May 26, 2010 Wednesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

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Reading 1
1 Pt 1:18-25

Beloved:

Realize that you were ransomed from your futile conduct,

handed on by your ancestors,

not with perishable things like silver or gold

but with the precious Blood of Christ

as of a spotless unblemished Lamb.

He was known before the foundation of the world

but revealed in the final time for you,

who through him believe in God

who raised him from the dead and gave him glory,

so that your faith and hope are in God.

Since you have purified yourselves

by obedience to the truth for sincere brotherly love,

love one another intensely from a pure heart.

You have been born anew,

not from perishable but from imperishable seed,

through the living and abiding word of God, for:

“All flesh is like grass,

and all its glory like the flower of the field;

the grass withers,

and the flower wilts;

but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

This is the word that has been proclaimed to you.

 Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20

Responsorial Psalm

R.          (12a)  Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.

or:

R.          Alleluia.

Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;

praise your God, O Zion.

For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;

he has blessed your children within you.

R.          Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.

or:

R.          Alleluia.

He has granted peace in your borders;

with the best of wheat he fills you.

He sends forth his command to the earth;

swiftly runs his word!

R.          Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.

or:

R.          Alleluia.

He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,

his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.

He has not done thus for any other nation;

his ordinances he has not made known to them. Alleluia.

R.          Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.

or:

R.          Alleluia.

Mk 10:32-45

Gospel

The disciples were on the way, going up to Jerusalem,

and Jesus went ahead of them.

They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.

Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them

what was going to happen to him.

“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man

will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes,

and they will condemn him to death

and hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him,

spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death,

but after three days he will rise.”

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee,

came to Jesus and said to him,

“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”

He replied, “What do you wish me to do for you?”

They answered him,

“Grant that in your glory

we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.”

Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking.

Can you drink the chalice that I drink

or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”

They said to him, “We can.”

Jesus said to them, “The chalice that I drink, you will drink,

and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;

but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give

but is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.

Jesus summoned them and said to them,

“You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles

lord it over them,

and their great ones make their authority over them felt.

But it shall not be so among you.

Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;

whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.

