†Saint Quote
""May the Holy Spirit enkindle you with the fire of His Love so that you may persevere, unfailingly, in the love of His service. Thus you may merit to become, at last, a living stone in the celestial Jerusalem."
–St. Hildegard von Bingen †Today's Meditation
"The man who is filled with the Holy Spirit speaks in different languages. These different languages are different ways of witnessing to Christ, such as humility, poverty, patience, and obedience; we speak in those languages when we reveal in ourselves these virtues to others. Actions speak louder than words . . . it is useless for a man to flaunt his knowledge of the law if he undermines its teaching by his actions. But the apostles spoke as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech. Happy the man whose words issue from the Holy Spirit and not from himself! … We should speak, then, as the Holy Spirit give us the gift of speech. Our humble and sincere request to the Spirit for ourselves should be that we may bring the day of Pentecost to fulfillment, insofar as he infuses us with his grace, by using our bodily senses in a perfect manner and by keeping the commandments. "
— St. Anthony of Padua, p. 492 An Excerpt From
Witness of the Saints, p. 492 †Daily Verse
"The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord, they flourish in the courts of our God." Psalm 92:12-13
–Psalm 92:12-13 |  click to read more | | St. Juan Diego St. Juan Diego (1474–1548) was a poor and humble peasant of the lowest class of Aztec Indians living in what is today Mexico. His native name was Cuauhtlatoatzin, meaning, "eagle that talks." He was baptized at the age of fifty by a Franciscan missionary priest and received the Christian name of Juan Diego. It was he to whom Our Lady appeared as a pregnant Aztec princess on December 9, 1531—at that time the feast of the Immaculate Conception—on the hill of Tepeyac, in present-day Mexico City, as he was on his way to Mass. To help Juan Diego prove to the bishop that she had truly appeared, the Virgin Mary miraculously left her image on his tilma. This image is now famously known as Our Lady of Guadalupe. St. Juan Diego's tilma still bears the image of Our Lady (miraculously, as the plant fibers normally disintegrate in 15-20 years) and it hangs in one of the most famous Catholic pilgrimage sites of the world, the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Juan Diego was canonized in 2002 by Pope St. John Paul II as the first indigenous saint from the Americas. His feast day is December 9th.
Find a Devotional for This Saint | Thursday of the Second Week of Advent Lectionary: 184
Reading I Is 41:13-20 I am the LORD, your God, who grasp your right hand;
It is I who say to you, "Fear not, I will help you."
Fear not, O worm Jacob, O maggot Israel;
I will help you, says the LORD; your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
I will make of you a threshing sledge, sharp, new, and double-edged,
To thresh the mountains and crush them, to make the hills like chaff.
When you winnow them, the wind shall carry them off and the storm shall scatter them.
But you shall rejoice in the LORD, and glory in the Holy One of Israel. The afflicted and the needy seek water in vain, their tongues are parched with thirst.
I, the LORD, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
I will open up rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the broad valleys;
I will turn the desert into a marshland, and the dry ground into springs of water.
I will plant in the desert the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive;
I will set in the wasteland the cypress, together with the plane tree and the pine,
That all may see and know, observe and understand,
That the hand of the LORD has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it. Responsorial Psalm 145:1 and 9, 10-11, 12-13ab R. (8) The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger, and of great kindness.
I will extol you, O my God and King, and I will bless your name forever and ever.
The LORD is good to all and compassionate toward all his works.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger, and of great kindness.
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 gracious and merciful; slow to anger, and of great kindness.
Let them make 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 gracious and merciful; slow to anger, and of great kindness. Alleluia See Is 45:8 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Let the clouds rain down the Just One,
and the earth bring forth a Savior.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Mt 11:11-15 Jesus said to the crowds:
"Amen, I say to you,
among those born of women
there has been none greater than John the Baptist;
yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
From the days of John the Baptist until now,
the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence,
and the violent are taking it by force.
All the prophets and the law prophesied up to the time of John.
And if you are willing to accept it,
he is Elijah, the one who is to come.
