
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