For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve

and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

NYT: Growing Vegetables Upside Down

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

May 19, 2010

By KATE MURPHY

IF pests and blight are wrecking your plants, it might be time to turn your garden on its head.
Growing crops that dangle upside down from homemade or commercially available planters is growing more popular, and its adherents swear they’ll never come back down to earth.
“I’m totally converted,” said Mark McAlpine, a body piercer in Guelph, Ontario, who began growing tomatoes upside down two years ago because cutworms were ravaging the ones he planted in the ground. He made six planters out of five-gallon plastic buckets, some bought at the Home Depot and some salvaged from the trash of a local winemaker. He cut a two-inch hole in the bottom of each bucket and threaded a tomato seedling down through the opening, packing strips of newspaper around the root ball to keep it in place and to prevent dirt from falling out.
He then filled the buckets with soil mixed with compost and hung them on sturdy steel hooks bolted to the railing of his backyard deck. “Last summer was really hot so it wasn’t the best crop, but I still was able to jar enough whole tomatoes, half tomatoes, salsa and tomato sauce to last me through the winter,” said Mr. McAlpine, who plans an additional six upside-down planters this year.
Upside-down gardening, primarily of leggy crops like tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, is more common partly because of the ubiquity of Topsy Turvy planters, which are breathlessly advertised on television and have prominent placement at retailers like Wal-Mart, Walgreens and Bed Bath & Beyond. According to the company that licenses the product, Allstar Products Group in Hawthorne, N.Y., sales this year are twice last year’s, with 20 million sold since the planter’s invention in 2005. Not to be outdone, Gardener’s Supply and Plow & Hearth recently began selling rival upside-down planters. “Upside-down gardening is definitely a phenomenon,” said Steve Wagner, senior product manager for Plow & Hearth.
The advantages of upside-down gardening are many: it saves space; there is no need for stakes or cages; it foils pests and fungus; there are fewer, if any, weeds; there is efficient delivery of water and nutrients thanks to gravity; and it allows for greater air circulation and sunlight exposure.
While there are skeptics, proponents say the proof is in the produce.
Tomato and jalapeño seedlings sprout from upside-down planters fashioned out of milk jugs and soda bottles that hang from the fence surrounding the Redmond, Wash., yard of Shawn Verrall, a Microsoft software tester who blogs about gardening at Cheapvegetablegardener.com. Mr. Verrall turned to upside-down gardening last summer as an experiment.
“I put one tomato plant in the ground and one upside down, and the one in the ground died,” he said. The other tomato did so well, he planted a jalapeño upside down, too, and it was more prolific than the one he had in the ground. “The plants seem to stay healthier upside down if you water them enough, and it’s a great way to go if you have limited space,” he said.
While horticulturists, agronomists and plant scientists agree that pests and blight are less likely to damage crops suspended in the air, they said they are unsure whether growing them upside down rather than right-side up will yield better results.
“Growing things upside down seems like a fad to me, but I’m glad people are fooling around with it and hope they will let us traditionalist gardening snobs know what we’ve been missing,” said Hans Christian Wien, a horticulture professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.
Judging from gardening blogs and Web sites, those fooling around with upside-down gardening are generally enthusiastic, particularly if they have planted smaller varieties of tomatoes.
“Bigger tomatoes are too heavy and put too much stress on the vine, causing it to twist and break,” said Michael Nolan, an avid gardener in Atlanta and a writer for Urbangardencasual.com, who has four upside-down planters also made out of five-gallon buckets in which he grows bushels of cherry and patio varieties of tomatoes as well as small pickling cucumbers.
Tomato varieties are labeled as either indeterminate or determinate, and horticulture experts recommend choosing indeterminate ones for upside-down gardens. Determinate tomato plants are stubbier, with somewhat rigid stalks that issue all their fruit at once, which could weigh down and break the stems if hanging upside down. Indeterminate types, by contrast, have more flexible, sprawling stems that produce fruit throughout the season and are less likely to be harmed by gravity.
When Mr. Nolan first tried upside-down gardening, he used the Topsy Turvy planters, which are made of polyethylene bags and look like Chinese lanterns gone wrong. But he was disappointed in the yield. “I far prefer using buckets,” he said, which hang from tall metal shepherd hooks bolted to the posts supporting his backyard deck. He paints his buckets bright colors, and plants herbs and marigolds in the top to help retain moisture.
Another, less decorative solution for preventing evaporation is to top the planters with mulch or simply cover them with a lid. Regardless, Mr. Nolan said, “The upside-down planters tend to dry out really fast, so I have to water a lot — probably once a day in the heat of the summer.”
Many gardeners reported that the thinner, breathable plastic Topsy Turvy planters ($9.99) dried out so quickly that watering even once a day was not enough to prevent desiccated plants. There were similar comments about the Plow & Hearth version ($12.95) and while the Gardener’s Supply upside-down planter ($19.95) has a built-in watering system, online reviewers said it is difficult to assemble.
In addition to plastic soda bottles, milk jugs and five-gallon buckets, upside-down planters can be made out of thick heavy-duty plastic trash bags, plastic reusable shopping totes, kitty litter containers, laundry hampers and even used tires. Web sites like Instructables.com and UpsideDownTomatoPlant.com show how it can be done, and YouTube has several how-to videos. Variations include building a water reservoir either at the top or bottom of planters for irrigation, cutting several openings in the bottom and sides for planting several seedlings and lining the interior with landscape fabric or coconut fiber to help retain moisture.
Donald Rutledge, a construction project designer and manager in New Braunfels, Tex., devised a triple-pulley system so he could easily hoist his nine upside-down planters 16 feet above the ground, away from ravenous deer. He made his planters out of five-gallon buckets four years ago, following instructions on the Internet. “The tomatoes and basil worked real well upside down, but the lettuce, peas and carrots weren’t so successful,” he said. “It’s been trial and error.”
This year, he put his plantings right-side up in the buckets to see if it makes any difference. He said his suspended garden started as an entertaining summer project for him and his three children but has become more of a scientific pursuit: “Is upside down better than right-side up? I’m guess I’m going to find out.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 21, 2010
A previous version of this article misstated the price of the Topsy Turvey planter as $19.98.

