†Saint Quote
"Help me to journey beyond the familiar and into the unknown. Give me the faith to leave old ways and break fresh ground with You."
–St. Brendan †Today's Meditation
"Whenever that sacrifice of Christ is memorialized in the Church, there is an application to a new moment in time and a new presence in space of the unique sacrifice of Christ Who is now in glory. In obeying His mandate, His followers would be representing in an unbloody manner that which He presented to His Father in the bloody sacrifice of Calvary. After changing the bread into His Body and the wine into His Blood: He gave it to them (Mark 14:22). By that communion they were made one with Christ, to be offered with Him, in Him, and by Him. All love craves unity. As the highest peak of love in the human order is the unity of husband and wife in the flesh, so the highest unity in the Divine order is the unity of the soul and Christ in communion."
—Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, p. 401-402 An Excerpt From
Life of Christ †Daily Verse
"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness."
–Lamentations 3:22-23 |  click to read more | | St. Zita St. Zita (d. 1271) was born into poverty in Tuscany, Italy. Her mother taught her to develop a strong prayer life, which, combined with her happy disposition, enabled her to seek God's will in all her life circumstances. At the age of twelve she became a servant for a noble Italian family. The family she served lived near a church, and Zita would rise early to attend daily Mass before beginning her duties. She saw her work as being in the service of God, which she executed with care and diligence. Because of her goodness she suffered harsh treatment and even physical abuse at the hands of both her employers and the other servants. From her patient endurance of such mistreatment, Zita's humility and virtue became evident to all. She was eventually respected and promoted to a leadership role of managing the entire household and its servants. Throughout her life she exemplified hard work, gentleness, and a life of prayer, despite being overworked. She died at the age of 60 serving the same family, and after her death many miracles occurred through her intercession. The family contributed to the cause for her canonization. St. Zita is an incorruptible, and her relics are kept in the Basilica of St. Frediano where she attended Mass. She is the patron saint of maids, domestic servants, butlers, waiters, rape victims, lost keys, and people ridiculed for their piety. St. Zita's feast day is April 27th. | Acts 8:26-40 The angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, "Get up and head south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert route." So he got up and set out. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, that is, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury, who had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning home. Seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. The Spirit said to Philip, "Go and join up with that chariot." Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?" He replied, "How can I, unless someone instructs me?" So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him. This was the Scripture passage he was reading: Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who will tell of his posterity? For his life is taken from the earth. Then the eunuch said to Philip in reply, "I beg you, about whom is the prophet saying this? About himself, or about someone else?" Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with this Scripture passage, he proclaimed Jesus to him. As they traveled along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "Look, there is water. What is to prevent my being baptized?" Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water, and he baptized him. When they came out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, but continued on his way rejoicing. Philip came to Azotus, and went about proclaiming the good news to all the towns until he reached Caesarea. Psalm 66:8-9, 16-17, 20 R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or R. Alleluia.
Bless our God, you peoples,
loudly sound his praise;
He has given life to our souls,
and has not let our feet slip. R. Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare
what he has done for me.
When I appealed to him in words,
praise was on the tip of my tongue. R. Blessed be God who refused me not
my prayer or his kindness! R. Gospel Acclamation Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven,
says the Lord;
whoever eats this bread will live forever. Jn 6:51 Alleluia, alleluia. John 6:44-51 Jesus said to the crowds: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world." | Daily Meditation: Acts 8:26-40 Look, there is water. What is to prevent my being baptized? (Acts 8:36) Philip might have been worried. An angel from God told him to approach the chariot of a powerful foreign official and to begin evangelizing him. But how would Philip cut through the cultural barriers? How would he come up with an effective presentation of the gospel? Wasn't God asking too much of him this time? As it turned out, God had already laid a lot of the groundwork for Philip. The official was already puzzling over God's word when Philip approached him. He was sincerely asking questions and was eager to hear what Philip had to say. So it wasn't only about what Philip had to do, after all! He just had to walk through a door that was already three-quarters of the way open. What a relief that must have been! God had taken great pains to prepare this man to receive his message even before the messenger showed up! We may feel intimidated about sharing our faith because we