| {AmericanCatholic.org not responding this morning} ST. VICTOR I, POPE MONDAY, JULY 28, 2014 
The date of birth of St. victor is unknown, but we do know that he was Pope from 189 to 199. Victor was a native African, and his father's name was Felix. He is known for having obtained the release of many Christians who had been deported to the mines of Sardinia, and for being the first Pope to celebrate the liturgy and write Church documents in Latin rather than Greek. He is most famous, however, for decreeing that Easter be universally celebrated on a Sunday, a practice already common in the West, but not so in the East. He died in 199, possibly from martyrdom.
Presence I pause for a moment and think of the love and the grace that God showers on me, creating me in his image and likeness, making me his temple.... Freedom Everything has the potential to draw forth from me a fuller love and life. Yet my desires are often fixed, caught, on illusions of fulfillment. I ask that God, through my freedom may orchestrate my desires in a vibrant loving melody rich in harmony. Consciousness Knowing that God loves me unconditionally, I can afford to be honest about how I am. How has the last day been, and how do I feel now? The Word of God Reading 1 jer 13:1-11The LORD said to me: Go buy yourself a linen loincloth; wear it on your loins, but do not put it in water. I bought the loincloth, as the LORD commanded, and put it on. A second time the word of the LORD came to me thus: Take the loincloth which you bought and are wearing, and go now to the Parath; there hide it in a cleft of the rock. Obedient to the LORD's command, I went to the Parath and buried the loincloth. After a long interval, the LORD said to me: Go now to the Parath and fetch the loincloth which I told you to hide there. Again I went to the Parath, sought out and took the loincloth from the place where I had hid it. But it was rotted, good for nothing! Then the message came to me from the LORD: Thus says the LORD: So also I will allow the pride of Judah to rot, the great pride of Jerusalem. This wicked people who refuse to obey my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts, and follow strange gods to serve and adore them, shall be like this loincloth which is good for nothing. For, as close as the loincloth clings to a man's loins, so had I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the LORD; to be my people, my renown, my praise, my beauty. But they did not listen. Responsorial Psalm dt 32:18-19, 20, 21R. (see 18a) You have forgotten God who gave you birth. You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you, You forgot the God who gave you birth. When the LORD saw this, he was filled with loathing and anger toward his sons and daughters. R. You have forgotten God who gave you birth. "I will hide my face from them," he said, "and see what will then become of them. What a fickle race they are, sons with no loyalty in them!" R. You have forgotten God who gave you birth. "Since they have provoked me with their 'no-god' and angered me with their vain idols, I will provoke them with a 'no-people'; with a foolish nation I will anger them." R. You have forgotten God who gave you birth. Gospel mt 13:31-35Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds. "The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the 'birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.'" He spoke to them another parable. "The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened." All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables. He spoke to them only in parables, to fulfill what had been said through the prophet: I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world. Conversation How has God's Word moved me? Has it left me cold? Has it consoled me or moved me to act in a new way? Conclusion Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.
17th Week in Ordinary Time It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. (Matthew 13:32)
Solanus Casey (1870--1957) was what some would consider a "small seed." The son of a farmer, he became a Capuchin priest. But because his grades weren't all that good, he was ordained a "simplex" priest—he could celebrate Mass, but he was not permitted to preach dogmatic sermons or hear confessions. Still, Casey showed himself to be very intelligent and very good at dealing with other people. After several assignments, he was sent to a parish in Detroit, Michigan, where his main job was porter. He was, for all intents and purposes, a priest-doorman. But what other priests might have considered a humiliation, Casey took in stride. During his twenty years in Detroit, Fr. Solanus Casey came to be revered as a humble, wise priest filled with spiritual insight. His position as porter was the perfect one for people to visit him—and thousands came as reports of healings and miracles began to spread. When he died, 20,000 people attended his funeral. This simple, unassuming man touched countless lives! The key to Casey's ministry was his "smallness," his willingness to be planted in whatever ground God had chosen for him. Being a porter was certainly not what he had in mind for himself as a young man, but he accepted God's vision, and the results were stupendous. Here was a living testament to Jesus' promise: "Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit" (John 12:24). We can all follow Solanus Casey's path to holiness because it is the path of the gospel. It's only a matter of looking for Jesus in the "small" situations we already find ourselves in. Every moment can be holy. Every task can be filled with divine light. Welcome the Lord into those situations. Listen for the inspiration of his Spirit. No matter where you are or at what stage you are in your life, you can bear awesome fruit for his kingdom. "Lord, I want to be your servant, so do with me as you will. Help me not to seek reputation or renown, only the satisfaction of doing your will."
Jeremiah 13:1-11; (Psalm) Deuteronomy 32:18-21 my2cents:
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adrianGoing4th,
