 clickable | | Kiss the Cross of Christ Jesus calls us to follow him on his own path of humiliation. When at certain moments in life we fail to find any way out of our difficulties, when we sink in the thickest darkness, it is the moment of our total humiliation, the hour in which we experience that we are frail and are sinners. It is precisely then, at that moment, that we must not deny our failure but rather open ourselves trustingly to hope in God, as Jesus did. Dear brothers and sisters, this week it will do us good to take the crucifix in hand and kiss it many, many times and say: Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Lord. So be it. —from the book The Hope of Lent: Daily Reflections from Pope Francis by Diane M. Houdek |  clickable: The Following is from MorningOffering | †Saint Quote
"It is not lengthy prayers, but generous deeds that touch God's heart."
— St. Arnold Janssen † MEDITATION OF THE DAY
"Dearly beloved Mother, grant, if it is possible, that I may have no other spirit but yours to know Jesus and his divine will; that I may have no other soul but yours to praise and glorify the Lord; that I may have no other heart but yours to love God with a love as pure and passionate as yours. I do not ask you for visions, revelations, feelings of devotion, or spiritual pleasures. It is your privilege to see God clearly; it's your privilege to enjoy heavenly bliss; it's your privilege to triumph gloriously in heaven at the right hand of your Son and to hold absolute sway over angels, men, and demons; it is your privilege to dispose of all the gifts of God, just as you wish . . . The only grace I beg you to obtain for me is that every day and every moment of my life I may say: Amen, so be it, to all that you did while on earth; amen, so be it, to all that you are now doing in heaven; amen, so be it, to all that you are doing in my soul, so that you alone may fully glorify Jesus in me for time and eternity."
— St. Louis de Montfort, p.160
AN EXCERPT FROM
Manual for Marian Devotion † VERSE OF THE DAY
"Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace—in peace because they trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord God you have an everlasting rock."
Isaiah 26:3-4 |  click to read more | | Saint Benedict Joseph Labre (March 25, 1748 – April 17, 1783) Benedict Joseph Labre was truly eccentric, one of God's special little ones. Born in France and the eldest of 18 children, he studied under his uncle, a parish priest. Because of poor health and a lack of suitable academic preparation he was unsuccessful in his attempts to enter the religious life. Then, at age 16, a profound change took place. Benedict lost his desire to study and gave up all thoughts of the priesthood, much to the consternation of his relatives. He became a pilgrim, traveling from one great shrine to another, living off alms. He wore the rags of a beggar and shared his food with the poor. Filled with the love of God and neighbor, Benedict had special devotion to the Blessed Mother and to the Blessed Sacrament. In Rome, where he lived in the Colosseum for a time, he was called "the poor man of the Forty Hours devotion" and "the beggar of Rome." The people accepted his ragged appearance better than he did. His excuse to himself was that "our comfort is not in this world." On April 16, 1783, the last day of his life, Benedict dragged himself to a church in Rome and prayed there for two hours before he collapsed, dying peacefully in a nearby house. Immediately after his death, the people proclaimed him a saint. Benedict Joseph Labre was canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1881. His Liturgical Feast Day is April 16.
Reflection In a modern inner city, one local character kneels for hours on the sidewalk and prays. Swathed in his entire wardrobe winter and summer, he greets passersby with a blessing. Where he sleeps no one knows, but he is surely a direct spiritual descendant of Benedict, the ragged man who slept in the ruins of Rome's Colosseum. These days we ascribe such behavior to mental illness; Benedict's contemporaries called him holy. Holiness is always a bit mad by earthly standards. Saint Benedict Joseph Labre is the Patron Saint of: Homeless | Wednesday of Holy Week Reading 1 Is 50:4-9a The Lord GOD has given me
a well-trained tongue,
That I might know how to speak to the weary
a word that will rouse them.
Morning after morning
he opens my ear that I may hear;
And I have not rebelled,
have not turned back.
I gave my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
My face I did not shield
from buffets and spitting. The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
He is near who upholds my right;
if anyone wishes to oppose me,
let us appear together.
Who disputes my right?
