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Friday, March 31, 2023

† "He Went Back.... "

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†Saint Quote
"Quote of the Day
"The devotion to the Eucharist is the most noble, because it has God as its object; it is the most profitable for salvation, because it gives us the Author of Grace; it is the sweetest, because the Lord is Sweetness Itself."
–St. Pius X

†Today's Meditation
"I've appointed the Devil to tempt and to trouble My creatures in this life [St. Catherine of Siena reports that Our Lord said to her]. I've done this, not so that My creatures will be overcome, but so that they may overcome, proving their virtue and receiving from Me the glory of victory. And no one should fear any battle or temptation of the Devil that may come to him, because I've made My creatures strong, and I've given them strength of will, fortified in the Blood of My Son. Neither the Devil nor any other creature can control this free will, because it's yours, given to you by Me. By your own choice, then, you hold it or let it go if you please. It's a weapon, and if you place it in the hands of the Devil, it right away becomes a knife that he'll use to stab and kill you. On the other hand, if you don't place this knife that is your will into the hands of the Devil—that is, if you don't consent to his temptations and harassments—you will never be injured by the guilt of sin in any temptation. Instead, you'll actually be strengthened by the temptation, as long as you open the eyes of your mind to see My love, and to understand why I allowed you to be tempted: so you could develop virtue by having it proved. My love permits these temptations, for the Devil is weak. He can do nothing by himself unless I allow him. So I let him tempt you because I love you, not because I hate you. I want you to conquer, not to be conquered, and to come to a perfect knowledge of yourself and of Me."
—St. Catherine of Siena, p. 159-160

An Excerpt From
Manual for Spiritual Warfare

†Daily Verse
"Hearken to me, you who pursue deliverance, you who seek the Lord; look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were digged."
–Isaiah 51:1

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St. Benjamin

St. Benjamin (d. 424 A.D.) was a deacon martyred in Persia during a forty-year-long Christian persecution under two tyrannical Persian kings. He was imprisoned for a year due to his Christian faith and then released with the help of the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II. As a condition of his release he was ordered to no longer publicly proclaim his faith. Benjamin declared that it was his duty to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he refused to be silenced. He continued preaching Christ crucified, and, when word reached the king, he was arrested again. In response, Benjamin asked the king what opinion he would have of any of his subjects if they were to renounce their allegiance to the king and join in war against him; in the same way Benjamin could not renounce his allegiance to Christ. This comment enraged the king, and he ordered Benjamin to endure cruel tortures. Sharpened reeds were repeatedly jammed underneath his fingernails, toenails, and other tender parts of the body. He died when a knotted stake was jammed into his bowels. St. Benjamin's feast day is celebrated on March 31st.

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Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Reading 1 Jer 20:10-13

I hear the whisperings of many:
"Terror on every side!
Denounce! let us denounce him!"
All those who were my friends
are on the watch for any misstep of mine.
"Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail,
and take our vengeance on him."
But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion:
my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.
In their failure they will be put to utter shame,
to lasting, unforgettable confusion.
O LORD of hosts, you who test the just,
who probe mind and heart,
Let me witness the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause.
Sing to the LORD,
praise the LORD,
For he has rescued the life of the poor
from the power of the wicked!

Responsorial Psalm Ps 18:2-3a, 3bc-4, 5-6, 7

R. (see 7) In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.
My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.
R. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.
The breakers of death surged round about me,
the destroying floods overwhelmed me;
The cords of the nether world enmeshed me,
the snares of death overtook me.
R. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.
In my distress I called upon the LORD
and cried out to my God;
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.
R. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.

Verse Before the Gospel See Jn 6:63c, 68c

Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life;
you have the words of everlasting life.

Gospel Jn 10:31-42

The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus.
Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from my Father.
For which of these are you trying to stone me?"
The Jews answered him,
"We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy.
You, a man, are making yourself God."
Jesus answered them,
"Is it not written in your law, 'I said, 'You are gods"'?
If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came,
and Scripture cannot be set aside,
can you say that the one
whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world
blasphemes because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?
If I do not perform my Father's works, do not believe me;
but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me,
believe the works, so that you may realize and understand
that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."
Then they tried again to arrest him;
but he escaped from their power.

