 clickable | | The Story and the Rest of the Story The Gospel writer Luke, who we know as a disciple of St. Paul drew on St. Mark's Gospel for his own version of the story of Jesus' life on earth. Luke was not among the original disciples. But he gives us an in-depth picture in Acts of how the early Church carried out Christ's ministry. Luke is called a physician in Colossians 4:14 and is regarded as a thorough, careful researcher and historian. We would be poorer without Luke's moving version of the parable of the prodigal son and his version of Jesus's infancy narrative. Luke knew that sharing Jesus's stories and those of his followers was an important piece of evangelization. We do the same when we pass on our own traditions and stories to our children and grandchildren. Find photos from one of your sacramental moments. Share your story with a loved one, or capture it for future generations in a brief note. — from Brotherhood of Saints: Daily Guidance and Inspiration, by Melanie Rigney |  MorningOffering.com | †Saint Quote
"The goodness of God is the highest object of prayer, and it reaches down to our lowest need. It quickens our soul and gives it life, and makes it grow in grace and virtue."
— St. Julian of Norwich † MEDITATION OF THE DAY
"Know this: just as the wood of the ark saved the just from drowning, so too, by the mystery of His wooden Cross, does Christ, the Church's God and King, save us from drowning in the sea of this world. In the symbol of a thing made of wood He gave human beings a foreshadowing of both the judgment to come and the salvation of the just."
— St. Augustine, p.137
AN EXCERPT FROM
Augustine Day by Day † VERSE OF THE DAY
"For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of [Jesus] Christ. But we hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us."
2 Corinthians 4:6-7 |  click to read more | | ST. ALFRED THE GREAT St. Alfred the Great (849–899 A.D.) was the fifth son of the King of Wessex in England. Legend has it that at the age of four he was sent to Rome to be anointed as king by Pope Leo IV. Alfred rose to the throne in 871 A.D. after the successive deaths of his father and older brothers. As king he fought valiantly against the Danish Viking invaders who threatened the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England. Alfred defeated the Vikings and enjoyed fifteen years of peace until the attacks were renewed. While other kingdoms fell to the raiders, he prevailed over them. Alfred then considered himself the defender of all Anglo-Saxon Christians against the pagan Viking threat, and after liberating villages from their control, he worked to restore what they destroyed. Wessex then became a rallying point against the enemy, which in turn consolidated the smaller kingdoms. This led to the unification of England under St. Alfred's sons and grandsons, who conquered the remaining lands seized by the Vikings and joined them to their kingdom. St. Alfred the Great was known as a courageous, just, and pious man, and the ideal Christian king. He brought learned men into his kingdom and excelled in his own academic ventures by translating into the Anglo-Saxon language many important religious and secular works that taught the ideal of Christian kingship, which he in turn endeavored to practice. His feast day is October 26th. | Monday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 479
Reading 1 EPH 4:32–5:8 Brothers and sisters:
Be kind to one another, compassionate,
forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love,
as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us
as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.
Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you,
as is fitting among holy ones,
no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk, which is out of place,
but instead, thanksgiving.
Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure or greedy person,
that is, an idolater,
has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty arguments,
for because of these things
the wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient.
So do not be associated with them.
For you were once darkness,
but now you are light in the Lord.
Live as children of light. Responsorial Psalm PS 1:1-2, 3, 4 AND 6 R. (see Eph. 5:1) Behave like God as his very dear children.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Behave like God as his very dear children.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Behave like God as his very dear children.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Behave like God as his very dear children. Alleluia JN 17:17B, 17A R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Your word, O Lord, is truth;
consecrate us in the truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel LK 13:10-17 Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.
And a woman was there who for eighteen years
had been crippled by a spirit;
she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.
When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said,
"Woman, you are set free of your infirmity."
He laid his hands on her,
and she at once stood up straight and glorified God.
But the leader of the synagogue,
indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath,
said to the crowd in reply,
"There are six days when work should be done.
Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day."
The Lord said to him in reply, "Hypocrites!