Let him confront me.
See, the Lord GOD is my help;
who will prove me wrong? Responsorial Psalm Ps 69:8-10, 21-22, 31 and 33-34
R. (14c) Lord, in your great love, answer me.
For your sake I bear insult,
and shame covers my face.
I have become an outcast to my brothers,
a stranger to my mother's sons,
because zeal for your house consumes me,
and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
Insult has broken my heart, and I am weak,
I looked for sympathy, but there was none;
for consolers, not one could I find.
Rather they put gall in my food,
and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
I will praise the name of God in song,
and I will glorify him with thanksgiving:
"See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not."
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me. Verse Before the Gospel Hail to you, our King;
you alone are compassionate with our errors.
Or
Hail to you, our King, obedient to the Father;
you were led to your crucifixion like a gentle lamb to the slaughter. Gospel Mt 26:14-25 One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot,
went to the chief priests and said,
"What are you willing to give me
if I hand him over to you?"
They paid him thirty pieces of silver,
and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over. On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
the disciples approached Jesus and said,
"Where do you want us to prepare
for you to eat the Passover?"
He said,
"Go into the city to a certain man and tell him,
'The teacher says, "My appointed time draws near;
in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.'"
The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered,
and prepared the Passover. When it was evening,
he reclined at table with the Twelve.
And while they were eating, he said,
"Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."
Deeply distressed at this,
they began to say to him one after another,
"Surely it is not I, Lord?"
He said in reply,
"He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me
is the one who will betray me.
The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,
but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
It would be better for that man if he had never been born."
Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply,
"Surely it is not I, Rabbi?"
He answered, "You have said so."
| Meditation: Isaiah 50:4-9 Wednesday of Holy Week I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard. (Isaiah 50:6) Amazing, isn't it? This one single verse sounds so much like Jesus' passion—and not just the event of his scourging at the pillar. The humility and generosity of the servant in this verse beautifully captures Jesus' heart as he endured his entire arrest, trial, and crucifixion. Imagine what Jesus must have felt when he heard these words proclaimed in the synagogue. He must have realized at some point that they referred not only to the ancient prophet but to himself. Maybe it struck him with terror. Or perhaps, because he was the Son of God, it didn't bother him at all. The truth probably lies somewhere between these two extremes. Being human, Jesus naturally experienced great distress about what was awaiting him. But then in his divinity, he could pray with complete confidence: "The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced" (Isaiah 50:7). So while he certainly felt great apprehension over what lay ahead of him, he also found strength knowing that his Father would never abandon him. There's a parallel here to our lives. We can't see into the future, but we do know that we all have our own share of hardships to deal with. It could be major, like the death of a loved one, or minor, like being stuck in a traffic jam for three hours. The magnitude of the challenge is not as important as how we deal with it. We can either fret about it or try our best to place it in the Father's hands as Jesus did. Know that in surrendering your hardships to God, you can expect to do more than just endure them. You will find new confidence knowing that Easter Sunday will come for you just as it did for Jesus. You will find strength in the knowledge that "all things work for good for those who love God" (Romans 8:28). Jesus didn't come to add to your burdens. He came to carry them with you. Remember: he walked the road to Calvary precisely so that he could walk with you today! "Lord, I trust that you will keep me in perfect peace as I meditate on all that you have done for me." Psalm 69:8-10, 21-22, 31, 33-34
Matthew 26:14-25 |  clickable | You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them.
—RALPH MARTIN
from Surrendered to Love |  clickable go see food for poor | | 2cents:
"The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint..."
