Each of Us Is a Cherished Story Our life is not pure chance or a mere struggle for survival, rather each of us is a cherished story loved by God. That we have "found grace in his eyes" means that the Creator sees a unique beauty in our being and that he has a magnificent plan for our lives. The awareness of this certainty, of course, does not resolve all our problems nor does it take away life's uncertainties. But it does have the power to transform our life deeply. —from the book Believe in Love: Inspiring Words from Pope Francis Franiscan Meditations Blog | † Quote
"Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul."
— St. Teresa of Avila † MEDITATION OF THE DAY
"I realize as never before that the Lord is gentle and merciful; He did not send me this heavy cross until I could bear it. If He had sent it before, I am certain that it would have discouraged me . . . I desire nothing at all now except to love until I die of love. I am free, I am not afraid of anything, not even of what I used to dread most of all . . . a long illness which would make me a burden to the community. I am perfectly content to go on suffering in body and soul for years, if that would please God. I am not in the least afraid of living for a long time; I am ready to go on fighting."
— St. Therese of Lisieux, p. 122
AN EXCERPT FROM
The Story of a Soul † VERSE OF THE DAY
"For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death."
1 Corinthians 15:21-26 |  click to read more | | Saint Jeanne Jugan (October 25, 1792 – August 29, 1879) Born in northern France during the French Revolution—a time when congregations of women and men religious were being suppressed by the national government, Jeanne would eventually be highly praised in the French academy for her community's compassionate care of elderly poor people. When Jeanne was three and a half years old, her father, a fisherman, was lost at sea. Her widowed mother was hard pressed to raise her eight children alone; four died young. At the age of 15 or 16, Jeanne became a kitchen maid for a family that not only cared for its own members, but also served poor, elderly people nearby. Ten years later, Jeanne became a nurse at the hospital in Le Rosais. Soon thereafter, she joined a third order group founded by Saint John Eudes. After six years she became a servant and friend of a woman she met through the third order. They prayed, visited the poor, and taught catechism to children. After her friend's death, Jeanne and two other women continued a similar life in the city of Saint-Sevran. In 1839, they brought in their first permanent guest. They began an association, received more members, and more guests. Mère Marie of the Cross, as Jeanne was now known, founded six more houses for the elderly by the end of 1849, all staffed by members of her association—the Little Sisters of the Poor. By 1853, the association numbered 500 and had houses as far away as England. Abbé Le Pailleur, a chaplain, had prevented Jeanne's reelection as superior in 1843; nine years later, he had her assigned to duties within the congregation, but would not allow her to be recognized as its founder. In 1890, the Holy See removed him from office. By the time Pope Leo XIII gave her final approval to the community's constitutions in 1879, there were 2,400 Little Sisters of the Poor. Jeanne died later that same year, on August 30. Her cause was introduced in Rome in 1970. She was beatified in 1982, and canonized in 2009. Reflection
Jeanne Jugan saw Christ in what Saint Teresa of Calcutta would describe as his "distressing disguises." With great confidence in God's providence and the intercession of Saint Joseph, she begged willingly for the many homes that she opened, relying on the good example of the Sisters and the generosity of benefactors who knew the good that the Sisters were doing. They now work in 30 countries. "With the eye of faith, we must see Jesus in our old people—for they are God's mouthpiece," Jeanne once said. No matter what the difficulties, she was always able to praise God and move ahead. | Thursday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 1 Cor 1:1-9 Paul, called to be an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
and Sosthenes our brother,
to the Church of God that is in Corinth,
to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy,
with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always on your account
for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus,
that in him you were enriched in every way,
with all discourse and all knowledge,
as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you,
so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift
as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He will keep you firm to the end,
irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is faithful,
and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Responsorial Psalm PS 145:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
R. (1) I will praise your name for ever, Lord.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.
R. I will praise your name for ever, Lord.
Generation after generation praises your works
and proclaims your might.
They speak of the splendor of your glorious majesty
and tell of your wondrous works.
R. I will praise your name for ever, Lord.
They discourse of the power of your terrible deeds
and declare your greatness.
They publish the fame of your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of your justice.
R. I will praise your name for ever, Lord. Alleluia Mt 24:42a, 44
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Stay awake!
For you do not know when the Son of Man will come.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Mt 24:42-51 Jesus said to his disciples:
"Stay awake!
For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
Be sure of this:
if the master of the house
had known the hour of night when the thief was coming,
he would have stayed awake
and not let his house be broken into.
So too, you also must be prepared,
for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come. "Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant,
whom the master has put in charge of his household
to distribute to them their food at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so.
Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.
