† Quote of the Day "The closer one approaches to God, the simpler one becomes." — St. Teresa of Avila Today's Meditation "Meekness is spiritual; meekness is joy. And we should all strive to have in our hearts that joy that is contagiously cheerful. We need not think that we must be continually joking; nor should we believe that even-temperedness must express its happiness in laughter. We may and undoubtedly will have bothersome worries, but we can and should be even-tempered, retain our peace of heart, be meek in spite of them. We can at least bear with life's small problems in such a way as not to allow them to rush upon others. Even temper is attractive, helps the community spirit, keeps down all that ends to anger for it seeks under varying circumstances to be pleasant, amiable, agreeable, mild, patient. It is, in fact, the practice of many virtues." —Matt Fradd, p.79
An excerpt from Rooting Out Hidden Faults - How the Particular Examen Conquers Sin Daily Verse "Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it—the Lord is his name: Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things which you have not known." — Jeremiah 33: 2-3 | St. Januarius St. Januarius (d. 305 A.D.), also known as San Gennaro, was the Bishop of Benevento, Italy. Little is known of his early life. He was arrested and imprisoned for his faith while visiting other Christians in jail during the persecution of Roman Emperor Diocletian. Many attempts were made to kill him, but one after another they failed. He was thrown into a fiery furnace, but he came out unscathed. He was then thrown to wild beasts in the amphitheater, but they did not attack. He was finally beheaded, and his blood was collected by Christians and kept in a sealed glass vial for veneration. The vial of blood is still kept today in the Naples cathedral, and it has continually demonstrated miraculous properties for which no scientific explanation has been offered. St. Januarius' blood liquefies and becomes fresh on particular occasions throughout the year, especially his feast day, for which the saint has become famous. This phenomenon has been occurring with regularity for centuries, and is one of the "blood miracles" that is historically well-documented among the relics of certain saints. He is the patron saint of blood banks and the city of Naples, Italy. St. Januarius's feast day is September 19th. | Thursday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 1 COR 15:1-11 I am reminding you, brothers and sisters,
of the Gospel I preached to you,
which you indeed received and in which you also stand.
Through it you are also being saved,
if you hold fast to the word I preached to you,
unless you believed in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once,
most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.
After that he appeared to James,
then to all the Apostles.
Last of all, as to one born abnormally,
he appeared to me.
For I am the least of the Apostles,
not fit to be called an Apostle,
because I persecuted the Church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am,
and his grace to me has not been ineffective.
Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them;
not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me.
Therefore, whether it be I or they,
so we preach and so you believed. Responsorial Psalm PS 118:1B-2, 16AB-17, 28 R. (1) Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
Let the house of Israel say,
"His mercy endures forever."
R. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
"The right hand of the LORD is exalted;
the right hand of the Lord has struck with power."
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD.
R. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
You are my God, and I give thanks to you;
O my God, I extol you.
R. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. Alleluia MT 11:28 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest, says the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel LK 7:36-50 A certain Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him,
and he entered the Pharisee's house and reclined at table.
Now there was a sinful woman in the city
who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee.
Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment,
she stood behind him at his feet weeping
and began to bathe his feet with her tears.
Then she wiped them with her hair,
kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself,
"If this man were a prophet,
he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him,
that she is a sinner."
Jesus said to him in reply,
"Simon, I have something to say to you."
"Tell me, teacher," he said.
"Two people were in debt to a certain creditor;
one owed five hundred days' wages and the other owed fifty.
Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both.
Which of them will love him more?"
Simon said in reply,
"The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven."
He said to him, "You have judged rightly."
Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon,
"Do you see this woman?
When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet,
but she has bathed them with her tears
and wiped them with her hair.
You did not give me a kiss,
but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered.
You did not anoint my head with oil,
but she anointed my feet with ointment.
So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven;
hence, she has shown great love.
But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little."
He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."
The others at table said to themselves,
"Who is this who even forgives sins?"
But he said to the woman,
"Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
| Daily Meditation: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. (1 Corinthians 15:10) We're all familiar with the marketing technique of online "influencers" who attempt to get us to try new products. This strategy can be effective, but the most convincing persuasion comes from someone you trust, someone who has already tried it themselves. It helps you answer the question Is this really true? When it comes to the grace of God, St. Paul is utterly convincing. In his letter, he wasn't asking the Corinthians to do anything that he had not already done. He had experienced God's grace personally, so he could testify to it firsthand. He knew God's grace was effective because it had the power to change his life and because it had revealed God's love and mercy to him. Paul wanted the Corinthians to experience those same effects in their lives. First, power: God's grace dramatically changed Paul. While persecuting Christians, he had a lot of advantages—his elite education, the respect of the religious leaders, and the authority to arrest Christians wherever he found them. Yet when God intervened, Paul realized that his zeal had led him astray. He had been persecuting Jesus himself! Filled with God's power and grace, Paul the great enemy became Paul the great apostle! Second, God's grace was also an experience of his mercy and love. Jesus didn't condemn Paul for his sins. He led him to repentance and gave him new understanding. In changing Paul, Jesus didn't turn him into a robot with no free will. Neither did he erase Paul's personality. Rather, he loved Paul as God had created him. And out of that love, he redeemed him and made him a son of God. Paul went on to use his gifts and talents, his temperament, and even his weaknesses to build God's kingdom. So Paul's testimony is credible. By the grace of God you are what you are, he tells you: a beloved child of God. That grace is powerful and effective; it fills you with God's love and mercy. It has changed you, and it is still changing you today. Rejoice! God has made you his own! "By your grace, O God, I am what I am. Thank you!" Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 28
Luke 7:36-50 | Reflections with Brother Adrian: | In the Holy Scripture we hear today:
"Do you see this woman?