May 25, 2010, Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

Reading 1
1 Pt 1:10-16

Beloved:

Concerning the salvation of your souls

the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours

searched and investigated it

investigating the time and circumstances

that the Spirit of Christ within them indicated

when it testified in advance

to the sufferings destined for Christ

and the glories to follow them.

It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you

with regard to the things that have now been announced to you

by those who preached the Good News to you

through the Holy Spirit sent from heaven,

things into which angels longed to look.

Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, live soberly,

and set your hopes completely on the grace to be brought to you

at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Like obedient children,

do not act in compliance with the desires of your former ignorance

but, as he who called you is holy,

be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct,

for it is written, Be holy because I am holy.

 Ps 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4

Responsorial Psalm

R.          (2a)  The Lord has made known his salvation.

Sing to the LORD a new song,

for he has done wondrous deeds;

His right hand has won victory for him,

his holy arm.

R.          The Lord has made known his salvation.

The LORD has made his salvation known:

in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.

He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness

toward the house of Israel.

R.          The Lord has made known his salvation.

All the ends of the earth have seen

the salvation by our God.

Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;

break into song; sing praise.

R.          The Lord has made known his salvation.

Mk 10:28-31

Gospel

Peter began to say to Jesus,

“We have given up everything and followed you.”

Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you,

there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters

or mother or father or children or lands

for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel

who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age:

houses and brothers and sisters

and mothers and children and lands,

with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.

But many that are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

May 23, 2010 Pentecost Sunday

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

Reading 1

Acts 11:1-9 or Ex 19:3-8a, 16-20b or Ez 37:1-14 or Jl 3:1-5

The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words.

While the people were migrating in the east,

they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.

They said to one another,

“Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire.”

They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar.

Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city

and a tower with its top in the sky,

and so make a name for ourselves;

otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth.”

The LORD came down to see the city and the tower

that the people had built.

Then the LORD said: “If now, while they are one people,

all speaking the same language,

they have started to do this,

nothing will later stop them from doing whatever they presume to do.

Let us then go down there and confuse their language,

so that one will not understand what another says.”

Thus the LORD scattered them from there all over the earth,

and they stopped building the city.

That is why it was called Babel,

because there the LORD confused the speech of all the world.

It was from that place that he scattered them all over the earth.

or

Ex 19:3-8a, 16-20b

Moses went up the mountain to God.

Then the LORD called to him and said,

“Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob;

tell the Israelites:

You have seen for yourselves how I treated the Egyptians

and how I bore you up on eagle wings

and brought you here to myself.

Therefore, if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant,

you shall be my special possession,

dearer to me than all other people,

though all the earth is mine.

You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.

That is what you must tell the Israelites.”

So Moses went and summoned the elders of the people.

When he set before them

all that the LORD had ordered him to tell them,

the people all answered together,

“Everything the LORD has said, we will do.”

On the morning of the third day

there were peals of thunder and lightning,

and a heavy cloud over the mountain,

and a very loud trumpet blast,

so that all the people in the camp trembled.

But Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God,

and they stationed themselves at the foot of the mountain.

Mount Sinai was all wrapped in smoke,

for the LORD came down upon it in fire.

The smoke rose from it as though from a furnace,

and the whole mountain trembled violently.

The trumpet blast grew louder and louder, while Moses was speaking,

and God answering him with thunder.

When the LORD came down to the top of Mount Sinai,

he summoned Moses to the top of the mountain.

or

Ez 37:1-14

The hand of the LORD came upon me,

and he led me out in the spirit of the LORD

and set me in the center of the plain,

which was now filled with bones.

