 clickable | | God Sends Us Where We're Needed "God is not an obligation or a burden. God is the joy of my life!" —Fr. Mychal Judge On the bright fall morning of September 11, 2001, firefighters across New York were summoned to a scene of unimaginable horror: Two hijacked airliners had crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. As firefighters rushed into the burning buildings, they were accompanied by their chaplain, Fr. Mychal Judge. Hundreds of them would die that day, among the nearly three thousand fatalities in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. Fr. Judge would be among them. There seemed to be special meaning in the fact that Fr. Mychal was listed as the first certified casualty of 9/11. A photograph of his fellow firemen carrying his body from the wreckage to a neighboring church became an icon of that day: an image of loving service and sacrifice, a hopeful answer to messages born of fear and fanaticism. —from The Franciscan Saints by Robert Ellsberg |  MorningOffering.com | † Saint Quote
"When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice."
— Pope Saint Gregory the Great † MEDITATION OF THE DAY
"Some people who think themselves naturally gifted don't want to touch either philosophy or logic. They don't even want to learn natural science. They demand bare faith alone—as if they wanted to harvest grapes right away without putting any work into the vine. We must prune, dig, trellis, and do all the other work. I think you'll agree the pruning knife, the pickaxe, and the farmer's tools are necessary for growing grapevines, so that they will produce edible fruit. And as in farming, so in medicine: the one who has learned something is the one who has practiced the various lessons, so that he can cultivate or heal. And here, too, I say you're truly educated if you bring everything to bear on the truth. Taking what's useful from geometry, music, grammar, and philosophy itself, you guard the Faith from assault."
— St. Clement of Alexandria, p. 13
AN EXCERPT FROM
A Year with the Church Fathers † VERSE OF THE DAY
"Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name. For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations."
Psalm 100 |  click to read more | | ST. JEAN-GABRIEL PERBOYRE St. Jean-Gabriel Perboyre (1802-1840) was one of eight children born to a farming family in France. He was a pious child and served as a model of virtue for his childhood companions. He discerned a call to the priesthood and joined the Vincentians along with a younger brother, with the full support of his parents. He served as a seminary professor for many years, and his sanctity impressed even his superiors. He longed to serve in the missions to China, but his poor health prevented him and his brother was sent instead. He prayed and begged to also be sent to preach in China and to suffer martyrdom there. After his brother died on the voyage to China, Jean-Gabriel was allowed to take his place in the mission. He arrived in China in 1835 and his labors there were met with great success. In 1839 persecutions broke out against the Christian missionaries, and Jean-Gabriel was one of the first to be arrested. The events leading to his death bear a striking resemblance to the Passion and Death of Christ. He was betrayed to the authorities by one of his new converts for thirty pieces of silver, stripped of his garments and clothed with rags, bound, and dragged from tribunal to tribunal. At each trial, he was brutally treated and tortured. He was finally condemned to death along with seven other criminals on September 11, 1840. He was martyred by being strangled to death as he hung on a cross. His feast day is September 11th. | Wednesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Col 3:1-11 Brothers and sisters:
If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory. Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly:
immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,
and the greed that is idolatry.
Because of these the wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient.
By these you too once conducted yourselves, when you lived in that way.
But now you must put them all away:
anger, fury, malice, slander,
and obscene language out of your mouths.
Stop lying to one another,
since you have taken off the old self with its practices
and have put on the new self,
which is being renewed, for knowledge,
in the image of its creator.
Here there is not Greek and Jew,
circumcision and uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, slave, free;
but Christ is all and in all. Responsorial Psalm Ps 145:2-3, 10-11, 12-13ab R. (9) The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
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. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your Kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
Making known to men your might
and the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
Your Kingdom is a Kingdom for all ages,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works. Alleluia Lk 6:23ab R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Rejoice and leap for joy!
Your reward will be great in heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Lk 6:20-26 Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said: "Blessed are you who are poor,
for the Kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who are now hungry,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who are now weeping,
for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil
on account of the Son of Man. "Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!
Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.
For their ancestors treated the prophets
in the same way.
But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
But woe to you who are filled now,
for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will grieve and weep.
Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way."
| Meditation: Colossians 3:1-11 23rd Week in Ordinary Time You have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self. (Colossians 3:9-10) Have you ever become overly attached to a worn-out piece of clothing? Perhaps it was an old coat that kept you very warm but was faded and stained. The zipper was broken, and there was a big tear in the sleeve. When winter arrived, you took it out of your closet and started wearing it again. But then a good friend told you, "Please get rid of that! It just doesn't look good anymore. Here! Try on this new coat I just bought for you." Paul is saying something similar in today's reading. He reminds us that we have cast off our "old self." We now have a "new self"—a new life in Christ, given to us in Baptism (Colossians 3:9, 10). Unfortunately, we don't always recognize how "new" our new self is. We often see only our old self with all its failings. What is Paul's remedy? "Put to death . . . the parts of you that are earthly" (Colossians 3:5). The Colossians may have acted with anger or malice in the past. But the past is over and done with. They are a new creation now, so their identity, their memory, and the vision they have of themselves and the world have changed. They don't have to keep walking around in old, dirty clothing. Just get rid of it, Paul says. You have something infinitely better to wear! Of course, this isn't always easy to do. Our old desires haven't completely left us. Like that old coat, it can take us a long time to part with them completely. So often we fail because we lose sight of how wonderful our new life in Christ really is. We give in to old temptations because we forget about what God has already done—and still wants to do—through his power and grace. Is there a habit or inclination you would like to "put off"? Obviously, a habit is something ingrained, so you may not shake it overnight. But be encouraged. God has made you a new creation. He's done so much in you already, and he's only just begun! "Lord, give me the grace and the strength to leave behind everything that stands between me and you!" Psalm 145:2-3, 10-13
Luke 6:20-26 |  clickable | I look to all of you, brothers and sisters of every state of life - to you, Christian families, to you, the sick and elderly, and to you, young people: Confidently take up the Rosary once again. Rediscover the Rosary in light of Scripture, in harmony with the Liturgy, and in the context of your daily lives. May this appeal of mine not go unheard!
