†Quote of the Day
"The closer one approaches to God, the simpler one becomes."
–St. Teresa of Avila †Today's Meditation
"Prayer is the duty of every moment. We ought always to pray, said our Lord. And what He said, He did; therein lay His great power. Action accompanied His words and corresponded with them. We must pray always in order to be on our guard. Our life, both of body and soul, our natural and supernatural life, is like a fragile flower. We live surrounded by enemies. Ever since man rejected the Light that was meant to show him the way, everything has become for us an obstacle and a danger; we live in the shadow of death."
—Dom Augustin Guillerand, p. 9 An Excerpt From
The Prayer of the Presence of God †Daily Verse
"One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple."
–Psalm 27:4 |  click to read more | | St. Januarius St. Januarius (d. 305 A.D.), also known as San Gennaro, was the Bishop of Benevento, Italy. Little is known of his early life. He was arrested and imprisoned for his faith while visiting other Christians in jail during the persecution of Roman Emperor Diocletian. Many attempts were made to kill him, but one after another they failed. He was thrown into a fiery furnace, but he came out unscathed. He was then thrown to wild beasts in the amphitheater, but they did not attack. He was finally beheaded, and his blood was collected by Christians and kept in a sealed glass vial for veneration. The vial of blood is still kept today in the Naples cathedral, and it has continually demonstrated miraculous properties for which no scientific explanation has been offered. St. Januarius' blood liquefies and becomes fresh on particular occasions throughout the year, especially his feast day, for which the saint has become famous. This phenomenon has been occurring with regularity for centuries, and is one of the "blood miracles" that is historically well-documented among the relics of certain saints. He is the patron saint of blood banks and the city of Naples, Italy. St. Januarius's feast day is September 19th. | Monday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 449
Reading 1 Prv 3:27-34 Refuse no one the good on which he has a claim
when it is in your power to do it for him.
Say not to your neighbor, "Go, and come again,
tomorrow I will give," when you can give at once. Plot no evil against your neighbor,
against one who lives at peace with you.
Quarrel not with a man without cause,
with one who has done you no harm. Envy not the lawless man
and choose none of his ways:
To the LORD the perverse one is an abomination,
but with the upright is his friendship. The curse of the LORD is on the house of the wicked,
but the dwelling of the just he blesses;
When dealing with the arrogant, he is stern,
but to the humble he shows kindness. Responsorial Psalm
ps 15:2-3a, 3bc-4ab, 5
R. (1) The just one shall live on your holy mountain, O Lord.
He who walks blamelessly and does justice;
who thinks the truth in his heart
and slanders not with his tongue.
R. The just one shall live on your holy mountain, O Lord.
Who harms not his fellow man,
nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor;
By whom the reprobate is despised,
while he honors those who fear the LORD.
R. The just one shall live on your holy mountain, O Lord.
Who lends not his money at usury
and accepts no bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things
shall never be disturbed.
R. The just one shall live on your holy mountain, O Lord. Alleluia Mt 5:16 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Let your light shine before others,
that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Lk 8:16-18 Jesus said to the crowd:
"No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel
or sets it under a bed;
rather, he places it on a lampstand
so that those who enter may see the light.
For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible,
and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light.
Take care, then, how you hear.
To anyone who has, more will be given,
and from the one who has not,
even what he seems to have will be taken away." | Daily Meditation: Luke 8:16-18 Take care, then, how you hear. (Luke 8:18) While volunteering at a summer camp for hearing-impaired children, a man saw a ten-year-old boy receive a new, more advanced hearing device. When the boy heard distinct sounds for the first time in his life, he squealed loudly in delight. It was such a joyful sound that the man would never forget it. In today's Gospel, Jesus urges his listeners to consider how they hear his words. But like that young boy, we don't always hear loudly or distinctly without some kind of assistance. That's why we need the Holy Spirit. He acts as a kind of hearing aid for us, amplifying and improving our ability to hear. He can impress on our ears, our hearts, and our minds the meaning of Jesus' words for our everyday life. This may sound simple, but it's not automatic. We need to cooperate with the Spirit. We can start by consciously taking in God's word. There is always a temptation to listen only superficially to the Scriptures, whether it's the readings proclaimed at Mass or our own "hearing" as we read them ourselves. If you are having trouble focusing, you can ask the Spirit to help you let go of any worries or distractions that might be interfering with your ability to listen. After you've read or listened to a Scripture passage, you can try to sit quietly for a bit and ponder what the Lord might be saying to you through it. The Spirit may lead you to a phrase that speaks to your life at the moment. Or he may help you understand a familiar passage in a new and different way. It's not only through the Scriptures that the Lord speaks to us; he may also use another person to communicate something important. So keep your ears open! If someone says something that strikes you, ask the Holy Spirit if it was a word that the Lord wanted you to consider. When Jesus told us to "take care" how we hear, he wasn't speaking only to those who were listening to him that day; he meant it for us as well. But he didn't leave us on our own. Instead, he gave us an indispensable helper: the Holy Spirit, the best "hearing aid" we could ever have! "Holy Spirit, I'm listening! Help me to hear and understand God's word." Proverbs 3:27-34
Psalm 15:2-5 | From today's 1st Holy Scripture:
"Envy not the lawless man
and choose none of his ways:
To the LORD the perverse one is an abomination..." Sometimes we Christians will look at a Christian that is not living the Christian Way, the Christian Life, and they seem to be ok, nothing bad happening to them, and they get to party it up all they want; they don't go to church on Sundays, they don't really pray, and nothing bad seems to ever happen to them, and as a matter of fact, they seem even better off, more happy.
But Scripture tells us not to envy the lawless man, for those paths are extremely short sited. Choose the Life of Christ, the life of love and sacrifice and true love calls for true sacrifice. Choose light, choose life. Not darkness...not death. It is what our Lord desires. | We pray today;
" The just one shall live on your holy mountain, O Lord.
He who walks blamelessly and does justice; who thinks the truth in his heart and slanders not with his tongue." Can't a blameless person live in holiness? Can't a blameless person show the path of righteousness? These people that live in the truth and hold their tongue are exonerated in the end. See Christ. See the message of the cross. Accused of all sorts of things. But the truth shines on forever on top of the mountain. | In the Gospel today we heard:
"No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel or sets it under a bed; ather, he places it on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light.
For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible..." | I'm going to buy a flashlight. I'm going to become a Christian.
I'm going to turn the light on and hide it under the covers.
I'm going to live how I want and hide what God wants. But why? Why are we afraid to do what God wants? Because...it will cost something. Your reputation. Your ego. Your time. Your money. Your very life! You'll be made fun of. You'll be persecuted. You'll experience things you were afraid to experience.
Who wants that kind of cross? Right?
We sing and pray for God to be the potter, as I sang in Mass this morning daily Mass. And I was thinking as I sung, "wow, do I really mean this? I mean, do I really want me to be molded to how HE wants? what if it doesn't match with what I want?" and that's how one becomes afraid. I mean, I didn't want my dad to die, that's not what I WANTED. That's not how I wanted to be molded. Yet, here we are. Why don't I hold a grudge against God like so many that stop coming to church for any give reason? What is it about the first commandment that people don't know?
It calls for love and hate. To love God above all, and hate everything else...that detracts and distracts us from our love of God, with all our mind, heart, and soul.
And so, I keep going, trying to be perfect as God has commanded us to be perfect. What does this mean? To be perfectly HIS! Is that so hard? Is love possible? True sacrificial love? Lord, May our Love Shine.
Lord, May our Light Shine forever...together. |  click to hear | Random bible verse generator: Romans 6:22 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