When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet,
but she has bathed them with her tears
and wiped them with her hair.
You did not give me a kiss,
but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered.
You did not anoint my head with oil,
but she anointed my feet with ointment.
So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven;
hence, she has shown great love.
But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little."
He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."......."_ end quote. | From Bishop Barron: "Friends, our Gospel today tells the story of a woman who—in the house of Simon the Pharisee—approaches Jesus, weeping onto his feet and anointing them with oil. She is filled with a love for Christ that overflows in acts of self-offering and service; she breaks open her own heart in gratitude. But Simon has shown scant hospitality to his guest, offering little if anything of himself to Christ.
The abundance of the woman's love discloses something to Jesus that had obviously been invisible to Simon: she has been forgiven much. "So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love." It is most important to note that Jesus does not, strictly speaking, forgive her sins; rather, he notices that she has been forgiven. And the evidence for it is her self-forgetting love. She loves so passionately and so courageously (risking the disapproval of Simon's elegant guests) precisely because she has been so graciously and abundantly forgiven...." end quote Bishop Barron.
Back in the day, like before Jesus our Lord was born on earth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, there used to be a thing called atonement. The Jews would have sacrificial atonement and believed in acts of atonement, things that one can do to make up for sin.
My beloved, love covers a multitude of sin. We can still atone for all the atrocities of our sin. If we could see how sin works, your gossip, your pride, your arrogance, your selfishness, your lack of faith, your animosity, your peeping into darkness, the occult and pornography, and see how demons lurch and lunge into other souls, and grasp and take hold of people, you would want to atone for your sins, especially the ones you willingly gave into. You would want to make up for all those losses.
You would want to lunge yourself to the feet of Jesus.
You would want to pour out your tears. This woman cried at the feet of Jesus, anointed his feet with expensive oil. Some say this oil was so expensive, that it'd take a normal person almost a year to pay for that bottle. Some say because she had this perfume, she was using it for her profession...a prostitute.
This aroma was said to have aroused the men, and arousal meant trouble. One apostle, Judas, aroused the sense of the smell of money. Another one the arousal reminded him probably of his days with prostitute, perhaps knew of this woman well. Anger and resentment and guilt quickly built up.
But for the rest, the smell meant something else. The aroma of flowers means something. It means life and love. They saw that Jesus loved her as a true lover loves, sacrificially for grace of God. He did not love her erotically as the world is so infatuated with this enormous deficit and deficiency that deviates from the true sense of love that we are called to.
The woman came to thank God, and she left forgiven.
A grateful soul is a holy soul.
An ungrateful soul is a damned soul in need of the light of God that can only shine up on a hill from a cross, with blood and water coming from the side of the Son of God.
Will this song move you? Will this act of love move you? Who cries at the feet of Jesus today? Perhaps many, but who cries in gratitude? Perhaps not very many. The whole issue of the world is of God's Kingdom. Especially the enormity and gravity of the flock, the Catholics. Our faith has to be more true. When in Mass and in private prayer, fully attentive to the task of offering ourselves to God our Father. That is our Jesus calling, the body of Christ desiring to give Himself to God forever.
It is deep. But it starts in the smallest of acts and seeds, inside your mind, body, and soul.
Gratitude has changed my life. It is the most beneficial for humility and self sacrifice. Because I am grateful, I cannot turn away from the Lord.
Eucharist means thanksgiving. And I want to live thankful. I want to spread something contrary to darkness.
Lets make someone's day every day. Surprise them with an act of great love, the kind they cannot pay back. It doesn't always mean money, that's just one of 1,000 ways we can shock someone into faith.
Make someone's day. Turn their frown upside down.
Make their day. Surprise them with a visit.
Make their day. Do something for them that they did not expect and it makes them feel the love of God, true love. Lord, help us spread this mantra of "Make Their Day" so that the Heavens are filled with the perfume of the fragrance of the love of God, flowers for mama and papa in Heaven. |  audio | Random Bible Verse 1
Revelation 4:11 11 "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
