Glorious Father, I am in awe of you. How you gave us a remarkable testimony in todays reading. Where will we ever see this today, when your Son breaks bread to feed 4,000 plus. With just seven loaves of bread and a few fish. Today you have given us a great example of the Eucharist, the breaking of bread, before he is to do so in the last supper. Not only that Father, you have shown me a miracle of great faith and love. Your Son loves us so much, to provide us with food, to nourish our souls as well as our bodies. For God nothing is impossible, with him all is possible, that is why Jesus can do so very much to bring his people back to him. This very miracle has not only a vast testimony, it gave the apostles their direction as well.
People came to fill their hearts and souls with spiritual fare while listening to Jesus. They were so hungry for what Jesus was giving them, that they were neglecting their physical needs. He felt pity for them because they didn't know how to take care of themselves physically. For three days they stayed with Jesus without food, nourishing their souls, being healed of their infirmities. Jesus looked to his disciples for their part in feeding the crowd of people. It was up to them to help provide the means for them to go home without collapsing from lack of food. When you think about this the many Priest who celebrate the Liturgy of the Eucharist are feeding us as Jesus requested, they are providing our daily meal to sustain us on our journey. While Jesus provides us with the constant spiritual healing through the word of God.

Father you have given me a special ability to love and to reveal this love for you to others. Today I read in the Gospel of Mark 7:31-37, the healing of a deaf and mute person, who Jesus told not to say anything. I can understand those who have been healed would love more than anything to bring this gift they received to others, so they too may also be healed. I also understand how when we are asked not to say anything, we go and do the opposite, sometimes causing harm. We see this today in those we associate with, when we ask for them not to say anything, yet off we go to the next person we see, to reveal what we were asked not to. Whether it is for the good or bad, we have not done as was requested of us. Those in the Gospel we see did a good revealing, but in doing this, they brought the end of Jesus much sooner. Do we often wonder why they were all told not to say anything. It seems Jesus knew our natures better than we do. We have a habit of doing the opposite of what is asked of us, especially from God. He asks us to love our neighbor, yet we hate them. He gave us a great gift to love as he loves, but we love selfishly. Suppose he told us to go about hating others, I wonder if we would do exactly as asked then. It seems so much easier to hate, than to love. It seems so much easier to do the opposite of what God asks of us. There are many lessons Jesus teaches us, it is up to us to hear and speak of those lessons as God intended.

Jesus you have given us so much of yourself to restore us to life in God. We read about the many accounts of healings, demon possessions that are removed, all to restore a loss of faith. How in our neediness, we forget that you need, in your human form to have time for yourself also. To do what we all take for granted, the ability to wash our bodies, wash our clothes, eat without interruption. Yet we witness again your unconditional love by showing us again that all who come knocking they will be answered. Even when you need time to yourself, your love shows us the gift of yourself. How we need to learn from you Jesus, to be patient with those who come knocking at our doors in need of our help, as you have just shown us.
I think we tend to not answer the door, the phones when someone is in need of our help. Sometimes Father we say things to others and never follow through, not realizing we hurt you in the process. How sometimes we are purposefully in avoiding people who are less fortunate, or do not rank as we do, yet you show us today that when you needed time alone, you gave of yourself with love to another, you did not grouch about it, send them away, but sought from them a just answer. That all are fed, even the animals, amazing, such a simple answer could restore life.

Today I understand that all that I think can be detrimental, to my soul. You have given me much to guard my soul, Dear Father. That my thoughts of uncharitableness can cause me to commit evil. That if I think about stealing , I commit evil in my thought. Should I think about deceiving in my thoughts how I commit evil. Father through your Son you have given us a way to guard our souls from evil. That there are so many things one can think of that causes us to commit evil, because it causes more harm than good to our souls. Little did we know that our thoughts are not always on the path of holiness as you try hard to teach us. We commit so much evil in our thoughts on a daily basis, each time we encounter strife, hatred. How many of us have tempered our thoughts to keep the Word of God safe within us. To guard against our thoughts is difficult, where our conscience is always guiding us as to know the difference in good thought, verses evil. It is the Word of God that gives us life to follow a path that is lived in union with the Father, it is the Wisdom of the Father revealed through his Son.

I sit here pondering my clean hands, and how this ritual has been passed down to all generations for a different purpose than what it was intended. Today we wash ourselves for hygiene, more than for the cleansing ritual of making ourselves pure.

Jesus comments about paying lip service, he's right. We as a whole tend to follow rules in the way we see it, as we want to follow them. We do the rituals, the traditions, so forth, but we do not change how we are, this is how we pay lip service. We bathe for the fact of not being a stinky person, but all the while we are rotten inside. I'll help you, but while I'm helping you, you are putting a knife within my back, how we use people to benefit ourselves, we give lip service, all the while not following what is asked of us to love our neighbor. Do we say we help but just say it to console. How often do we truly help the poor, do we provide them with jobs, or just feed them, to sustain them for another day, where they have to steal to survive. Is this the lip service we give to those less fortunate. We condemn them because that's where we put them, the sin is ours, not theirs, we are paying lip service for the very fact that we say we help without helping.