Thursday, April 14, 2022

† "I Have Given You A ... "

†Saint Quote
"If you ate only one meal a week would you survive? It is the same for your soul. Nourish it with the Blessed Sacrament."
–St. Andre Bessette

†Today's Meditation
"No one can fail to understand that the Divine Eucharist bestows upon the Christian people an incomparable dignity. Not only while the Sacrifice is offered and the Sacrament is received, but as long as the Eucharist is kept in our churches and oratories, Christ is truly Emmanuel, that is, 'God with us'. Day and night He is in our midst, He dwells with us, full of grace and truth. He restores morality, nourishes virtues, consoles the afflicted, strengthens the weak. He proposes His own example to those who come to Him that all may learn to be, like Himself, meek and humble of heart and to seek not their own interests but those of God. Anyone who approaches this august Sacrament with special devotion and endeavors to return generous love for Christ's own infinite love, will experience and fully understand—not without spiritual joy and fruit—how precious is the life hidden with Christ in God and how great is the value of converse with Christ, for there is nothing more consoling on earth, nothing more efficacious for advancing along the road of holiness."
—Bl. Pope Paul VI, p.52

An Excerpt From
Manual for Eucharistic Adoration

†Daily Verse
"Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you; and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord, and serve him faithfully with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done for you."
–1 Samuel 12:23-24

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St. Lidwina of Schiedam

St. Lidwina of Schiedam (1380-1433) was born to a poor family in Holland. She had a devotion to the Blessed Mother and would often pray before the miraculous image of Our Lady of Schiedam. One winter, when she was 15 years old, she fell while ice skating and broke a rib, which she never recovered from. Gangrene spread throughout her body, which became as one big sore, and she was bed-ridden for the rest of her life. No medicine was able to help her. Her gradual physical deterioration was so grotesque that many suspected her of being possessed by the devil. However, when a priest brought her an unconsecrated Host, she was able to discern that it was not the Body and Blood of Christ. She experienced great suffering in this way until she was 53, but God rewarded her with the gift of heightened prayer, mystical visions, and spiritual consolations. Although she was not cured, many miraculous healings were attributed to her intercession. She fasted continuously, eventually surviving on only the Eucharist, and after her death on Easter Sunday the sweet odor of sanctity filled her room. Her grave became a pilgrimage site over which a chapel was erected. St. Lidwina of Schiedam is the patron of the chronically ill and ice skaters. Her feast day is April 14th.

Holy Thursday

Chrism Mass

Lectionary: 260
Reading I

Is 61:1-3a, 6a, 8b-9

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,

because the LORD has anointed me;
He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly,

to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives

and release to the prisoners,
To announce a year of favor from the LORD

and a day of vindication by our God,

to comfort all who mourn;
To place on those who mourn in Zion

a diadem instead of ashes,
To give them oil of gladness in place of mourning,

a glorious mantle instead of a listless spirit.

You yourselves shall be named priests of the LORD,

ministers of our God shall you be called.

I will give them their recompense faithfully,

a lasting covenant I will make with them.
Their descendants shall be renowned among the nations,

and their offspring among the peoples;
All who see them shall acknowledge them

as a race the LORD has blessed.

Responsorial Psalm

89:21-22, 25 and 27

R. (2) For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
"I have found David, my servant;

with my holy oil I have anointed him.
That my hand may always be with him;

and that my arm may make him strong."
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
"My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him;

and through my name shall his horn be exalted.
He shall say of me, 'You are my father,

my God, the Rock, my savior!'"
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

Reading II

Rv 1:5-8

[Grace to you and peace] from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness,
the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his Blood,
who has made us into a Kingdom, priests for his God and Father,
to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

Behold, he is coming amid the clouds,

and every eye will see him,

even those who pierced him.
All the peoples of the earth will lament him.

Yes. Amen.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God,
"the one who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
Verse Before the Gospel
Is 61:1 (cited in Lk 4:18)

The Spirit of the LORD is upon me;
for he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor.

Gospel

Lk 4:16-21

Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up,
and went according to his custom
into the synagogue on the sabbath day.
He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring glad tidings to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,

and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them,
"Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."