He made me walk among the bones in every direction

so that I saw how many they were on the surface of the plain.

How dry they were!

He asked me:

Son of man, can these bones come to life?

I answered, “Lord GOD, you alone know that.”

Then he said to me:

Prophesy over these bones, and say to them:

Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!

Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones:

See!  I will bring spirit into you, that you may come to life.

I will put sinews upon you, make flesh grow over you,

cover you with skin, and put spirit in you

so that you may come to life and know that I am the LORD.

I, Ezekiel, prophesied as I had been told,

and even as I was prophesying I heard a noise;

it was a rattling as the bones came together, bone joining bone.

I saw the sinews and the flesh come upon them,

and the skin cover them, but there was no spirit in them.

Then the LORD said to me:

Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man,

and say to the spirit:  Thus says the Lord GOD:

From the four winds come, O spirit,

and breathe into these slain that they may come to life.

I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them;

they came alive and stood upright, a vast army.

Then he said to me:

Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.

They have been saying,

“Our bones are dried up,

our hope is lost, and we are cut off.”

Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD:

O my people, I will open your graves

and have you rise from them,

and bring you back to the land of Israel.

Then you shall know that I am the LORD,

when I open your graves and have you rise from them,

O my people!

I will put my spirit in you that you may live,

and I will settle you upon your land;

thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.

or                                                                        

Jl 3:1-5

Thus says the LORD:

I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.

Your sons and daughters shall prophesy,

your old men shall dream dreams,

your young men shall see visions;

even upon the servants and the handmaids,

in those days, I will pour out my spirit.

And I will work wonders in the heavens and on the earth,

blood, fire, and columns of smoke;

the sun will be turned to darkness,

and the moon to blood,

at the coming of the day of the LORD,

the great and terrible day.

Then everyone shall be rescued

who calls on the name of the LORD;

for on Mount Zion there shall be a remnant,

as the LORD has said,

and in Jerusalem survivors

whom the LORD shall call.

 Ps 104:1-2, 24, 35, 27-28, 29, 30

Responsorial Psalm

R. (cf. 30) Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.

or:

R. Alleluia.

Bless the LORD, O my soul!

O LORD, my God, you are great indeed!

You are clothed with majesty and glory,

robed in light as with a cloak.

R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.

or:

R. Alleluia.

How manifold are your works, O LORD!

In wisdom you have wrought them allC

the earth is full of your creatures;

bless the LORD, O my soul!  Alleluia.

R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.

or:

R. Alleluia.

Creatures all look to you

to give them food in due time.

When you give it to them, they gather it;

when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.

R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.

or:

R. Alleluia.

If you take away their breath, they perish

and return to their dust.

When you send forth your spirit, they are created,

and you renew the face of the earth.

R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.

or:

R. Alleluia.

Rom 8:22-27

Reading 2

Brothers and sisters:

We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now;

and not only that, but we ourselves,

who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,

we also groan within ourselves

as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

For in hope we were saved.

Now hope that sees is not hope.

For who hopes for what one sees?

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.

In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness;

for we do not know how to pray as we ought,

but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.

And the one who searches hearts

knows what is the intention of the Spirit,

because he intercedes for the holy ones

according to God’s will.

Jn 7:37-39

Gospel

On the last and greatest day of the feast,

Jesus stood up and exclaimed,

“Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink.

As Scripture says:

Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me.”

He said this in reference to the Spirit

that those who came to believe in him were to receive.

There was, of course, no Spirit yet,

because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

May 20, 2010 Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

 Reading 1
Acts 22:30; 23:6-11

Wishing to determine the truth

about why Paul was being accused by the Jews,

the commander freed him

and ordered the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin to convene.

Then he brought Paul down and made him stand before them.

Paul was aware that some were Sadducees and some Pharisees,

so he called out before the Sanhedrin,

“My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees;

I am on trial for hope in the resurrection of the dead.”

When he said this,

a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees,

and the group became divided.

