†Saint Quote
""If angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion."
–St. Maximilian Kolbe †Today's Meditation
"When will the happy time come when the divine Mary will be established Mistress and Queen of all hearts, in order that she may subject them fully to the empire of her great and holy Jesus? When will souls breathe Mary as the body breathes air? When that time comes, wonderful things will happen in those lowly places where the Holy Ghost, finding His dear spouse, as it were, reproduced, in all souls, shall come in with abundance, and fill them to overflowing with His gifts, and particularly with the gift of wisdom, to work miracles of grace."
—St. Louis de Montfort, p.118-119 An Excerpt From
True Devotion to Mary †Daily Verse
"Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to thee! Do not hide thy face from me in the day of my distress! Incline thy ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call!"
–Psalm 102:1-2 |  click to read more | | St. Nicholas of Flue St. Nicholas of Flue (1417-1487) was born in Switzerland, a devout child of pious parents. At the age of 21 he joined the army and fought in local battles. In his mid-twenties, at the advice of his parents, he married a similarly pious woman and had five sons and five daughters. He served the public by holding various civil offices, and was esteemed by all for his moral integrity. After 25 years of marriage, upon discerning a special call from God, and with the consent of his wife, he went to live in a nearby valley as a hermit. He built a dwelling out of branches and left it only for daily Mass. He wore a tunic and kept his head and feet bare, spending his days in prayer and penance on behalf of the local people. With permission from the parish priest he abstained totally from food and drink, without any negative effect on his health, which was confirmed by the Church as a miracle. He lived in this manner for 20 years and became known as a visionary and a prophet. Distinguished persons from all over Europe came to him for counsel. The civil authorities built him a cell and chapel and assigned him a chaplain. The saint intervened as an arbiter when a civil war was imminent, resulting in the enduring union of the French and German-speaking parts of Switzerland. His hermitage became a place of pilgrimage after his death. St. Nicholas of Flue is the patron saint of Switzerland. His feast day is March 21st. | Monday of the Third Week of Lent Lectionary: 237
Reading I 2 Kgs 5:1-15ab Naaman, the army commander of the king of Aram,
was highly esteemed and respected by his master,
for through him the LORD had brought victory to Aram.
But valiant as he was, the man was a leper.
Now the Arameans had captured in a raid on the land of Israel
a little girl, who became the servant of Naaman's wife.
"If only my master would present himself to the prophet in Samaria,"
she said to her mistress, "he would cure him of his leprosy."
Naaman went and told his lord
just what the slave girl from the land of Israel had said.
"Go," said the king of Aram.
"I will send along a letter to the king of Israel."
So Naaman set out, taking along ten silver talents,
six thousand gold pieces, and ten festal garments.
To the king of Israel he brought the letter, which read:
"With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you,
that you may cure him of his leprosy." When he read the letter,
the king of Israel tore his garments and exclaimed:
"Am I a god with power over life and death,
that this man should send someone to me to be cured of leprosy?
Take note! You can see he is only looking for a quarrel with me!"
When Elisha, the man of God,
heard that the king of Israel had torn his garments,
he sent word to the king:
"Why have you torn your garments?
Let him come to me and find out
that there is a prophet in Israel." Naaman came with his horses and chariots
and stopped at the door of Elisha's house.
The prophet sent him the message:
"Go and wash seven times in the Jordan,
and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean."
But Naaman went away angry, saying,
"I thought that he would surely come out and stand there
to invoke the LORD his God,
and would move his hand over the spot,
and thus cure the leprosy.
Are not the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar,
better than all the waters of Israel?
Could I not wash in them and be cleansed?"
With this, he turned about in anger and left. But his servants came up and reasoned with him.
"My father," they said,
"if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary,
would you not have done it?
All the more now, since he said to you,
'Wash and be clean,' should you do as he said."
So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times
at the word of the man of God.
His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. He returned with his whole retinue to the man of God.
On his arrival he stood before him and said,
"Now I know that there is no God in all the earth,
except in Israel." Responsorial Psalm 42:2, 3; 43:3, 4 R. (see 42:3) Athirst is my soul for the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
As the hind longs for the running waters, so my soul longs for you, O God.
R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
Athirst is my soul for God, the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God?
R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
Send forth your light and your fidelity; they shall lead me on
And bring me to your holy mountain, to your dwelling-place.
R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
Then will I go in to the altar of God, the God of my gladness and joy;
Then will I give you thanks upon the harp, O God, my God!
R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God? Verse before the Gospel See Ps 130:5, 7 I hope in the LORD, I trust in his word;
with him there is kindness and plenteous redemption. Gospel Lk 4:24-30 Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth:
"Amen, I say to you,
no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel
in the days of Elijah
when the sky was closed for three and a half years
and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,
but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
Again, there were many lepers in Israel
during the time of Elisha the prophet;
yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."
When the people in the synagogue heard this,
they were all filled with fury.
They rose up, drove him out of the town,
and led him to the brow of the hill
on which their town had been built,
to hurl him down headlong.
But he passed through the midst of them and went away. | Daily Meditation: 2 Kings 5:1-15 If [he] had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it? (2 Kings 5:13) Naaman wasn't an outcast. Despite his disease, he had met with the king of Israel, after all. So his "leprosy" was likely some other disfiguring skin condition and not actually Hansen's disease. But any affliction can drive a person to great lengths, and this commander of the army of Aram was prepared to go to great lengths. What he wasn't prepared for was a simple cure! We've all felt something of Naaman's desperation. Our relationship struggles, persistent sin patterns, or physical or emotional illnesses can seem overwhelming—too big, too complicated, too painful to ever be resolved. But God knows that you need healing, and nothing is beyond his ability to heal, to reconcile, and to restore. He knows the best way for you to be healed (though it might not look like what you expect), and he wants to make it simple for you too. One "simple" avenue for healing is the sacraments, which "give growth and healing to Christ's members" (Catechism, 798). In the Sacrament of the Anointing, God gives special grace to restore and strengthen you when you are tried by illness (1510–11). In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, God can heal you of every kind of sin, whether jealousy, anger, or resentment, and bring you peace as you are reconciled to him (1496). And in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, Jesus can fill you with grace, strengthen your love for God and neighbor, and help you let go of harmful behaviors (1323, 1394). Not all of us need physical healing, but everyone needs spiritual healing. This week, set aside any disdain for the "simple cure" and your own thoughts of how God ought to heal. Let nothing keep you from the grace he offers in the sacraments. Consider going to daily Mass or Confession. Trust your Father to meet you there with the balm of mercy and grace and the strength to be made whole. Trust him to provide that simple cure. "Lord, I need your healing today." Psalm 42:2-3; 43:3-4
Luke 4:24-30 | From today's 1st Holy Scripture:
""My father," they said, "if the prophet had told you to do something xtraordinary,
would you not have done it?" What extraordinary thing would you do...to be healed?
Most things we need when I see people coming to the Lord is for healing, sometimes for safety, and almost always for salvation, even so called atheists will do this last one.
So the question remains, what extraordinary thing would you do? Most would do anything and everything to be healed. But let's now think about our spiritual life, the often neglected life. If you are experiencing uneasiness or anxiety, and even physical disturbances, not real peace or joy, then consider it the spirit in need of healing. How the world would change if the world would only heal. The extraordinary is found in what is not done ordinarily. The healing sacraments. 7 times. 7 Sacraments. 2 of them directly aim for healing, the rest are embodied and help bring healing to the world. So many are offered for us to unite with our Lord. | We pray in Psalms:
"When shall I go and behold the face of God? Athirst is my soul for God, the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God?" | In today's Gospel we heard:
"When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury." What did our Lord say that infuriated the people? The Lord said: ""Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place."
And no sooner did He explain the Old Testament on how nobody accepted Elisha, than they wanted to kill Him by throwing Him off a cliff. The people began to be closed to the prophets. | Today's reflection from Bishop Barron:
"Friends, in today's Gospel, Jesus' hometown rejects him as a prophet. And I want to say a word about your role as a prophet.
When most lay people hear about prophecy, they sit back and their eyes glaze over. "That's something for the priests and the bishops to worry about; they're the modern-day prophets. I don't have that call or that responsibility."
Well, think again! Vatican II emphasized the universal call to holiness, rooted in the dynamics of baptism. Every baptized person is conformed unto Christ—priest, prophet, and king. Whenever you assist at Mass, you are exercising your priestly office, participating in the worship of God. Whenever you direct your kids to discover their mission in the Church, or provide guidance to someone in the spiritual life, you are exercising your kingly office.
As a baptized individual, you are also commissioned as a prophet—which is to say, a speaker of God's truth. And the prophetic word is not your own. It is not the result of your own meditations on the spiritual life, as valuable and correct as those may be. The prophetic word is the word of God given to you by God." How often do you prophetize? How often do you preach? Do people ever ask you if you're a preacher? I've been asked many times if I'm a priest or a deacon. I am not. I am what you are as a baptized soul in the Holy Catholic Church; I am a priest, prophet, and king. We all are. Not the same priest as an ordained priest, but we are baptized into Christ, the Highest priest in the world. This is simply because we are baptized into His precious body, called to be holy and pure. I hear prophets speak around me, and I too begin to speak as a prophet. What prophets do you tune into? There are many types.
I would encourage you to listen to the most humble, the most pure, not necessarily the most exciting and loud. The humble are hard to hear...because they speak so softly, and so it is when listening to Our Father's voice. Our Lord speaks, but not when we are constantly talking TO Him. Our Lord speaks, but not while you are sobbing uncontrollably. What prophet are you tuning into? Do you see who I am trying to listen to myself? It is our Lord Jesus Himself.
What happens if we do not listen to Him, to His voice? Did you catch that question carefully?
First, you have to tune into Him, to listen...to what He wants.
What happens when God listens to you? Prayers are somehow answered.
What happens when you listen to God? You follow His will that is laid out before you.
Most people in the world fall into the category of those whoe live without considering God's voice. Most would claim that they have never even heard God's voice.
What does His voice sound like? Audibly, we cannot say, for He speaks beyond human perception and direct to the soul, the heart of everything. The words become a knowing in a well formed consciousness.
So what happens when people don't listen to God?
Look today, what happened to our Lord Jesus.
They refused to listen. And what happens next? Violence.
What have we to learn today?
Choose peace, Christ. Or we can choose to not listen, and let violence continue against purity, and hope.
I cannot forget what Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen said when he explained from the beginning there came nudity, and then we experienced violence. Eve (mankind) wanted to know what God knows, and it became a terrible ordeal forever.
Do you really want to know what God knows?
Or would you rather live by faith?
Now we can begin to talk about trusting Father God.
Now we can begin to settle our souls, settle accounts, and let His Holy Spirit speak to our hearts. | from your brother in Christ,
Adrian |  click to hear | Random bible verse generator: Acts 2:38
38 And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
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