 franciscanmedia.org | Living without Defenses To keep our bodies less defended, to live in our body right now, to be present to others in a cellular way, is also the work of healing of past hurts and the many memories that seem to store themselves in the body. The body seems to never stop offering its messages; but fortunately, the body never lies, even though the mind will deceive you constantly. Zen practitioners tend to be well-trained in seeing this. It is very telling that Jesus usually physically touched people when he healed them; he knew where the memory and hurt was lodged, and it was in the body itself. —from the book Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
by Richard Rohr, OFM |  MorningOffering.com | †Saint Quote
"Fix your minds on the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Inflamed with love for us, he came down from heaven to redeem us. For our sake he endured every torment of body and soul and shrank from no bodily pain. He himself gave us an example of perfect patience and love. We, then, are to be patient in adversity."
— St. Francis of Paola †MEDITATION OF THE DAY
"Now man need not hide from God as Adam did; for He can be seen through Christ's human nature. Christ did not gain one perfection more by becoming man, nor did He lose anything of what He possessed as God. There was the Almightiness of God in the movement of His arm, the infinite love of God in the beatings of His human heart and the Unmeasured Compassion of God to sinners in His eyes. God was now manifest in the flesh; this is what is called the Incarnation. The whole range of the Divine attributes of power and goodness, justice, love, beauty, were in Him. And when Our Divine Lord acted and spoke, God in His perfect nature became manifest to those who saw Him and heard Him and touched Him. As He told Philip later on: Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father [John 14:9]."
— Fulton J. Sheen, p. 21
AN EXCERPT FROM
Life of Christ † VERSE OF THE DAY
"On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and exclaimed, "Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as scripture says: 'Rivers of living water will flow from within him.'"" John 7:37-8 |  click to read more | | ST. JULIAN THE HOSPITALLER St. Julian the Hospitaller (4th c.) came from a wealthy noble family in Europe. Little of his life is known with certainty. According to legend he married a noble widow, and was put under a curse at some point in his life. The curse was that he would one day kill his parents. To prevent this from happening, Julian and his wife moved far away from them. Julian's parents later found their whereabouts and made an unexpected visit while Julian was away. Julian's wife offered them her bed to sleep for the night. When Julian arrived home and found his bed occupied with a couple, he slew them both assuming it was his wife with another man. When Julian learned the truth, he was horrified by his actions and spent the rest of his life in penance. He and his wife went on a pilgrimage to Rome, and on their return established a hospital to continue their penance, dedicating their lives to caring for the poor and sick. One day a leper came to stay in the hospital; after Julian cared for his wounds, the leper revealed himself to be an angel and told Julian that God granted him absolution for his sins. The hospital was built near a river that was often crossed by pilgrims on their way to the Crusades. St. Julian the Hospitaller is the patron saint of hospitality, travelers, innkeepers, boatmen, pilgrims, and knights. His feast day is celebrated on February 12th. | Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 333
Reading I Gn 3:1-8 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals
that the LORD God had made.
The serpent asked the woman,
"Did God really tell you not to eat
from any of the trees in the garden?"
The woman answered the serpent:
"We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden;
it is only about the fruit of the tree
in the middle of the garden that God said,
'You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.'"
But the serpent said to the woman:
"You certainly will not die!
No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it
your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods
who know what is good and what is evil."
The woman saw that the tree was good for food,
pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom.
So she took some of its fruit and ate it;
and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her,
and he ate it.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened,
and they realized that they were naked;
so they sewed fig leaves together
and made loincloths for themselves. When they heard the sound of the LORD God moving about in the garden
at the breezy time of the day,
the man and his wife hid themselves from the LORD God
among the trees of the garden. Responsorial Psalm 32:1-2, 5, 6, 7 R. (1a) Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven.
Blessed is he whose fault is taken away, whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt, in whose spirit there is no guile.
R. Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you, my guilt I covered not.
I said, "I confess my faults to the LORD," and you took away the guilt of my sin.
R. Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven.
For this shall every faithful man pray to you in time of stress.
Though deep waters overflow, they shall not reach him.
R. Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven.
You are my shelter; from distress you will preserve me; with glad cries of freedom you will ring me round.
R. Blessed are those whose sins are forgiven. Alleluia See Acts 16:14b R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Open our hearts, O Lord,
to listen to the words of your Son.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Mk 7:31-37 Jesus left the district of Tyre
and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,
into the district of the Decapolis.
And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment
and begged him to lay his hand on him.
He took him off by himself away from the crowd.
He put his finger into the man's ears
and, spitting, touched his tongue;
then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,
"Ephphatha!" (that is, "Be opened!")
And immediately the man's ears were opened,
his speech impediment was removed,
and he spoke plainly.
He ordered them not to tell anyone.
But the more he ordered them not to,
the more they proclaimed it.
They were exceedingly astonished and they said,
"He has done all things well.
