Project BLACK MAMBA: XIII Sunday in Ordinary Time

'Tis the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Wikipedia-link.

Scripture of the Week
Mass Readings—Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Second Book of Kings, chapter four, verses eight thru eleven, fourteen, fifteen, & sixteen(a);
Psalm Eighty-nine, verses two & three, sixteen & seventeen, & eighteen & nineteen;
The Letter to the Romans, chapter six, verses three, four, & eight thru eleven;
The Gospel according to Matthew, chapter ten, verses thirty-seven thru forty-two.

Commentary: Video Gospel reflection by Jeff Cavins: Encountering the Word.

Gospel reflection by Bishop Robert Barron (Word on Fire):

Friends, in today's Gospel, Jesus proposes a sort of shock therapy. He asks us to bring to mind those possessions to which we are most attached—not crude things like money and fame and power, but our mothers, our fathers, our wives and children, and even our very life. And then he tells us to "hate" them.

Here's what he means: hate them in the measure that they are possessions of your clinging ego. And once we have learned to hate even these most loveable things, we are to "take up our cross." Anyone hearing Jesus in the first century would have known exactly what this meant: to be pinned to an instrument of torture, stripped of all possessions, humiliated, dishonored, to become a total failure in the eyes of the world.

But here's the consummately weird conclusion: Jesus nailed to the cross is the only really happy man. You have everything you need right now right in front of you to be happy, even when you are nailed to a cross, as long as you have rid your life of attachments.

Mass Journal: Week 27
Reflection by Matthew Kelly, founder of the Dynamic Catholic Institute:

God calls each of us to live an authentic life. He has designed this life to perfectly integrate our legitimate needs, our deepest desires, & our unique talents. The more intimately & harmoniously these three are related, the more you become truly yourself.

Otherwise, 2 July would be the festival of Saint Swithun, Bishop (circa 800-862, of Winchester): Saint-link & Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Wayback Machine.

"Saint Swithun’s day, if thou dost rain,
For forty days it will remain;
Saint Swithun’s day, if thou be fair,
For forty days ’twill rain nae mair."

'Twould also be the festival of Saint Otto of Bamberg, Bishop (1060-1139): Saint-link & Wikipedia-link.