think we are responsible for everything that happens afterward. We worry about how to break through obstinate hearts, how to overcome years of believing a false gospel, or how to answer every possible question anyone could think of. But that's placing too much of the emphasis on us and forgetting how deeply God longs to touch each person with his love. The truth is, we aren't meant to carry the load alone. God is already doing a lot of the prep work. You will likely have a chance to witness to your faith today. Maybe the Spirit will bring to mind a relative with whom you have not been on the best of terms and lead you to seek reconciliation. You may run into an old friend who needs a word of encouragement or a neighbor who could use a helping hand. The Holy Spirit could nudge you to say something to the person next to you on the bus. Seize the opportunity to reach out. You may be surprised at how God has already opened a door for you so that your words and actions touch and change people's hearts! "Lord, open my eyes to the opportunities you will give me to share your good news today!" Psalm 66:8-9, 16-17, 20
John 6:44-51 | From today's 1st Holy Scripture:
_""Do you understand what you are reading?" He replied, "How can I, unless someone instructs me?" _ Have you ever decided to teach a class at church? If not, you should! I seem to learn just as much if not more when I am teaching. A teacher is always learning. I am sure that Philip learned something very important when he taught the Ethiopian Eunuch about scriptures and who the Lamb of God was, who they were speaking about hundreds of years before Christ. A couple things to consider; this was a prominent person, private coach carriage, with servants, and a very expensive scroll. He was already a confounded believer, trying to understand God. And an angel saw this and sent a very important follower of Christ to teach him first hand the inner workings of faith, and to explain how Scripture has now been fulfilled, and now the whole story winds up right before your very eyes and ears. Everything unfolds and continues to unfold before us. Everything matters, and everything is interconnected. | We pray today:
"Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare what he has done for me.
When I appealed to him in words, praise was on the tip of my tongue." | In the Gospel today we heard: ""No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God." | From Bishop Barron Today:
"Friends, in today's Gospel, Jesus declares, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven." The bread is referred to as living. Bread is good, but it's not alive. Instead, when we take it in and it is turned by our bodies into fat or muscle or bone, then it comes alive.
But it is just the opposite with the living bread of Christ. When we take this in, we become alive in a way that we were not before. And this is why Jesus says that he is bread come down from heaven.
What is heaven? St. Paul says, "Eye has not seen, and ear has not heard . . . what God has prepared for those who love him." Paul's pithy remark gives us a clue: "those who love him." Whatever heaven is, it is the realm of God, and therefore it is a realm of love.
What is the Eucharist, this heavenly food, but a participation in the love between the Father and the Son? In the Eucharist, the sacrifice of Christ is made present, and the sacrifice of Christ is the fullest expression of the love of the Father and the Son."
. . . . Our Lord draws those who fear Him. Those who fear Him are drawn to God. What is fear again? A holy fear is a holy love. A holy fear is a total awe-inspiration of God before man. The universe cannot contain our Lord, for He has the world in His hands. Yet, we try to contain Him in our minds, and hearts, and souls. What does this mean? It means that so many think they got Him figured out, and they have no idea really, of the tremendous mystery of His thoughts. "Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me." says the Lord our Christ. Everyone who listens and learns. It would be a sad life if we could not learn from our mistakes. Yet, somehow, we keep making mistakes! Right? So what can you learn from that! That we are incapable of even breathing without Him.
That we cannot do anything (good) without Him.
That we cannot truly love, without Him showing the true way.
Therefore, listen. Heaven's ways are of obedience. I believe that obedience in my life has achieved greater faith. I listen. I learn. Some lessons take a lifetime to learn. Some lessons are revealed after 40 years of trying to figure things out, like yourself. Why do I do things a certain way? If you can't figure yourself out, then, how in the world can you figure out how God thinks? You just can't!
Therefore, we have faith to pick up and connect us.
I'm thinking of reconciling with God.
It takes faith to reconcile. And I've often equated the term "faith" with "love".
An elderly man took the microphone from the speaker at my cursillo weekend and yelled emphatically to our ears and hearts "if you really love God, then why or how can you fail Him!"
Today, our Lord says He is the bread.
He asks us to eat bread that is blessed.
He asks us to belive this is really Him in the breaking of the bread, and this means living together and sharing in Him and of Him, and in unity, and learning to give of ourselves as He has.
Afterall, He provides. He even provides the sacrifice.
What small sacrifice is asked of us?
The answer, if you dare to listen: The sacrifice asked of us, to be in His image, is Love. Let's pray:
...†....
Lord, that we may love Like You, with all we got, forever, this would be an eternal bliss! | Random Bible Verse Future Glory "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
