†Saint Quote of the Day
""Preserve the warmth of the family, because the warmth of the whole world cannot make up for it."
–St. Charbel Makhlouf †Today's Meditation "Reading the holy Scriptures confers two benefits. It trains the mind to understand them; it turns man's attention from the follies of the world and leads him to the love of God. Two kinds of study are called for here. We must first learn how the Scriptures are to be understood, and then see how to expound them with profit and in a manner worthy of them . . . No one can understand holy Scripture without constant reading . . . The more you devote yourself to the study of the sacred utterances, the richer will be your understanding of them, just as the more the soil is tilled, the richer the harvest."
—St. Isidore of Seville, p. 201 †Daily Verse "O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand." –Psalm 95:6-7 |  click to read more | | St. Hyacinth of Poland St. Hyacinth (1185-1257) was born of noble lineage and reared in a Polish castle. His parents took great care of the development of his mind and soul, entrusting his education to his uncle, a priest who became the Bishop of Krakow. Hyacinth excelled in his studies and was sent to the best universities in Europe. After earning two doctorates, he visited Rome in 1220 and met St. Dominic, who had recently received papal approval for the founding of the Order of Preachers. Hyacinth became one of the first Dominican friars and was sent to establish the order in Poland. He was so effective in his preaching for the salvation of souls that he also preached in many other countries including Austria, Prussia, Lithuania, Bohemia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Russia, and China. He founded many monasteries and churches, and multitudes were converted to the faith through his astounding miracles, even the extraordinary feat of raising a dead boy to life. One day he was saying Mass in Kiev when enemy Tartars invaded the city. After Mass he fled with the Blessed Sacrament, but he stopped when he heard a voice from a statue of the Virgin Mary asking that he take her with him. Although the statue was much too heavy to carry, he found that it became so light that he lifted it with ease. When he came to the Dnieper river with the Holy Eucharist and the Blessed Mother in his arms, he, along with his companions, walked dry-shod across the river as they fled from the Tartars. Worn out from his labors, he died on the Feast of the Assumption. St. Hyacinth is the patron of Lithuania, Krakow, and Poland. His feast day is August 17th. | Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Jos 3:7-10a, 11, 13-17 The LORD said to Joshua,
"Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel,
that they may know I am with you, as I was with Moses.
Now command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant
to come to a halt in the Jordan
when you reach the edge of the waters." So Joshua said to the children of Israel,
"Come here and listen to the words of the LORD, your God.
This is how you will know that there is a living God in your midst,
who at your approach will dispossess the Canaanites.
The ark of the covenant of the LORD of the whole earth
will precede you into the Jordan.
When the soles of the feet of the priests carrying the ark of the LORD,
the Lord of the whole earth,
touch the water of the Jordan, it will cease to flow;
for the water flowing down from upstream will halt in a solid bank." The people struck their tents to cross the Jordan,
with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant ahead of them.
No sooner had these priestly bearers of the ark
waded into the waters at the edge of the Jordan,
which overflows all its banks
during the entire season of the harvest,
than the waters flowing from upstream halted,
backing up in a solid mass for a very great distance indeed,
from Adam, a city in the direction of Zarethan;
while those flowing downstream toward the Salt Sea of the Arabah
disappeared entirely.
Thus the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
While all Israel crossed over on dry ground,
the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD
remained motionless on dry ground in the bed of the Jordan
until the whole nation had completed the passage. Responsorial Psalm Ps 114:1-2, 3-4, 5-6 R. Alleluia!
When Israel came forth from Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of alien tongue,
Judah became his sanctuary,
Israel his domain.
R. Alleluia!
The sea beheld and fled;
Jordan turned back.
The mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like the lambs of the flock.
R. Alleluia!
Why is it, O sea, that you flee?
O Jordan, that you turn back?
You mountains, that you skip like rams?
You hills, like the lambs of the flock?
R. Alleluia! Alleluia Ps 119:135 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Let your countenance shine upon your servant
and teach me your statutes.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Mt 18:21–19:1 Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
"Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive him?
As many as seven times?"
Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who decided to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began the accounting,
a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
Since he had no way of paying it back,
his master ordered him to be sold,
along with his wife, his children, and all his property,
in payment of the debt.
At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,
'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.'
Moved with compassion the master of that servant
let him go and forgave him the loan.
When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants
who owed him a much smaller amount.
He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,
'Pay back what you owe.'
Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,
'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'
But he refused.
Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison
until he paid back the debt.
Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,
they were deeply disturbed,
and went to their master and reported the whole affair.
His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant!
I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?'
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart." When Jesus finished these words, he left Galilee
and went to the district of Judea across the Jordan.
| Daily Meditation: Matthew 18:21–19:1 Not seven times but seventy-seven times. (Matthew 18:22) Jesus' parable can be challenging, especially when we've been deeply hurt by someone and are still struggling to forgive them. It's true, of course, that God has forgiven us such a large debt that we should forgive the much smaller "debt" that someone else owes us. But sometimes it's difficult even to get to the point of wanting to forgive another person. So let's look at how our unforgiveness might be affecting us. We may have experienced the pain of abuse, betrayal, or neglect, but that pain is only magnified when we hold onto it. Then we become weighed down by bitterness and resentment. These burdens prevent us from living in the fullness of peace that Christ won for us on Calvary. Jesus came to liberate the captives (Luke 4:18), and extending forgiveness frees us from the prison of our negative thoughts and feelings. It helps us to love others as Christ loves us. Praise be to God that our ability to forgive does not depend only on us! Earlier in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus tells us, "Ask and it will be given to you" (7:7). So even though this task of forgiveness can seem impossible, the Lord promises that if we ask, he will soften our hearts and help us to begin moving along the path of forgiveness. Even so, it's important to keep in mind that forgiveness does not often come instantaneously. Pursuing it requires just as much patience and mercy with ourselves as it does for the ones who have wronged us. There will surely be moments when we fall back into anger and frustration. But each time we do, we can call on the Lord and ask for more of his mercy and grace. It's a prayer that he loves to answer. "For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1). Don't let the bitterness and resentment of unforgiveness shackle you. Believe that with God's grace, you can live in the freedom that is yours in Christ. "Jesus, I want to be free! Help me forgive all those who have hurt me." Joshua 3:7-11, 13-17
Psalm 114:1-6 |  click to hear 2cents | audio link
Reflections with Brother Adrian: | From today's 1st Holy Scripture:
"So Joshua said to the children of Israel,
"Come here and listen to the words of the LORD, your God.
