† Quote of the Day "The glory of God is man fully alive, and the life of man is the vision of God." — St. Irenaeus Today's Meditation "What words, can, alas, express the deep grief of the Blessed Virgin? Her eyes closed, a death-like tint overspread her countenance; unable to stand, she fell to the ground, but was soon lifted up, and supported by John, Magdalen, and the others. She looked once more upon her beloved Son—that Son whom she had conceived by the Holy Ghost, the flesh of her flesh, the bone of her bone, the heart of her heart—hanging on a cross between two thieves; crucified, dishonored, condemned by those whom He came on earth to save; and well might she at this moment be termed 'the Queen of Martyrs.'" —Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich, p. 294
An excerpt from The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ Daily Verse "For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite."" — Isaiah 57:15 | St. Irenaeus Of Lyons St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 125 - 203 A.D.) was born in Asia Minor at a time when the direct memory of the Apostles was still alive. He was well educated in Sacred Scripture, theology, philosophy, and literature. He became an astute disciple of St. Polycarp, who himself was a disciple of St. John the Evangelist, one of the Twelve Apostles who belonged to Jesus' inner circle. St. Irenaeus is therefore an early witness of the authentic teaching of the Apostles preserved and handed down in both the written and oral tradition. St. Irenaeus was ordained a priest and became bishop of Lyons in modern-day France. He was one of the Church's first great theologians and apologists, writing his famous and important work 'Against Heresies' to combat the heresy of Gnosticism which greatly threatened the early Church. He is also an early witness of the primacy of Peter over the other Apostles, and thus the authority of the Roman See over the whole Church. St. Irenaeus is one of the most important early Church Fathers and is a Doctor of the Church. His feast day is June 28 | Memorial of Saint Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr • Readings for the Memorial of Saint Irenaeus, bishop and martyr Reading 1 2 KGS 25:1-12 In the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign,
on the tenth day of the month,
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his whole army
advanced against Jerusalem, encamped around it,
and built siege walls on every side.
The siege of the city continued until the eleventh year of Zedekiah.
On the ninth day of the fourth month,
when famine had gripped the city,
and the people had no more bread,
the city walls were breached.
Then the king and all the soldiers left the city by night
through the gate between the two walls
that was near the king's garden.
Since the Chaldeans had the city surrounded,
they went in the direction of the Arabah.
But the Chaldean army pursued the king
and overtook him in the desert near Jericho,
abandoned by his whole army.
The king was therefore arrested and brought to Riblah
to the king of Babylon, who pronounced sentence on him.
He had Zedekiah's sons slain before his eyes.
Then he blinded Zedekiah, bound him with fetters,
and had him brought to Babylon.On the seventh day of the fifth month
(this was in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon),
Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard,
came to Jerusalem as the representative
of the king of Babylon.
He burned the house of the Lord,
the palace of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem;
every large building was destroyed by fire.
Then the Chaldean troops who were with the captain of the guard
tore down the walls that surrounded Jerusalem.
Then Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard,
led into exile the last of the people remaining in the city,
and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon,
and the last of the artisans.
But some of the country's poor, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard,
left behind as vinedressers and farmers. Responsorial Psalm PS 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6 R. (6ab) Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
By the streams of Babylon
we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
On the aspens of that land
we hung up our harps.
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
Though there our captors asked of us
the lyrics of our songs,
And our despoilers urged us to be joyous:
"Sing for us the songs of Zion!"
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
How could we sing a song of the Lord
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand be forgotten!
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
May my tongue cleave to my palate
if I remember you not,
If I place not Jerusalem
ahead of my joy.
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you! Alleluia MATTHEW 8:17 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Christ took away our infirmities
and bore our diseases.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel MT 8:1-4 When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.
And then a leper approached, did him homage, and said,
"Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean."
He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,
"I will do it. Be made clean."
His leprosy was cleansed immediately.
