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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:  Jeremiah 2

"The Lord says:
I remember the love you used to have for me.
But now you have forgotten me.

Priests and prophets have no knowledge of me.
King and princes have rebelled against me.

Not only have you abandoned me,
you now follow false gods.

You have abandoned the fountain of living water
in exchange for muddy pools."

Reflection: 
If Jeremiah came to our world today and started saying "priests and pastors have no knowledge of God"
what would the reaction be? Not an easy message to deliver!

Prayer: Lord, please don't let  anyone else  or anything else ever replace you as Number One in my life

How lovely is your sacred temple, Lord.
My heart is longing to spend time in your holy dwelling.

Even sparrows  and swallows are your temple guests.
They build homes for their young near your altar.

Blessed are the people who live and work in your temple.
And blessed, too, are people who keep  the memory of your temple in their hearts.

As they go through the troubles of life,
you give them strength to face the trials of each day.

Lord, one day within your temple
is better than a thousand anywhere else.

Reflection: 
God is everywhere...in Heaven...in our hearts...in the poor....in the Bible
....but in a very special way God is present in a church or other place of prayer

Prayer: Dear God, thank you for special places of prayer

Paul said to the crowd "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus. I was brought up here in Jerusalem.
I studied under Gamaliel. I fully observed the Law of our ancestors.
I even persecuted this Way to the death, and sent many people to prison

But once when I was on my way to Damascus to arrest followers of the Way, Jesus appeared to me and said
'I am Jesus the Nazarene, and you are persecuting me'. 
A believer in Damascus told me I was to be Jesus' witness in many places"

Up to now, the crowd had listened quietly to Paul, but when he said that Jesus was sending him to non-Jews in far away places,
the crowd shouted "Rid the earth of this man! He's not fit to live!"

Reflection:  Even though God had said through the prophets that all peoples were his children,
the Jews were hostile to the idea that any other nation was special to God.
 c.f. not so long ago, Catholics rejected the idea that "non-Catholics" were special to God (...and vice-versa...)

Prayer: Jesus, please help us avoid the "others-don't-matter" way of thinking

Peter went to the place where the religious leaders had Jesus on trial.
A young woman in the courtyard of the place  said to him
"You are a friend of the Galilean".

In front of the woman and people around her
Peter said "I don't know what you're talking about".

Peter went to the gateway of the place, where another woman said to people around her "This man is a friend of the Galilean".
Peter replied strongly "I don't know the man".

Not long after this a group of people said to Peter
"You are his friend. We can tell by your Galilean accent".

Then Peter even more strongly replied "I do not know the man".

At that very moment, a rooster crowed.
Peter remembered Jesus' words "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times".   Peter went outside and wept loudly.

Reflection: 
Have we ever been ashamed to stand up for God's values?

Prayer: Jesus, please give me courage to witness to your values