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Thursday, August 31, 2023

†...The Servant's Master ...

 
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†Saint Quote of the Day
"It is the duty of every man to uphold the dignity of every woman."
–St. Therese of Lisieux - The Little Flower

†Today's Meditation
"Above all, it is necessary to ask of God every morning the gift of perseverance, and to beg of the Blessed Virgin to obtain it for you, and particularly in the time of temptation, by invoking the name of Jesus and Mary as long as the temptation lasts. Happy the man who will continue to act in this manner, and shall be found so doing when Jesus Christ shall come to judge him. 'Blessed is that servant, whom, when his Lord shall come, he shall find so doing' (Matt. 24:46)."
—St. Alphonsus De Liguori, p. 167

An Excerpt From
The Sermons of St. Alphonsus Liguori

†Daily Verse
"Thus says the Lord: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practice steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the Lord."
–Jeremiah 9:23-24

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St. Raymond Nonnatus

St. Raymond Nonnatus (1200-1240) was born in Catalonia, Spain, to a noble family. His life was saved by caesarean section after his mother died in childbirth, earning him the name 'Nonnatus' meaning 'one not born'. Raymond was a pious child drawn to the religious life, but his father had plans for him to serve in the royal court of the King of Aragon. To distract Raymond from his vocation, his father sent him to tend the family fields. This had the opposite effect and gave Raymond greater opportunity to pray in the country chapel. His father eventually allowed him to join the Mercedarians, a religious order which ransomed Christian slaves from their Muslim captors. Raymond became Master General of the order and personally freed hundreds of prisoners. When he ran out of money, he ransomed his own life to release Christians held in captivity. St. Raymond was tortured throughout his imprisonment, yet he converted numerous people to the Christian faith. To prevent him from preaching Christ, his captors pierced his lips with a red-hot iron and closed them with a padlock. He was eventually ransomed by his order and returned to Spain, and died a year later. After his death there was a dispute over who had the right to bury his body. To settle the matter, his body was placed on a blind mule and set loose. The mule went to the country chapel where Raymond had prayed in his youth, and it was there that he was buried. Many miracles were attributed to St. Raymond Nonnatus both before and after his death. He is the patron of children, childbirth, pregnant women, infants, and midwives. His feast day is August 31st.

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Thursday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Reading 1 1 Thes 3:7-13

We have been reassured about you, brothers and sisters,
in our every distress and affliction, through your faith.
For we now live, if you stand firm in the Lord.

What thanksgiving, then, can we render to God for you,
for all the joy we feel on your account before our God?
Night and day we pray beyond measure to see you in person
and to remedy the deficiencies of your faith.
Now may God himself, our Father, and our Lord Jesus
direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase
and abound in love for one another and for all,
just as we have for you,
so as to strengthen your hearts,
to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father
at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. Amen.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 90:3-5a, 12-13, 14 and 17

R. (14) Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
You turn man back to dust,
saying, "Return, O children of men."
For a thousand years in your sight
are as yesterday, now that it is past,
or as a watch of the night.
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
And may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours;
prosper the work of our hands for us!
Prosper the work of our hands!
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!

Alleluia Mt 24:42a, 44

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Stay awake!
For you do not know when the Son of Man will come.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel Mt 24:42-51

Jesus said to his disciples:
"Stay awake!
For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
Be sure of this: if the master of the house
had known the hour of night when the thief was coming,
he would have stayed awake
and not let his house be broken into.
So too, you also must be prepared,
for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.

"Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant,
whom the master has put in charge of his household
to distribute to them their food at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so.
Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.
But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is long delayed,'
and begins to beat his fellow servants,
and eat and drink with drunkards,
the servant's master will come on an unexpected day
and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely
and assign him a place with the hypocrites,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth."


agosp
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Daily Meditation: Matthew 24:42-51

Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant? Matthew 24:45)

What if your friend asked you to watch over his home while he was away on an extended trip? You would make sure the doors were locked, the lawn was cut, and the mail was taken in. It wouldn't matter that the house and its belongings weren't yours. You'd act as if they were because they belonged to your friend.

That's the way the faithful and prudent servant acted in Jesus' parable. He wasn't the owner of the household or its goods, but he treated them as if he were. That's how seriously he took his job and how much he respected his master.

