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This plan follows the Sunday liturgy:  reading + psalm + reading + gospel       From  www.simplebible.info         Previous R-R-P 

O Holy Spirit, please guide me as I read these passages for today.                     
May these passages give me hope, strength, wisdom, compassion, courage and peace for my daily life     Chinese text

Reading:  Sirach 25-28

Do not praise a person before they have spoken.
A person's speech reveals what sort of person is speaking.

Among stupid people look for an opportunity to leave,
but among thoughtful people take your time.

Sarcasm and abuse are the mark of an arrogant person.
Resentment and anger are bad for everyone.

Forgive others if they have offended you.
Then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.

Avoid quarrelling and losing your temper.
Do not let your mouth speak scandal.

Reflection: 
Our mouths are used for digestion, breathing and speech.
God could have designed three separate organs for these three functions...but gave all three jobs to the mouth.
May our mouths be used wisely.
c.f.  this old song...now on YouTube...with Mr Bean's mouth!

Prayer: Lord, please help me use my mouth wisely

How great is your name, O Lord our God,
through all the earth.

When I see the heavens, the work of your hands,
the moon and stars which you have arranged,
then I stop and think:
what are we insignificant humans that you should care about us?

Yet you have put us in charge of the world.
Everything is subject to our control.

Reflection:
The famous philosopher Immanuel Kant once said
"Two things awe me most: the starry sky above me and the moral law within me"

Prayer: How great is your name, O Lord our God, through all the earth

Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God's right hand

"I can see heaven thrown open", he said, "and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God"

At this, the religious leaders at the meeting covered their ears with their hands.
They sent Stephen out of the city and stoned him. 
The false witnesses (who were required to throw the first stones) 
put down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul

As they were stoning him, Stephen prayed "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit". 
Then he knelt down and prayed "Lord, do not hold this sin against them". 
Then he died. Saul entirely approved of the killing

That day a bitter persecution started against the church in Jerusalem
and everyone except the apostles fled to the countryside

Saul  began working for the destruction of the church. 
He went from house to house arresting men and women and sending them to prison

Reflection:
"Heaven thrown open" supports the Near Death Experience people (and St Paul) who say that "Heaven" is all around us
...just "through the veil"....another dimension that we can't see at the moment. We are like black and white TV sets that can't process color pictures!

Prayer: Jesus, thank you for the example of Stephen who, like yourself, forgave those who were killing him

On another Sabbath Jesus  visited a prayer hall.
A man with a withered hand was in the prayer hall.

Some religious leaders asked Jesus, to trap him,
"Is it lawful to heal a man on the Sabbath day?"
(The leaders taught that no "work" could be done on the Sabbath).

Jesus replied:
"If one of your sheep fell down a hole on the Sabbath,
wouldn't you lift it out?

A man is more important than a sheep.
Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."

Then Jesus said to the man with the withered hand
"Stretch out your hand".
He stretched it out. It was healed.

The religious leaders left the prayer hall
and began plotting how to get rid of Jesus.

Reflection: 
How did religious leaders get to the stage of wanting to kill a good person like Jesus?
Why were they opposed to him?   John's Gospel gives one reason: jealousy....and with that goes "a threat to our authority" etc.   Same thing can happen today.  Jealousy can ruin a person, a family, a church community.

Prayer: Jesus, please protect religious leaders from jealousy