†Saint Quote
""I will attempt day by day to break my will into pieces. I want to do God's Holy Will, not my own."
–St. Gabriel Possenti †Today's Meditation
"It is by endurance that you will secure possession of your souls (Luke 21:18). The possession of a soul means the undisturbed mastery of oneself, which is the secret of inner peace, as distinguished from a thousand agitations which make it fearful, unhappy, and disappointed. Only when a soul is possessed can anything else be enjoyed. Our Lord here meant patience in adversity, trial, and persecution. At the end of three hours on the Cross, He would so possess His soul that He would render it back to the Heavenly Father."
—Fulton J. Sheen, p. 322 An Excerpt From
Life of Christ †Daily Verse
"Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all."
–Isaiah 53:4-6 |  click to read more | | St. Polycarp of Smyrna St. Polycarp of Smyrna (c. 69-155 A.D.) became a Christian in his youth, a disciple of St. John the Evangelist. St. John ordained him Bishop of Smyrna (in modern day Turkey) and from this position Polycarp became one of the most illustrious of the Apostolic Fathers. His closeness with the Apostles, and the long life that he lived, enabled him to protect the Church against heresy. The account of his martyrdom is well-preserved and is one of the earliest in the Church. Knowing the government was seeking his life, he received a vision while praying that he would be burned alive. After his capture he was encouraged to submit to Caeser in order to be released, but he refused. He was then taken to a public arena to be killed. He gave an outstanding testimony, declaring that he had served Christ for 86 years. Witnesses of his execution saw the flames surround his body without burning it, and that Polycarp began to glow and emit a sweet aroma. This amazed the crowds, and his executioners were then ordered to stab him to death. St. Polycarp is the patron saint against dysentery and earache. His feast day is February 23rd. | Memorial of Saint Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr Reading I Jas 4:13-17 Beloved:
Come now, you who say,
"Today or tomorrow we shall go into such and such a town,
spend a year there doing business, and make a profit"–
you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow.
You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears.
Instead you should say,
"If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that."
But now you are boasting in your arrogance.
All such boasting is evil.
So for one who knows the right thing to do
and does not do it, it is a sin. Responsorial Psalm 49:2-3, 6-7, 8-10, 11
R. (Matthew 5:3) Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs!
Hear this, all you peoples; hearken, all who dwell in the world,
Of lowly birth or high degree, rich and poor alike.
R. Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs!
Why should I fear in evil days when my wicked ensnarers ring me round?
They trust in their wealth; the abundance of their riches is their boast.
R. Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs!
Yet in no way can a man redeem himself, or pay his own ransom to God;
Too high is the price to redeem one's life; he would never have enough to remain alive always and not see destruction.
R. Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs!
For he can see that wise men die, and likewise the senseless and the stupid pass away, leaving to others their wealth.
R. Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs! Alleluia Jn 14:6 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord;
no one comes to the Father except through me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Mk 9:38-40 John said to Jesus,
"Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,
and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us."
Jesus replied, "Do not prevent him.
There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name
who can at the same time speak ill of me.
For whoever is not against us is for us." | Daily Meditation: James 4:13-17 You have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. (James 4:14) We can all vividly remember how quickly our lives changed two years ago at the onset of the global pandemic. As we lived through months of lockdown, most of our plans had to be cancelled or changed. We might have even wondered if we should bother to make plans! In today's first reading, James isn't saying that we shouldn't plan ahead. He just wants us to realize that many things are out of our control. As we know, even our best-laid plans can sometimes fall apart. So how do we go about making plans, all the while knowing that we can't always count on them? The solution is to bring God into the planning process. Even when we're fairly certain of what we want to do—whether that pertains to our careers, our families, or even our vacations—we can bring our plans to the Lord in prayer. As we pray and listen, we may sense him confirming our plans. At other times, we may sense him leading us down a different path or asking us to put things on hold for a time. And if God seems to be silent, then we can go ahead with our plans even as we continue to seek his blessing. Yet what if our circumstances suddenly change? This can tempt us to doubt God's ability to guide us—and we might even blame him for the change in plans! But James reminds us of the attitude we should take: "If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that" (4:15). Which means that as we make our plans, we should always remember that everything depends on the grace and mercy of God. So don't grasp too tightly to any of your plans! Instead, trust in God's faithful care for you, and believe that he is still at work in spite of an unexpected development. Then when your plans are disrupted—even quite unexpectedly, as they were with Covid—you can still have peace and confidence. "The peace of God that surpasses all understanding" will, in fact, sustain you because you have placed your hope and trust in God and not in the outcome of your plans and decisions (Philippians 4:7). "Lord, guide me in all my comings and goings." Psalm 49:2-3, 6-11