—Saint John Paul II
from The Rosary of Saint John Paul II | my2cents:
"If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above..."
"...Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly." Put on Christ, says the Word. Romans13:14 "Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh. "
So night must be made day? Behave in the world as you do in Church? With honor and respect and holiness? Some say Facebook has inherit evils. They say "it opens doors". I was hearing one speak on its evils and a couple points stuck, one being that young girls that go to church were posting themselves as "sexy" on their posts. When other church girls saw them and their dress and their poses and their behavior, the other church girls started doing the same. Blind lead the blind. Now opened doors. Evil. Now predators come in. The predators make false names and put on facades and prey on these girls. Another opened door. And at another point, a priest would go on this site to see how much his parishioners gossiped ...about HIM! Opened doors. Slander. Indecency. Impurity. Many of the things we were asked today to put to death, are still being made alive. Like giving Halloween glory by participation, and not participating in ALL SAINTS DAY, the very next day, a holy day of obligation. What do we give life to and what do we give death to? Put sin to death.
Put on Christ. Life to true life. Purity. Holiness. | So let us pray today:
"The Lord is compassionate toward all his works. 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." Is Heaven an institution? We can only imagine what it will be like. Heaven is promised to a select few, no? Strive to enter the narrow gate, for many will not be strong enough. Strong enough to give themselves totally to God, and crucify all things earthly. | So let us turn to our Lord that shows the way: "Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said:
"Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours."
This always gets people. This whole "poor" thing. And another thing that gets the commons is the word "neighbor". These simpler people think that their literal next door neighbor on their street is what Jesus is talking about. And when they read the word "poor" they think of the ones struggling with money or don't have any money. Is that what Jesus is talking about? Barely, and hardly. Yes, your neighbor is a neighbor, but so is anybody you run into throughout the day! The person next to you! And yes, the poor without money are in need, but not of material things alone right? I mean, I hate to bring this term up because it has been butchered by modern and progressive so called Catholics, but its called "social justice". This term has been twisted to introduce communism type ideals into the world. I digress. Blessed are the poor. Now who are the poor? Ask Mother Teresa.
-Me: "Mother, you found thousands of poor, in dire need on the streets, right? How do I know who is poor so I can help them?"
-Mother Teresa: "The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved." So she found the poor, the addicts, the ones dying of diseases including HIV, AIDS, found starving children and elderly people dying on the streets. She combated loneliness. She was a warrior, providing love where there was none. Can you see the neighbor? | The Kingdom of God belongs to the poor. Not the rich. Not the ones in no need...of God. I want you to start thinking poorly. To be spiritually poor. To belong to the Kingdom of God. Not to belittle yourself, because you are somebody, but you are somebody that belongs to God! Humility sometimes calls for some slaps to the face, but sometimes humility calls for truth. Whoa! Where did the word humility come from? Is it tied with poverty?
Boy do I see a lot of rich people and poor people in the church.
The materially rich give themselves with money and the poor give themselves with time. What I wish from both would be the inverse. I wish the materially rich would give time and the poor give money too. It is rare to see both. There is a degree of lack of trust in the Lord. To trust Him with your time and trust Him with your money. That is, to trust Him with your life. And I'm trying to open our eyes to spiritual poverty.
In my opinion, whatever it is worth, this poverty is a deep connection with our faith. And I've equated faith to a deep conviction and sincere love of God.
One thing I am disgusted with is this sense of "entitlement" in the world. As if the world owes you something for you being in it. In prisons, they call it "respect". In the free world, they call it "esteem". I call all of this "ego". Our Lord says Blessed are those who are denounced as evil on account of Him.
And He says "Woe to you when all speak well of you...". Woe to you when you denounce Jesus to save your own neck. You negate Him and seek to be praised instead. When you are embarrassed of Him. When you don't want to be seen as Holy or Religious. Or worse, a pure, chaste and poor saint.
My brothers and sisters, let us turn night into day. For this is the Kingdom of Heaven, where there is no darkness and no darkness that won't be brought up into the light.
Is Heaven an institution? Like the Holy Catholic Church on earth? Is it a Kingdom? What is Heaven?
Heaven is a calling. The citizens there are loyal, all things faithful to the light, in every sense of their being, body, mind, and soul.
And it begins now.
God is calling |  hear it read | adrian Random Bible Verse 1
Job 1:21 21 And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." Thank You Jesus | |
No comments:
Post a Comment