†Quote of the Day
"Be patient, because the weaknesses of the body are given to us in this world by God for the salvation of the soul. So they are of great merit when they are borne patiently."
–St. Francis of Assisi †Today's Meditation
"Your Lord is seated at the Father's right hand in heaven. How then is the bread His body? And the chalice, or rather its content, how is it His Blood? These elements are called Sacraments, because in them one thing is perceived by the sense and another thing by the mind. What is seen has a bodily appearance; what the mind perceives produces spiritual fruit. You hear the words, 'The Body of Christ', and you answer 'Amen.'"
—Saint Augustine, p. 91 An Excerpt From
Augustine Day by Day †Daily Verse
"This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you."
–John 15:12-14 | St. Barbara St. Barbara (3rd c.) was born in Nicomedia in modern day Turkey. According to tradition, after the death of her mother she was raised by her rich and tyrannical pagan father who, because of her beauty and intelligence, guarded her closely, keeping her locked away in a tower to protect her from the outside world. She was educated by tutors and came to reject the false gods she was taught to worship in favor of the true God for whom she yearned and wished to discover, dedicating her life and virginity to this purpose. She developed a prayer life and resisted her father's attempts to have her marry. Believing Barbara to be negatively affected by the seclusion, her father allowed her more freedom to associate with the world. She soon discovered Christians, and, recognizing the Creator she sought, and was baptized in secret. After informing her father that she was a Christian, he denounced her to the authorities under the persecution of Roman Emperor Maximian. She was imprisoned and cruelly tortured, but remained steadfast in her faith. During the night she would pray fervently, and her wounds would miraculously heal. This only subjected her to greater torments, followed by more miraculous interventions. She was finally beheaded by her own father, and afterward he was struck and killed by lightening as punishment. St. Barbara is the patron saint of firemen, armorers, artillerymen, military engineers, miners, and others who work with explosives. She is also the patron against storms, lightning, and fire, to name a few. St. Barbara's feast day is December 4th. | Monday of the First Week of Advent Reading 1 Is 2:1-5 This is what Isaiah, son of Amoz,
saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In days to come,
The mountain of the LORD's house
shall be established as the highest mountain
and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it;
many peoples shall come and say:
"Come, let us climb the LORD's mountain,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
That he may instruct us in his ways,
and we may walk in his paths."
For from Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and impose terms on many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
One nation shall not raise the sword against another,
nor shall they train for war again. O house of Jacob, come,
let us walk in the light of the LORD! Responsorial Psalm Ps 122:1-2, 3-4b, 4cd-5, 6-7, 8-9 R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
I rejoiced because they said to me,
"We will go up to the house of the LORD."
And now we have set foot
within your gates, O Jerusalem.
R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
Jerusalem, built as a city
with compact unity.
To it the tribes go up,
the tribes of the LORD.
R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
According to the decree for Israel,
to give thanks to the name of the LORD.
In it are set up judgment seats,
seats for the house of David.
R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
May those who love you prosper!
May peace be within your walls,
prosperity in your buildings.
R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
Because of my relatives and friends
I will say, "Peace be within you!"
Because of the house of the LORD, our God,
I will pray for your good.
R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord. Alleluia See Ps 80:4 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Come and save us, LORD our God;
Let your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Mt 8:5-11 When Jesus entered Capernaum,
a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying,
"Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully."
He said to him, "I will come and cure him."
The centurion said in reply,
"Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof;
only say the word and my servant will be healed.
For I too am a man subject to authority,
with soldiers subject to me.
And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes;
and to another, 'Come here,' and he comes;
and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it."
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him,
"Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.
I say to you, many will come from the east and the west,
and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven." | Daily Meditation: Isaiah 2:1-5 One nation shall not raise the sword against another. (Isaiah 2:4) By Christmas Eve 1914, the First World War had been raging for six months. But something strange happened that night. In several locations along the front lines, soldiers on both sides climbed out of their trenches and met each other. They shook hands, sang songs, and traded tobacco and bottles of wine. They even played pickup soccer games. One soldier wrote, "Thus Christmas, the celebration of Love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time." You could see this unlikely truce as simply a touching example of the Christmas spirit in action. But you could also see it as a foretaste of the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy from today's first reading. What could cause deadly enemies to lay down their guns? Well, maybe not "what" but rather "who." Only Jesus, the One the Scriptures call the "Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:5), could do this. How? When he gave his life for us on the cross, Jesus reconciled us to our heavenly Father. Now reconciled with God, we can receive the grace and the power to be reconciled with one another. We see the peace that he has brought to our own hearts, and it changes the way we look at other people. We want them to experience that peace and reconciliation, too. As you reflect on this scene of enemies connecting with each other, you may be thinking of some other conflicts closer to home. Perhaps you know a family where there is a long-standing grudge festering. Or perhaps there is someone in your own family who is difficult to get along with. There's no "magic formula" to make everything all right. But don't discount the power of prayer. Invite Jesus, the Prince of Peace, to bring reconciliation into each relationship. Ask for inspiration—you may realize that there is something you can do or say that will help bring Christ's peace to the situation. You have the Holy Spirit within you, and his grace can do amazing things. This Christmas, may Christ turn enemies into friends once again—and friends for more than just one day! "Lord, may your peace reign—in our families, neighborhoods, and communities, in our nation, and around the world." Psalm 122:1-9
Matthew 8:5-11 |  click to hear 2cents | Reflections with Brother Adrian:
Audio English | From today's 1st Holy Scripture:
""Come, let us climb the LORD's mountain,
to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths....."_ end of verse.
