† Quote of the Day "Holiness consists simply in doing God's will, and being just what God wants us to be." — St. Therese of Lisieux - The Little Flower Today's Meditation "Through the sacraments of Christian initiation, man receives the new life of Christ. Now we carry this life 'in earthen vessels', and it remains 'hidden with Christ in God'. We are still in our 'earthly tent', subject to suffering, illness, and death. This new life as a child of God can be weakened and even lost by sin. The Lord Jesus Christ, physician of our souls and bodies, who forgave the sins of the paralytic and restored him to bodily health, has willed that his Church continue, in the power of the Holy Spirit, his work of healing and salvation, even among her own members. This is the purpose of the two sacraments of healing: the sacrament of Penance and the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick." —The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1420-21
An excerpt from Catechism of the Catholic Church Daily Verse "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your vindication as the light, and your right as the noonday. Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over him who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!" — Psalm 37:5-7 | St.s Cosmas Damian Sts. Cosmas and Damian (d. 287 A.D.) were twin brothers born in Arabia. They both became skilled physicians who practiced in Asia Minor. They took no money for their medical services, for which they were well-respected. Because of their charity they drew many to the Catholic faith. During the Christian persecution under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, Cosmas and Damian were targeted, arrested, and tortured. After being miraculously preserved from injury throughout their cruel tortures, holding firm in their faith to the end, they were finally killed by beheading. They were martyred together with their three brothers. Their remains were buried in Syria and many miracles were attributed to them. In gratitude for the healing he received through the intercession of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, Roman Emperor Justinian I (6th c.) restored a church dedicated to their honor in Constantinople, which became a place of pilgrimage. Sts. Cosmas and Damian are regarded as the patron saints of physicians, surgeons, and pharmacists. They are mentioned by name in the Roman Canon of the Mass, and share a feast day on September 26th. | Thursday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 ECCL 1:2-11 Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,
vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
What profit has man from all the labor
which he toils at under the sun?
One generation passes and another comes,
but the world forever stays.
The sun rises and the sun goes down;
then it presses on to the place where it rises.
Blowing now toward the south, then toward the north,
the wind turns again and again, resuming its rounds.
All rivers go to the sea,
yet never does the sea become full.
To the place where they go,
the rivers keep on going.
All speech is labored;
there is nothing one can say.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing
nor is the ear satisfied with hearing.
What has been, that will be;
what has been done, that will be done.
Nothing is new under the sun.
Even the thing of which we say, "See, this is new!"
has already existed in the ages that preceded us.
There is no remembrance of the men of old;
nor of those to come will there be any remembrance
among those who come after them. Responsorial Psalm PS 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 AND 17BC R. (1) In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
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. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
You make an end of them in their sleep;
the next morning they are like the changing grass,
Which at dawn springs up anew,
but by evening wilts and fades.
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
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. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
Prosper the work of our hands for us!
Prosper the work of our hands!
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge. Alleluia JN 14:6 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord;
no one comes to the Father except through me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel LK 9:7-9 Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening,
and he was greatly perplexed because some were saying,
"John has been raised from the dead";
others were saying, "Elijah has appeared";
still others, "One of the ancient prophets has arisen."
But Herod said, "John I beheaded.
Who then is this about whom I hear such things?"
And he kept trying to see him. | Daily Meditation: Luke 9:7-9 He kept trying to see him. (Luke 9:9) Speculation was high, and rumors were flying. Who was this Jesus of Nazareth? Where did he come from, and what did he really want? Was he John the Baptist, back from the dead? A new incarnation of the prophet Elijah? Or just some zealous rabbi from Galilee? For Herod, this was an especially perplexing predicament. He had already taken care of John the Baptist. But it seemed that Jesus' preaching had pricked his conscience on the matter. Maybe God really had been trying to speak to him through John—and now through Jesus. It was possible, but he wasn't sure. His vision of the whole situation was too cloudy. Aware that he was in a sinful relationship with his wife but unwilling to make any change, he couldn't break through the fog to come to faith. Of course, none of us are the same as Herod. But like him, we may want to see the Lord yet are hampered by blurred vision. Unforgiveness, bitterness, fear, and anxiety—all of these and more can keep us in a fog of our own. Nothing is more capable of holding us back than unrepented sin. Herod could have repented for having married Herodias, his brother's wife. Yes, it would have been hard, but he could have found a way out of his immoral union. Instead, he chose to silence John's voice and persist in his sin. Do you tend to find your vision of Jesus obscured by sin? The Holy Spirit can clear away the clouds. Through the gift of repentance, you can cooperate with him in this work. In fact, getting into the habit of repenting at the end of every day is probably one of the best ways to sharpen your vision. Every evening, look over your day, and ask the Spirit to help you identify anything that you may have thought or said or done that was displeasing to the Lord. Then simply ask for forgiveness and for the Spirit's help to do better tomorrow. If the sin is serious, resolve to bring it to Confession as soon as you can. Then end by thanking God for his mercy. Over time, your vision will become clearer simply because you are giving the Holy Spirit room to work in your heart. "Come, Holy Spirit, and remove the clouds that keep me from seeing Jesus clearly." Ecclesiastes 1:2-11
Psalm 90:3-6, 12-14, 17 | Reflections with Brother Adrian: | In the Holy Scripture we hear today:
"But Herod said, "John I beheaded.
