 clickable | | Let God Retell Your Story Making progress in our relationship with God means letting God retell the story of our love and life together. God doesn't have to make a video or a mix tape to remind us; the tools we need are already available to us. The Bible tells the story of God's romance with the human race, and with each of us, over and over again. Our worship and regular participation in the sacraments also serve as reminders. And, most importantly, there is prayer. Making use of these other tools, we must prayerfully consider our past, remembering when God was there loving us, discovering those times that we failed to recognize God's loving presence, and trying to account for those chapters in our story when God appeared to be absent. —from the book Already There: Letting God Find You, by Mark Mossa, SJ |  MorningOffering.com | †Saint Quote
"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin."
— St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta † MEDITATION OF THE DAY
"[Mary] does not remain locked in her initial troubled state at the proximity of God in his angel, but she seeks to understand. So Mary appears as a fearless woman, one who remains composed even in the presence of something utterly unprecedented. At the same time she stands before us as a woman of great interiority, who holds heart and mind in harmony and seeks to understand the context, the overall significance of God's message. In this way, she becomes an image of the Church as she considers the word of God, tries to understand it in its entirety and guards in her memory the things that have been given to her."
— Pope Benedict XVI, p. 33
AN EXCERPT FROM
Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives † VERSE OF THE DAY
"Yet he knows my way; if he tested me, I should come forth like gold. My foot has always walked in his steps; I have kept his way and not turned aside. From the commands of his lips I have not departed; the words of his mouth I have treasured in my heart."
Job 23:10-12 |  click to read more | | Saint Aloysius Gonzaga (March 9, 1568 – June 21, 1591) The Lord can make saints anywhere, even amid the brutality and license of Renaissance life. Florence was the "mother of piety" for Aloysius Gonzaga despite his exposure to a "society of fraud, dagger, poison, and lust." As a son of a princely family, he grew up in royal courts and army camps. His father wanted Aloysius to be a military hero. At age 7 Aloysius experienced a profound spiritual quickening. His prayers included the Office of Mary, the psalms, and other devotions. At age 9 he came from his hometown of Castiglione to Florence to be educated; by age 11 he was teaching catechism to poor children, fasting three days a week, and practicing great austerities. When he was 13 years old, he traveled with his parents and the Empress of Austria to Spain, and acted as a page in the court of Philip II. The more Aloysius saw of court life, the more disillusioned he became, seeking relief in learning about the lives of saints. A book about the experience of Jesuit missionaries in India suggested to him the idea of entering the Society of Jesus, and in Spain his decision became final. Now began a four-year contest with his father. Eminent churchmen and laypeople were pressed into service to persuade Aloysius to remain in his "normal" vocation. Finally he prevailed, was allowed to renounce his right to succession, and was received into the Jesuit novitiate. Like other seminarians, Aloysius was faced with a new kind of penance—that of accepting different ideas about the exact nature of penance. He was obliged to eat more, and to take recreation with the other students. He was forbidden to pray except at stated times. He spent four years in the study of philosophy and had Saint Robert Bellarmine as his spiritual adviser. In 1591, a plague struck Rome. The Jesuits opened a hospital of their own. The superior general himself and many other Jesuits rendered personal service. Because he nursed patients, washing them and making their beds, Aloysius caught the disease. A fever persisted after his recovery and he was so weak he could scarcely rise from bed. Yet, he maintained his great discipline of prayer, knowing that he would die within the octave of Corpus Christi, three months later, at the age of 23.
Reflection As a saint who fasted, scourged himself, sought solitude and prayer, and did not look on the faces of women, Aloysius seems an unlikely patron of youth in a society where asceticism is confined to training camps of football teams and boxers, and sexual permissiveness has little left to permit. Can an overweight and air-conditioned society deprive itself of anything? It will when it discovers a reason, as Aloysius did. The motivation for letting God purify us is the experience of God loving us in prayer.
Saint Aloysius Gonzaga is the Patron Saint of: Catholic Youth
Teenagers | Memorial of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious Reading 1 2 Cor 11:18, 21-30 Brothers and sisters:
Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast.
To my shame I say that we were too weak! But what anyone dares to boast of
(I am speaking in foolishness)
I also dare.
Are they Hebrews? So am I.
Are they children of Israel? So am I.
Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.
Are they ministers of Christ?
(I am talking like an insane person).
I am still more, with far greater labors,
far more imprisonments, far worse beatings,
and numerous brushes with death.
Five times at the hands of the Jews
I received forty lashes minus one.
Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned,
three times I was shipwrecked,
I passed a night and a day on the deep;
on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers,
dangers from robbers, dangers from my own race,
dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city,
dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea,
dangers among false brothers;
in toil and hardship, through many sleepless nights,
through hunger and thirst, through frequent fastings,
through cold and exposure.
And apart from these things, there is the daily pressure upon me
of my anxiety for all the churches.
Who is weak, and I am not weak?
Who is led to sin, and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7 R. (see 18b) From all their distress God rescues the just.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. From all their distress God rescues the just.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
R. From all their distress God rescues the just.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
R. From all their distress God rescues the just. Alleluia Mt 5:3 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are the poor in spirit;
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Mt 6:19-23 Jesus said to his disciples:
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal.
But store up treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. "The lamp of the body is the eye.
If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light;
but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness.