Does not each one of you on the sabbath
untie his ox or his ass from the manger
and lead it out for watering?
This daughter of Abraham,
whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now,
ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day
from this bondage?"
When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated;
and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him. | Daily Meditation: Luke 13:10-17 You are set free of your infirmity. (Luke 13:12) Both today's Gospel and the first reading from Paul's Letter to the Ephesians reveal something that God deeply desires for us: our freedom. Through Jesus, our Father has set us free, and he wants us to live in the freedom that Christ has already won for us. In the Gospel passage, Jesus is confronted by people who believe that it is an offense against God to heal a woman on the Sabbath. We can still hear the righteous anger in Jesus' voice at the way this thinking inverts the will of God. Jesus knew that God's law was never intended to bind us up. It was meant to provide boundaries that allow our freedom to flourish. Jesus saw the work of Satan behind the woman's infirmity. He also saw her as a daughter of Abraham, not a nuisance interrupting his sabbath rest. So he released her from her bondage. In doing so, Jesus reveals his desire for her, and for all of us: "You are set free" (Luke 13:12). In the first reading, Paul has been instructing the Ephesians on what a healthy Christian community should look like. When he exhorts them to live a moral life, he isn't scolding them. Instead, he is reminding them of the high calling of the Christian life: "You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light" (Ephesians 5:8). These Christians had already been set free through Jesus' death and resurrection, but they weren't living as if they were really free. When you were baptized, you were set free from sin and death. No longer a slave to sin, you can live in the freedom of a son or daughter of God. Like the Ephesians, it can be easy to forget this truth and fail to live like a child of God. This is why Paul's exhortation is always valuable: remember what Jesus has already done in your life. This is not just a matter of willpower, of gritting teeth and pulling up bootstraps. It's about seeing the face of Jesus turning toward you in whatever "infirmity" you're facing—and believing him when he says to you, "You are set free." "Holy Spirit, help me to live in the freedom of a child of God." Ephesians 4:32–5:8
Psalm 1-4, 6 |  clickable | There is no human situation that cannot become prayer, that would not be immediately present to God. We must only open the door and grasp the hand that is always offered to us
— Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI)
from Dogma and Preaching | my2cents:
"Be kind to one another, compassionate,
forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ."
What is kindness like?
It is unlike the worldly version of kindness. Kindness is not like atheist kindness, or secular kindness. What kind of kindness are we speaking of? Forgiveness, compassionate forgiveness. This kind of kindness is lacking in the world. Only our Lord serves this kindness, and until we receive it, we cannot give it. We speak of grace now. We speak of mercy too. | We pray:
"Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night. Behave like God as his very dear children." Behave like children of God that you are and are called to be. How else will the world know you are truly a child of God? | ""Woman, you are set free of your infirmity."
He laid his hands on her,
and she at once stood up straight and glorified God."
In this story, we have a woman that apparently came for healing.
And we also have a story of a leader in the synagogue that saw a breaking of the rules. To which our Lord had reminded that they did a better job at keeping children from God than leading them to Our Father.
How can we avoid this pitfall? We need to revert to kindness. | He untied the bondage. Just like we untie, what? Have you ever untied someone's bondage? Have you ever released someone from condemnation...or do you condemn with rules too? "You shouldn't have done that to me...". A satanic bondage is what happens to a soul that has been struck by a turning from our Lord. Do they get what they deserve? Yes and no. Yes, you play with fire you get burned, but the victim also needs healing. You see? What if it was your child? I better not ask that because not every parent loves like God. But most can see, that a beloved child, a truly loved child needs healing, and the parent suffers with the child and heals them.
That is our Lord. He came to be the Father. And He left His Holy Spirit, for what? For us to do the same, healing. You'd be amazed if you forgave. You'd be amazed if you were forgiven. For this, we have the Holy Sacraments. Lord, help us help each other to Heaven. Amen. | Random Bible verse from online generator:
Ps 50:14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,1 and perform your vows to the Most High,
15 and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me." | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | |
