†Quote of the Day
"The family, founded upon marriage freely contracted, one and indissoluble, must be regarded as the natural, primary cell of human society. The interests of the family, therefore, must be taken very specially into consideration in social and economic affairs, as well as in the spheres of faith and morals. For all of these have to do with strengthening the family and assisting it in the fulfillment of its mission."
–John XXIII, Pacem in Terris -1963 †Today's Meditation
"Just as a family needs to eat its meals together in order to get along and be nourished, so also do we need the Eucharist in order to be nourished with Christ's Body and Blood and to attain eternal life (John 6:53-54). The Mass is also a celebration with the extended family of the Church. Some celebrations of the Mass are extra special, such as the important feasts of Christmas and Easter…These very important communal celebrations are analogous to those large family celebrations and reunions that bring many relatives together for a special occasion. Just as family reunions are never as intimate as small family dinners, neither are the large sacramental celebrations as intimate as the daily parish Mass. Yet these different kinds of Eucharistic celebrations complement one another, just as an intimate candlelight dinner complements the wedding feast."
– Fr. Mitch Pacwa, SJ, p.94-95 An Excerpt From
How to Listen When God Is Speaking †Daily Verse
"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, "My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust."
–Psalm 91:1-2 |  click to read more | | Pope St. John XXIII Pope St. John XXIII (1881–1963) was the third of thirteen children born to a poor sharecropping family living in Lombardy, Italy. Desiring to serve God with his life, he entered seminary at the age of 12, and, after serving a short stint in the Italian Army, was ordained a priest in 1904. He taught apologetics and church history before being called to service as a military chaplain during the first World War. He later served in Rome on various diplomatic assignments, rising in ecclesiastical rank as bishop and then cardinal-patriarch of Venice. An obscure pick for the Supreme Pontiff, he was unexpectedly elected the 261st Pope at the age of 76. He took the name John which had not been used in over 500 years. The papacy of this presumed "caretaker pope" was expected to be an uneventful one, however, to the surprise of all, shortly into his reign he called the Second Vatican Council. He presided over its first session but did not live to see its completion. He reigned as pope for less than five years before dying of stomach cancer. As Holy Father he had a special concern for the equal dignity of humanity, the unity of all Christians, and world peace. He broke with many of the formalities of the papacy and was affectionately called the "Good Pope", in Italian, "il Papa buono." He was canonized by Pope Francis together with Pope John Paul II in 2014. His feast day is October 11th. | Wednesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Jon 4:1-11 Jonah was greatly displeased
and became angry that God did not carry out the evil
he threatened against Nineveh.
He prayed, "I beseech you, LORD,
is not this what I said while I was still in my own country?
This is why I fled at first to Tarshish.
I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God,
slow to anger, rich in clemency, loath to punish.
And now, LORD, please take my life from me;
for it is better for me to die than to live."
But the LORD asked, "Have you reason to be angry?" Jonah then left the city for a place to the east of it,
where he built himself a hut and waited under it in the shade,
to see what would happen to the city.
And when the LORD God provided a gourd plant
that grew up over Jonah's head,
giving shade that relieved him of any discomfort,
Jonah was very happy over the plant.
But the next morning at dawn
God sent a worm that attacked the plant,
so that it withered.
And when the sun arose, God sent a burning east wind;
and the sun beat upon Jonah's head till he became faint.
Then Jonah asked for death, saying,
"I would be better off dead than alive." But God said to Jonah,
"Have you reason to be angry over the plant?"
"I have reason to be angry," Jonah answered, "angry enough to die."
Then the LORD said,
"You are concerned over the plant which cost you no labor
and which you did not raise;
it came up in one night and in one night it perished.
And should I not be concerned over Nineveh, the great city,
in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons
who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left,
not to mention the many cattle?" Responsorial Psalm Ps 86:3-4, 5-6, 9-10 R. (15) Lord, you are merciful and gracious.
Have mercy on me, O Lord,
for to you I call all the day.
Gladden the soul of your servant,
for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
R. Lord, you are merciful and gracious.
For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.
Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my pleading.
R. Lord, you are merciful and gracious.
All the nations you have made shall come
and worship you, O Lord,
and glorify your name.
For you are great, and you do wondrous deeds;
you alone are God.
R. Lord, you are merciful and gracious. Alleluia Rom 8:15bc R. Alleluia, alleluia.
You have received a spirit of adoption as sons
through which we cry: Abba! Father!
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Lk 11:1-4 Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
"Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."