For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection

or angels or spirits,

while the Pharisees acknowledge all three.

A great uproar occurred,

and some scribes belonging to the Pharisee party

stood up and sharply argued,

“We find nothing wrong with this man.

Suppose a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?”

The dispute was so serious that the commander,

afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them,

ordered his troops to go down and rescue Paul from their midst

and take him into the compound.

The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage.

For just as you have borne witness to my cause in Jerusalem,

so you must also bear witness in Rome.”

 Ps 16:1-2a and 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11

Responsorial Psalm

R.          (1)  Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.

or:

R.          Alleluia.

Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge;

I say to the LORD, “My Lord are you.”

O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,

you it is who hold fast my lot.

R.          Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.

or:

R.          Alleluia.

I bless the LORD who counsels me;

even in the night my heart exhorts me.

I set the LORD ever before me;

with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.

R.          Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.

or:

R.          Alleluia.

Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,

my body, too, abides in confidence;

Because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world,

nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.

R.          Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.

or:

R.          Alleluia.

You will show me the path to life,

fullness of joys in your presence,

the delights at your right hand forever.

R.          Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.

or:

R.          Alleluia.

Jn 17:20-26

Gospel

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:

“I pray not only for these,

but also for those who will believe in me through their word,

so that they may all be one,

as you, Father, are in me and I in you,

that they also may be in us,

that the world may believe that you sent me.

And I have given them the glory you gave me,

so that they may be one, as we are one,

I in them and you in me,

that they may be brought to perfection as one,

that the world may know that you sent me,

and that you loved them even as you loved me.

Father, they are your gift to me.

I wish that where I am they also may be with me,

that they may see my glory that you gave me,

because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Righteous Father, the world also does not know you,

but I know you, and they know that you sent me.

I made known to them your name and I will make it known,

that the love with which you loved me

may be in them and I in them.”

May 18, 2010, Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

Reading 1

Acts 20:17-27



From Miletus Paul had the presbyters



of the Church at Ephesus summoned.



When they came to him, he addressed them,



“You know how I lived among you



the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia.



I served the Lord with all humility



and with the tears and trials that came to me



because of the plots of the Jews,



and I did not at all shrink from telling you



what was for your benefit,



or from teaching you in public or in your homes.



I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks



to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus.



But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem.



What will happen to me there I do not know,



except that in one city after another



the Holy Spirit has been warning me



that imprisonment and hardships await me.



Yet I consider life of no importance to me,



if only I may finish my course



and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus,



to bear witness to the Gospel of God’s grace.







“But now I know that none of you



to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels



will ever see my face again.



And so I solemnly declare to you this day



that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you,

for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God.”



Ps 68:10-11, 20-21

Responsorial Psalm



R. (33a) Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.



or:



R. Alleluia.



A bountiful rain you showered down, O God, upon your inheritance;



you restored the land when it languished;



Your flock settled in it;



in your goodness, O God, you provided it for the needy.



R. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.



or:



R. Alleluia.



Blessed day by day be the Lord,



who bears our burdens; God, who is our salvation.



God is a saving God for us;



the LORD, my Lord, controls the passageways of death.



R. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.



or:

R. Alleluia.



Jn 17:1-11a

Gospel



Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,



“Father, the hour has come.



Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,



just as you gave him authority over all people,



so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.



Now this is eternal life,



that they should know you, the only true God,



and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.



I glorified you on earth



by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.



Now glorify me, Father, with you,



with the glory that I had with you before the world began.







“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.



They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,



and they have kept your word.



Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,



because the words you gave to me I have given to them,



and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,



and they have believed that you sent me.



I pray for them.



I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,



because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours



and everything of yours is mine,



and I have been glorified in them.



And now I will no longer be in the world,

but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.”

May 17, 2010 Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

Reading 1
Acts 19:1-8

While Apollos was in Corinth,

Paul traveled through the interior of the country

and down to Ephesus where he found some disciples.

He said to them,

“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?”

They answered him,

“We have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

He said, “How were you baptized?”