He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak." | Daily Meditation: Genesis 3:1-8 She took some of its fruit and ate it. (Genesis 3:6) How could Eve give in so easily to the serpent's temptation? She had everything she could have ever wanted. She lived in a perfect environment. She even had a close relationship with God. Why would she throw it all away? Philosophers, theologians, and poets have been pondering this question for thousands of years and have offered countless possible answers. But in the end, we'll probably never know exactly why the devil's lies seemed so attractive to her. Still, today's story of our first parents' fall can teach us how the devil uses the same tactics to try to lead us into sin. Notice how clever he is! He never comes right out and tells Eve what he is doing. He never even suggests that she eat the forbidden fruit! All he does is sow doubts about God's goodness in her mind. He just convinces her that God wants to keep her from becoming powerful and wise. God doesn't want any competition, Eve. He is lying to you just to keep you under his thumb. Convinced, she eats the fruit. And the rest is history—and a sad history at that. Today is Friday. Why not spend a little time looking back over the past week with this passage in mind? Recall one or two times when you did something or said something that was especially wrong or hurtful, something sinful. Don't look for every sin and failing. Just look closely at a couple of them so that you can learn from your mistakes. Can you identify how the devil was tempting you? How did he convince you to doubt God's love and his ability to fulfill you? How did he convince you to decide for yourself what was good and what was evil? But don't stop there. If you haven't already, confess these sins to the Lord, along with any others that you recall, and ask for his forgiveness. Just remember that God is rich in mercy. He wants to redeem you and lift you up, not hold you back. He sent his Son to set you free, not keep you bound in guilt. Our first parents fell because they didn't trust in God's love. You don't have to make the same mistake! "Father, teach me how to trust in you no matter how many lies the devil tells me." Psalm 32:1-2, 5-7
Mark 7:31-37 |  clickable | A really humble man would rather that some one else called him worthless and good-for-nothing, than say so of himself; at all events, if such things are said, he does not contradict them, but acquiesces contentedly, for it is his own opinion.
— St. Francis de Sales
from the book Introduction to the Devout Life | my2cents:
Eve repeated our Lord's words: "'You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.'"
Such was the command. But something caused her to doubt. Sin is like quicksand. Once you get into it and give into it, you begin to sink more and more into its gravitational pull, until you are stuck, and eventually die. Will you believe then? Or will it be too late? Such is the case for all who taste sin or are tempted to sin. Do you remain in faith, or do you believe the doubts of the world that say God is not good? If He is good, then remain. Those who are stuck, may die. Unless. Unless you have the gall, the wherewithal, the guts to repent, and to hate and detest what caused you to fall, which are doubts and sweet looking temptations. Like they say, "just cuz the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, doesn't mean there ain't a septic system problem there". Such is the case of being dooped and then doped. Those who taste this sin drug want more and more, until death is at the door, and even then, those doped and dooped will venture one more step into oblivion. Atrocities happen with those on this dope. The good becomes dark. The dark begins to spread. All because of one enticement, one little doubt. My job is to make you strong in faith and humility. And in doing so, I can attempt to be so too. | We prayed today:
"Blessed is he whose fault is taken away,
whose sin is covered.
...I said, "I confess my faults to the LORD," and you took away the guilt of my sin.
For this shall every faithful man pray to you in time of stress.
Though deep waters overflow, they shall not reach him.
You are my shelter; from distress you will preserve me;
with glad cries of freedom you will ring me round. " | We heard today: " people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him."
Have you ever met a man that couldn't hear? They can't speak well if they can at all, because they cannot hear how they are pronouncing their words. So if you can't hear, how can you speak? Think about your prayer life. If you can't hear our Lord speaking, how can you speak to others about Him? Before revealing the truth, we heard that: "He took him off by himself away from the crowd". | First of all, realize what is going on. People believed that sick people had been sick because of their sin. Or some evil spirits caused their infirmity. It can be true. Sin can make you sick. Sin can let evil spirits live in you. Yes, all can be true. I will not deny this fact. It can be, yet not always. And so, if all medicine has failed, all psychology has failed, if all sciences fail, where do you go? Do you give up? Of course not. Turn to our Lord, Jesus. Whether you are healed physically or not, you will leave healed spiritually, if this is your heart's desire. It is a win win situation, and physicality is an added bonus. And so what does our Lord do when He sets himself apart with the deaf man? To be set apart in Hebrew, Kadosh, means holy. As they were set apart, he prays and commands "BE OPENED". WOW! Be open? Were his ears closed up? Was his heart closed up? Was he stuck in the quicksand of the world of hopelessness? Was he closed off to the fruits of love?
Now he could hear, and the others became deaf when He asked them not to tell anyone what happened. And this brought loads and loads of weight onto Him, people pressed on Him from all corners of the world. This is what happens when we do not hear, we do not listen, we bring great harm and weight to the body of Christ.
So how can you hear Him? Be still. Listen with the heart of your soul, and He speaks heart to heart. This is how angels speak. Communication is key and important. If our Lord leads you to the greater good, for the greater love of Him, it is then His voice. Do you really want to hear what He has to say? It may cost you your life! Lord, I want to be opened! This is why I come to You right now, speak to me, speak inside of Me, and let me Love you to death as you Love me to Life on the cross! | from your brother in Christ our Lord,
adrian | Random online bible verse:
AMEN! Psalm 37:27–29 27 Turn away from evil and do good; so shall you dwell forever.
28 For the LORD loves justice; he will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.
29 The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever. | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
