†Saint Quote
"Quote of the Day
"Many live like angels in the midst of the world. Why not you?"
–St. Josemaria Escriva †Today's Meditation
"We may have become careless in being faithful to our spiritual commitments such as attendance at daily Mass, our daily time of prayer, spiritual reading, and so on. Or we may have become careless in valuing the gifts God gives us, or in rejecting or dallying with temptation. Or we may have begun to allow distractions, entertainments, and engagement in worldly activities to deaden our hunger for God . . . Dryness experienced as a result of negligence, lukewarmness, and infidelity—and whatever stage of the downward spiral it may have led to—have only one solution: repentance. This dryness is self-induced; the solution to it is to return to fidelity in our spiritual practices."
—Ralph Martin, p.166 An Excerpt From
The Fulfillment of All Desire †Daily Verse
"Moreover I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for he has appointed a time for every matter, and for every work."
–Ecclesiastes 3:16-17 |  click to read more | | Sts. Crispin and Crispinian Sts. Crispin and Crispinian (d. 286 A.D.) were brothers, believed to be twins, from a noble Roman family. They were Christians and went as missionaries into Gaul (present-day France). Taking the Apostle St. Paul as their example, they earned their living through a trade, dividing their time between ministry and work. Their craft was shoe-making, and because they asked little pay for their shoes they were loved and esteemed by all. Crispin and Crispinian used their work as an opportunity to share the Christian faith with the pagans they encountered, and many were converted through their witness. During the persecution of the Roman Emperor Diocletian they were denounced as Christians and brought before the co-emperor, Maximanus Herculius. The emperor tried to persuade them to abandon their faith with promises and threats, but to no effect. The brothers were then given over to the governor who was notorious for his cruelty. They were stretched on the rack, their flesh was cut, and awls were driven under their fingernails. They were then thrown into a river with a millstone tied to their necks, but they both miraculously survived and swam back to shore. They were caught and finally beheaded. Crispin and Crispinian are the patron saints of shoemakers, saddlers, and tanners. Their feast, known as St. Crispin's Day, is October 25th. | Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 480
Reading 1 EPH 5:21-33 Brothers and sisters:
Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.
For the husband is head of his wife
just as Christ is head of the Church,
he himself the savior of the Body.
As the Church is subordinate to Christ,
so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives,
even as Christ loved the Church
and handed himself over for her to sanctify her,
cleansing her by the bath of water with the word,
that he might present to himself the Church in splendor,
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
that she might be holy and without blemish.
So also husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself.
For no one hates his own flesh
but rather nourishes and cherishes it,
even as Christ does the Church,
because we are members of his Body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery,
but I speak in reference to Christ and the Church.
In any case, each one of you should love his wife as himself,
and the wife should respect her husband. Responsorial Psalm PS 128:1-2, 3, 4-5 R. (1a) Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
Your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord. Alleluia See MT 11:25 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth;
You have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel LK 13:18-21 Jesus said, "What is the Kingdom of God like?
To what can I compare it?
It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden.
When it was fully grown, it became a large bush
and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches." Again he said, "To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God?
It is like yeast that a woman took
and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch of dough was leavened." | Daily Meditation: Ephesians 5:21-33 Be subordinate to one another. (Ephesians 5:21) This is one of those passages that many of us would rather skip over. Paul's words to the believers in Ephesus, "Wives should be subordinate to their husbands" (5:22), can sound outdated and even offensive. We might acknowledge that Paul was speaking according to the culture of his times, but that might lead us to conclude, incorrectly, that this passage has nothing to say to us today. If you want to understand Paul's advice, then start with verse 21. There, Paul makes no distinction between men and women or husbands and wives. He tells everyone to "be subordinate" to each other (Ephesians 5:21). Or as Paul said in another letter, everyone should "humbly regard others as more important" than themselves (Philippians 2:3). This is God's message to us as well. He wants all of us to take on an attitude of humility and deep reverence toward one another. He wants us to put other people's needs and concerns ahead of our own and to "lay down" our lives for each other (John 15:13). If we can do that, then all our relationships—especially with our spouses—will be marked by unity, peace, and love. What might this look like in real life? In marriage, first and foremost, it doesn't involve letting your spouse take advantage of you or make unreasonable demands—or doing those things yourself. But in any relationship, it could mean listening attentively while the other person lets off steam about challenges at work. It could mean no longer insisting on getting your own way. It could mean working on coming together in unity when your paths seem to begin diverging. And it could mean trying to forgive long-standing hurts and overcome deep-seated resentments. In other words, the call to be subordinate to one another is just part of Jesus' call to love one another as Jesus loves us. Actually, it all boils down to love: letting Jesus' all-encompassing, unconditional love overcome our selfishness so that we can show that same love to the people around us. Especially those closest to us. So how will you "be subordinate" today? "Come, Lord, and make us one in your love!" Psalm 128:1-5
Luke 13:18-21 | From today's 1st Holy Scripture:
"This is a great mystery,
but I speak in reference to Christ and the Church.