And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be." | Meditation: 2 Corinthians 11:18, 21-30 Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious (Memorial) I too will boast. (2 Corinthians 11:18) Don't you find it funny that Paul would condemn those who boast, but then turn around and spend a lot of time boasting himself? He goes to such great lengths to tell the Corinthians about his credentials as an apostle and about all the hardships he has endured. It's almost as if he were pointing to himself as some sort of superhero they should admire! Later on, he again states that boasting is not "profitable," but then he dives right back in and describes his extraordinary spiritual experiences (2 Corinthians 12:1-4). Maybe some context can help. It seems that other people, whom Paul labeled as false apostles, had come to Corinth preaching a different form of the gospel than the one he and the other apostles were preaching. These "superapostles" were impressing the Corinthians with their showy preaching, their easier message, and their impressive credentials (2 Corinthians 11:5). So Paul, fearing that the people were being led astray, leapt to his own defense—and, more important, to the defense of his message. Paul was always a passionate man, so it shouldn't surprise us that he was so extreme in his argument. He was also a shrewd man: he hoped that by speaking in such extremes, he could shock the Corinthians back to their senses. Remember, this is the same man who once wrote that he would do whatever it took to bring people to Jesus (1 Corinthians 9:22). Paul's words, not just in today's readings but throughout his writings, show us that sometimes we have to fight for the sake of the gospel. Sometimes we have to show a little passion to help shake people up a bit. And sometimes we need a good shaking up as well! Of course, our Christian witness should not always be one of argument and boasting. Sometimes we need to be gentle and compassionate. Other times we need to be quiet and meek. God wants us to be flexible, resourceful, and creative as we respond to each situation with his wisdom. That's how we, like Paul, can do whatever it takes to bring the good news to the people we see every day. "Jesus, I want to share your good news. Teach me how to be as shrewd as a serpent and as gentle as a dove (Matthew 10:16)." Psalm 34:2-7
Matthew 6:19-23 |  clickable | There are other events that contributed to Edith [Stein's] conversion. She tells us how moved she was when she saw a woman with a shopping basket enter a Catholic church to make a visit. It was, she said, as though the woman were going to have an intimate conversation with someone. She had never seen anything like this; she had been to churches only for services. . . . The woman who made the visit impressed Edith, it seems, because the woman's faith informed her daily life; her faith was a communion with a Person.
—Sr. M. Regina van den Berg
from Communion with Christ | my2cents:
Saint Paul says "And apart from these things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches.
Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led to sin, and I am not indignant?"
In the book of Hebrews, chapter 12, we hear:
"You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; 5and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; 6FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES." I believe we have fallen into a trap, and it is called the EZ chair. The easy way of life. The kind of life that now has prosperity gospels preached from the TV that preach to focus solely on the good "blessings" and scoff and mock the hardships, what it really takes to be....A CHRIST follower. The kind that gets out there and preaches.
The kind that says "no I will not sit here and let the world pass me by! For I care too much about the Holy Church and the people of the world it came to save through Jesus! | We pray today: "Look to him that you may be radiant with joy, and your faces may not blush with shame. When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him. From all their distress God rescues the just." When the poor ones call the Lord, he answers. Who are the poor ones? The ones with less than $10? $100? $1,000? $100,000? No. The poor ones are the ones in dire need of a savior. The ones in distress. The ones who are now being sincere with the Lord. The ones who need Him in their lives and need transformation through salvation.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven." | In the Holy Gospel our Lord said: "For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be."
Where is your treasure? Is it in Church? Is that where your time, talent, and treasure go into? Or is it at work? At home? Speaking of which, we just got back from a week long vacation. We just returned the day before yesterday. Busy day catching up at work yesterday. Towards the end of our vacation, the kids were already saying how much they missed being home; one said "I miss my bed" and another said "I miss mom's enchiladas" and they just kept going on, and they turned to ask me "what do you miss dad?" I said "I don't miss anything about home, because I am already home with you". Not much was said after that. But you can begin to see the treasures. Everything else is secondary once you have God first. We prayed on the road, we prayed at a shrine atop a mountain, we went to Mass in the big city. We traveled and the road was part of the adventure. A few months ago, we saw an IMAX movie about Monarch butterflies. The cycle of life began in stages, and the swarm eventually traveled across continents. They ended up in a mountain range in Mexico. But on the journey, millions died, and millions were born, and they all seemed to know where to go, to migrate. Life must go on. Our endpoint will be heaven, or so it should be! So " store up treasures in heaven". How? Make Heaven your home! Make it home for friends and family! Boy is that something to work for! How hard will we work!? | So let us turn to our Lord: "If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light."
If your eye is healthy, spiritually, then the body will be filled with light.
What a weird notion, to be filled with light.
But Jesus wants to fill us.
Jesus is the light!
Once in an out of body experience, I saw people no longer but their light!
How I wish I could still see that! For the ones with no light, I would need to share my light with them! But since I don't know, I must now share the light with every single soul I encounter!
Our Lord wants us to be the light of the world.
He wants people out of darkness.
He created us to love like that. Lord, Help us be that light. Be our Light. Enter our soul. Bring us out of darkness and fear. Bring us to our feet to march for life.
Let us bring you to others but first be all my life, my treasure, my home, my everything! |  hear it read | adrian Random Bible Verse1
Luke 6:27-28 (Listen) 27 "But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you." Thank You Jesus | |
No comments:
Post a Comment