† Quote of the Day "Trials, tribulation, anguish, anxiety are permitted by the very One Who gives peace." -Fulton Sheen Today's Meditation "My daughter, faithfully live up to the words which I speak to you. Do not value any external thing too highly, even if it were to seem very precious to you. Let go of yourself, and abide with Me continually. Entrust everything to Me and do nothing on your own, and you will always have great freedom of spirit. No circumstances or events will ever be able to upset you. Set little store on what people say. Let everyone judge you as they like. Do not make excuses for yourself, it will do you no harm. Give away everything at the first sign of a demand, even if they were the most necessary things. Do not ask for anything without consulting Me. Allow them to take away even what is due you – respect, your good name – let your spirit rise above all that. And so, set free from everything, rest close to My Heart, not allowing your peace to be disturbed by anything. My pupil, consider the words which I have spoken to you." —Jesus to St. Faustina, 1685
An excerpt from Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska - Divine Mercy in My Soul Daily Verse Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him,and he will make straight your paths. -Proverbs 3:5-6 | St Apollinaris Claudius St. Apollinaris Claudius (2nd c.), also called St. Apollinaris of Hierapolis, was a bishop in what is today Turkey. He became famous for his polemical writings against the heretics of his day, showing that their theological errors were taken from the pagans. His most famous work was an Apologia for the Christians addressed to Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in the year 177 A.D. In it he reminded the Emperor of a miracle he received because of the Christians: when his army was nearly defeated in an attempt to conquer the Germanic barbarians, it was the prayers of the Christians among his soldiers which obtained the needed relief and the military victory, even though Christianity was illegal. In light of this miracle, Apollinaris requested the Emperor's protection of Christians from persecution. St. Apollinaris' work earned him the moniker, "Apollinaris the Apologist." His writings are largely lost, and what we know of his work comes to us from other early Christian writers including St. Jerome and Eusebius. His feast day is January 8th. | Thursday after Epiphany Lectionary: 215 Reading I 1 John 4:19–5:4 Beloved, we love God because
he first loved us.
If anyone says, "I love God,"
but hates his brother, he is a liar;
for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen
cannot love God whom he has not seen.
This is the commandment we have from him:
Whoever loves God must also love his brother. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God,
and everyone who loves the Father
loves also the one begotten by him.
In this way we know that we love the children of God
when we love God and obey his commandments.
For the love of God is this,
that we keep his commandments.
And his commandments are not burdensome,
for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.
And the victory that conquers the world is our faith. Responsorial Psalm Psalm 72:1-2, 14 and 15bc, 17 R. (see 11) Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king, and with your justice, the king's son;
He shall govern your people with justice and your afflicted ones with judgment. R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
From fraud and violence he shall redeem them, and precious shall their blood be in his sight.
May they be prayed for continually; day by day shall they bless him. R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
May his name be blessed forever; as long as the sun his name shall remain.
In him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed; all the nations shall proclaim his happiness.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you. Alleluia Luke 4:18 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Lord has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor
and to proclaim liberty to captives.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Luke 4:14-22 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit,
and news of him spread throughout the whole region.
He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all. He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up,
and went according to his custom
into the synagogue on the sabbath day.
