Deuteronomy, Chapter 17, Verse 18-20
18When he is
sitting upon his royal throne, he shall write a copy of this law upon a scroll from the one that is in the custody
of the Levitical priests. 19It shall remain
with him and he shall read it as long as he lives, so that he may learn to fear the LORD, his God, and to observe
carefully all the words of this law and these statutes, 20so that he does not exalt himself over his kindred
or turn aside from this commandment to the right or to the left, and so that he
and his descendants may reign long in Israel.
God
commanded that the King should read the scrolls of the law and follow them. The
scrolls were the bible of the time. If we wish to have fear, that is wonder and
awe at God we need to read the bible every day. Perhaps today would be a good
day to shut off the TV and read a chapter a day for every day of your life or
read the daily readings for the Mass. Perhaps doing this along with a family
dinner where you pray together over the meal and then read the bible together
would help strengthen families.
A good resource to peruse to
strengthen the family is:
31“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he
will sit upon his glorious throne,32 and
all the nations will be assembled
before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates
the sheep from the goats.33 He will place the sheep on his
right and the goats on his left.34 Then the king will say to those
on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world.35 For
I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a
stranger and you welcomed me,36naked and you clothed me, ill
and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’37 Then the righteous* will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you
hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?38 When did we see you a stranger
and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39When did we see you ill or in prison,
and visit you?’40 And the king will say to them in
reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of
mine, you did for me.’41 Then he will say to those on his left,
‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and
his angels.42 For I was hungry and you gave me no
food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,43a stranger and you gave me no
welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not
care for me.’44 Then
they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a
stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’45 He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for
one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’46 And
these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
The weapon of Sacred
Scripture
·
Each time the Devil attacked with the temptation
to doubt or disobey God, Jesus quoted Scripture to throw him back.
·
Scripture is our sword against Satan!
·
We must listen carefully to the scriptural
readings in Mass and meditate on them deeply.
·
We must read Scripture on our own.
·
We must also memorize scriptural texts that we
can use against temptation. Then, when the Enemy assaults us, we can imitate
Our Lord by the effective counter assault of quoting the word of God.
Daily Devotions/Prayers
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