.: 10/06/21

Wednesday, October 6, 2021

† " ...Give Us Each . .."

†Saint Quote
"OCTOBER 6, 2021
"In everything, whether it is a thing sensed or a thing known, God Himself is hidden within."
— St. Bonaventure

† MEDITATION OF THE DAY
"What made the holy apostles and martyrs endure fierce agony and bitter torments, except faith, and especially faith in the resurrection? What is it that today makes true followers of Christ cast luxuries aside, leave pleasures behind, and endure difficulties and pain? It is living faith that expresses itself through love . . . It is because of faith that we exchange the present for the future."
— Pope Benedict XIV, p. 205
AN EXCERPT FROM
Witness of the Saints

†VERSE OF THE DAY
"[There is] one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ's gift."
Ephesians 4:4-7

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ST. BRUNO

St. Bruno (1030-1101) was born to a noble and prominent family in Cologne, Germany. He was well educated and excelled in his studies, and became a priest around the year 1055. He went on to direct and teach at the episcopal school at Reims for many years, earning a reputation as a learned scholar. After also serving as the chancellor of his archdiocese, he and a few companions left their positions in the diocese in order to follow a path of greater religious observance. In 1084 Bruno settled in the Chartreuse Mountains in France with a small group of scholars who, like himself, desired to become contemplative monks. This was the beginning of the Carthusian order founded by St. Bruno, combining the solitary life of hermits with the conventual life of religious observance. These alpine monks embraced a strictly disciplined life of poverty, labor, prayer, and fasting. After living six years of strict asceticism, St. Bruno was called to Rome by the Pope, who was his former student, to assist with the troubles and controversies rocking the Church. Bruno became a close advisor to the Pope and was allowed to return to monastic life only if he remained nearby within Italy, leading Bruno to establish a second Carthusian monastery there in 1095. St. Bruno wrote many manuscripts and commentaries during his life. His feast day is celebrated on October 6th.

Wednesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 463
Reading I

Jon 4:1-11

Jonah was greatly displeased
and became angry that God did not carry out the evil
he threatened against Nineveh.
He prayed, "I beseech you, LORD,
is not this what I said while I was still in my own country?
This is why I fled at first to Tarshish.
I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God,
slow to anger, rich in clemency, loath to punish.
And now, LORD, please take my life from me;
for it is better for me to die than to live."
But the LORD asked, "Have you reason to be angry?"

Jonah then left the city for a place to the east of it,
where he built himself a hut and waited under it in the shade,
to see what would happen to the city.
And when the LORD God provided a gourd plant
that grew up over Jonah's head,
giving shade that relieved him of any discomfort,
Jonah was very happy over the plant.
But the next morning at dawn
God sent a worm that attacked the plant,
so that it withered.
And when the sun arose, God sent a burning east wind;
and the sun beat upon Jonah's head till he became faint.
Then Jonah asked for death, saying,
"I would be better off dead than alive."

But God said to Jonah,
"Have you reason to be angry over the plant?"
"I have reason to be angry," Jonah answered, "angry enough to die."
Then the LORD said,
"You are concerned over the plant which cost you no labor
and which you did not raise;
it came up in one night and in one night it perished.
And should I not be concerned over Nineveh, the great city,
in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons
who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left,
not to mention the many cattle?"

Responsorial Psalm

86:3-4, 5-6, 9-10

R. (15) Lord, you are merciful and gracious.
Have mercy on me, O Lord,

for to you I call all the day.
Gladden the soul of your servant,

for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
R. Lord, you are merciful and gracious.
For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,

abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.
Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer

and attend to the sound of my pleading.
R. Lord, you are merciful and gracious.
All the nations you have made shall come

and worship you, O Lord,

and glorify your name.
For you are great, and you do wondrous deeds;

you alone are God.
R. Lord, you are merciful and gracious.

Alleluia

Rom 8:15bc

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
You have received a spirit of adoption as sons
through which we cry: Abba! Father!
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

Lk 11:1-4

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
"Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."
He said to them, "When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name,

your Kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread

and forgive us our sins

for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,

and do not subject us to the final test."

Daily Meditation: Jonah 4:1-11

Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. (Jonah 4:1)

Jonah thought he had every reason to be angry with the Lord. After a perilous trip to Nineveh to announce God's message, Jonah couldn't understand why God had decided not to carry out his threat to destroy the city. And he didn't hesitate to tell God exactly how he was feeling!

