Read a short reflection on today\u2019s Second Reading. <\/p>\n
The First Epistle of St Peter consoles and encourages Christians to stand erect and hold their heads high in the midst of difficulties and persecution. Christians were seen by their fellow citizens as agitators and so the Christians felt very much alienated<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span> as their lifestyles clashed with that of the pagan world around them.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Th<\/span><\/span>e<\/span><\/span> passage today for our second reading reminds us, that although <\/span><\/span>Christ<\/span><\/span> was rejected by humanity<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span> he <\/span><\/span>was chosen by his Father as the keystone or cornerstone on which our Church is built. <\/span><\/span>Christ<\/span><\/span> as head<\/span><\/span>, is the stone that upholds and supports the whole church. Our homes should have <\/span><\/span>Christ<\/span><\/span> as it\u2019s foundation stone<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span> to facilitate his<\/span><\/span> guidance<\/span><\/span> when we are assailed by life\u2019s circumstances. United to Christ by faith and grace we can come through whatever life<\/span><\/span> throws at us.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n We should take heart that through our Baptism we are convoked by God to be a chosen, consecrated and priestly people. We are set apart and belong to God and we should live this, celebrate this and spread this. Our identity in Christ naturally makes demands on us, it is <\/span><\/span>not <\/span><\/span>mere titles, we are not to be passive bystanders but active and effective witnesses of the Christian way of lif<\/span><\/span>e.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span><\/span>If you truly want to help the soul of your neighbo<\/span><\/span>u<\/span><\/span>r, you should approach God first with all your heart. Ask him simply to fill you with charity, the greatest of all virtues<\/span><\/span>, <\/span><\/span>with it you can accomplish what you desire<\/span><\/span>.\u201d Read a short reflection on today\u2019s Second Reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","post","publish","author-ryan-black","has-more-link","post-2705","format-standard","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p85OtW-HD","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2706,"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2705\/revisions\/2706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stthomasneilston.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/span><\/span>\u2013St. Vincent Ferrer<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"