He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,
and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them,
"Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
And all spoke highly of him
and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. | Praise to You Oh Lord Jesus Christ! | Daily Meditation: 1 John 4:19-5:4 We love God because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19) What a striking claim! Before we did anything, before we chose to follow Jesus, before we were baptized, even before we had a conscious thought of God, "he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). He is the One who initiated our relationship with him—from the very beginning! Today, let's marvel at this amazing love of God—and love him in return. We love God because he first loved us. St. John reminds us that God made the first move toward us—and did it out of love. We did not create the idea of God in our imaginations; rather, he created us. He called us into existence and formed us out of love; he knitted us together in our mother's womb (Psalm 139:13). And throughout our lives, "the living and true God tirelessly calls each person. . . . God's initiative of love always comes first; our own first step is always a response" (Catechism, 2567). I love you, Lord, because you first loved me. We love God because he first loved us. Everything we have, every spiritual and material gift we receive, comes from him. Every breath that fills our lungs, every morning that we open our eyes is a blessing from our God. Our homes, our work, our friendships, our families, and our faith itself—it's all a gift! As St. James put it, "Every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights" (1:17). I love you, Lord, because you first loved me. We love God because he first loved us. Our salvation, too, was initiated by God out of love. Jesus told his disciples, "It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you" (John 15:16). He freely took on our humanity and offered himself to save us. "Our salvation flows from God's initiative of love for us, because 'he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins'" (Catechism, 620; see 1 John 4:10). God loved us and saved us before we loved him back. I love you, Lord, because you first loved me. God freely offers you his love today. From your very beginning up to now, he has created, nurtured, saved, and drawn you closer to himself—all out of love. He will love you right into heaven as you open your heart to him. Is there any reason not to love him in return? "I love you, Lord, because you first loved me." Psalm 72:1-2, 14-15, 17
Luke 4:14-22 | Reflections with Brother Adrian: |  Audio of 2 Cents | From today's Holy Gospel: "... Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,
and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them,
"Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
And all spoke highly of him
and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. ...." Word of the Lord. | From Bishop Barron:
"Friends, today in the Gospel, Jesus declares that he fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor." Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God. The deaf hear, the blind see, the lame walk. The dead are raised to life, enemies are forgiven, and the poor have the good news preached to them. And ultimately, in his resurrection, Jesus's followers saw that the old world—the world predicated upon death and the works of death, the world that had done Jesus in—was now defeated. God had definitively declared his opposition to that world and his support of the new one. So awed were they by the resurrection—and you can sense it in every book and letter of the New Testament—that they awaited the imminent arrival of the new state of affairs, the return of Jesus and the establishment of God's kingdom. Though Jesus did not immediately return, the old world was over and broken. It was fully compromised, its destruction now just a matter of time. " end quote.
Our Lord came to fulfill everything in the old Testament. He would encompass all and literally do what was said, bringing sight to the blind, healing the world, bring glad tidings to the poor._ "He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, _and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord".
Our Lord was sent to do this. But, we shouldn't read this as if he healed a few people back in the days He walked the earth, no! He is still doing this today! Through you! Yes YOU!
Can you bring glad tidings to the poor? YES!
Can you bring liberty to captives? YES!
Can you help the blind see? OF course.
Can you let the oppressed go free? Yes, and today, there is all sorts of oppression we can face....head on.
Can you proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord? I hope we all do.
Have you proclaimed this year as acceptable to the Lord?
Is it a jubilee year like the Pope set last year? What does that even mean?
It means a time of reconciliation to God. A time of repentance.
I witnessed for the first time something strange this past weekend, and heard from others too. Thousands upon thousands at a SEEK almost week long thing for college students and such. Hundreds of priests and religioius gathering with the youth. It was from what I heard, truly, an encounter with God. I was visiting a resort where it was happening because the resort puts on a big Christmas show and activities for family. And there at night, throngs of youth were walking the halls and I saw them with the heart for Christ, some praying rosaries on their own. I heard that priests were being pulled left and right to confess in odd places, to repent and come to God. I heard of thousands of confessions. And last night, after classes we teach, I heard from a brother in Christ that even our own parish was experiencing this unusual phenomenon, where a visiting priest was having to hear hours of confessions.
Yes, this is exhilarating, while the world runs amuck, there is a heartbeat...of God, throbbing, thumping, sometimes even thundering, liberty to captives, glad tidings, sight restored, in the spiritual world, healing, and this healing is a balm for life.
I told the class of adults and young adults last night "only in a gathering in the name of the Lord like this, can you hear Him speak in a unique way". And my heart burns, and the tears well up in my eyes. The Holy Spirit fire will always persist to give us light, true love from Heaven.... |  Click for Audio | Random Bible Verse 1
Matthew 18:1–4 [Matthew 18]
Who Is the Greatest? "At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
. . . . . . . . Word of the Lord! | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
