{"id":11311,"date":"2025-02-21T09:00:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T14:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/?p=11311"},"modified":"2025-02-19T07:46:38","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T12:46:38","slug":"seventh-sunday-in-ordinary-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/2025\/02\/21\/seventh-sunday-in-ordinary-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

GROW AS A DISCIPLE<\/strong>
\n\u201cLove your enemies\u201d may be one of the most oft-quoted verses of Scripture. We tend to think of it as a moral principle to guide us in our dealings with people who rub us the wrong way. But do we ever consider what it tells us about God? After all, Jesus, who is God himself, speaks it. God tells us to love our enemies because God loves his \u201cenemies\u201d \u2013 that is, those who freely choose to oppose his plan of life and love. On the cross, Jesus forgave and prayed for the people who sought to kill him while they were crucifying him. But his mercy was not confined to that time and place alone; he died for each of us who, whenever we sin, refuse to love him. If we get this into our heads and our hearts \u2013 \u201cGod loves and forgives me\u201d \u2013 we can begin to rest in his embrace like children confident in the unconditional love of their father\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n

GO EVANGELIZE<\/strong>
\nIf, as a child, you learned a musical instrument for which regular recitals were the norm, you know how many hours of practice are required for a few short minutes of performance. You know, too, that if you are well prepared, a musical composition which appeared impossible months before comes easily and naturally on the day of the recital. For most of us, loving our enemies as Jesus commands us to do appears far beyond our reach \u2013 impossible, in fact. But this kind of heroic love is nevertheless God\u2019s call for us, and he will never deny us the grace we need to respond to his call. What\u2019s required on our part is a willingness to practice. If we practice loving in small things even when it\u2019s difficult \u2013 listening patiently to someone whose conversation bores us, for example, or taking on an extra chore without seeking recognition or thanks \u2013 we will be prepared for the day when God asks us to make an even greater act of love for his sake.<\/p>\n

PRACTICE<\/strong>
\nThis week, go out of your way to find opportunities to love even when it\u2019s difficult. Do your best to be conscious of your intentions, even in the moment, by asking God for the grace to love generously and by offering your act of love to him.<\/p>\n

By the Faithful Disciple<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GROW AS A DISCIPLE \u201cLove your enemies\u201d may be one of the most oft-quoted verses of Scripture. We tend to think of it as a moral principle to guide us in our dealings with people who rub us the wrong way. But do we ever consider what it tells us about God? After all, Jesus,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11311","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\/11311","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=11311"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11314,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11311\/revisions\/11314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}