†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 |  click to read more | | 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. | 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."
| 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 |  click to hear 2cents | audio link
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. | 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!". | 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. |  Click To Hear | 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. | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