He went back across the Jordan
to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained.
Many came to him and said,
"John performed no sign,
but everything John said about this man was true."
And many there began to believe in him.


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Daily Meditation: John 10:31-42

Even if you do not believe me, believe the works. (John 10:38)

You may not see it at first, but today's Gospel gives us a hint of the resurrection. How? It's hidden in the "works" that Jesus says can help people "believe" (John 10:38).

Some of the Jews who were listening to Jesus wanted to stone him because he said he was the Son of God. Of course, we know that Jesus truly is the Son of God. But at the time, making such a claim was blasphemy. What did Jesus tell them in response? He said that if they couldn't believe his words, they should believe his works (John 10:38).

Now, Jesus had performed a lot of works during his ministry that these Jews would have observed. In John's Gospel alone, Jesus changed water into wine (2:1-11), healed a royal official's son (4:46-54), healed a paralyzed man (5:1-18), multiplied loaves and fish to feed over five thousand people (6:1-14), walked on water (6:16-21), and healed a man who had been born blind (9:1-41). Surely, Jesus was pointing them to these miracles.

But there was one final "work" that Jesus would perform that would prove beyond all shadow of doubt that he is the Son of God and that he has the Father's authority. The crowds hadn't seen it yet, but the raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44) would give them a clue. It is Jesus' resurrection!

We have the benefit of knowing that Jesus, though crucified, has risen from the dead. But there might be times when that knowledge doesn't affect our day-to-day attitudes. When we're going through difficulty, for instance, encouraging words may ring hollow and memories of God's faithfulness might fade. We struggle to believe. That's the time to fix our eyes on Jesus' works, most specifically his resurrection. Because the resurrection is the culmination of all the mighty deeds Jesus performed in his lifetime. It provides the proof that we can hang onto. It can help us to believe.

"Jesus, enflame my faith, not just in the many miracles you performed, but in your own resurrection from the dead. Help me believe that you are Lord and God!"

Jeremiah 20:10-13
Psalm 18:2-7

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From today's 1st Holy Scripture:
"All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. "Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail, and take our vengeance on him."
end quote.

Would it seem that you have friends that would have your back always? That is not always the case. If so called "friends" betrayed our Lord, like when He was surrendered by Judas and was left alone while being crucified, and in prison, then what can one expect here? Some people in prison say that after so many repeated times of going back to prison, less and less people come to visit or call them or communicate with them. Hope is lost on both sides. But that is not the case of our Lord. Even if your mother forgets you, He will not!

psalms

We pray today:
"In my distress I called upon the LORD
and cried out to my God; From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears."

2cents2

In the Gospel today we heard:

""We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy.
You, a man, are making yourself God."
Jesus answered them,
"Is it not written in your law, 'I said, 'You are gods"'? "

What an amazing scripture, and words from our Savior, right?
Here we have some obstinate people attempting to kill our Lord and He is telling them they are like gods? Was that not enough? And then He says He is from God too, and still they don't want to listen.

Does that still happen today? Are there people trying to be greater than our God? Believe it or not, yes. And believe it or not, there are many more who are doing this that cannot see it, they are blind to this fact. Those may be even worse than the first. The neutral people are the worst. Those that want you to be in the middle, they are two sided. This is not what Heaven wants. What heaven wants is truth...to be with Christ.
Have you ever heard the saying from the spanish world "He takes the good ones?", LOL, HAHA! Does that mean the rest of us are bad?

I take a grain of truth to that though.
I believe there are real sickles, and real harvests, and real laborers for God, and I'm talking supreme beings, greater than us, like angels, that wield the sickle at the due time to take great fruit to Heaven. But not only in death. Our fruit of true love fuels heaven. We are being pushed to produce fruit, and there are too many that complain and drop their work tools and leave.
Too many give up too easy on God's work.
I'm in a lot of ministries and they are all tough.
I'm not going to cry about issues. I'm not going to complain about others. In case you missed much of what I meant, and what our Lord in HEaven desires, then here it is simply put...humility. Obstinante ears have no patience.
Obstinate hearts have no room for any more.
Obstinate minds are filled with things "more important" than what our Lord desires.
And what does our Lord desire? One word: Good. Love is good. Humility is good. What if I told you that frustration and anxiety and depression have roots in evil and faithlessness?
Where is your hope? Where is your heart? Where is your life?

