The Greatest Commandment

We begin our prayer:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Almighty and merciful God,
by whose gift your faithful offer you
right and praiseworthy service,
grant, we pray,
that we may hasten without stumbling
to receive the things you have promised.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the
Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
(Collect, Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time)

Read the following Scripture two or three times.❤️🙏📿🙏

Mark 12:28b-34
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
“Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus
replied, “The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord
our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all
your mind, and with all your strength. The second is
this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.”*

The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher. You are
right in saying, ‘He is One and there is no other than
he.’ And ‘to love him with all your heart, with all
your understanding, with all your strength, and to
love your neighbor as yourself’ is worth more than
all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus
saw that he answered with understanding, he said to
him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

*Mark 12:31 refers Lv 19:18; Rom 13:9; Gal 5:14; Jas 2:8.

The New Commandment on John 13:31-35

When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and in him God is glorified; if God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ A new commandment* I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” – John 13:31-35

*The verse 34 I give you a new commandment: this puts Jesus on a par with Yahweh. The commandment itself is not new; cf. Lv 19:18 and the note there.

The Hebrew transliteration words for “Love your neighbor as yourself” is Ve’ahavta le’reyakha kamokha. It appears in the Bible in Leviticus 19:17-18. 🙏📿🙏❤️