† Quote of the Day
"He who enters into the secret place of his own soul passes beyond himself, and does in very truth ascend to God. Banish, therefore, from thy heart the distractions of earth and turn thine eyes to spiritual joys, that thou mayest learn at last to repose in the light of the contemplation of God."
— St. Albert the Great Today's Meditation
"Now there's no one who approaches God with a true and upright heart who isn't tested by hardships and temptations. So in all these temptations see to it that even if you feel them, you don't consent to them. Instead, bear them patiently and calmly with humility and long suffering." —St. Albert the Great, p. 164 Daily Verse
"All these died in faith. They did not receive what had been promised but saw it and greeted it from afar and acknowledged themselves to be strangers and aliens on earth."
— Hebrews 11:13 | Saint of the Day for November 15
(1206 – November 15, 1280) Saint Albert the Great's Story Albert the Great was a 13th-century German Dominican who decisively influenced the Church's stance toward Aristotelian philosophy brought to Europe by the spread of Islam. Students of philosophy know him as the master of Thomas Aquinas. Albert's attempt to understand Aristotle's writings established the climate in which Thomas Aquinas developed his synthesis of Greek wisdom and Christian theology. But Albert deserves recognition on his own merits as a curious, honest, and diligent scholar. He was the eldest son of a powerful and wealthy German lord of military rank. He was educated in the liberal arts. Despite fierce family opposition, he entered the Dominican novitiate. His boundless interests prompted him to write a compendium of all knowledge: natural science, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, astronomy, ethics, economics, politics, and metaphysics. His explanation of learning took 20 years to complete. "Our intention," he said, "is to make all the aforesaid parts of knowledge intelligible to the Latins." He achieved his goal while serving as an educator at Paris and Cologne, as Dominican provincial, and even as bishop of Regensburg for a short time. He defended the mendicant orders and preached the Crusade in Germany and Bohemia. Albert, a Doctor of the Church, is the patron of scientists and philosophers. Reflection An information glut faces us Christians today in all branches of learning. One needs only to read current Catholic periodicals to experience the varied reactions to the findings of the social sciences, for example, in regard to Christian institutions, Christian life-styles, and Christian theology. Ultimately, in canonizing Albert, the Church seems to point to his openness to truth, wherever it may be found, as his claim to holiness. His characteristic curiosity prompted Albert to mine deeply for wisdom within a philosophy his Church warmed to with great difficulty. Saint Albert the Great is a Patron Saint of: Educators/Teachers
Medical Technicians
Philosophers
Scientists | Friday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 495
Reading 1 2 JN 4-9 [Chosen Lady:]
I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth
just as we were commanded by the Father.
But now, Lady, I ask you,
not as though I were writing a new commandment
but the one we have had from the beginning:
let us love one another.
For this is love, that we walk according to his commandments;
this is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning,
in which you should walk. Many deceivers have gone out into the world,
those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh;
such is the deceitful one and the antichrist.
Look to yourselves that you do not lose what we worked for
but may receive a full recompense.
Anyone who is so "progressive"
as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God;
whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son. Responsorial Psalm PS 119:1, 2, 10, 11, 17, 18 R. (1b) Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Blessed are they whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord! With all my heart I seek you;
let me not stray from your commands.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Within my heart I treasure your promise,
that I may not sin against you.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Be good to your servant, that I may live
and keep your words.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Open my eyes, that I may consider
the wonders of your law.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord! Alleluia LK 21:28 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Stand erect and raise your heads
because your redemption is at hand.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel LK 17:26-37 Jesus said to his disciples:
"As it was in the days of Noah,
so it will be in the days of the Son of Man;
they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage up to the day
that Noah entered the ark,
and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot:
they were eating, drinking, buying,
selling, planting, building;
on the day when Lot left Sodom,
fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all.
So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
On that day, someone who is on the housetop
and whose belongings are in the house
must not go down to get them,
and likewise one in the field
must not return to what was left behind.
Remember the wife of Lot.
Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it,
but whoever loses it will save it.
I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed;
one will be taken, the other left.
And there will be two women grinding meal together;
one will be taken, the other left."
They said to him in reply, "Where, Lord?"