Who then is this about whom I hear such things?"
And he kept trying to see him........."_ end quote. | Bishop Barron said:
"Friends, in today's Gospel, we see Herod interested in and perplexed by Jesus. Political rulers don't come across well in the New Testament. In Luke's Christmas account, Caesar Augustus is compared very unfavorably to the Christ child. And in Matthew's account, that child is hunted down by the desperate Herod. Later, Herod's son persecutes John the Baptist and Jesus himself. More to it, the Jewish authorities are seen in all of the Gospels as corrupt.
And Pontius Pilate is a typical Roman governor: efficient, concerned for order, brutal. Like the other rulers of the time, he perceives Jesus, quite correctly, as a threat. "Then you are a king?" Pilate asks. Jesus says, "My kingdom does not belong to this world."
This does not mean that Jesus is unconcerned for the realities of politics, with the very "this-worldly" concerns of justice, peace, and right order. When he speaks of his kingdom not belonging to the "world," he shades the negative side of that term. The "world" is the realm of sin, selfishness, hatred, violence. What he is saying is that his way of ordering things is not typical of worldly powers like Pilate, Caesar, and Herod. . . ." end quote.
Herod kept wanting to see John, Saint John the Baptist whom he had beheaded.
Isn't that odd? We could surmise that he reluctantly had John beheaded to keep his word at a big party where his daughter had danced and he promised her anything she'd like.
Yesterday during daily Mass, police were pulling up I heard, to our parish hall. Apparently a girl had called her daddy frustrated that she was told she couldn't dress with torn jeans, our dress code we have implemented for a couple years. The daddy I heard came and was yelling and cussing at the director of religious education, to which she felt threatened enough to call for help. All because of what? Who had the right to get angry? Nobody has the right to sin against charity, and love. My daughter has gotten "dress coded" for the same as many others have.
My fear and dread? The cutting off. We as a church are not cutting them off, I am afraid they will cut out, leave the faith, because they will refuse to humble down, apologize for rude behavior, to make amends with the Father, but instead, leave with vile hatred as so many have chosen to do, "ranting" on social media and never coming back.
You see, this happens time and time again. Pride is rooted in people and it hurts families on all levels, church family, community family. It divides and destroys. Therefore, it is evil. Often in pride fights we will hear "You don't treat me that way!" and "You won't talk to me that way!" and the fight begins, the finger pointing begins, and nobody backs down in a typical pride fight. I hope we can all repent. I'm speaking of myself now, and in the arguments I have been in, where afterwards, remorse begins to set, or else animosity. And we must repent, all of us or else, God will see to it in His righteous justice and this is horribly scary for the unrepentant sinner.
Nobody is right in a fight, only the most humble is correct.
Therefore, we have Jesus our Christ on the cross, showing us the way, like the beheaded John. You see, John was beheaded because of pride. It was not the daughter who called out for a beheading, it was the new wife of Herod, Herodias. She was offended by what John had said about her new unlawful marriage to Herod. Pride is awful. Yet, its everywhere, especially in politics, and the politics of daily life, of self interests, of self image, of selfish everything.
You may agree, our world is riddled with doom and gloom, with disease, death, and wars. I need not look very far, my own workers and family we all face our own gloom. And drugs are not helping, but only making things worse, especially for pride fights and killings to get drugs here.
It is chaotic. Deep down, we should be sensing, we are not of this world, we know it is not right!
In a battery, you have positive and negative powers. We need the positive to use the negative to make an energy.
God is the positive on the cross. We need God to make energy, God needs us to make energy. Harness and utilize the forces for good.
It's like the abundant sun and wind that one day we realized can be used for energy. But to make it happen, we must be the conduit, the vessel that taps into God's grace from Heaven.
And say with me "I am going to be an agent for good". I will face the world with the love of God. I will be humble. And in that humility I will be confident and unafraid, that grace will come, actual grace, and that I will be able to live in habitual grace, and in doing so, light enters the world. Christ's love.
Diseases and death are inevitable accidents of life. Wars, doom and gloom, we can avoid if only, we turn to God for healing, self sacrifice, and this is harder than actual war, because someone's pride is going to have to die.
Most good leaders I know have the quality of self sacrifice. Become a good leader. Become the servant of the servants, and good for you if you are mistreated for the sake of God's Kingdom, and even better for you if you turn the cheek, and the other, until it bleeds out, like our Christ on the cross. Because only then will the evil be shown in the light because the light of love shines bright in such sacrifice, never to be forgotten. |  audio | Random Bible Verse 1
Proverbs 16:28 28 A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends. | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
