It is 24th January 2018. We celebrate the Memorial of St Francis de Sales, Bishop & Doctor of the Church. The readings are from 2 Samuel 7:4-17; and the Gospel Mark 4:1-20. God wants to bless us so abundantly as we open the doors of our hearts, and lives to God. In the first reading, we reflect about the disturbed heart of the king David looking at the presence of God being nomadic while his household was well settled down. God expresses the desire to be among us through the prophet Nathan. When we are disturbed, chocked, strangled in our lives by the way we live, and the way others treat, we become spiritually fruitless and we end up making no room for God. The life of David was preoccupied with so many wars and how to clear the enemies around. He spent all his time clearing the human enemies and neglecting to befriend God and make God accessible to his spirit and personal life. The responsorial Psalm assures the love of God, “I will keep my love for him always.” (Ps.88:29). The Gospel presents us with the parable of the Sower and its impact, the conditions, the receptivity of the soil either to produce or to remain unproductive. The Word of God is the seed immaculately fertile and potentially productive is sown every moment by God in the God’s people. When our hearts are open and prepared, we will be able to sense the truth of the teachings of Jesus. It is indeed very hard to be productive when we are shallow and emotional to respond the Word of God. When our hearts have become like rocks, hardened by the unjust, and evil society, it would be hard for the Word of God to have the impact. It is the work and ingenuity of the famer to provide the conditions suitable for the seed to be productive to the fullest. We are the farmers. The responsibility lies in our hands to provide the means and measures to make the seed to grow and bear fruit. Thorns are the parasites either grows from the soil or it is dropped by other birds. Thorns are those poky things in our lives either grows within our hearts or others plant in our hearts that do not allow us to grow. The well-prepared hearts are those who not only accommodate the seed and provide every tiny resource to make the seed to be fruitful. What type of heart we have today? Each one of us know the condition of the Word of God in our lives and the provision we provide to make the seed to be penetrated, peeled, burst forth for the intended growth God himself desires. We cannot blame the seed; we must take the spiritual and moral responsibility for the failing to provide the means and measure for the seed to be fruitful and productive. May God open our hearts to be ever-yielding hearts by love. May you have a good day.