Like this faithful and prudent servant, we are all servants of the Lord. We don't really own anything—it has all come to us from the hand of God. And in that sense, we are not just God's servants; we are also his stewards, which is how Luke describes the servant in his version of this parable (12:42). God has entrusted everything to us, and our job as stewards is to use and manage our possessions, our time, and our talents for his purposes and glory. That requires us to be both faithful and prudent.

So who is God's faithful servant? It's someone who can be counted on to be where he needs to be and to do what needs to be done. His Master doesn't have to worry that this servant will ignore his instructions or not have his best interests at heart. God's desires are always foremost in his mind, and so he seeks to discern his Father's plans for the things he has been entrusted with.

And who is God's prudent servant? It's someone who doesn't let her time, talents, or possessions go to waste. Instead, she seeks to use them to advance God's kingdom on earth. She doesn't act impulsively or rashly, either, but first considers the options before her and then tries to choose the best one.

Today, consider everything that God has entrusted to you. Thank him for his confidence in you, and then ask him if there are any ways you could be a better steward of his gifts. Every step you take, no matter how small, will make you ever more ready for the Master's return!

"Jesus, show me how to be faithful and prudent in all things."

1 Thessalonians 3:7-13
Psalm 90:3-5, 12-14, 17

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Reflections with Brother Adrian:

From today's 1st Holy Scripture:
"Now may God himself, our Father, and our Lord Jesus
direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all,
just as we have for you,
so as to strengthen your hearts,
to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father
at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. Amen......"
end of verse.
. . .

It has been my experience of Heavenly visions of our Lord once and Heaven once. There. I said it. That's it. I say this because the vision of our Lord was not a vision I'd say, but an experience. I was no longer on earth so to speak, perhaps in the body alone, well, this is too much to try to explain, no idea how this works, for my body was reacting to the soul. Anyhow, let me get to the point, for I try to be a man of few words, and when I speak, it is for the words to carry weight and effectiveness with power, because I feel now the power in the word, like our Lord when He said like the Centurion "do this, and it happens". This is how our Lord in Heaven is. Our Father has said few words, and they have carried us for thousands of years. "Let there be light" and the cosmos began. "Let there be water and creatures", and it began to happen, and so forth. Our Lord Jesus now would say in His place "Let it be done according to your faith." And it still happens until today.

Our Lord speaks over and over about what is important...and what is important to Him...is His Father's will. And I'm going to say the truth, and it is going to be glazed over and you might forget, but here it goes once again...what matters to our Lord's heart is Love. And true love at that. All sins are acts against love. Sins are an absence of love, just like darkness is an absence of light. It all is intertwined, like the cosmos and the depths of the importance of true love. It is really, it's own energy source that can power the whole world, but not human love, no, because humans will twist the meaning of love with an evil guise because we are susceptible.

psalms

We pray today:
"Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy! ....."_ end of Psalm."

I find myself upon public speaking or in private conversations saying this phrase all the time "we are only here for a little while". Isn't it true? Time flies. My phone sends me albums and photos of the years gone by, like this morning, and I see a friend I helped in nursing homes in his 50's, died last year, and my dad in memories passed too, and an uncle, and a brother in law, they all flashed before me within seconds with different years and albums. We are pilgrims on a journey and time is limited. I find myself telling people, even last night in a crowd "how you spend time now will tell how you will spend time forever...and I don't know about you, but I want to spend time now and forever always with God!".

2cents2

In the Gospel today we heard:
"Jesus said to his disciples:
"Stay awake!
For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
Be sure of this: if the master of the house
had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into..........."
end of Gospel verse.

So do you stay awake all day and night? Your body needs sleep! LOL. So is that what our Lord is talking about? Being physically awake? Of course not....or is it? Because even in our sleep we can train to be awake to Him! Do you believe? You can put Sacramentals around your room and bed, you can pray prayers at night before bed asking for protection, and you can tell your mind what to think, and then settle your mind, and your soul, and depend on God, entrust your life to God as you sleep. Such is key, and another point I've been harking on lately...holy obedience. I'm saying all of these pointers to open our eyes to the realities of the Spirit life, and this means to be awake. In my out of body experience of our Lord, I was in a cursillo, in a church, about 40 or more men praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and suddenly I was in total darkness with our Lord breathing his last and the people I tried to see around me I knew physically were supposed to be there, they weren't all there. What should've been their bodies were lights in their place, but some were dim, and others were not there.

It has always been one of the most baffling things to have witnessed.
Some in church had lights on, or their spirits were turned on rightly as God wants, but some...are not.
Which leads me to ask, "where is your heart"?