Mark 9: 38-40 | From today's 1st Holy Scripture:
"Instead you should say, "If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that." For everything that we say, about the future, we should remember our Lord, and I know I always say even to strangers "Lord Willing". Because ultimately, everything is up to Him. And we are to acknowledge Him in everything, plan with Him, and let our lives be shaped by His plan. Sometimes our lives have to be marked with tragedy, like the death of a loved one...now think of our Father in Heaven...or our Mother in Heaven...and their only Son. All the hope in the world is in Christ. And Christ has risen forever. | We pray in Psalms:
"Yet in no way can a man redeem himself,
or pay his own ransom to God; Too high is the price to redeem one's life; he would never have enough to remain alive always and not see destruction. Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs" There is absolutely no way to repay God for eternal life. And so life in Heaven must be one of a total life of thanksgiving. And in order to live that life after we die, we must live that life before we die. On earth as it is in Heaven. I don't think anyone realizes how tremendously and fearful and amazing God is at the same time. There is no power greater and more commanding than He is in His pure light. I know I've been impacted severely. Our precious Lord from Heaven, Jesus, suffered as a human more than most will ever know. He was basically skinned alive, tortured spiritually beyond comprehension, and He was literally stabbed in the heart...by humans. And we've a great lesson to learn by that man who stabbed Him. Only after the offense did he realize what he done.... he hurt God Himself, after being bathed in blood and water from that Sacred Heart. Life is transformed. We cannot understand mercy in human terms. Because we are not merciful. But God is not only human in Jesus our Lord, but of pure light and love. And so, a merciless person to God, can still be forgiven...a sinner has hope, and our Hope is Jesus Christ. | Our Lord speaks in the Holy Gospel:
_"There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us."- Notice how our Lord speaks "whoever is not against US". He speaks as if we are one and together.
That's how we should approach church, family, even work. We are in this together. Watch out for those who speak otherwise, as if to be on their own, and not part of the whole. For example, I remember we had a salesman, and it always bothered me to hear him tell our customers "yeah, I'll get you that" or "I've got that for you". I reminded him to say "we've got one for you", to make it sound like a whole, our company together. He never really stopped it. Later he became his own business when he left ours.
And so we can see how self interest works. That is why we should count our Lord in everything. It is not about me, but about US. Our Lord said it today: "For whoever is not against us is for us." | And so it should be a learning lesson about an open heart. God did not come just for Catholics, or any certain split from Catholics, or just for Christians period. He is saying today "I have come to save the whole world". His chosen ones are the ones made in his image. I saw a story of a man last night, said he died and explained the whole experience, in which one point said he saw his guardian angel and another armored angel and another. He said that the angel bowed to him and this atheist was astounded, because by this point he knew God existed and was begging for his life, and to stay with God forever. But he was astonished, and he said he realized why he was bowed to...because he carried the spark of life...which is God, which all persons carry. I can only think of how tremendous God is to the angels that they'd even bow to a spark of God. I'm thinking now of the most tiniest particle of the Eucharist...it is still God Himself no matter how small. And this is all about the knowing.
I have come to be amazed at how Jesus never hurt a fly. I do remember one scary thing He said when He cursed a fig tree for not bearing fruit and it died the next day. But before it died He had gone to the temple to drive out all the money changers and animals from the temple and commanded, "'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'" Mt 11:12-25.
And the temple itself was destroyed. That tree never gave fruit. Only the tree of the cross would give fruit from that point forward.
It was hard to lead a prayer at our company safety meeting this morning, which is how I open our monthly meetings at our family business, this time without the boss...my dad. After a prayer of thanksgiving and prayer for my dad, I gave a quick talk about what to expect.
I said dad had laid the foundations at work, in family, and at church, even literally at church, and that we would now have to persevere in His final will...to be united, working hard, and in faith, having God first in our lives. We are Going Forth. | from your brother in Christ,
Adrian |  click to hear | Random bible verse generator: 1 Corinthians 2:9 But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"— | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment