 clickable | | Keep Watch with Me The Gospel says Jesus arrives at Gethsemane with his disciples but then distances himself a bit. This is a battle that Jesus needs to face by himself. He asks his companions to keep watch with him and to pray not to enter into temptation, but he needs to face this hour in solitude. The disciples do not hold up; they are not capable of keeping vigil and they fall asleep. But this sleep is certainly not a sign of weariness. So what kind of sleep is this? It is a way of escape. Sleep is the thing in life that most resembles death; it can be a way of escape. The disciples do not actually want to see this moment happen, to face this moment. How many ways we find to anesthetize our consciences and our minds, filling our schedules with appointments, filling our minds with noise, burdening ourselves in useless preoccupations with things we do not need, to avoid focusing our hearts, our gaze, our minds, our wills, and our emotions on the one thing that matters! We fear the struggle of facing the reality of daily life that makes us encounter the truth about ourselves, so we seek various subterfuges to avoid having to confront ourselves. Jesus asks us to keep watch with him, to look at reality, to choose the good, to remain anchored to him with our whole being, whatever it costs, because this is the only way to be free and to overcome. —from the book Encountering Jesus: A Holy Land Experience by Vincenzo Peroni |  MorningOffering.com | †Saint Quote "The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Love; It signifies Love, It produces love. The Eucharist is the consummation of the whole spiritual life."
— St. Thomas Aquinas † PRAYER DURING CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
O clement, O loving, O sweet Mother Mary,
We, your children of every nation,
Turn to you in this pandemic.
Our troubles are numerous; our fears are great.
Grant that we might deposit them at your feet,
Take refuge in your Immaculate Heart,
And obtain peace, healing, rescue,
And timely help in all our needs.
You are our Mother.
Pray for us to your Son.
Amen. † PRAYER OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the most Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there, and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen. † MEDITATION OF THE DAY
"We may have become careless in being faithful to our spiritual commitments such as attendance at daily Mass, our daily time of prayer, spiritual reading, and so on. Or we may have become careless in valuing the gifts God gives us, or in rejecting or dallying with temptation. Or we may have begun to allow distractions, entertainments, and engagement in worldly activities to deaden our hunger for God . . . Dryness experienced as a result of negligence, lukewarmness, and infidelity—and whatever stage of the downward spiral it may have led to—have only one solution: repentance. This dryness is self-induced; the solution to it is to return to fidelity in our spiritual practices."
— Ralph Martin, p.166
AN EXCERPT FROM
The Fulfillment of All Desire TODAY'S FEAST DAY
⛪HOLY THURSDAY⛪
On Thursday of Holy Week (Maundy Thursday) the Church celebrates the three pillars of the Catholic Church instituted by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper: the priesthood, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and the Holy Eucharist. This is the traditional day for priests to gather with their bishop at the Chrism Mass, to receive oils blessed by the bishop and to publicly renew their priestly promises. In the evening the Church celebrates the Mass of the Lord's Supper. After this Mass the altar is stripped bare and the Blessed Sacrament is removed from the Tabernacle and processed to a separate altar of repose. Here the Blessed Sacrament is adored until late in the night to commemorate the time Jesus spent in Garden of Gethsemane in agonizing prayer, the start of his Passion. The Blessed Sacrament is then taken away and hidden until the Easter Vigil in memory of Our Lord's death and burial.
See More About Today's Feast > † VERSE OF THE DAY
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ... For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
Romans 9:33,36 |  click to read more | | BL. KATARZYNA CELESTYNA FARON Bl. Katarzyna Celestyna (Catherine Celestine) Faron (1913-1944) was born in Zabrzez, Poland. At the age of five she was orphaned and raised by pious, childless relatives. Desiring the religious life, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate in 1930. She served in the community as a kindergarten teacher and catechist. After the breakout of World War II she became the leader of her religious house, ran an orphanage, and helped the poor. She was eventually arrested by the Gestapo, charged with conspiracy against the Nazis, and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp on the feast of Epiphany in 1943, where she was assigned to manual labor digging ditches. She praised God in all her suffering and resigned herself to following his will. Due to the poor conditions she developed typhoid fever and tuberculosis. Because she completed the nine First Fridays devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, she trusted that she wouldn't die without Holy Communion, as Our Lord promised. On December 8, 1943, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, she received Holy Communion as viaticum which was secretly brought to the camp by a prisoner priest. While on her deathbed she prayed intensely for various intentions on a rosary made of bread. According to witnesses she offered her sufferings for the conversion of a priest who had fallen away from the Church, who later did return to the true Faith. Bl. Katarzyn finally died from her illness on Easter morning. She is one of the 108 beatified Polish Catholic Martyrs killed during World War II by Nazi Germany. Her feast day is April 9th. | Holy Thursday – Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper
Lectionary: 39
Reading 1 Ex 12:1-8, 11-14 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
"This month shall stand at the head of your calendar;
you shall reckon it the first month of the year.
Tell the whole community of Israel:
On the tenth of this month every one of your families
must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household.
If a family is too small for a whole lamb,
it shall join the nearest household in procuring one
and shall share in the lamb
in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it.
The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish.
You may take it from either the sheep or the goats.
You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month,
and then, with the whole assembly of Israel present,
it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight.
They shall take some of its blood
and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel
of every house in which they partake of the lamb.
That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh
with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. "This is how you are to eat it:
with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand,
you shall eat like those who are in flight.
It is the Passover of the LORD.
For on this same night I will go through Egypt,
striking down every firstborn of the land, both man and beast,
and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the LORD!
But the blood will mark the houses where you are.
Seeing the blood, I will pass over you;
thus, when I strike the land of Egypt,
no destructive blow will come upon you. "This day shall be a memorial feast for you,
which all your generations shall celebrate
with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution." Responsorial Psalm Ps 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18. R. (cf. 1 Cor 10:16) Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.
How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
R. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
R. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay in the presence of all his people.
R. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ. Reading 2 1 Cor 11:23-26 Brothers and sisters:
I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you,
that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over,
took bread, and, after he had given thanks,
broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me."
In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying,
"This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,
you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. Verse Before the Gospel Jn 13:34 I give you a new commandment, says the Lord:
love one another as I have loved you. Gospel Jn 13:1-15 Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come
to pass from this world to the Father.
He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.
The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.
So, during supper,
fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power
and that he had come from God and was returning to God,
he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.
He took a towel and tied it around his waist.
Then he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples' feet
and dry them with the towel around his waist.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,
"Master, are you going to wash my feet?"
Jesus answered and said to him,
"What I am doing, you do not understand now,
but you will understand later."
Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet."
Jesus answered him,
"Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me."
Simon Peter said to him,
"Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well."
Jesus said to him,
"Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over;
so you are clean, but not all."
For he knew who would betray him;
for this reason, he said, "Not all of you are clean." So when he had washed their feet
and put his garments back on and reclined at table again,
he said to them, "Do you realize what I have done for you?
You call me 'teacher' and 'master,' and rightly so, for indeed I am.
If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet,
you ought to wash one another's feet.
