†Saint Said:
"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin."
— St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta † MEDITATION OF THE DAY
"[Mary] does not remain locked in her initial troubled state at the proximity of God in his angel, but she seeks to understand. So Mary appears as a fearless woman, one who remains composed even in the presence of something utterly unprecedented. At the same time she stands before us as a woman of great interiority, who holds heart and mind in harmony and seeks to understand the context, the overall significance of God's message. In this way, she becomes an image of the Church as she considers the word of God, tries to understand it in its entirety and guards in her memory the things that have been given to her."
— Pope Benedict XVI, p. 33
AN EXCERPT FROM
Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives † VERSE OF THE DAY
"But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot has held fast to his steps; I have kept his way and have not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured in my bosom the words of his mouth."
Job 23:10-12 |  click to read more | | ST. ALOYSIUS GONZAGA St. Aloysius Gonzaga (1568–1591) was born to a noble Italian family, the eldest of seven children, and was destined for the military. However, by the time he was nine years of age he chose the religious life and made a personal vow of chastity. As a safeguard against sexual temptation he always kept his eyes downcast in the presence of women. Although many tried to dissuade him from his chosen vocation, he was eventually allowed to renounce his inheritance and enter the seminary in order to become a Jesuit priest. While he was studying in Rome, there was an outbreak of the plague. Aloysius volunteered to care for the sick, despite the delicateness of his own health. As a result, he contracted the disease and died at the age of twenty-three, before completing his priestly studies. St. Aloysius was connected with two great figures of the Counter-Reformation: he received his First Holy Communion at the age of twelve from St. Charles Borromeo, and his Last Rites from St. Robert Bellarmine, both of whom served as his spiritual advisers. On the night of his death, St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi had a vision of him being received into great glory. St. Aloysius Gonzaga is the patron saint of youth and bodily purity. His feast day is June 21st. | Memorial of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious Lectionary: 371
Reading I Gn 12:1-9 The LORD said to Abram:
"Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk
and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. "I will make of you a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you
and curse those who curse you.
All the communities of the earth
shall find blessing in you." Abram went as the LORD directed him, and Lot went with him.
Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
Abram took his wife, Sarai, his brother's son Lot,
all the possessions that they had accumulated,
and the persons they had acquired in Haran,
and they set out for the land of Canaan.
When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land
as far as the sacred place at Shechem,
by the terebinth of Moreh.
(The Canaanites were then in the land.) The LORD appeared to Abram and said,
"To your descendants I will give this land."
So Abram built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him.
From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel,
pitching his tent with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east.
He built an altar there to the LORD and invoked the LORD by name.
Then Abram journeyed on by stages to the Negeb. Responsorial Psalm 33:12-13, 18-19, 20 and 22 R. (12) Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Blessed the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he has chosen for his own inheritance.
From heaven the LORD looks down;
he sees all mankind.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own. Alleluia Heb 4:12 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The word of God is living and effective,
able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Mt 7:1-5 Jesus said to his disciples:
"Stop judging, that you may not be judged.
For as you judge, so will you be judged,
and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother,
'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,'
while the wooden beam is in your eye?
You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter from your brother's eye." | Daily Meditation: Genesis 12:1-9 Abram journeyed on by stages to the Negeb. (Genesis 12:9) If you don't do much traveling, you may think that distant journeys sound exciting and adventurous. And they can be! But think about people who are constantly traveling, either for business or family commitments. More often than not, they end up bored and frustrated with the long trips. By the time of today's first reading, Abram had already traveled from Ur to Haran; that's about 650 miles, or the distance from Paris to Berlin. It's an astounding distance when you consider that he did it without a plane or car. But then God called him to take another 400-mile journey to the land of Canaan! Between these places lay vast miles of desert and years of waiting to hear the Lord. In these desert years, you can imagine Abram feeling as dry and lifeless as the arid landscape around him. Was it really worth all the effort? We all experience unexciting stretches of time in our lives—even the great saints of the Church did! Just like the liturgical year, our lives tend to be a mixture of special seasons and "everyday" time. There are times when faith and virtue don't feel heroic or glorious or when we don't hear God clearly. Whether they are due to sadness, doubt, or boredom, the dry spells often come upon us gradually, until we wake up one day and feel as if we are in a desert. In times like these, it's good to remember what Scripture tells us: that we walk with a faithful God who is able to make springs break out in desert places; he can even draw water from a rock! So spend some time today reflecting on one way that God has blessed you personally—maybe through a friendship or a cherished verse in the Bible. Let that blessing reassure you. You may be surprised by how much life you can draw from a very small reminder of God's goodness. Even when you're in the desert, God is with you, offering you untold blessings. Don't miss them! "Lord, show me how to trust in your presence and your generosity whether I find myself in a dry season or a fruitful one." Psalm 33:12-13, 18-20, 22
Matthew 7:1-5 |  Listen to 2cents | my2cents:
In Genesis we heard that: "Abram went as the LORD directed him, and Lot went with him.
Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran."
He took what was necessary, and who was called with him whom he had called upon himself.
They followed what we know as the father of fathers (Abraham) whom Himself was a father that followed the Father's directions. And blessed becomes the nation that does so. We are being called. | We pray today:
"See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him, upon those who hope for his kindness, To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own."
Who is chosen? Those who hear the Word, those called, those of us now. What is the call? It is a call to communion, and this means a connection, and this means a bond, and this means something supernatural in the natural.
Let us go to our Lord. | Our Lord speaks:
""Stop judging, that you may not be judged.
For as you judge, so will you be judged,
and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother,
'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,'
while the wooden beam is in your eye?
You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter from your brother's eye." | From Bishop Barron: "Friends, Jesus' parable in today's Gospel is one of the most psychologically and spiritually insightful remarks in the New Testament. Let's face it: a favorite pastime of most human beings is criticism of others.
We delight in pointing out the shortcomings, moral failings, and annoying tendencies of our neighbors. This is, of course, a function of pride and egotism: the more I put someone else down, the more elevated I feel.
But it is also, oddly, a magnificent means of turning a mirror on ourselves, to see what usually remains unseen. Why, we ought to ask, do we find precisely this sin of others particularly annoying? Why does that trait or sin of a confrere especially gall us?
Undoubtedly, Jesus implies, because it reminds us of a similar failing in ourselves. I remember a retreat director asking each of us to call to mind a person that we found hard to take and then to recount in detail the characteristics that made the person so obnoxious to us. Then he recommended that we go back to our room and ask God to forgive those same faults in ourselves. His words were as unnerving and as illuminating as these words of Jesus."
.... I'm a pretty good and bad judge. There's something about being a judge though that we have to consider....it is the Lord.
If the world uses a worldly benchmark, we are in trouble, there will be much hangings of innocent people.
But if we use the Word of God, there will be right judgement, and lives spared, and saved for the Kingdom to come. For that, we must be in Holy Communion. We must have an ever tightening relationship with Our Lord, our bond, that glues us as the Holy Body of Christ, the Holy Church. I need you, and you need me, and together, we need Christ. This is the Trinitarian love effect. Let's pray:
Lord, I have a splinter that persists, and I still cannot see clearly.
Lord, I want to see. I want to see what You see, so that I may feel what You feel.
True Love, Compassion, and mercy...the sacrificial kind that makes a great fire from a light that is supernatural...Your Holy Love. | from your brother in Christ our Lord,
adrian |  click to hear | Random Bible Verse from online generator: God's Everlasting Love
Romans 8:31
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be1 against us? | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