Let's pray:
...†...
My Hope is in the Lord, maker of Heaven and the earth.

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Random Bible Verse 1
Romans 14:8

"For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's."

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Thursday, March 30, 2023

† "My glory is worth... "

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†Saint Quote
"Work hard every day at increasing your purity of heart, which consists in appraising things and weighing them in the balance of God's will."
–St. Francis de Sales

†Today's Meditation
"Many people seem to worry themselves a great deal more over the things they cannot help than over the things that they can. … This want of proportion is doubtless observable in myself. Do I think more of the accidents of birth, fortune, and personal appearance than of the self that I have created? For I myself am responsible for myself. 'To be born a gentleman is an accident; to die one is an achievement.' Other things, then, I may not be able to help; but myself, I can. As I am at this very moment, as my character is—truthful or untruthful, pure or impure, patient or impatient, slow to wrath or quick-tempered, eager, enthusiastic, energetic, or lazy and dull and wasteful of time—I have no one to thank but myself … the fact remains that I myself alone am responsible for my own character; for character is an artificial thing that is not born, but made."
—Fr. Bede Jarrett, p. 371-372

An Excerpt From
Classic Catholic Meditations

†Daily Verse
"[I pray] that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him. May the eyes of [your] hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might."
–Ephesians 1:17-19

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St. Fergus of Scotland

St. Fergus of Scotland (d. 730 A.D.), also known as St. Fergustian or Fergus the Pict, Bishop of the Gaels, was a bishop serving in the north of Scotland. Little is known of his life. He is believed to have been trained as a bishop in Ireland, ministering there for many years before traveling as a missionary to Scotland. He went throughout the Scottish countryside preaching the Gospel, setting up churches dedicated to St. Patrick of Ireland, and working to convert the pagan people to Christianity. He also traveled to St. Peter's Basilica to participate in the Council of Rome in 721 A.D. He died around the year 730 A.D. and is buried in Glamis, Angus, in Scotland. Nearby is St. Fergus' Well. The site is believed to be where St. Fergus presided over religious services before the first church of Glamis was built. His feast day is March 30th.

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Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Reading 1 Gn 17:3-9

When Abram prostrated himself, God spoke to him:
"My covenant with you is this:
you are to become the father of a host of nations.
No longer shall you be called Abram;
your name shall be Abraham,
for I am making you the father of a host of nations.
I will render you exceedingly fertile;
I will make nations of you;
kings shall stem from you.
I will maintain my covenant with you
and your descendants after you
throughout the ages as an everlasting pact,
to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
I will give to you
and to your descendants after you
the land in which you are now staying,
the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession;
and I will be their God."

God also said to Abraham:
"On your part, you and your descendants after you
must keep my covenant throughout the ages."

Responsorial Psalm Ps 105:4-5, 6-7, 8-9

R. (8a) The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
Look to the LORD in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly.
Recall the wondrous deeds that he has wrought,
his portents, and the judgments he has uttered.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
You descendants of Abraham, his servants,
sons of Jacob, his chosen ones!
He, the LORD, is our God;
throughout the earth his judgments prevail.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
He remembers forever his covenant
which he made binding for a thousand generations –
Which he entered into with Abraham
and by his oath to Isaac.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.

Verse Before the Gospel Ps 95:8

If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.

Gospel Jn 8:51-59

Jesus said to the Jews:
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever keeps my word will never see death."
So the Jews said to him,
"Now we are sure that you are possessed.
Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say,
'Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.'
Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died?
Or the prophets, who died?
Who do you make yourself out to be?"
Jesus answered, "If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing;
but it is my Father who glorifies me,
of whom you say, 'He is our God.'
You do not know him, but I know him.
And if I should say that I do not know him,
I would be like you a liar.
But I do know him and I keep his word.
Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day;
he saw it and was glad."
So the Jews said to him,
"You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?"
Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you,
before Abraham came to be, I AM."
So they picked up stones to throw at him;
but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area.


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Daily Meditation: John 8:51-59

Whoever keeps my word will never see death. (John 8:51)

"Never see death"? How can that be? We know that our bodies can't last forever. We've experienced the death of friends and loved ones. And unless the Lord returns soon, each of us will experience death as well.