Then Jesus said to him, "See that you tell no one,
but go show yourself to the priest,
and offer the gift that Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them."
| Daily Meditation: 2 Kings 25:1-12 Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, led into exile the last of the people remaining in the city. (2 Kings 25:11) The people of Jerusalem had lost everything. Besieged by invading armies, they were starving, with no relief in sight. Their city had been reduced to rubble, their king had been carried away, and their Temple had been burned to the ground. Now Nebuzaradan, commander of the Babylonian guard, carted off the remaining few to exile in a pagan land. Today's first reading marks the bitter end of the Kingdom of Judah. God's people would now live in exile for seventy years. Many would die there. Their children would spend their entire lives in Babylon, never having seen Jerusalem or worshipped at the Temple. You can understand why the Israelites might lose hope. It would be easy to forget what God had done for their ancestors and the future that he had promised them. Staying faithful to his commands under foreign rule would have been difficult. It would have been easier simply to give up and live like the Babylonians. And some did. But others remembered the Lord and trusted in his faithfulness. With the help of prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, they held on to their faith. They knew that Babylon was not their home and that Nebuchadnezzar was not their king. They were God's people, and he had promised to bring them back home (Jeremiah 29:1-14). We all know what it's like to feel lost or out of place, as if we were in exile. Like the Israelites, we know this world is not our home. We were created for heaven, and we long for our homeland. There, we will live in perfect unity with God and one another for all eternity. Our time on earth is like a blink compared to the eternal joy that lies before us! Life here holds great beauty and blessing as well as suffering and pain. Most importantly, it holds the ever-present help of our Father. He is our refuge and our fortress. And one day, just as he did for Israel, he will bring us home. Today you are heading toward heaven, toward the One who made you. He invites you to stay close to him. He walks beside you and offers you strength for the journey. He will never leave your side. He will lead you home! "Thank you, Lord, for being with me today!" Psalm 137:1-6
Matthew 8:1-4 |  HEAR it read by AI | Reflections with Brother Adrian: | In the Holy Scripture we hear today:
"Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean."
He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,
"I will do it. Be made clean."
His leprosy was cleansed immediately.
Then Jesus said to him, "See that you tell no one,
but go show yourself to the priest,
and offer the gift that Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them."......" end quote. | From Bishop Barron:
"Friends, in today's Gospel, Jesus heals a leper. In our sickness, our weakness, our shame, our sin, our oddness, many of us feel like this leper. We feel as though we're just not worthy, that we should keep our distance.
That the leper comes to Jesus tells us the world about this man's courage, determination, and perhaps desperation. He was an outsider, a despised figure—yet he came to Jesus.
Once in the Lord's presence, the leper "did him homage"—he worshiped him. The suffering man realizes who Jesus is: not one prophet among many, but the Incarnation of the God of Israel, the only one before whom worship is the appropriate attitude. Whatever trouble we are in, we have to come to Jesus in the attitude of worship. He is the Lord and we are not. This is the key step in getting our lives in order: right praise.
Then comes the beautiful phrase, essential in any act of petitionary prayer: "If you wish, you can make me clean." He is not demanding; he is acknowledging the lordship of Jesus, his sovereignty. "Thy will be done" is always the right attitude in any prayer....." end quote from Bishop Barron.
Welcome back to the reflection of the day. Were you amazed by what our Lord said today? Or were you amazed by what our Lord DID today?
What did He say to the poor leper, the diseased person that nobody wanted to be around with?
What did our Lord say to the poor abandoned person that asked for healing? Our Lord said "I will do it. Be made clean".
Are you in need of healing? Most that are hearing this are probably doing well, or OK at least. But this person was sentenced to death, not only by the disease, but by the very people among him, even his own relatives, and he was especially barred from entering or coming near any sacred temple!
Let's not get too haughty. Most of us are in real need of healing inside too. We sentence ourselves with our own sins. But, how many of us realize this? And how many want to be healed at all? Some of us have given permission to sin, and we are comfortable with it. Or are we really that happy with our sin? If we live a life of grace, and we are baptized, the answer is no, you are not happy or living well with sin. On the outside we may appear well, but on the inside the sin is eating away at us like leprosy. And funny thing about this is, that to be healed, all we have to do is to go to our Lord and we will hear those words of absolution in Holy Confession: "I will do it. Be made clean".
