†Saint Quote
"Mary was the most perfect among the saints only because she was always perfectly united to the will of God."
–St. Alphonsus Liguori †Today's Meditation
"In this valley of tears, every man is born to weep, and all must suffer, by enduring the evils that take place every day. But how much greater would be the misery of life, if we also knew the future evils that await us! 'Unfortunate, indeed, would be the situation of someone who knows the future', says the pagan Roman philosopher Seneca; 'he would have to suffer everything by anticipation'. Our Lord shows us this mercy. He conceals the trials that await us so that, whatever they may be, we may endure them only once. But he didn't show Mary this compassion. God willed her to be the Queen of Sorrows, and in all things like his Son. So she always had to see before her eyes, and continually to suffer, all the torments that awaited her. And these were the sufferings of the passion and death of her beloved Jesus. For in the temple, St. Simeon, having received the divine Child in his arms, foretold to her that her Son would be a sign for all the persecutions and oppositions of men. … Jesus our King and his most holy mother didn't refuse, for love of us, to suffer such cruel pains throughout their lives. So it's reasonable that we, at least, should not complain if we have to suffer something."
—St. Alphonsus Liguori, p. 223 An Excerpt From
A Year with Mary †Daily Verse
"This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."
–Psalm 118:24 |  click to read more | | St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910–1997), known simply as Mother Teresa, was born to a family of Albanian descent in what is now Macedonia. As a young girl Mother Teresa was fascinated by stories she heard of missionaries serving in India. By age 12 she discerned a vocation to the religious life, and at the age of 18 joined the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary to India. She chose her religious name after St. Therese of Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries. She arrived in Calcutta, India in 1929 and taught at a schoolhouse for wealthy children, eventually becoming head mistress. She enjoyed her work, but became increasingly disturbed by the extreme poverty and societal unrest she observed around her. In 1946 she received a "call within a call" and began her own religious order in Calcutta dedicated to ministering to, in her words, "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone." This order was established in 1950 with 12 sisters and named the Missionaries of Charity. By the time of her death on September 5, 1997, the Missionaries of Charity had grown to 4,000 sisters operating 610 missions in 123 countries. She received the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize and the Nobel Peace Prize for her inspiring work with social outcasts. Mother Teresa was canonized by Pope Francis on September 4, 2016. Her feast day is September 5th. | Monday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 1 COR 5:1-8 Brothers and sisters:
It is widely reported that there is immorality among you,
and immorality of a kind not found even among pagans–
a man living with his father's wife.
And you are inflated with pride.
Should you not rather have been sorrowful?
The one who did this deed should be expelled from your midst.
I, for my part, although absent in body but present in spirit,
have already, as if present,
pronounced judgment on the one who has committed this deed,
in the name of our Lord Jesus:
when you have gathered together and I am with you in spirit
with the power of the Lord Jesus,
you are to deliver this man to Satan
for the destruction of his flesh,
so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.
Your boasting is not appropriate.
Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough?
Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough,
inasmuch as you are unleavened.
For our Paschal Lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.
Therefore, let us celebrate the feast,
not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Responsorial Psalm PS 5:5-6, 7, 12 R. Lead me in your justice, Lord.
For you, O God, delight not in wickedness;
no evil man remains with you;
the arrogant may not stand in your sight.
You hate all evildoers.
R. Lead me in your justice, Lord.
You destroy all who speak falsehood;
The bloodthirsty and the deceitful
the LORD abhors.
R. Lead me in your justice, Lord.
But let all who take refuge in you
be glad and exult forever.
Protect them, that you may be the joy
of those who love your name.
R. Lead me in your justice, Lord. Alleluia JN 10:27 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;
I know them, and they follow me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel LK 6:6-11 On a certain sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and taught,
and there was a man there whose right hand was withered.
The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely
to see if he would cure on the sabbath
so that they might discover a reason to accuse him.
But he realized their intentions
and said to the man with the withered hand,
"Come up and stand before us."
And he rose and stood there.
Then Jesus said to them,
"I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath
rather than to do evil,
to save life rather than to destroy it?"
Looking around at them all, he then said to him,
"Stretch out your hand."
He did so and his hand was restored.
But they became enraged
and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.