In any case, each one of you should love his wife as himself, and the wife should respect her husband." There is a lack of respect, I'm sad to report, for the priests, and the priests of the family. We can blame whatever we like to lack the respect, but this is a slap in the face to the honor we owe to God that is to work in a priest. And we should watch what we say here, why? Because we are ALL baptized as priests in Holy Baptism! Why the lack of respect? I've witnessed that no matter what color the priest, what nationality, no matter, in our parish in the last 40 years has seen a group of people that will not respect a priest by their way of talking about him, and some even reporting the priests to the bishop. And, I hear this actually happens in just about all the parishes. This is why I take the freedom to speak about the issue. Why does the wife ( the church) not respect the husband, the priest? The priests are married to church. The priest should lay down his life for his wife. And the wife should respect the head of the church, in which Christ decides to act in the Holy Sacraments. And so, there is a disconnect. No matter the husband, how bad he is, the wife is obligated to respect. What does this mean? It means something many don't want to do...be humble, and subjective, and to love. I wish I was humble. I try hard to subject to this rule of Holy Obedience.
And we have many that are obedient, and full of rancor, despise being told what to do. I notice how it is with leaders in the church. Neither the leader, nor the servant have love for one another. Can you see what it means for a husband and wife? So is it the man or the woman that should lead a household? My friend, CHRIST is the head. | We pray today;
"Blessed are you who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways! For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored." And so we can go back to fear of the Lord. What is a holy fear? It is a healthy love of God.
When you love someone with all your heart, you'd be deathly afraid to hurt them.
But who loves God nowadays? I feel that our generation is not that different from any degenerate generation. There is the god of the stomach.
There is the god of money still rampant.
There is still at the base of these false gods, the base denominator, the inward love of self gratification.
What does this mean? It is an implosive love, not an explosive love. How much longer can an implosive society live? And how can we reverse the perverse trend?
Blessed are they who fear the Lord and walk in His ways.
Only think of Mother Mary, the purest of God's creation.
Only think of praying for her grace upon us. Only think of the humility to allow our will to be only God's will.
I had a taste of this in a visit to the Lord. "Do you really want God to run your life?". I hesitated. | In the Gospel today we heard our Master and Teacher:
"To what can I compare it?
It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden."
The Kingdom of GOD is like a mustard seed? Really?
What's up with that?
Let's go back to Mother Mary to find out!
Mother Mary, a pure vessel of the Lord, already was asking for God's Kingdom to be made real inside of her before the Archangel Gabriel appeared to her to grant her heart's desire.
And the seed entered her body, her very soul.
God came inside to a soul asking for Him to come inside. And the seed began to grow and grow larger than any other known similar sized seed.
"When it was fully grown, it became a large bush
and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches."
When did our Lord fully grow?
He was spread out on a tree, like a tree, on the cross, His crucified body. As He did this, there were those that took to His side, and the birds dwelt there, and still do in Heaven.
How hard is this to believe?
Think of Heaven. Think of all who dwell in Heaven because of Him and in Him. Think how deep this message goes, and it is the smallest of parables, the smallest of seeds. How much can this parable grow? It says "with Him all things are possible." It says, you, my child, who think you are so small in this world, you too, can be like Mary, and you too can invite Him to dwell and grow inside of you. The mustard seed is used to feed. It is an acquired and unforgettable taste to raise awareness. Such is the prophetic message of Christ. | "It is like yeast that a woman took
and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch of dough was leavened." What can we learn from all this today? It doesn't take much to make something big. It does take though, the right small ingredient.
Back to small stuff...humility....acceptance....obedience, true love with natural respect, a holy fear of our Lord...true love. ...........................
Lord, feed me with Thy seed
............................ |  click to hear | Random Bible Verse 1
John 14:2–3 [John 14] 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?1 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
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