We can probably all think of times when we've been angry with God. But unlike Jonah, we may not have been so free to tell him how we were feeling. Maybe it's because we think it's a sin to be upset with the Lord. But anger is an emotion, and as such it is neither good nor bad. It's what we do with it that matters. And the best thing we can do is to talk to the Lord about our feelings. When our anger flares up, we can look at it as we would look at the warning light on the dashboard of a car: maybe God wants to reveal to us what's going on "under the hood"—what's behind our feelings.

Whatever is going on inside of us, God is the one who can heal us. As we sit with him, he can help us come face-to-face with what's upsetting us. Often, it's a reaction to hurt or pain. Perhaps like Jonah, we feel as if God has betrayed us in some way. Or we might discover that we are disappointed with God or think that he must not really care about us.

But the truth is, God does care. He cares for every hair on our head, every beat of our heart. He especially cares about how we are feeling, and he wants us to be honest and talk to him about it. Only then can he begin to lead us through a process of healing and restoration. That's what he did for Jonah through the lesson of the gourd plant (Jonah 4:5-11). He will do the same for us, as long as we trust in him and believe that even when we are angry with him, he will never be angry with us.

"Lord, when I am feeling angry with you, give me the courage to express it so that I can receive your healing touch."

Psalm 86:3-6, 9-10
Luke 11:1-4

Listen to 2cents

From Today's Holy Scripture:
"But God said to Jonah,
"Have you reason to be angry over the plant?"
"I have reason to be angry," Jonah answered, "angry enough to die."
Then the LORD said,
"You are concerned over the plant which cost you no labor
and which you did not raise;
it came up in one night and in one night it perished.
And should I not be concerned over Nineveh, the great city,
in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons
who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left, not to mention the many cattle?"

The wind blew, the earthquake came, and still it wasn't God's voice. Only when the prophet Elijah was still, and quiet, did our Lord finally speak.

Settle your heart. Settle it before reading Holy Scripture. Settle accounts before entering the Rite and Sacramental life, the Holy Mass. Settle things now, and not later, for the whole time you do not, you will not be truly availed to Christ. When my baby toddler doesn't get her way, she has a fit, and she leaves the room crying. Think of how many people leave, having a fit, and some even crying. I've seen it, everywhere, even church. Only when they settle, and forgive, and understand, will they return, and unless they become like little children.

We pray in Psalms:
"All the nations you have made shall come and worship you, O Lord, and glorify your name. For you are great, and you do wondrous deeds; you alone are God.
Lord, you are merciful and gracious."
If God is not merciful, then there is no hope. But God is merciful. Taste and see. I invite you to come and see and then taste. My job as a teacher is to make the student hungry, for God. And I find myself teaching all ages, from toddler to elderly. Instruct the ignorant, yes, but open their eyes to a beautiful reality...God is with Us.

Our Lord speaks, the TRUTH speaks:
"Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
"Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."
He said to them, "When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name,

your Kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread

and forgive us our sins

for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,

and do not subject us to the final test."

As we dive into the life of Christ, we must notice everything He did.
He prays. And He prayed often. Probably more than we actually hear in Scripture.
It is good to pray always, about everything, no thing is too small to pray over and about.
And so the disciples asked Him to teach them to pray.
And He teaches them to pray the Lord's prayer.
There we bring to reality His desires and meet with our desires for Him.
And it begins with one word: Father.
And then it consecrates Him. Holy.
And then it declares Him: King.
And then we beg for daily: Bread.
And then we plead for: Mercy.
And then we bind ourselves: Forgive others.
And lastly, we ask for the power, the grace to not fall into temptation. Back to purity of Adam, the original creation.
You see, we are created holy. It's in our spiritual genes.
It's not hard to be holy. We just make it hard.
It's not hard to be childlike, trusting, loving, and forgiving, and obeying.
It isn't hard to be faithful and joyful at the same time.
We make things impossible, but for God, and a willing spirit...all things are possible, and the word just needs one bit of fixing to go from "impossible" to "I'm Possible".

It is possible to declare God, Father, Holy, King, Bread, Mercy, and then we ask we become one in Him, the same for the world!

Let's pray:
Lord, I know everything is possible with You.
I ask for our generation to be the starter fire for the future,
to become unitive, to become the force that brings back together the Body of Christ, to honor God like never before, and the huge temple in Jerusalem becomes as if a small closet space for the real temple You desire to dwell in, because You are so great and so good and all deserving of all of our love.
This is possible God, it is Your will, if it were not, it would not have entered my heart, a Revelation of Your presence here and now. My Lord, I do this pray. Amen.

from your brother in Christ,
Adrian