| Daily Meditation: 1 Corinthians 5:1-8 Clear out the old yeast. (1 Corinthians 5:7) Yeast is a key ingredient in bread making, but you don't need much—maybe only a teaspoon or two—to make a batch of dough. That's because yeast is a microorganism that multiplies quickly, giving off carbon dioxide, which leavens the bread. In today's first reading, St. Paul uses the analogy of yeast to describe sin. He is warning the Corinthians that if they tolerate sin among their members—like the incest that Paul refers to in this passage—they risk infecting the entire community. And so he tells them to clear out the "old yeast" of sin so that they can become the "unleavened bread" of holiness (1 Corinthians 5:7, 8). St. Paul was addressing a community of believers, but this same principle applies to each of us individually. When we tolerate sin, even a seemingly minor one, it has the potential to be like yeast. We can allow the sin to become so deep-rooted or habitual that it becomes very difficult to walk away from it. It's also true that if we tolerate one kind of sin in our life, then tolerating another becomes easier to do. In such situations, we might say to ourselves, "I've tried, but I just can't kick this." Or "I'm just weak in this area." Or "It's not a big deal; everyone does it." But when we let down our defenses, we open ourselves to even more temptation and sin. So what's the remedy? St. Paul tells us, "Our Paschal Lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7). On the cross Jesus defeated sin and death. He wants us to live in freedom, and so he forgives us every time we come to him, even if we keep confessing the same sins over and over again. He also gives us all the grace we need to overcome every sin in our lives. We just need to keep asking for it. We all know how difficult it can be to break free from sin. Sometimes it takes years, or even a lifetime. But don't give up! Keep working to clear out the old yeast so that you can become the unleavened bread that God has called you to be. "Jesus, I want to be pure, unleavened bread for you. Help me to root out the sin in my life." Psalm 5:5-7, 12
Luke 6:6-11 | From today's 1st Holy Scripture:
"Therefore, let us celebrate the feast,
not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." Our Lord seems to have come to show us where malice lays, where evil lays, where a root cause lays in all of our lives. This is why we need our Lord, especially in Divine Mercy, where His Ways, in His Rays show us, reveals to us the truth of His desires. And in the showing of malice, we can begin to uproot malice, and even hate it, because of the evil it causes, even violence, and often to the innocent, as is evident in the life of our Lord. | We pray today;
"For you, O God, delight not in wickedness;
no evil man remains with you; the arrogant may not stand in your sight. You hate all evildoers. Lead me in your justice, Lord." I am always afraid of our Lord coming to the gates Heaven when I knock and to hear Him say "I don't know you, depart from me you evildoer". Because which one of us has not participated in constant evil? And we look down on others who are doing obvious evils, but what about each one of us who has a share in such iniquities? Who of us is holy, to stand on holy ground? There stood, Mother Mary, at the foot of the cross, only the faithful til the end, willing to give their lives, til the end, amen? There is hope. | In the Gospel today we heard:
""Stretch out your hand." He did so and his hand was restored. But they became enraged
and discussed together what they might do to Jesus."
Who gets enraged today at a good deed? Anti-life people are enraged with pro-life people. Is this an eye opener? Can you see malice? And could you have seen it easily without our Lord to teach us to value and love life at all instances? | From a spanish reflection today:
"Jesus keeps asking hard questions, and our answers can be very varied. What can we do on the holy day? It is obvious that we can do good or evil, but who do we opt for?
It is possible that, due to a literal and rigorous interpretation of the law, thinking that strict follow-up is good, we are really doing something wrong. The Master continues to confront some religious castes, in which charity, love, is absent, and they choose the excuse of rigorous compliance with the law to forget that man is the son of God and that his rights are above him. Saturday. Let us remember that Jesus has been blunt: "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" and let us live accordingly.
It is possible that we are looking carefully at how bad the scribes and Pharisees are without taking into account that we are on many occasions. The idea of these characters is to maintain the power of the Law over man by applying the maximum fidelity in the literal interpretation of the mandates, whether they are of divine origin or have been added later, although to give a veneer of authority to purely hygienic, conjunctural norms. , let us blame God for their authorship, and grant them the same importance as the Mosaic commandments. We demand to respect the Sabbath, but we forget to love God and our neighbor in the first place, and then continue with the rest of the precepts, but always subject to the first and main two.
Let us respect Saturday, for us Sunday, always at the service of human needs. Let's do good whatever day it is. Mr. Felix Garcia O.P." Perhaps this was the withered man's only chance for healing...our Lord would've not bumped into him again. You only get one chance mostly, right? Why don't we seize the day? As in every day, as if every day is to be made holy? The Sabbath was a day our Lord rested, and what does this mean? That man may live and to live is to live with God, because the 8th day means eternity. This is it! It means this is it! Seize the day. Too many leave holiness for another time, as if today was not the right day for whatever reason. And how will you know if you are on the right track? When people applaud you? When people praise you? How about when you are criticized and scorned for doing what the Lord our God says? Our Lord was slaughtered for doing God's will, and in the end, the truth was revealed. What does this say?
Humility meets obedience. The Pharisees and Scribes taught strict adherence to the law...strict obedience. And so much obedience becomes so much self righteousness...and to who's laws? Had they forgotten that God is good? Apparently so, for they were choosing evil inadvertently, or perhaps not. Now, let's not go wrong here, for the Book of Heaven, and even all the life of our Lord was about obedience. But obedience desires truth and justice, not obedience to the darkness.
You see how our Lord came to reshape the world now?
When we sin, it means we miss the mark.
Our Lord came and showed us how we are missing the mark. Obey, YES, but what HE wants. Lord, thank You for Your Precious rays of Holy lights of mercy and love, pouring forth from Thy Precious Sacred Heart....showing us God's substance and sustenance of unleavened, unsoiled bread of life. May we become one, when we eat and live this light. Mother Teresa, pray for us. |  click to hear | Random bible verse generator: John 4:13–14
13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.1 The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