. . . Can you imagine a world that actually followed God's commands and the Way of Jesus our King?
It would indeed look similar to Heaven!
But, since the Word is slow, and since we are slow of heart, there are fights and wars. If only we would believe! I asked the elderly yesterday in the nursing home as we gathered for songs and prayers "how can we live with our lights on?" as I had mentioned "Be alert, be ready!" in scripture and the first candle had been lit in our church in the advent wreath. A new elderly lady, hunched in her wheelchair, neck twisted and she said the answer I wanted to hear " be living the Word of God". Yes! Live out the joyful expectation. Can we? Of course! Will we? That's up to all of us. | We pray today:
"I rejoiced because they said to me,
"We will go up to the house of the LORD."
And now we have set foot within your gates, O Jerusalem. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord......." end of psalm. | In the Gospel today we heard our Lord:
"When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him,
"Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.
I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven."
....." end of Gospel verse. | From Bishop Barron today:
"Friends, in our Gospel today, a Roman centurion comes to Jesus and says, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully. . . . I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed."
Any objective observer would say, "Well, this is ridiculous! What this man is asking is impossible." He is not only asking that his servant might be cured; he is asking that he be cured at a distance, with simply a word. He's at the limit of what he could possibly know or control or measure. And yet he trusts; he has faith.
Søren Kierkegaard defined faith as "a passion for the impossible." Is God opposed to reason? Absolutely not; God gave us the gift of reason. Does God want us to be unrealistic? No; he wants us to use all of our powers of imagination and analysis. But faith goes beyond reason; it is a passion for what reason can't see.
That centurion had a passion for the impossible. And that's why Jesus says to him, in some of the highest praise you'll find in the Gospel, "In no one in Israel have I found such faith.. . ." end quote Bishop Barron.
Isn't it amazing that our Lord can be amazed? What does that say about our very lives? It says that we are not robots, or destined with no real free will. And this is good News. God has the story written, but it is not written the way we write things. We operate, even in the computer programming world, with a yes and a no, an on or an off, with words like "if" and "then", with a consequence of a decision. That's how we know how to operate and indeed our Lord asks us to make a decision of a yes or a no. But in a greater scheme of things, and out of our 3 dimensions, God can write our story with our free will and still culminate to His greater Good and Holy will. For example,me and my wife never expected to have 8 kids. Try as we may, we didn't follow the guidelines for family planning, not the ways of the world, nor the Natural Family Planning method. Failed at both. But God made good out of our "mistakes", He saw that we were ultimately trying to do His will. God does not make mistakes. And He can make good out of our frail lives with our meager intentions. Can you imagine what He could do with fervent and faithful intentions and prayers, like that of the centurion? "No Lord, you don't need to bother yourself, take not one more step towards the sick and dying man or my house, you have many more important things to do, just say the word and he will be healed."
Wow!
Nobody else had approached our Lord with such faith and honor.
What an eye opening experience! And so, everything in our world, whether you are a believer in Christ or not, hinges on faith. What or who do you put your faith in? Another instance of little faith. Last night, me and my wife went to go see one of my favorite monks, a troubadour for the Lord, John Michael Talbot in a local city in a parish Church. We didn't expect much, but just to hear him sing a few songs and a few words and leave. Little did we know that it would turn into a moment of intense peace and adoration of our Lord which I knew I needed but didn't know I could ask for it. And so the prayers lead to healing, and peace. I cannot find this peace anywhere else but in Him. Indeed, like St. Augustine said "Our hearts are wrestless Lord, until we rest in Thee".
Our Lord said in many instances:
"Oh ye of little faith? How much Longer will I be with you?"
And they reposed the Lord. Yet He is still here. Among us. Pray with me:
Lord, I pray that I may have the faith of the centurion. That we may truly believe and honor Thee always. |  Click To Hear | Wow! Think Eucharist:
Random Bible Verse
John 6:27 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal." | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
