†Saint Quote
"If I am distracted, Holy Communion helps me to become recollected. If opportunities are offered by each day to offend my God, I arm myself anew each day for the combat by the reception of the Eucharist. If I am in special need of light and prudence in order to discharge my burdensome duties, I draw nigh to my Savior and seek counsel and light from him."
–St. Thomas More †Today's Meditation
"Winnow not in every wind, and do not start off in every direction (Sirach 5:11). It is essential to discern what the Spirit wants when we are making important choices in our lives. Through prayer, fasting, spiritual reading, spiritual advice, discernment of signs, sorting out our hidden motivations, etc., we develop a sense of what God wants of us."
—Rev. Jude Winkler, O.F.M., p. 13 An Excerpt From
Daily Meditations with the Holy Spirit †Daily Verse
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time."
–1 Peter 1:3-5 |  click to read more | | St. Claude de la Colombiere St. Claude de la Colombiere (1641-1682) was born to a noble family in France and became a Jesuit priest. He was known for his solid and serious sermons and his dedication to observing the rule of his order with exactness. He became the rector of a Jesuit house next to the Monastery of the Visitation where St. Margaret Mary Alacoque lived, who was given special revelations from Jesus of His Sacred Heart. Claude became St. Margaret Mary's spiritual director, and, like her, became a zealous promoter of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In 1676 he was sent to England to attend the wife of the future King James II, serving at court as preacher and confessor. When anti-Catholic persecutions broke out, Claude was falsely accused of being involved in a 'papist plot' and was thrown into prison. While there his health suffered due to mistreatment. He was preserved from execution and instead banished from England by royal decree. He returned to his native France, where his fragile health continued to deteriorate until he died a few years later. The day after his death, St. Margaret Mary received supernatural assurance that he needed no prayers, as he was already in heaven. His feast day is February 15. | Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Gn 8:6-13, 20-22 At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch he had made in the ark,
and he sent out a raven,
to see if the waters had lessened on the earth.
It flew back and forth until the waters dried off from the earth.
Then he sent out a dove,
to see if the waters had lessened on the earth.
But the dove could find no place to alight and perch,
and it returned to him in the ark,
for there was water all over the earth.
Putting out his hand, he caught the dove
and drew it back to him inside the ark.
He waited seven days more and again sent the dove out from the ark.
In the evening the dove came back to him,
and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf!
So Noah knew that the waters had lessened on the earth.
He waited still another seven days
and then released the dove once more;
and this time it did not come back. In the six hundred and first year of Noah's life,
in the first month, on the first day of the month,
the water began to dry up on the earth.
Noah then removed the covering of the ark
and saw that the surface of the ground was drying up. Noah built an altar to the LORD,
and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird,
he offered burnt offerings on the altar.
When the LORD smelled the sweet odor, he said to himself:
"Never again will I doom the earth because of man
since the desires of man's heart are evil from the start;
nor will I ever again strike down all living beings, as I have done.
As long as the earth lasts,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
Summer and winter,
and day and night
shall not cease." Responsorial Psalm Ps 116:12-13, 14-15, 18-19 R. (17a) To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia. 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. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people,
In the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or: R. Alleluia. Alleluia See Eph 1:17-18 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
enlighten the eyes of our hearts,
that we may know what is the hope
that belongs to his call.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Mk 8:22-26 When Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethsaida,
people brought to him a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.
He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village.
Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on the man and asked,
"Do you see anything?"
Looking up the man replied, "I see people looking like trees and walking."
Then he laid hands on the man's eyes a second time and he saw clearly;
his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly.
Then he sent him home and said, "Do not even go into the village."
| Daily Meditation: Genesis 8:6-13, 20-22 On the first day . . .(Genesis 8:13) The story of Noah and the flood ends with a new beginning. In fact, it purposefully echoes the beginning of Genesis. Once again, the earth is covered by waters, and God brings forth dry land. Once again, on the "first day," Noah, a new Adam, begins a new era of human history by worshipping and offering a sacrifice to the Lord (Genesis 8:20-21). Even as it looks back to the story of creation, this story also looks forward to the new creation God would usher in through the work of his Son, Jesus, who is the new Adam. God didn't want just to rescue us; he also wanted to make us into a new creation, just as he began a new creation with Noah after the flood. Only this time God established his new creation through the death and resurrection of his Son and the gift of his Holy Spirit. In other words, he not only saved us from sin and death, he saved us for new life in Christ Jesus, for a new creation. Like Noah's family after the flood, we have been drawn out of the waters of baptism and brought into a new life. We have received the Spirit, who "recreates" us into God's children and uses us to "renew the face of the earth" (Psalm 104:30). And as he did with Noah, God promises to fill our new life with blessings and to be always present with us. God makes a covenant with us, never to destroy us because of our sin and weakness. Once more, he blesses us, gives us dominion over the earth, and makes us his own people. It's a new day! You're coming off the ark as a new creation, with all the grace you need to live as a child of God. And you're not the only thing that's new. God's mercy and compassion are new—every single morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). Each day, God pours out fresh grace upon you. Each day, he promises to make you fruitful, to give you power over sin, and to transform you more and more into his image. Each day, he proclaims, "Behold, I make all things new" (Revelation 21:5). Even you. "Thank you, Lord, for a new beginning today. Come, Creator Spirit, and renew me." Psalm 116:12-15, 18-19
Mark 8:22-26 | From today's 1st Holy Scripture:
"In the evening the dove came back to him,
and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf!
So Noah knew that the waters had lessened on the earth.
He waited still another seven days
and then released the dove once more;
and this time it did not come back." The story of Noah means so much. So much death...yet, the hope of salvation, and it is all about renewal, and the promise of God, that never again would there be this death. And so it is. A dove came back with an olive leaf, or twig attached, and this means something too, peace perhaps, a pact, between God and man. And then, 7 days later, the dove was released, and it never came back. And this meant something too. I am reminded of the 7 covenant promises, like the 7 Sacraments, starting with baptismal waters, and then, the dove that never comes back is like our Lord, He left and never returned...in body, but in the Spirit. | We pray today:
"My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise." Today is the one year anniversary of the death of my best friend, my dad. This Psalm gives me hope, for my dad was one of the most faithful men, to the faith, that I know. Always in prayer, the rosary, always in Mass, even daily Mass many times there towards the end. And so I take solace and comfort to read that God sees it as precious when a faithful one dies. And then we read "I will offer a sacrifice of praise". I will today, praise God, as an offering, in Holy Mass offered to my dad Martin. My only hope is the words I often say at funeral vigils, "give to God that what you most love, that person, an offering". And now I have to do it myself, to offer to God all my pains and all my loves. And God our Father sees, and He loves faith. Love in action is sacrifice. | In the Gospel today we heard:
""Do you see anything?"
Looking up the man replied, "I see people looking like trees and walking.""
The blind man saw people like trees.
There is a way of seeing people like trees.
God wants us to be like trees. He wants fruitful trees. He speaks of a mustard seed and it becomes like a tree. He speaks of making trees to be uprooted and flung into the sea. He approaches and reproaches a fig tree for not giving fruit when He arrived for fruit.
This message is for all of us, that we ought to be found being life and giving life and giving fruit for the day of His arrival, and this means the death. | "Then he laid hands on the man's eyes a second time and he saw clearly...Then he sent him home and said, "Do not even go into the village." Now that he could see, he couldn't go to the village, but was ordered to go home.
Now that you can see, we are ordered to go home, and our home is Heaven, for we are not of this world but in the world to do God's will.
Now that you can see clearly, with the light of God, everything changes. I have a blind friend I visit at the nursing home, and he has a suitcase next to him, usually in the closet. There isn't much hung on his walls, an old photo of him when he got married, and she passed. And on his wall a lasso rosary from his wedding. What does this all mean. He lived in love and still loves. He is a pilgrim on a journey. When he goes to heaven, he will see. And today he can see how evil and dark our world can be, with calamities of no true love for fellow man, or for God.
I gave him a bible the other day. He tells his only child, a step child the story of crazy Adrian handing him a bible a few weeks ago, to a blind man. And he jokes about it because it is funny, and then he tells the truth, it is an audio bible that is solar powered, powered by the light and it gives him hope, to hear God's word. In this way He can see more clearly.
And so, today, what does our Lord God and Father want you to see? Do you even want to see? Do you want to see what He sees? He sees beauty like no other. He sees sufferings as no other. He sees beauty in suffering as no one else can. He takes delight in the faithful. He delights in you, because He sees His child trying to be faithful. He can't wait to hold you like a baby, and you will melt away in His hands and you will never go back. Such is love, and the light of love. ....†....
Lord, I take heart in Your Holy Word, in the Word made flesh, in the Eucharist, You give yourself eternally, and I can only pray I return eternally in Love and gratitude.
.......... |  click to hear | Random Bible Verse 1
Matthew 6:6 [Matthew 6] 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
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