St. Paul gives us a hint. He says we have already died. "We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead . . . , we too might live in newness of life" (Romans 6:4). On the day of our baptism, we were brought to share in Christ's dying and all he accomplished through his death. We died in those waters, and we rose possessing God's own life, a life that can never die. United to Christ, we are given the grace to "keep his word" (John 8:51) and carry that word with us into heaven. Death is not our final destiny!

How can an understanding of this priceless gift of everlasting life affect the way we look at death?

It can drive away fear. Although we may naturally feel fear, nothing—not even death—can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38). Whenever we step over that final precipice, we are caught in the arms of his everlasting love. With that perspective, we can deal with any lesser fears.

It can put loneliness to flight. We are not alone! Jesus remains close to us in our triumphs and exhilarations as well as in our sickness, suffering, rejection, frustration, and confusion. And he calls us into a community of faith with all who have also died to sin and selfishness and awakened to life in the kingdom of love.

It can provide clear direction, helping us let go of lesser concerns and prioritize what matters most in the long run: love of God and love of neighbor. Take a look at what worries you, where you invest your energy. Will you be taking that with you into the heavenly kingdom?

How richly our generous God blessed us on the day of our baptism! He has placed his own everlasting life with us! Stay close to him, treasure his love and his word, and let them give you hope beyond the grave.

"Jesus, thank you for uniting me with you on the day of my baptism. I look forward to living with you forever."

Genesis 17:3-9
Psalm 105:4-9

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From today's 1st Holy Scripture:
""God also said to Abraham:
"On your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages." end quote.
And guess what? This is our Father in Faith! Abraham is amazing.
"No longer shall you be called Abram;
your name shall be Abraham,
for I am making you the father of a host of nations.
I will render you exceedingly fertile"_ end quote.
Did you know that all 3 of the world's major religions are taking root in Abraham? To the tune of billions and billions for thousands of years. Our Lord proves He is true, speaking the truth, there is no denying His truth now.

psalms

We pray today:
"He remembers forever his covenant
which he made binding for a thousand generations –
Which he entered into with Abraham
and by his oath to Isaac.
The Lord remembers his covenant for ever."

end quote.
So, how long is a generation? If my findings are correct, it is about 40 years. If this is so, then the promise is for at least 40,000 years. We are in it for about 4,000 years I'd say right now. I pray for a productive generation for His Kingdom.

2cents2

In the Gospel today we heard:

_"So the Jews said to him,
"You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?"
Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you,
before Abraham came to be, I AM."
So they picked up stones to throw at him;" end quote.

I believe it was C.S. Lewis who said people can make out our Lord as one of 3 things, either He is a lunatic, a liar, or He is actually Lord.
The things he was saying just didn't jive with the Jews.
Do they jive with jew (you)? LOL , ha ha!
Look, this is going to get thick, but, I'm about to relay to you mind blowing things but not far fetched from Scripture. In the book of revelation, there are extremely strange creatures depicted. There are scenes that one can only try to imagine, a glass sea, an animal with wings or many eyes all around the head. Sure they speak of our Lord and omnipotence, but phenomenal things await in the next and very real world that never ceases to exist.
I'm looking forward to it, the hard part? Leaving every love and loved one behind.
But can you fathom? We are pilgrims through this world and on a journey.
Are we prepared? Are we properly preparing our children? I think and look at all the ones that have passed on before us, what have they actually passed on to us? The most extremely important thing?
Look to Father Abraham. Faith. Abraham would be told he'd be the most fertile, but couldn't have any kids! Until one came along, and that one would fill the world...with his faith.
Think Jesus our Lord, and our Father God.
Did you know their is a movie coming out this weekend in theatres called His Only Son?
Me and my family just watched this week in theatres "Santiago, The Camino within". It was mostly in spanish but my kids loved the movie anyway! How strange? It's like a Mass here, I see other people, chinese or white, going to a Spanish Mass? Can you still love it? Yes! Beauty has no language barrier...This is God, alive and among us.

...†...
Lord, How can we be on fire with Your Love? Forever! Help us!

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Random Bible Verse 1
Galatians 5:24

24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

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