to ask for god's mercy in this all the time therefore i ask less and marietta verging all the angels and saints and you my brothers and sisters to pray for me to the lord our god may almighty god have mercy and forgive us our sins and bring us and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god for ever and ever amen and reading from the book of the prophet his am thus saith the lord better fruit let him who is wise understand these things let him who is prudent know them straight of the past that the lord in them the me and israel will come my ways i would feed them with the best of wheat and with honey from the crop i would fill them i  one of the scribes came to jesus and asked him which is the first of the commandments jesus replied the first is this here oh israel the lord our god is lord alone you shall love the lord you r god with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind you with all your strength the second is this you shall love your neighbor as yourself there is no other commandment greater than the scribe said to him well said teacher you are right in saying he is one in 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 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 the gospel of the lord sometimes we were kids there might have been some smart kid in the class who would raise his hand every now and then and asked the teacher a question but he really didn't want to get the answer he just wanted to stump the teacher or he wanted to make the teacher say something that maybe the teacher wouldn't want to say because he had read something and he knew the ensor that maybe the teacher didn't know  i think most of us have had kids in our class like that it different times of of our lives today's gospel could have been one of those times i'm not really sure most of the times that the gospels record questions to jesus there are always questions with the book at the end of them like to remember there was the story about divorce and how who would marry this woman who had been married seven times and seven brothers and the hope was there that jesus would either violate the mosaic law or violate the teaching of the scribes and pharisees so the hope was there and of course jesus answer should i pay my taxes and jesus said will show me the was correct the commandments of love god with everything you have and to love your neighbor as yourself joined together into commandments in the one idea of what the human person with a faithful jewish man or woman should be about so at the end of the gospel today it looks as if jesus you know embraced him spiritually and said yes you're not far from the kingdom of heaven because the question that he raised whether or not you wanted to have it or didn't and he could see something very plainly and very clearly that jesus was giving him the teachings that this scribe already believed in because it is his his history and is studies in the past you and i can listen to this dialogue between the two of them and say to ourselves well that's that's a great thing that jesus is saying and it's something that challenges me in my life because i would say of course i love god i love god with everything i have but not always sometimes i love god less because i'm tempted this way sometimes i'm too busy for god sometimes of things are turning me away from  d for whatever reasons that they might be and complimentary really sometimes loving my neighbor as myself this is the easiest thing for me to do because of my circumstance because of that circumstance of the neighbor or whatever the situation might be considered i think it's a great day for us to look at our selves we're doing we're doing this during the period of lent so important to the spiritual life that we have and so today's the day to say well how much do i love god do i love him the way jesus is talking about how much do i love my neighbor do i love my neighbor as  myself those are questions that each of us can answer for himself or herself because we're living a time of questions and answers to make us better so that when easter comes we may say families we pray to the lord lord have prayer pray for those who work for the defense of human life those who work for justice and who work for peace that god may bless their labors we pray to the lord brothers and sisters who have been sexually violated or terrorist or abuse that god loving in healing and may touch their lives we prayed to the board a little at hand for american military personnel all those are god we ask you to listen to our prayers we bring them to you in the name of our brother and savior the lord jesus who is with you in the spirit is god for ever and ever amen given out for you which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins do this in memory of me therefore as we celebrate the memorial of his just a resurrection we offer you ward the bread of life and the chalice of salvation giving thanks said you have helped us worthy to be in your presence to minister  you humbly we pray that partaking of the body and blood of christ we may be gathered into one by the holy spirit remember lord your church spread throughout the world and bring her to the focus of charity remember your servant marry whom you have called in this world to yourself granted she who was united with your son and just like his may also be one with him in his resurrection remember also  brothers and sisters who are fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection and all who have died in your mercy welcomed them into the light of your faith have mercy on the soul we pray that with the blessid virgin mary mother will be done on iran as it is in heaven your heads and pray for god's blessing