And then life changes. We are not as ousted, we live closer in God's family. Grace begins to glow and to grow from within, and there is less and less room for sin.
Our Lord asks the person to go to a priest. He is the priest there too. He asks us to do what the priest says. We are called to a life of Holy Obedience.
Before we go, I'd like to share something that happened yesterday.
Me and my little boy that likes to work with me, we had gone to town to eat a late lunch and then stopped by the church to pray. I learned my lesson, not to be passing our Lord by so easily! And, on our way back to work, we saw a very tall black man on the street corner with luggage, he seemed a little older and very slender. I passed by, but, something drew me to turn back around for him. So I went up the road and made some right turns to come pick him up, a hitchhiker.
I pulled up, I said "where are you going?" and he said the next town, and I said " yep, I thought so, hop on, throw all your bags in the back first" and he was so happy and did so right away.
Somehow, as quick as he was, when he hopped in, the conversation immediately turned to God, and he said he knows why I picked him up, I asked "why?" he said because of the decal logo emblem I have posted on my truck sides, a picture of our Lord crucified that says on top "He Died For Me" and below it reads "I'll Live For Him".
And then he said that he also knew I was picking him up because the Holy Spirit had told him that I was going back to pick him up after he saw me turn off up the road.
I asked his name. He said "Michael, like the Archangel...I bet you won't forget now right?". I agreed. In the 25 minute ride, we spoke nonstop and before we knew it, we were there, like we were teleported, LOL.
He said he was in prison, in Huntsville, the biggest and maybe one of the most high security prisons in the state of Texas. He kept saying the words prison ministry. I asked him about it. He said that it is what helped him. I said "well, I'm in prison ministry too" and he got a huge smile again, as if inspired by God again, "so not only did the Holy Spirit tell me about you picking me up, but you are also a prison minister picking up an ex-prisoner!". He kept saying how very few do what we do. He kept saying how people are afraid to do what we do in prisons. And many times he said how people are afraid of him and stay away from him because he is homeless and also probably because of his skin color.
He was careful even at his next stop, another church, wanting to call before coming inside to ask for help. Most churches gave him the run around, especially after realizing he was an ex-prisoner. He said the first thing they ask him is "what were you in there for?". I knew what he meant. As if it mattered. Does it? The first thing we all ask when someone dies is "what happened to them? How did they die?" As if it mattered for the person that died at the moment.
What about the person themselves? I never asked what he was in prison for 7 years for, I pretty much can guess a few things, so what does it matter? What matters is his realization of God working in his life.
This is a leper. I reached to his hand and shook his hand.
I remember making a stop at our work saying "I need to get you a cold water" he said OK, but truthfully, I wanted to stop and get him some money for the journey too. I got the best cap I had been saving for myself and I gave it to him, he would need it much more than me.
Back on the road, I said "I forgot my drink at the office! my cold lemonade". He smiled and said " all you cared about me, my drink and you forgot all about yourself". As we expounded on that I said, yes my brother, that's what the definition of love mean; to will the good of the other. He was enlightened and astounded by those words.
He had a cheap old flip phone. I gave him my phone number when I dropped him off saying "call me if you get stuck". And I gave him the money, and drove off after handing him all his luggage from the back of my tall truck.
My little boy was there and Michael had told him "are you seeing what all your dad is doing here?"
I got back to work, tackling problems outside, fixing pumps and had my hands tied and a strange phone number kept bugging, calling. I finally answered and it was him again. Seeming to want a hotel, then I said i had given him enough for a room. Later that night he called saying he was turned in at the court he stood outside but the person that checked him out was tied to the church and they obliged to get him a room for the night.
He called this morning again LOL. Said he was about to go have breakfast with someone, then he threw me off guard saying "would you pray the rosary for me?". And he's not even Catholic! I said "my brother, that's a very powerful prayer, but yes, I'll do that for you.
And he was very happy again.
I am living our Lord's words, "I will do it."
Because His Heart is so precious. Sacred Heart of Jesus, Be My Love! |  Click for Audio | Amazing:
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2 Corinthians 4:11 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
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