He said to them, "Where the body is,
there also the vultures will gather." | Daily Meditation: 2 John 4-9 Such is the deceitful one and the antichrist. (2 John 7) The gospel is such good news, but sometimes it can seem too good to be true. Is it really possible that God loves us so much that he sent his Son into the world? Is it true that in Jesus, the eternal Word of God actually "became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (John 1:14)? The author of 2 John wrote his letter to address these very questions. Some believers had stirred up confusion by denying that Jesus had truly come in the flesh. He may have been a moral teacher or prophet but not the Son of God in flesh and blood. John identifies people who denied the truth of the Incarnation as the "antichrist" (2 John 7). This term may bring to mind dramatic Hollywood images, but Scripture has a precise meaning for "antichrist." The true Christ, God's anointed one, is God in the flesh. He has come to be close to us and to save us. The antichrist denies this. He deceives people by saying, "No, God has not come to you!" Don't we struggle with a similar temptation? Every day we face the same lie that John addressed in the first century: that sense of doubt, that feeling of vulnerability in a world darkened by sin, that murmuring suggestion that God doesn't really love us. This lie makes it feel safer and more sensible to think of Jesus as a gifted rabbi rather than a divine Person. It seems more logical to view his words as just one variation among many other world religions. But these seductive arguments are like the false teachings of the deceivers. They both make God distant from us. But God is not far off! Jesus is more than a wise teacher from the past. He is God in the flesh. The good news is true: he has taken on your nature, plunged it into death, and raised it up to the right hand of God. Eyewitnesses like John testified that Jesus—the man they saw and touched and ate with after he rose from the dead—was God incarnate. He is alive and he is still with you today. He knows your human weakness and lives in you by the Holy Spirit. Jesus is close to you—and he will never leave you. "Lord Jesus, I believe you are God in the flesh. You are with me!" Psalm 119:1-2, 10-11, 17-18 Luke 17:26-37 | Reflections with Brother Adrian: |  Click to hear Audio | In the Holy Scripture we hear today:
"So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
On that day, someone who is on the housetop
and whose belongings are in the house
must not go down to get them,
and likewise one in the field
must not return to what was left behind.
Remember the wife of Lot.
Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it,
but whoever loses it will save it.
I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed;
one will be taken, the other left......." end Gospel quote, word of the Lord. | Remember that we are at the eschatological things this time as we focus on the coming of our Lord, and at the end of the liturgical calendar. What does that eschatological word mean? It means, "relating to death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind." The end times perhaps, yes, and if we go into protestant beliefs, you'll get all sorts of lost theories and ideas on how the end will come about.
But let's focus on the beginning, the church, the Catholic Church, and what it has to say about those days. Are you ready? Here is what all my apologetic education has led me to understand about the end time, of our own life, and of all humanity that will indeed happen. Be ready! That's it! Be ready. With oil in your lamps says our Lord. Be ready by sticking to the vine that provides the living waters for us to remain and bear fruit that He loves to give. Stay connected! Love the Lord, with all your heart, mind, soul, and all your strength, so that in this way, you too can can love those around you, with all your mind, heart, soul, and strength. Such was His love from the cross for each of us. Amen?
Once you've decided to live the life of the Lord, there is no turning back! We cannot desire to remain, in our old ways, our old homes, think of the end times, the end of life, there is no turning back!
We cannot expect tomorrow to be guaranteed either. Just like our Lord said "Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it,
but whoever loses it will save it." for all your healthcare for longevity of life, it is still not going to guarantee salvation. Our Lord said: "I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken, the other left".
I remember a widow in our parish, her husband simply went to throw the trash, and he didn't even make it back into the house, he had a heart attack on his few steps back into the house. One was left behind.
This revelation is being carried out day by day.
Stay awake!
Be ready! The most dangerous thing we do for our physical lives as far as safety is concerned is to drive on highways. And the most dangerous thing we do for our spiritual lives, is to live a careless life with God. To care less. To ignore His will. To do your own thing and not look at the things He has said are to value, to treasure.
And what are those things? Love, humility, and obedience to God's Holy desires for you and for the world around you.
You are kind of a big deal, believe it or not. From housewives to presidents, from children to saints. One affects the other, and one creates another. It is actually a spectacular world we live in, if you stop to think about it, and let yourself be mesmerized by the works of God, what we call a "liturgy" in a Holy Mass that is all climax in the Holy Eucharist in this Divine Eschatological revelation and manifestation called transubstantiation. The substance becomes our sustenance.
God, the Son of god, unites Himself in the most intimately humble and powerful of ways, if only...if only we open ourselves to Him forever, to receive, the oil, that fuel for life, the very light of the world. |  audio | Wow! Random Bible Verse 1
Ephesians 1:3 Spiritual Blessings in Christ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