..............................................................

READINGS FOR HOLY THURSDAY

Holy Thursday
Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper

Lectionary: 39
Reading I

Ex 12:1-8, 11-14

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
"This month shall stand at the head of your calendar;
you shall reckon it the first month of the year.
Tell the whole community of Israel:
On the tenth of this month every one of your families
must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household.
If a family is too small for a whole lamb,
it shall join the nearest household in procuring one
and shall share in the lamb
in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it.
The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish.
You may take it from either the sheep or the goats.
You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month,
and then, with the whole assembly of Israel present,
it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight.
They shall take some of its blood
and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel
of every house in which they partake of the lamb.
That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh
with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

"This is how you are to eat it:
with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand,
you shall eat like those who are in flight.
It is the Passover of the LORD.
For on this same night I will go through Egypt,
striking down every firstborn of the land, both man and beast,
and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the LORD!
But the blood will mark the houses where you are.
Seeing the blood, I will pass over you;
thus, when I strike the land of Egypt,
no destructive blow will come upon you.

"This day shall be a memorial feast for you,
which all your generations shall celebrate
with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution."

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18.

R. (cf. 1 Cor 10:16) Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.
How shall I make a return to the LORD

for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,

and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
R. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD

is the death of his faithful ones.
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;

you have loosed my bonds.
R. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,

and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay

in the presence of all his people.
R. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.

Reading II

1 Cor 11:23-26

Brothers and sisters:
I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you,
that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over,
took bread, and, after he had given thanks,
broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me."
In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying,
"This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,
you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

Verse Before the Gospel

Jn 13:34
I give you a new commandment, says the Lord:
love one another as I have loved you.

Gospel

Jn 13:1-15

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come
to pass from this world to the Father.
He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.
The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.
So, during supper,
fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power
and that he had come from God and was returning to God,
he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.
He took a towel and tied it around his waist.
Then he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples' feet
and dry them with the towel around his waist.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,
"Master, are you going to wash my feet?"
Jesus answered and said to him,
"What I am doing, you do not understand now,
but you will understand later."
Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet."
Jesus answered him,
"Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me."
Simon Peter said to him,
"Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well."
Jesus said to him,
"Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed,

for he is clean all over;
so you are clean, but not all."
For he knew who would betray him;
for this reason, he said, "Not all of you are clean."

So when he had washed their feet
and put his garments back on and reclined at table again,
he said to them, "Do you realize what I have done for you?
You call me 'teacher' and 'master,' and rightly so, for indeed I am.
If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet,
you ought to wash one another's feet.
I have given you a model to follow,
so that as I have done for you, you should also do."

Daily Meditation: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14

It is the Passover of the Lord. (Exodus 12:11)

Today's celebration of Holy Thursday marks the beginning of the Easter Triduum. As we begin our journey with Jesus from death to life, our first reading reminds us of the Hebrews' passage from slavery to freedom. Their journey, like ours, begins with a meal. So let's look at the Hebrew Passover to see if we can come to understand more deeply the new Passover of Jesus, our Messiah.

Both for the Hebrews and for us, it all starts with a lamb. At the first Passover, God told each Jewish family to sacrifice an unblemished lamb and share its roasted meat at their meal. On the cross, God provided a lamb for us—Jesus, the sinless Lamb of God, who offered himself as a sacrifice for our sins.

The Jewish Passover wasn't just any sacrifice. It had the power to save the people from death. The blood of the lamb, which each family placed on their doorposts, protected them from the angel of death. How much more does the blood of Jesus, the saving Lamb of God, deliver us from death! He offered that blood to his disciples at the Last Supper, then poured it out the next day on the cross.

The Jewish Passover sacrifice wasn't completed by the death of the lamb but by the eating of its flesh. So too, Jesus told his disciples, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me" (1 Corinthians 11:24). His sacrificial death becomes our own salvation as we eat his Body and drink his Blood in faith.

The Jews had to eat their Passover meal in a hurry. But you don't have to hurry. As he said to his disciples, Jesus says to you, "Remain here and keep watch with me" (Matthew 26:38). Many parishes offer Adoration this evening after Mass. Take this time as an opportunity to linger with Jesus. Adore, thank, and praise him for being the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world—including yours.

"Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world. Have mercy on us. Grant us peace."

Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-15

From today's 1st Holy Scripture:
"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the brokenhearted"

We could rightly say, that we are still living in a pivotal moment in time, making history, and how? The world has been experiencing in the last decades a horrible attack from the evil one, running rampant through the world, calling upon liberation from God's laws ultimately and this strains our relationship with Him. And so, lately, in this last century, it has been the most extreme against Christians, whereupon perhaps we could say easily, there have been at least one million martyred through persecutions, and a few million more of the Jews, in religious persecutions, and add about 70 million more unborn people murdered for no good reason other than that of convenience. And all this in the last 100 years. Those are physical deaths. What is worse? Spiritual deaths. And so, as a consequence, now we live in a world of despondence, sadness, sad souls walking, living dead people. It is the price of sin. And the worldly are seeking to cash in on zombies. I write to you so that you will wake up to the atrocities of the dark side, that we may live, and to live for God means life for all and forever. I come to heal the brokenhearted, I came that you may have life and have it more abundantly. I came to bring glad tidings, for I have been anointed in my baptism. You read this in the first person, for you are not an accident as the sciences teach you, that you were not meant to be. You are meant to be...His beloved, pure and beautiful...light.

We pray in Psalms:
"I have found David, my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him. That my hand may always be with him; and that my arm may make him strong." For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord"

And so let us think of that first person perspective. You were anointed in the Holy Sacraments. In Baptism, in Confirmation, and even in the rest of the Sacraments. The holy oils and hands are laid upon you. You were chosen. You were gifted. You are now in the world, but not of the world. We are here for a short term that makes for eternal ramifications. Everything you do therefore...matters.

In today's Gospel we heard:
"He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord."

These are words our Lord read in the church (synagogue) in His hometown. Only this time, the word became flesh.
He became liberty for captives
Are you a captive? Let's go back to the talk about the world facing the doom and gloom and suffering the effects of sin. They say that one of the leading causes of deaths in young people lately is being disconnected, and therefore, suicidal. Something in the world is driving people crazy. Something is taking over the information age we live in. Something is thwarting what we are hearing and tuning into. Something is diverting our attention, and killing time...therefore, killing people, and remember, I speak of eternal death. I would dare say, that, at least for me, the most precious thing I got is time. Time is the most precious thing we got to offer, because it is to offer your very life. Think about every second of your life, every minute, how precious it can be to change the future and to save souls in purgatory and in our world. And now think of how we waste it focusing on problems, social media, or just doing nothing at all. Today is a special day. The forever now is special. But today we remember the Last Supper.

"This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution."
"How shall I make a return to the LORD for all the good he has done for me? The cup of salvation I will take up, and I will call upon the name of the LORD. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ."
"Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me."_

We have to be washed to have inheritance with God. We wash at Baptism, and then we wash again and again in Mass and in Confessions. We are made one with Him, we are in His family once baptized, but we do get dirty in sin.

My young adults were surprised to learn that tonight we will be washing feet at Mass. They were amazed. They were more amazed later when I said there are in-corrupt saints among us.

What do these saints do? They are slaves of Christ our Lord.
They wash others' feet. They slave all day for love of the Lord. Saints are not afraid to be known to be lovers of God. Saints are in high demand today. The world needs to see more saints being saints.

my child, you are called to be a saint. You are St. my child, and you are anointed. You are called to be that slave of Love, for Love, both now and forever. Every moment we got on earth is vital and crucial to God's loving purpose. You were created for Him.

I look forward to making a restored world with you, under Christ the King of the world and the universe. Christ be our Light, may we serve you and love you and serve you with Love both now and forever.

from your brother in Christ,
Adrian

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Random bible verse generator:

Isaiah 55:6–7

6 "Seek the LORD while he may be found;

call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,

and the unrighteous man his thoughts;

let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,

and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace

Going4th

For questions or comments contact Adrian@going4th.com. For more go to www.Going4th.com

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