Feast of St John of God.

Feast of St John of God. 

"As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the Twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way,

“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”

"Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something. He said to her, “What do you wish?” She answered him, “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom.” 

Jesus said in reply, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?” They said to him, “We can.” He replied, “My chalice you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

 When the ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus summoned them and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20: 17 - 28).

Wednesday 8th March 2023, in the 2nd Week of Lent is the feast of St John of God (1495 - 1550). Religious. Born Portuguese. Worked and died in Spain. A prodigal of some sort in his younger days. Once he was converted at the age of 40, everything changed. He became fired up with ministry to the poor and the sick.

 John was a man of many talents and at various times became a farmer, soldier and merchant. I knew St John of God as a pamphleteer because at the time I first read his biography, I used pamphlets for evangelization. He became my patron saint and is still one of my patron saints.

Saint John of God founded the Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of Saint John of God. 

St John of God is the patron saint of hospitals, nurses, booksellers, pamphleteers.

The Gospel today is the chilling prediction of the Passion and Death of Jesus. It is clear that the disciples did not understand anything of  what Jesus said about the greatest event in His life and in human history. Do we understand better? Lent is the time to come to this great knowledge of our salvation. How do we do this? If you ask for the grace, you will be given to adopt the 7-Way Plan. Through the lavish grace of God, you can commit to daily Prayer, word of God, couple of weekday Masses, bi-weekly Confession, daily Examination of Conscience, spiritual reading and some ministry work. Remember that on our own, we can do nothing. God promises that if we ask, we will receive the help we need to serve Him. 

Daily Bible Verse @ SeekFirstcommunity.com