He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name,
your Kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test." | Daily Meditation: Jonah 4:1-11 You are a gracious and merciful God. (Jonah 4:2) Did you know that Jonah made this proclamation of God's grace and mercy as part of a complaint? I didn't want to go to Nineveh, he whines, because I knew that you, Lord, would probably have mercy on them! God tries to get Jonah to realize that he has no reason to be angry about the salvation of the Ninevites, but to no avail. How ironic it is that throughout his story, Jonah is the one who ends up on the receiving end of the Lord's grace and mercy. Fortunately for us, God's mercy doesn't depend on our attitude. Merciful is who God is, and he offers his mercy to us because we all need it. Jonah is a case in point. Still fuming that the Lord plans to spare the repentant Ninevites, he sets himself up on a sunny hillside to watch what he hopes will be the destruction of that hated city. Then when God sends him a wide-leafed plant to shade him from the sun and the oppressive heat, Jonah is delighted. He might even think he deserves that small consolation after all he's been through. That is, until the next day, when the plant dies! Once again, Jonah plunges into despair. And once again, God tries to teach him the meaning of mercy. If the prophet grieves the loss of a simple plant, how much more would the Lord be concerned for an entire city of people who stood on the brink of destruction (Jonah 4:10-11)? The Lord is deeply invested in the lives of each person he created and wants nothing more than to bring them back to himself. Jonah's story ends before we find out how he responded to God's mercy or whether he learned his lesson. But we can learn, even if he didn't. Because even if he said it as a complaint, Jonah got one thing right: God is gracious and merciful. His mercy extends beyond our narrow parameters. It reaches out beyond us and the people we're comfortable with. It forgives even our enemies, even those who have hurt us or a loved one. God wants every human being to be united with him in love. And he proves it to us by all the times he reaches out to us in mercy—even if we're in the belly of a great big fish! "Loving God, I praise you for your overwhelming mercy!" Psalm 86:3-6, 9-10
Luke 11:1-4 |  click to hear 2cents | Reflections with Brother Adrian:
Audio Link | From today's 1st Holy Scripture:
"You are concerned over the plant which cost you no labor and which you did not raise; it came up in one night and in one night it perished. And should I not be concerned over Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons
who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left,
not to mention the many cattle?............"
. . . And the words come as if they are coming from our Lord Jesus Himself...mercy itself, right? To note that the city repented, and one more person was needed to repent...the prodigal son's older brother, still huffing over how things are not fair. Where is the love there? Why isn't the older brother relenting and repenting and being merciful? It's our worldly nature. But we are created to be human, and even more. More merciful. Can you imagine how different the world would be if we were like Our Father asked us to be? Loving and forgiving...trusting in Him instead of listening to our own ways and thoughts? | We pray today:
"For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.
Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer and attend to the sound of my pleading. Lord, you are merciful and gracious. All the nations you have made shall come and worship you, O Lord, and glorify your name. For you are great, and you do wondrous deeds; you alone are God......" | In the Gospel today we heard:
_"He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name,
your Kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test....."_ end of Gospel verse. | From Bishop Barron today:
"Friends, our Gospel today gives us an opportunity to reflect on the Lord's Prayer, the prayer for the Christian journey. I want to consider three of the prayer's petitions.
"Father, hallowed be your name." We're not implying that God should make his name holy (as though it isn't); we're praying that we might make it holy for us, that God might be honored above all. Everything else in the spiritual life flows from this prioritization.
"Your Kingdom come." God's kingdom refers to God's way of ordering things. Jesus' teaching and his manner of life give us a very good idea of what this kingdom would look like: peace, nonviolence, forgiveness, healing, walking the path of compassion.
"Forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us." How central to the teaching of Jesus is forgiveness. And how central to the suffering of the world is the incapacity to forgive, both on the smallest, most intimate level and on the grandest scale.
How wonderful and how deeply challenging that at the very heart of the prayer that the Son of God taught us is a petition to be given the grace to forgive." end quote.
Isn't it interesting that our Lord Jesus prays and then taught us how to pray? Isn't He God Himself? Isn't he supposed to be prayed to? On earth, while on earth, as humans, we are to pray, and we are to pray always. Jesus always prayed, day and night, and sometimes all night long. If our Lord prays, it is a sure sign then, that we are to pray too.
And praying is not saying. I don't like to say the Lord's prayer, I like to focus and try always to pray with sincerity every word that comes out of my mouth, giving them meaning and power, sincerity of heart. And we should all too. Saying a prayer may have some minimal effect and be somewhat efficacious, but if you put more effort into it, more marvelous things begin to happen! Like connecting more with Him...and one another. ........
Let us pray:
Heart of Jesus, You have taught us
How to seek and how to find,
And the lesson now has brought us
To Your Heart so sweet and kind.
What we ask, with faith believing,
You have pledged Your word to give,
And Your word is not deceiving,
But the truth by which we live. |  Click To Hear | Random Bible Verse 1
Ecclesiastes 7:9 9 Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart1 of fools. | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