Where does your love reside? How can I keep pouring out love like blood on the cross when I seem to run out? I've noticed lately, that some of my answered prayers come out as a form of power that I need to re-energize with grace. Now I know why Padre Pio prayed thousands of Hail Marys a day and was deeply spiritual. There is power in prayer and love. It can save lives. It saves lives all the time. Such is a power that darkness hates because it hates the light.
And you are called a child of the light.
Let it be known, you must be found with your light on, the very love of God and the willingness to do His will in holy faith.

........
Let us pray:
Lord, let my light shine for You and for others both now and forever.

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Amen! Amen.
Random Bible Verse today:
Ephesians 4:31–32

31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

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God Bless You! Peace

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Wednesday, August 30, 2023

†... you are the children of...........

 
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†Saint Quote of the Day
"Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul."
–St. Teresa of Avila - Teresa of Jesus

†Today's Meditation
"I realize as never before that the Lord is gentle and merciful; He did not send me this heavy cross until I could bear it. If He had sent it before, I am certain that it would have discouraged me . . . I desire nothing at all now except to love until I die of love. I am free, I am not afraid of anything, not even of what I used to dread most of all . . . a long illness which would make me a burden to the community. I am perfectly content to go on suffering in body and soul for years, if that would please God. I am not in the least afraid of living for a long time; I am ready to go on fighting."
—St. Therese of Lisieux, p. 122

An Excerpt From
The Story of a Soul

†Daily Verse
"Thou dost keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusts in thee. Trust in the Lord for ever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock."
–Isaiah 26:3-4

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St. Fiacre

St. Fiacre (d. 670 A.D.) was born in Ireland and was raised from childhood in an Irish monastery. There he grew in knowledge as well as holiness, and became a priest. He retired to a hermitage to live in prayer and solitude, but men began to flock to him to imitate his way of life and become his disciples. To escape them, Fiacre left Ireland to establish a new hermitage in France. He went to the bishop and asked for land to plant a garden to grow food as well as herbs for medicinal healing, a science which he studied in the monastery. The bishop agreed to give Fiacre as much land as he could entrench. Fiacre picked a plot of land and walked around its perimeter, dragging his shovel behind him. Wherever his spade touched the ground, the land was miraculously cleared and the soil became entrenched. St. Fiacre lived a life of great mortification in prayer, fasting, vigils, and manual labor in his garden. Disciples gathered around him again, and soon formed a monastery. St. Fiacre then built an oratory in honor of the Virgin Mary, a hospice in which he received strangers, and a cell for his own dwelling. His fame for performing miracles became widespread, and his garden became a place of pilgrimage for centuries for those seeking healing. St. Fiacre is best known as the patron of gardeners, florists, and cab drivers. His feast day is August 30th.

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Wednesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Reading 1 1 Thes 2:9-13

You recall, brothers and sisters, our toil and drudgery.
Working night and day in order not to burden any of you,
we proclaimed to you the Gospel of God.
You are witnesses, and so is God,
how devoutly and justly and blamelessly
we behaved toward you believers.
As you know, we treated each one of you as a father treats his children,
exhorting and encouraging you and insisting
that you walk in a manner worthy of the God
who calls you into his Kingdom and glory.

And for this reason we too give thanks to God unceasingly,
that, in receiving the word of God from hearing us,
you received it not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God,
which is now at work in you who believe.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 139:7-8, 9-10, 11-12ab

R. (1) You have searched me and you know me, Lord.
Where can I go from your spirit?
From your presence where can I flee?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I sink to the nether world, you are present there.
R. You have searched me and you know me, Lord.
If I take the wings of the dawn,
if I settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
Even there your hand shall guide me,
and your right hand hold me fast.
R. You have searched me and you know me, Lord.
If I say, "Surely the darkness shall hide me,
and night shall be my light"–
For you darkness itself is not dark,
and night shines as the day.
R. You have searched me and you know me, Lord.