They replied, “With the baptism of John.”

Paul then said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance,

telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him,

that is, in Jesus.”

When they heard this,

they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

And when Paul laid his hands on them,

the Holy Spirit came upon them,

and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

Altogether there were about twelve men.

He entered the synagogue, and for three months debated boldly

with persuasive arguments about the Kingdom of God.

 Ps 68:2-3ab, 4-5acd, 6-7ab

Responsorial Psalm

R.          (33a)  Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.

or:

R.          Alleluia.

God arises; his enemies are scattered,

and those who hate him flee before him.

As smoke is driven away, so are they driven;

as wax melts before the fire.

R.          Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.

or:

R.          Alleluia.

But the just rejoice and exult before God;

they are glad and rejoice.

Sing to God, chant praise to his name;

whose name is the LORD.

R.          Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.

or:

R.          Alleluia.

The father of orphans and the defender of widows

is God in his holy dwelling.

God gives a home to the forsaken;

he leads forth prisoners to prosperity.

R.          Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.

or:

R.          Alleluia.

Jn 16:29-33

Gospel

The disciples said to Jesus,

“Now you are talking plainly, and not in any figure of speech.

Now we realize that you know everything

and that you do not need to have anyone question you.

Because of this we believe that you came from God.”

Jesus answered them, “Do you believe now?

Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived

when each of you will be scattered to his own home

and you will leave me alone.

But I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

I have told you this so that you might have peace in me.

In the world you will have trouble,

but take courage, I have conquered the world.”

May 16, 2010 Seventh Sunday of Easter

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

Reading 1
Acts 7:55-60

Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit,

looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God

and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,

and Stephen said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened

and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

But they cried out in a loud voice,

covered their ears, and rushed upon him together.

They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him.

The witnesses laid down their cloaks

at the feet of a young man named Saul.

As they were stoning Stephen, he called out,

“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice,

“Lord, do not hold this sin against them;”

and when he said this, he fell asleep.

 Ps 97:1-2, 6-7, 9

Responsorial Psalm

R.  (1a and 9a) The Lord is king, the most high over all the earth.

or:

R. Alleluia.

The LORD is king; let the earth rejoice;

let the many islands be glad.

Justice and judgment are the foundation of his throne.

R. The Lord is king, the most high over all the earth.

or:

R. Alleluia.

The heavens proclaim his justice,

and all peoples see his glory.

All gods are prostrate before him.

R. The Lord is king, the most high over all the earth.

or:

R. Alleluia.

You, O LORD, are the Most High over all the earth,

exalted far above all gods.

R. The Lord is king, the most high over all the earth.

or:

R. Alleluia.

Rev 22:12-14, 16-17, 20

Reading 2

 I, John, heard a voice saying to me:

“Behold, I am coming soon.

I bring with me the recompense I will give to each

according to his deeds.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last,

the beginning and the end.”

Blessed are they who wash their robes

so as to have the right to the tree of life

and enter the city through its gates.

“I, Jesus, sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches.

I am the root and offspring of David,

the bright morning star.”

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.”

Let the hearer say, “Come.”

Let the one who thirsts come forward,

and the one who wants it receive the gift of life-giving water.

The one who gives this testimony says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”

Amen!  Come, Lord Jesus!

Jn 17:20-26

Gospel

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:

“Holy Father, I pray not only for them,

but also for those who will believe in me through their word,

so that they may all be one,

as you, Father, are in me and I in you,

that they also may be in us,

that the world may believe that you sent me.

And I have given them the glory you gave me,

so that they may be one, as we are one,

I in them and you in me,

that they may be brought to perfection as one,

that the world may know that you sent me,

and that you loved them even as you loved me.

Father, they are your gift to me.

I wish that where I am they also may be with me,

that they may see my glory that you gave me,

because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Righteous Father, the world also does not know you,

but I know you, and they know that you sent me.

I made known to them your name and I will make it known,

that the love with which you loved me

may be in them and I in them.”