 |  MorningOffering.com | †Saint Quote
"Love Mary! She is loveable, faithful, constant. She will never let herself be outdone in love, but will ever remain supreme. If you are in danger, she will hasten to free you. If you are troubled, she will console you. If you are sick, she will bring you relief. If you are in need, she will help you. She does not look to see what kind of person you have been. She simply comes to a heart that wants to love her."
— St. Gabriel Possenti of Our Lady of Sorrows †MEDITATION OF THE DAY
Jesus Christ is the one whom the Father anointed with the Holy Spirit and established as priest, prophet, and king. The whole People of God participates in these three offices of Christ and bears the responsibilities for mission and service that flow from them. On entering the People of God through faith and Baptism, one receives a share in this people's unique, priestly vocation: ... The baptized, by regeneration and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are consecrated to be a spiritual house and a holy priesthood." "The holy People of God shares also in Christ's prophetic office," above all in the supernatural sense of faith that belongs to the whole People, lay and clergy, when it "unfailingly adheres to this faith . . . once for all delivered to the saints," and when it deepens its understanding and becomes Christ's witness in the midst of this world. Finally, the People of God shares in the royal office of Christ. He exercises his kingship by drawing all men to himself through his death and Resurrection. Christ, King and Lord of the universe, made himself the servant of all, for he came "not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." For the Christian, "to reign is to serve him," particularly when serving "the poor and the suffering, in whom the Church recognizes the image of her poor and suffering founder." The People of God fulfills its royal dignity by a life in keeping with its vocation to serve with Christ.
—The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 783-786
AN EXCERPT FROM
Catechism of the Catholic Church † VERSE OF THE DAY
"With the loyal thou dost show thyself loyal; with the blameless man thou dost show thyself blameless; with the pure thou dost show thyself pure, and with the crooked thou dost show thyself perverse. Thou dost deliver a humble people, but thy eyes are upon the haughty to bring them down."
2 Samuel 22:26-28 |  click to read more | | ST. FELIX OF St. Felix of Cantalice (d. 1587) was born to a pious peasant family in Italy. He grew up tending sheep and was hired out to work for a farmer at the age of nine, which he did for twenty years. He evidenced signs of holiness and spent his free time in prayer. He had a friend read him the lives of the saints from which he drew much inspiration. Felix eventually joined the Capuchin Franciscans and served in Rome as the Order's official beggar. Although he could not read, and received no formal study, he had great influence over the Roman people because of his piety and the labors he undertook to convert even the most hardened sinners. Felix also encouraged those he met to lead greater lives of virtue, regardless if they were dignitaries or peasants. Men who lived scandalous lives retreated from his presence, lest he convict them of their sins. St. Felix's special apostolate was among the children of the city to whom he gave religious instruction with childlike humility and simplicity. He was a contemporary and friend of St. Philip Neri, who declared Felix to be the Church's greatest living saint. St. Felix served in this way for 42 years. He was beatified immediately after his death, becoming the first Capuchin Franciscan ever canonized. His body rests under an altar dedicated to him in the church of the Immaculate Conception in Rome. His feast day is May 18. | Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter Lectionary: 298
Reading I Acts 20:17-27 From Miletus Paul had the presbyters
of the Church at Ephesus summoned.
When they came to him, he addressed them,
"You know how I lived among you
the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia.
I served the Lord with all humility
and with the tears and trials that came to me
because of the plots of the Jews,
and I did not at all shrink from telling you
what was for your benefit,
or from teaching you in public or in your homes.
I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks
to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus.
But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem.
What will happen to me there I do not know,
except that in one city after another
the Holy Spirit has been warning me
that imprisonment and hardships await me.
Yet I consider life of no importance to me,
if only I may finish my course
and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus,
to bear witness to the Gospel of God's grace. "But now I know that none of you
to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels
will ever see my face again.
And so I solemnly declare to you this day
that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you,
for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God." Responsorial Psalm 68:10-11, 20-21 R. (33a) Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
A bountiful rain you showered down, O God, upon your inheritance; you restored the land when it languished;
Your flock settled in it; in your goodness, O God, you provided it for the needy.
R. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Blessed day by day be the Lord, who bears our burdens; God, who is our salvation.
God is a saving God for us; the LORD, my Lord, controls the passageways of death.
R. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia. Alleluia Jn 14:16 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I will ask the Father
and he will give you another Advocate
to be with you always.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Jn 17:1-11a Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,
"Father, the hour has come.
Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,
just as you gave him authority over all people,
so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.
Now this is eternal life,
that they should know you, the only true God,
and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth
by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you,
with the glory that I had with you before the world began. "I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them,
and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,
and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,
because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours
and everything of yours is mine,
and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world,
but they are in the world, while I am coming to you." | Daily Meditation: Acts 20:17-27 I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God. (Acts 20:27) Have you ever tried to assemble something really complicated? You keep checking the instructions, and when you run into something that doesn't make sense, you try your best to figure it out. Sometimes you have to improvise, but when you get it right in the end, you take pride in a job well done. In today's first reading, St. Paul gathers the elders of the church in Ephesus to say farewell. He tells them that he has completed his work there and will never see them again. He knows that he has tried his best to stick with Jesus' instructions as he evangelized them and built them up in the faith. He also knows that there were times when the unexpected happened and he had to improvise, trusting that the Holy Spirit would help him (Acts 19:8-10; 20:19-20). Wouldn't it be nice to have that same kind of confidence? To know that you did everything you could and that you tried your hardest to follow God's will? If this kind of confidence seems unrealistic, recall Paul's words to the elders in Ephesus. He never claimed to have done everything perfectly, but he went about "proclaiming . . . the entire plan of God" (Acts 20:27). He certainly didn't have complete success at every turn! But what he did do was pour everything he had into the calling God had given him and leave the results to the Lord. If you wake up each morning and tell Jesus that you want to pour your heart and soul into following him that day, you can start the day with the same confidence Paul had. And if you try to stay faithful to that intention during the day, you can end the day peacefully. You may not have done everything right, but you will have tried. If you fell into sin, you can repent. And if your best-laid plans were disrupted, you can place them in God's hands. So let Paul show you today that it is enough to simply try your best to cooperate with God's grace. "Jesus, help me to walk in your footsteps and have confidence that you will guide me and help me today." Psalm 68:10-11, 20-21
John 17:1-11 |  clickable | How can I learn to pray? By praying in fellowship. Prayer is always a praying with someone… I learn to pray by praying with others, with my mother, for instance, following her words, which are gradually filled out with meaning for me as I speak, live, and suffer in fellowship with her.
— Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI)
from his book The Feast of Faith |  Recordings go out minutes after writing is emailed! | |  CLICK TO HEAR IT READ! | my2cents:
"Yet I consider life of no importance to me,
if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the Gospel of God's grace." My life doesn't matter, says Paul, except, the life of Christ. This sounds like a possessed person, right? And the question is, for you and me, what or who possesses me? If it is not Christ that is our sole focus in life, then we are not focused on the light. Beware of those who tell you to focus on other things. God first, everyone and everything else second. If I lose focus on Christ, everything else is susceptible to fall to pieces, because He holds us together. | We pray in the Psalms:
"A bountiful rain you showered down, O God, upon your inheritance; you restored the land when it languished; Your flock settled in it; in your goodness, O God, you provided it for the needy. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth."
If our Lord desires that the earth languish, or perish, what business is it of yours? It is His and His we are called to be. This is a humble attitude to take to our God. There are predictions of an apocolypitc and catastrophic event to take place on Friday the 13th of April of 2029, the date we should get struck by an asteroid. Some scientists call it a near impossiblity, but there is a chance in the radar. Like the chance of a tornado under a tornado warning people were under yesterday; people were taking photos of funnel clouds, all looking out their doors and windows yesterday in a nearby city, I saw some first hand photos of funnel clouds, of...what almost happened. I prayed from home for all to be safe, as they were in fear. Did prayers work? The beauty of God's answers is in the unknown...where faith kicks in. Nothing catastrophic has happened in 2,000 years, except human misery, killings of humans by humans, and they blame everyone and everything else but themselves.
Back to the humble disposition before our God. Shall we not take to His call? Mercy is evident in that nothing has happened...so far. So there is evidence of Mercy in the world. And it becomes super evident once you yourself become merciful. The world changes, oracle of the Lord! | Our Lord speaks:
"I glorified you on earth
by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do."
I glorified God? How? We can glorify Him, our holy duty, by accomplishing His will, His work that He has given us to do.
At Confirmations, the Bishop thanked all those serving the Church. He even thanked those doing the slideshow on projectors and the choir which me and my daughter are heavily involved in. Truthfully, it takes a tremendous amount of work and I believe I was stressing my daughter over it for a while because of the actual work it takes. (Think Kingdom and duty to God). I've pushed many hard in the choir, and my sister in law quit a couple months ago, and I told her to come back at least to do Confirmation Mass. She didn't show up for practice, but she showed up for Mass. I encouraged my daughter to the work, I encouraged my sister in law to sing. I encourage everyone to keep going. Even my college nephews struggling in college, I keep saying to them "don't give up!" there is no turning back. Especially when we decide to follow Jesus. It takes between me and the choir and my daughter about 8 to 9 hours of work for the one hour of Mass on Sunday, for songs, lyrics, practice, graphics, livestreaming, 2 hours on songs, 2-3 hours practicing, 2-3 hours on computer graphics. Who would spend nearly 10 hours in preparation for Mass like that? Only a nutcase...someone possessed....by Jesus!
And I'm in the position to ask you to open up too, to Him in the same mode of facing mountains, and moving them.
My sister in law said to me after Confirmation Mass "I am coming back to the choir, I need this!"
And I said, "yes, that is what is true, we do it because we need it, not for anyone else, but for the sole purpose of God Himself", God first, give, tithe, serve, pray, and love God above all. | Our Lord continues:
"I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,
because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them."
We had a strong storm blow threw over the weekend, the wind and rain was raining sideways, making rain enter under windows and doors. I go to work and I noticed that workers left windows open on big trucks. What one day looked like a new truck, the next looked like an abandoned dirty truck, with all the dirt and mud inside. I told one to clean them and he said "you know why people do that right? ... because they don't care".
And that is the problem, caring for other people and other's things. Now, think, the Kingdom of God. How much do you care for....His flock? His Kingdom?
I have a special message to you. I gazed on a weeping statue of Mother Mary yesterday evening. The tears seem to be clearing up, and it is making for a much more beautiful face, not a sad face, not a face suffering. The message is for you: Keep up the Good work. Whatever we are doing for God is being taken as a holy offering for the good...of the world...and you are living in it, and leaving it for the next to find. Let's pray:
Lord, I pray for your continued healing of Your precious body, thy Kingdom come, Thy WILL BE DONE! | from your brother in Christ our Lord,
adrian |  Pic As of 5/17/21 evening. Keep Praying for the Healing of the Body of Christ! | |  click to hear | Random Bible Verse from online generator: Matthew 5:6 6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
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