{"id":11264,"date":"2025-02-07T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/?p=11264"},"modified":"2025-02-07T16:26:25","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T21:26:25","slug":"fifth-sunday-in-ordinary-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/2025\/02\/07\/fifth-sunday-in-ordinary-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>GROW AS A DISCIPLE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWoe is me; I am doomed!&#8221; &#8220;I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle.&#8221; &#8220;Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.&#8221; Do you notice a theme today? Each of these lines \u2013 taken from our readings \u2013 reveals the humbling reality that when humans stand in the glorious presence of God, we must confront the Truth, look at ourselves honestly, and recognize our sin. We are reminded of the Garden, when original sin disfigured human nature and Adam and Eve, realizing their nakedness, hid themselves from God. The story would be tragic if that had been the end. But in today\u2019s readings and in our own lives, the crippling effects of our sin are not the end. By becoming aware of our sin \u2013 agonizing though this may be \u2013 we invite the Lord in. It\u2019s the crack in the door that he will enter, bringing mercy and freedom found only in him.<\/p>\n<p><strong>GO EVANGELIZE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Each of today\u2019s readings shows how God\u2019s presence leads us to acknowledge our lack; however, that\u2019s only \u201cstep one.\u201d Notice what happens next in each instance. \u201cYour wickedness is removed, your sin purged.\u201d \u201cBut by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective.\u201d \u201cJesus said to Simon, \u2018Do not be afraid.\u2019\u201d See how, in each example, hearts are transformed from shame and guilt to courage and confidence. The readings explain how as each person is freed, they are compelled to act boldly. So, what changed? The same thing that can happen in our own lives: as we acknowledge our sin, we open ourselves to the flow of grace. We allow the Lord to heal and free us, making us radiant and setting our hearts on fire with love.<\/p>\n<p><strong>PLAN<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Choose one virtue you\u2019d like to cultivate in order to root out a sinful habit. Then make a plan to practice that virtue. It can be as simple as \u201cI will always pray to the Holy Spirit before I talk to that person at work who bothers me.\u201d Make sure your plan is: (1) specific [\u201cI will never sin again\u201d doesn\u2019t count], and (2) doable [\u201cI will pray every day for six hours to grow in patience\u201d is not possible for most people]. Finally, offer your plan to God and ask him for whatever strength, grace, and healing you need to grow in that virtue.<\/p>\n<p><em>By the Faithful Disciple<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GROW AS A DISCIPLE \u201cWoe is me; I am doomed!&#8221; &#8220;I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle.&#8221; &#8220;Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.&#8221; Do you notice a theme today? Each of these lines \u2013 taken from our readings \u2013 reveals the humbling reality that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parish","ctfw-has-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11264"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11282,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11264\/revisions\/11282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}