This is how you will know that there is a living God in your midst,
who at your approach will dispossess the Canaanites.
The ark of the covenant of the LORD of the whole earth
will precede you into the Jordan........." end of verse. And who are the children of Israel? We are! We are the gathered flock of our Lord, and our Lord says "Come here and listen!". Our Lord will traverse us once again into a place we are to conquer. He will open the door for us to enter the fight. Isn't life a battle? For me it is a continuous struggle and fight and battle on all fronts. I'm constantly fighting within myself for spiritual oneness with God in holiness and purity, and I find myself always coming up short, completely imperfect. But our Lord is with us. He is not against us. The only way we can turn against Him is if we stop trying, because we will be set in our ways. Yesterday, we had our old cement truck taking the last load to complete the driveway for our church, and it locked down, engine wouldn't turn and the concrete batch it was mixing stopped turning, and once concrete stops moving with water, it will start to set, which means to get hardened and it becomes like stone. I prayed, very stressed out that it would not happen, because it can ruin the truck spinning container, and that is super hard to fix, we'd have to use jackhammers and lots of labor. I prayed. And I prayed. They said the engine wouldn't turn on, I sent mechanics and parts, and nothing, it wouldn't start. They drug it back to our yard and I never heard nothing again until this morning...they let it seize up without telling me, and I was too busy to keep checking up on its progress. Not only is the engine seized overheated and locked, but so is the concrete hardened like a stone.
It is just about a complete loss now. The job isn't finished. The concrete truck is unavailable, and local cement companies can't help till next week and this is our only shot to help the church.
What's my point? The point is that we too can begin to "set" like concrete, if we begin to "settle" with our sins, and get comfortable with sin. We should never cease and seize up. Our Lord will be with us, His name means "He-Saves". I'm counting on Divine Mercy. | We pray today:
"Why is it, O sea, that you flee?
O Jordan, that you turn back?
You mountains, that you skip like rams?
You hills, like the lambs of the flock?......"_ end of Psalm. | In the Gospel today we heard:
"His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant!
I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?'
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart."......." end of Gospel verse. | From Bishop Barron today:
"Friends, in today's Gospel, Jesus teaches the necessity of constant forgiveness. Forgiveness is an act and not an attitude. It is the active repairing of a broken relationship, even in the face of opposition, violence, or indifference. When a relationship is severed, each party should, in justice, do his part to reestablish the bond.
Forgiveness is the bearing of the other person's burden, moving toward him even when he refuses to move an inch toward you. There is something relentless, even aggressive, about forgiveness, since it amounts to a refusal ever to give up on a relationship. Simon Peter asks Jesus, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus replies: "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times." Christians should never cease in our efforts to establish love.
Jesus' own startling practice of forgiving the sins of others emerges as one of the distinctive and most controversial elements in his ministry. And both rhetoric and practice reach their fullest expression when the crucified Jesus asks the Father to forgive those who are torturing him to death. We speak the truth because Jesus is the Truth; we forgive because he forgave." end quote Bishop Barron.
So, how hard is it to forgive? It depends on the sin, and how deep the wound got into someone, right? I heard workers talking about a lady that killed her 3 children because she'd hear voices in her head. She didn't go to jail. And today she is suffering with cancers all over her body. But the worst pains they say is having lost all her children.
My wife and kids get tired of me watching "near death experience" stories. So I stopped watching now. But most are similar. Some are not in line, perhaps hallucinations, but the real ones there is no denial with scientific evidence, and the ones that resonate with me are the once of love and mercy of our Father in Heaven.
One story I cannot forget ever, is a story of a man that died and saw his life played out before him, especially the most cruel moments, like when he beat up another guy, and he says that he can remember every blow to the face, but every punch that he threw, he could feel every pain the other guy was taking, because it was as if he was receiving all the blows and punches himself, feeling his nose being broken, and face getting beat up.
You could tell it hurt him so bad.
This makes me recall our Lord's words: "And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.' " Matthew 25:40. Can you imagine hurting God Himself? Punching Him and scourging Him with whips with tips of steel to rip off His flesh?
Yet saints and visionaries say that sins, especially those of impurity are the lacerations our Lord still receives today. And those insults we throw? Words can edify or destroy, can't they? How could you hurt someone with your harsh mannerisms? And those times you denied our Lord? Let us pray:
Lord, forgive me. Forgive me as I forgive others. Let me lavish others with mercy and show them great love, so that I may receive grace from Heaven to dare to look up to You and Your precious wounds. Soak me with Your precious blood, and commingle my blood with yours. Lord help us, Lord graciously help us. |  Click To Hear | Random Bible Verse 1
2 Corinthians 3:4–6 [2 Corinthians 3] 4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
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