I have given you a model to follow,
so that as I have done for you, you should also do." | Today's Meditation: John 13:1-15 Not only my feet, but my hands and head as well. (John 13:9) It's common knowledge that if you walk barefoot in public places, you risk picking up all sorts of nasty microorganisms: E. coli, tetanus, and many different types of fungus. These germs seem to consider the human foot a very welcoming environment, and they turn our feet into petri dishes! Can you imagine how dirty people's feet were during the time of Jesus? The apostles' feet were probably tougher, more calloused, and just plain uglier than anything most of us have seen. No wonder it was the role of a slave to wash the feet of the wealthy—no one else would want to! So you can understand Peter's shock at the sight of Jesus stooping to wash his feet. Through his time with Jesus, he had come to understand that Jesus was the Messiah. Just to share a meal with him was an honor. So why in the world would this wise and holy man take on such a menial task? Jesus had to explain the importance of this gesture patiently before Peter would relent. And even then, Peter got it mixed up! Jesus had to wash only Peter's feet because he already believed. His head and hands were already clean. The significance of this act of humility is so profound that some have called it the gospel in miniature. Others have likened it to the Eucharist. God so loved the world that he sent his only Son to save us. And he still loves us so much that he bends down at every Mass to teach us, feed us, and refresh us. Both in the Incarnation and at Mass, he sends his only Son as a humble servant—all so that we can be filled with his life and transformed into his image! On this Holy Thursday, focus on this truth: Jesus loves you so much that he is willing to wash your feet. He cares for you so deeply that he wants to tend to your every need, even to the point of feeding you with his Bread of Life and the cup of his own Blood. How loving and generous is our Savior! "Lord, thank you for offering me a whole new life with you! Teach me how to love and serve as fully as you have done." Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14
Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 |  clickable | The hardest death is the little daily death, when we are perfectly healthy. In life, we go from one death to another; they prepare us for the ultimate end. Little deaths of the ego are the big deaths, and they allow for a good death.
— Nicolas Diat
from A Time to Die: Monks on the Threshold of Eternal Life | my2cents:
""This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you shall eat like those who are in flight."
The Eucharist is instituted this day. Priests normally gather this day to renew their vows and bless the oils that are used for the rest of us in Holy Sacraments. It is the story of the cenacle, the story of the upper room, the Holy and Last Supper. Yesterday, I couldn't shake the song out of my head, I was going to add it to my2cents readings as I read them outloud recording them at my youtube channel, but I chose another song. But the song that is actually meant for today and is actually a Christmas song, "O Holy Night" and you can hear the angel choirs sing "fall on your knees, and see the angels sing" "Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born;
O night divine, O night, O night Divine.
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,
Here come the wise men from Orient land.
The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friend. He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before Him lowly bend!
Behold your King, Before Him lowly bend! Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy name. Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever,
His power and glory evermore proclaim.
His power and glory evermore proclaim." | Today we pray: "To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving, and I will call upon the name of the LORD. My vows to the LORD I will pay in the presence of all his people. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ."
You know, the Holy Sacraments are vows, swearings, oaths, as described by Scott Hahn. We renew our vows constantly in the Holy Sacraments. When's the last time you renewed yourself and your vows to our Lord? He loves it. Because He loves you! | Gospel of our Lord:
"Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father.
He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end."
Some speculate, that our Lord died on His birthday. How's that for an added slap to the face? How about a horrible crucifixion for your birthday? Tomorrow is that birthday. O Holy Night it is tonight, the last night Jesus freely walked on earth as if with Adam and Eve. And He dined, and after dining, He sung a song with them, then washed their feet. There were natives here in our land that used to sing war songs "It is a good day to die" they'd sing before battle. And Jesus gets up, prepares, tying a towel around Himself, meaning He is in flight mode already, and He flies to the feet of His followers, His fellow warriors that'd soon give their lives too. Serving blood. Serving body. Serving themselves. Think Bishops and Priests. Think those dying for holiness. Think of your vows. | ""Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me."
And He washes them and they wash us. Think of the Holy Sacraments again. We are bathed in Holy Baptism, and our bodies are anointed with Holy Oils. Oils like olive oil and Balsam, and remember the myrrh the wise men brought, things for life and burial, incense and gold. Why gold? It is value, it gives value, that's why. It is a symbolic sign. It is an offering. And Jesus washes us with His precious hands, (his disciples in religious), and the stuff they use...is His blessing, with His own precious blood.
Our Lord leaves us with His words, and so I leave you with the most precious Word:
" "Do you realize what I have done for you?
You call me 'teacher' and 'master,' and rightly so, for indeed I am.
If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet,
you ought to wash one another's feet.
I have given you a model to follow,
so that as I have done for you, you should also do." |  click to hear a message | Random Bible verse from an online generator: John 6:47 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. | If one day you don't receive these, just visit my website Going4th.com, surely you'll find me there. God Bless You! Share the Word. Share this, share what is good | |
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