2019 – Trinity 12 – A Will to Love God

If you will, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice. He has placed before you fire and water: stretch out your hand for whichever you wish. Before a man are life and death, and whichever he chooses will be given to him.

God offers each person a choice to love Him freely. The Holy Scriptures describe this choice in several ways: life/death, light/darkness, righteousness/sin, and fire/water. Fr. Oldfield explores what it means to choose and the need for God’s grace to empower us to love God as we should.

Old Testament: Ecclesiasticus 15:11-20
Psalm 139
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 3:4-9
Gospel: St. Mark 7:31-37