Whoever has ears ought to hear." | Daily Meditation: Isaiah 41:13-20 The hand of the Lord has done this. (Isaiah 41:20) After fifty years in exile, the time had come for God to lead the people of Judah home. Decades earlier, they had been subjected to a forced march through the rough terrain of Jordan and Syria before entering Babylon. But now God promises to lead them back along a lush, fertile road. They will follow the same route as before, but the journey will be radically different. It will be clear that only God could have produced so much life—both in them and around them—in such a lifeless environment. Now, there's no archaeological evidence of a 900-mile-long strip of land suddenly blooming back in 537 BC. But the returning exiles wouldn't have expected that anyway. No, they understood that God was talking about the joy and growing excitement their hearts would feel as they drew closer to Jerusalem. Finally, their exile was coming to a close! At last, the time had come for them to rebuild their life with the Lord. What about you? Do you believe that God can bring new life to areas of your heart that have seemed dead for years? Or have you resigned yourself to the thought that nothing could be done about them? If that describes you, then take some time today to look back over the first readings from Mass for the past week or so. Again and again, God promises life where once there was death. Again and again, he promises healing and restoration for the barren and wounded places in your soul. He can heal long-held resentments, break the bonds of guilt over past failings, and help you find victory over current sinful habits. Who but God can accomplish such marvels? And like the Israelites, you will see them as you persevere in your journey with him. Yes, he asks you to cooperate with him, but he also promises that as you do, you'll begin to see changes beyond your expectations. As you persist in coming to him and following his word, you'll look back at where you've come from and proclaim in gratitude, "The hand of the Lord has done this!" "Lord, I believe that you can do the impossible in me. Help me to surrender to you so that I can know your healing touch!" Psalm 145:1, 9-13
Matthew 11:11-15 | From Today's Holy Scripture:
"I am the LORD, your God, who grasp your right hand; It is I who say to you, "Fear not, I will help you." Who do you think God is? Someone or something that is far away that can't help or hear you? If He can't help it is because we choose not Him or His way. If He cannot hear, it is because we have gone far, very far away, out of earshot, out of grasp, and all out of our own choosing, or own will. | We pray in Psalms:
"Let them make 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. The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger, and of great kindness." Repeat after me: I am a child of God, I am a Kingdom of God Child.
I will make His Kingdom known. I will make Thy Kingdom come, and Thy will be done! For My God shall be Your God, and He shall be Our Father. | We heard of our Lord in the Gospel today:
"Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he. " Our Lord always speaks about those who are greater than and less than. First He calls John the greatest born of women. What is he the greatest of?
Honestly? Speaking spiritually, and in the world of prophets, yes, John was the greatest, but how, or why?
Because, He embodied the spirit of Elijah. And that is a hard one to top! This one went against basically the whole world, those of the Jews and non Jews, they were all after him, to kill him, to test him, and Elijah went straight to the dragon's layer, and made a way for the Lord, and let the Lord be known and revealed with word and deed. And to top things off, he gets carried off into the heavens on a chariot of fire! But how? How did John supersede all of this? John was beheaded in a jail cell, at the fainthearted request of a drunk king at a dance party. That's a far stretch from Elijah's glorious assumption, right? | So why does our Lord say Saint John the Baptist is the greatest?
The Spirit of Elijah was one of complete devotion to God's will.
John was off in the desert. John was doing God's will, turning souls to Christ. John was fulfilling God's plan for the whole world by living solely for the life of God on earth.
Does that make sense?
If not, let me bring it down another notch: it is about humility to God's will.
How much is God asking of you today? How many people around us are fainthearted and drunk in the dance room, thus killing the prophets? John's life was about fasting, and abstinence, and purity, and get this word the world hates...John was religious to the bone! And for this reason we have his bones in our Church to this day, to remember the greatest prophetic word of all time...Make straight the way...to GOD! Lay down your life, for He who loses it for God's sake...will save it.
WOW! What a message right? John lives on. Let's pray:
Lord, Father, Thank you for sending John the Baptist, to purify the way, to make straight the way of a life to God.
Help us learn to not only moderate our lives, not only to tolerate those around us, but to have a fervent spirit that proclaims the truth above all, with a sincere love for the truth...You Jesus! amen | from your brother in Christ,
Adrian |  click to hear | Random bible verse generator: Amazing!
Psalm 30:11–12
You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
12 that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever! | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
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