Alleluia 1 Jn 2:5

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Whoever keeps the word of Christ,
the love of God is truly perfected in him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel Mt 23:27-32

Jesus said,
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside,
but inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of filth.
Even so, on the outside you appear righteous,
but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You build the tombs of the prophets
and adorn the memorials of the righteous,
and you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors,
we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets' blood.'
Thus you bear witness against yourselves
that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets;
now fill up what your ancestors measured out!"


agosp
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Daily Meditation: Psalm 139:7-12

You have searched me and you know me, Lord. (Psalm Response)

Our readings today share a common thread: nothing is hidden from God. He sees everything, even to the depths of our hearts. In our first reading, Paul defends himself, asserting, "You are witnesses, and so is God" to how honorably he has behaved (1 Thessalonians 2:10). The psalmist then proclaims that God knows him through and through, wherever he goes and whatever he does (139:1-2). And finally, Jesus warns the scribes and Pharisees that God can see through their hypocrisy—and so can he (Matthew 23:27).

Thinking about God's all-knowing gaze can make us uneasy. But the truth is, he looks at us with a gaze of love. So let's join with the psalmist and rejoice that we are fully known and fully loved.

You have searched me and you know me, Lord (Psalm Response). "Jesus, nothing is hidden from you. You know me better than I even know myself. How could you not? 'You knit me in my mother's womb' (139:13). You see my best impulses to love you and care for other people, and you see my worst, most selfish desires. You see it all, Lord, and even so, you invite me to come to you and receive your mercy. You remind me that I am your child, and you heal my waywardness. Your gaze of love warms my heart and gives me courage. With you, Lord, I am not afraid of being known.

Where can I go from your spirit? (Psalm 139:7). "Thank you, Lord, that your Holy Spirit is always with me even when I can't feel it. You never leave my side! And yet, Lord, I still avoid you sometimes! I busy myself with distractions and get immersed in my daily tasks. I delight in the world you created but neglect spending time with you, the God who made it. I drift into a haze of doubt and wonder if this life is all there is. Sometimes I even flee to the darkness of anger and despair to escape the suffering of life. But wherever I go, you are already there. 'Even there your hand shall guide me, and your right hand hold me fast' (139:10). No matter how deep my darkness, it 'is not dark' for you (139:12)."

"I rejoice, Lord, that I am fully known and fully loved. Thank you for always being at my side!"

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
Matthew 23:27-32

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Reflections with Brother Adrian:

From today's 1st Holy Scripture:
"As you know, we treated each one of you as a father treats his children,
exhorting and encouraging you and insisting
that you walk in a manner worthy of the God
who calls you into his Kingdom and glory........"
end of verse.
. . .

And that is what loving father does: he exhorts, pleads, encourages, and insists that you walk in His way, and the way is to the Kingdom and Glory of God!
There are things we cannot imagine possible that are being made possible if we'd only have faith.

psalms

We pray today:
"You have searched me and you know me, Lord.
Where can I go from your spirit?
From your presence where can I flee?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I sink to the nether world, you are present there. ....."_ end of Psalm."

2cents2

In the Gospel today we heard:
"....you hypocrites.
You build the tombs of the prophets
and adorn the memorials of the righteous,
and you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets' blood.'
Thus you bear witness against yourselves
that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets......"
end of Gospel verse.

Have you ever thought like the Pharisees and scribes thinking "if only I would've been there with Jesus, seeing all they saw, then I would more easily believe". Right? Like you wouldn't have criticized our Lord or had Him crucified, right? But we can't say that, our Lord tells us we shouldn't say that, because it just seals our fate. You are who you are in faith. What's more, today we have more evidence for Christ and thousands of miracles to witness Christ, and yet we sit here on the fence, wondering if we should act, move, or even believe!

What is holding us back to a more faithful, more loving relationship with our Lord? Sure we say we wouldn't have had our Lord scourged, but we still fall into the same things that cause His scourging which is the sin of impurity. More souls fall to hell because of impurity they say, than any other sin. So we cannot say we are any better than the people that surrounded our Lord over 2,000 years ago. If anything, we should be more humble. They REALLY didn't know better, but we do! We have a greater book with more volumes on faith than they did. The Jews only had the Torah, only 5 books! We have 73 books in the Catholic bible! And thousands upon thousands of other Catholic books from the time of Christ until today! And still God wants more. More life changing and life saving books to be written. And your life is a book being written. All we do matters. And the matter, matters to our Lord in Heaven. All that is unfathomable is fathomed in His mind, and Holy Spirit. And this is where faith, trust, and loving obedience begins to a new spiritual life, and life means eternal life in Him.

........
Let us pray:
Lord, I do not wish to be a white washed tomb, but a living temple, of the living Word of God, and this means truth of Christ from the heart, mind, and soul.

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Random Bible Verse 1
James 1:22–25

[James 1]

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

***

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

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