Study:  Reflect on a time when you experienced something profoundly good.  How did it shape you?

Pray:  Are there needs in your life or in someone you know?  Ask the Lord to touch and bless them with goodness.

Serve:  How can you bring abundant goodness to another today?  How can your service make a real difference in someone’s life?

Mass Readings – The 2nd Sunday of the Year

This week’s readings proclaim God’s goodness in a variety of ways:

• 1st Reading – God calls Israel his “Delight”
• Psalm – the people proclaim the “marvelous deeds of the Lord”
• 2nd Reading – the Spirit showers us with rich and varied gifts
• Gospel – Jesus turns water into wine at a wedding in Cana

We often talk about the Lord’s commandments as things we should NOT do.  While this is often true and helpful, we can sometimes miss the point about all the ways our lives can DO things that are inspired (and indeed, commanded) by God.  We are called:

• to live joyfully
• to proclaim God’s Good News
• to engage the gifts we have been given for others
• to change and transform the world around us with God’s grace and blessing

Simply put, God’s goodness to us inspires us to share this abundant goodness with each other.  We are invited to take hold of our lives and make the most of each day – loving and serving, forgiving and helping, blessing, healing, rejoicing, and renewing.  We have been given the gifts of life and faith….let’s live them with power!

The gut check in all this flows from our fundamental attitude:  do we live our faith with love, joy, and peace?  Do people see goodness in the words we say and the actions we perform?  Is our Christian witness evident in the manner and conduct of our interactions with others?  May God’s goodness empower our lives to burn like a blazing torch – leading others closer to God and one another.

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Catholic Inspiration Archives

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The Wedding at Cana, Paolo Veronese; 1562, Louvre Museum, Paris, France.

Note: This post was first published on January 11, 2016.