22 nd Sunday Ordinary Time August 29, 2004

My Child: Conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts. Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God. What is too sublime for you, seek not, into things beyond your strength search not. Conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts. Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God. What is too sublime for you, seek not, into things beyond your strength search not.

The mind of a sage appreciates proverbs, and an attentive ear is the joy of the wise. The mind of a sage appreciates proverbs, and an attentive ear is the joy of the wise. Water quenches a flaming fire, and alms atone for sins. Water quenches a flaming fire, and alms atone for sins.

Brothers & Sisters: You have approached Mount Zion & the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering, and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, You have approached Mount Zion & the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering, and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven,

and God the judge of all, and the spirits of the just made perfect, and JESUS, the mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled blood that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.

Jesus noticed how they tried to take the places of honor. One Sabbath Jesus had gone to eat a meal in the house of a leading Pharisee, and he was carefully watched.

He told them a parable: "When you are invited to a wedding party… Do not choose the best seat. It may happen that someone more important than you has been invited, and your host, who invited both of you, will come and say to you: 'Please give this person your place.' What shame is yours when you take the lowest seat! Do not choose the best seat. It may happen that someone more important than you has been invited, and your host, who invited both of you, will come and say to you: 'Please give this person your place.' What shame is yours when you take the lowest seat!

Do not choose the best seat. Whenever you are invited, go rather to the lowest seat, so that your host may come and say to you: 'Friend, you must come up higher.' And this will be a great honor for you in the presence of all the other guests. Do not choose the best seat. Whenever you are invited, go rather to the lowest seat, so that your host may come and say to you: 'Friend, you must come up higher.' And this will be a great honor for you in the presence of all the other guests.

Jesus also addressed the man who had invited him and said: "When you give a lunch or a dinner, don't invite your friends, or your brothers and relatives and wealthy neighbors. For surely they will also invite you in return and you will be repaid. Jesus also addressed the man who had invited him and said: "When you give a lunch or a dinner, don't invite your friends, or your brothers and relatives and wealthy neighbors. For surely they will also invite you in return and you will be repaid.

When you give a feast, invite instead: the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. When you give a feast, invite instead: the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.