And our Lord goes to Jerusalem, for the greatest of feasts and it begins in the unleavened bread. He can't eat the lamb until Friday but He will be Crucified on Friday, so He must eat as if in flight, in a haste journey. He would become the lamb for Friday. He would be the perfect sacrifice. To understand a sacrifice, a perfect one, we must understand what God has desired from the beginning, a deep covenant of true love. More than a promise. More than a pact. More than that. Sincerity. True contrition. That affliction I've been speaking about. Cut to the heart and the wound is there, shaped like a cross in our souls. | Let us pray: "Lord, in your great love, answer me. I will praise the name of God in song, and I will glorify him with thanksgiving: "See, you lowly ones, and be glad; you who seek God, may your hearts revive! For the LORD hears the poor, and his own who are in bonds he spurns not." They say there were dozens of soldiers at the crucifixion, and over a thousand more at this time, perhaps for crowd control. And how many were said to be at the foot of the cross? 3. For the love of the Holy Trinity, only 3. One a male, the other two female, one His Mother who is now our Mother. I've had a most strange lent, with insults and accusations like never before. And I've also experienced the serenity of the most chaste spouse....Saint Joseph. They say that St. Joseph suffered tremendously for our Lord, because he knew he would not be there for the crucifixion, so he offered his life sufferings for Christ. Wow. He wouldn't be there but he'd offer sacrifice for the moment. Me and you are not going to be there, but we can offer sacrifice too, offer our hurts, what little they may be compared to what He suffers for us....a heart torn to billions of pieces...each one, me and you. | In the Holy Gospel, Judas goes into the darkness and sells the Lord to the Jews. What a strange part of the story. Betrayal. But I see it still today. At the end of the prison retreat, the director, an 80 year old tall man gave a little testimony. He said he was on the rise to become a major player in rubber sales for all the biggest tire name brands out there. He was a very hard worker, and traveled so much. His career was at an all time high. One day, as he opened his suitcase at a hotel, he found a note, from his wife. He thought it was strange. He opened it, and read it. It said basically it seemed he was going to soon lose his family. He was never there and she couldn't continue on her own. He said this with shaking lips and a trembling voice and tears in his eyes. The letter tore him up. It was never his intention to do what he was doing. | You see, we too can sell out our so called "love". But we are so blinded by our own ideals and goals and aspirations. At what cost? I say, money makes people act funny. Greed sets in. Power. Pride. Judas knew too, that our Lord would be crucified. But Judas cashed in on the "insider information". The sin of "to know better than God". It's like saying "I'm going to sin because I know I can just ask for forgiveness". That is worse than the sin you plan to commit.
Our Lord said today ""Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."
And we all ask ourselves "Is it I Lord?" like Judas. "Who is it?". Today we recall the first "Judas shuffle", the time when the gathering (Mass) wasn't even over and the person walks out before the final blessing. I've seen it where people are rushing out to beat the priest out the door as they are trying to process out. What does this say? It says "I come before the Father". That is the atrocious model of the betrayer. Jesus says "Follow Me", not 'hey let me follow you". It'd be like me choosing to follow a rat when I'm trying to get from California to New York. You would get nowhere quick.
We must all face our denials.
Judas couldn't face the one he denied after he traded Him in.
But Peter dared to walk on water.
In comes faith.
Have faith then.
Have faith to come to our Lord, to be second, to be the servant, to be the one waiting on Him hand and foot. How? Take a look around. Lent was to show you that you could serve the poor, you could spend more time with Him, you could actually be less filled with your satisfactions and instead be filled with what satisfies Him.
I am having a little conundrum, as a paralyzed man asked me yesterday, from his nursing home room alone, if he could spend Easter with us. The whole deal is how to get him here, in the van we bought him. No one seems to be available to help me get him here, and I'm super tied up in various ministries and my family affairs. Will he have to take yet another hit? After losing his health, then his family...now another Easter alone?
I'm so sorry Jesus...
Lord have mercy on us and help us to do the impossible.
Help us to not live another day denying you the help you desire...your joy, your sacrifice. I can not live on betraying you in my thoughts and deeds and words. I'm tired of my mouth, unbridled, and I'm tired of not loving you as I ought...inadequate is my capacity, but I'm going to keep trying to see you no matter what the cost...as Peter glanced at your broken, beaten, bleeding precious body, that received a thousand blows to the head and body with lacerations of injustice, the atrocity of our sin.... |  click to hear the bible verse | adrian
amazing random bible verse Random Bible Verse1
Matthew 5:46-48 (Listen) 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, [1] what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Footnotes Thank You Jesus | |
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