But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is long delayed,'
and begins to beat his fellow servants,
and eat and drink with drunkards,
the servant's master will come on an unexpected day
and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely
and assign him a place with the hypocrites,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth."
| Catholic Meditations
Meditation: 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 21st Week in Ordinary Time To you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus. (1 Corinthians 1:2) How about exploring today's first reading in a somewhat different way? Let's pay special attention to a class of little words called "prepositions." For example: Of. In. Upon. It's easy to skip right over them, but these words can make a world of difference—especially in the Scriptures. Prepositions express relationships. Sometimes they describe how things relate physically: Where is the hiker? On the mountain. Other times, they relate something to its source: she is from Argentina. Still others point to a destination: we're walking toward the canyon. Paul used prepositions again and again—like an adventurer relying on a trusty tool—to describe how we relate to Christ. Look at just a few of the ways that Paul expresses our relationship with the Lord in today's reading alone. According to him, we are • In Christ (1:2) • Upon Christ (1:2) • To Christ (1:6) • With Christ (1:9) Each of these little phrases tells us something new about our relationship with the Lord. Consider "in Christ," for example. You could say that it means your life has been completely taken up into Christ's life. In Christ your old self died. In Christ you were raised up and made into a new creation. In Christ you are loved as a son or daughter of God. That's not all. Because Christ lives in you, he is with you always. Wherever you go, you bring Christ with you. Like Mary, you bear him to the world. And think of this: you will be in Christ forever—into eternity. There will never be a time when you are not in Christ. What a difference one little word can make! So today spend some time reflecting on how this phrase, or one of the others, describes your relationship with Jesus. What seems special or pertinent to you right now? Ask the Holy Spirit to help you. You never know—those prepositions might have more to say to you than you think! "Lord, thank you for this wonderful truth: I am found in you." Psalm 145:2-7
Matthew 24:42-51 | my2cents: "...to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy..."
"He will keep you firm to the end,
irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful..."
Would it be ok to say "Be Holy to the End"? It's almost as if it strikes a weird chord in many folks. All it means is "be faithful". Just be faithful. God is faithful. We just heard that in Scripture. Did you forget? What's awesome about that, is that God can not go back on Himself, He IS. That is the awesomeness of Heaven too. Here on earth we seem to go back. But there, you can't. You can't go back on yourself. Hard concepts. Like living eternally, we can't grasp that really. Celestial beings...whaaaat? Be faithful and you will see angels ascending and descending...this is what our Lord asks His disciple, not just one, but to all His followers, because you in turn can be an angel ascending to get more blessings to bring down to others, amen? Let us pray: "I will praise your name for ever, Lord. Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD and highly to be praised; his greatness is unsearchable." How can you praise His name forever? Here's a secret. Do it now. Now! Now is the day. God lives in the forever "now" they say. Now and always now. It is a being. It is living in the being. And the being is the Lord. Let us turn to our Lord today: "Stay awake!" and, "...you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come." Unexpected things happen, don't they? Catch you off guard. Unprepared. And your faith, if not well prepared and awake, your faith will be shaken and tested. An unexpected pregnancy. A family member sick or you yourself get struck with something. We are all susceptible. And you are susceptible to spiritual maladies as well. Just like the body gets struck unexpectedly, so does the soul. Remain. If you remain in Him, then the first Scripture is fulfilled "He will keep you firm to the end". The whole of the purpose of me writing to you is to help you (and me) remain, faithful, remain, true, remain, in Him. It is a state of being, this remaining. It is a way of life, this remaining.
We can start living a life wide awake. How?
The cartoon I sent above, after sifting through seemingly hundreds of photos for these writings, I look for a fitting image to the Scripture. Texting! I told you to stay awake! Can you not remain with me for one hour without texting! LOL. Aren't we guilty of being glitchy if we don't have our phones? You pat yourself down 'my phone...where's my phone!". In the world people are always looking down... to their phones. How will you see Jesus in front of you, if you are distracted? How can you look up if you are always looking down? He can be found all around. And here's a secret that can help make you holy that I try to live by: Jesus could come at you at any moment, in any way or in any person He wishes. Without warning. Catch you off-guard. Be afraid! LOL, be VERY AFRAID. Fear of the Lord is a pure gift of God. It is connected with Awe of the Lord. A wonderful gift of God. I suppose most of my thoughts of Heaven are of wonder and awe. That's all I envision. Just being awed at every glance and in every corner. WOW! Amazing!
In the garden of Gethsemane, His disciples were not awake, they were sleepy. Their prayer life fell. They fell into temptation. They weren't being the leverage God asked for, for the blessings of the world. Do not love sleep or you will grow poor; stay awake and you will have food to spare. -Proverbs 20:13 So then, we must not sleep, like the rest, but we must stay awake and be serious. ...- 1Thes 5:6 "Remain here and stay awake with Me."- Jesus
Jesus went off to pray. "stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man." Luke 21:36 Once your prayer life goes down, you become vulnerable. Vulnerable to what? To lose your train of thought, your...remaining. Your state of grace even. What good is it to receive Christ asleep? Communion. Community. Jesus surprised the disciples, didn't He? At the garden before the crucifixion, and at the resurrection, He just kept surprising them, over and over again.
Many times they'd get drowsy, weak, afraid, lose their train of thought thus grace. But thank God He wakes up people from their sleep, like the little girl He told everyone "she is not dead, but sleeping". Everyone scoffed at Him. Then...she woke up.
GIVE HER SOMETHING TO EAT, he turns and says to them.
Don't let her die on your watch ever again.
And He offers Himself as food for the world.... | |
