† Quote of the Day "For a Son of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a man on fire with love, who spreads its flames wherever he goes. He desires mightily and strives by all means possible to set the whole world on fire with God's love. Nothing daunts him; he delights in privations, welcomes work, embraces sacrifices, smiles at slander, and rejoices in suffering. His only concern is how he can best follow Jesus Christ and imitate Him in working, suffering, and striving constantly and single-mindedly for the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls." — St. Anthony Mary Claret Today's Meditation "At the apparitions in Lourdes, Mary didn't say to St. Bernadette, "I was immaculately conceived" but rather "I am the Immaculate Conception." This seems to be a problem. After all, Mary was immaculately conceived. In other words, through a special grace from God, she was conceived in the womb of her mother, St. Anne, without any stain of original sin by the foreseen merits of her Son. So why does she speak so strangely? Why does she make the grace she received at her conception her very name? Doesn't this almost seem as if she were making herself divine? Clearly, Mary is not God. [St. Maximillian] Kolbe wrestled with this apparent "divinity problem" for decades, and it lead to the following solution. The Immaculate Conception is divine. But the one I'm talking about isn't Mary. It's the Holy Spirit. Kolbe believed there were two "Immaculate Conceptions": Mary and the Holy Spirit. Mary is the created Immaculate Conception and the Holy Spirit is the uncreated Immaculate Conception. – Michael E. Gaitley, MIC, p. 52
An excerpt from 33 Days to Morning Glory Daily Verse "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness a word that shall not return: 'To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.'" — Isaiah 45:22-23 | On February 11, 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to fourteen-year-old Bernadette Soubiroux in the hollow rock of Massabielle in southern France. That year Bernadette would report a total of 18 apparitions of a woman she described as "lovelier than I have ever seen." The woman in the vision revealed herself as the "Immaculate Conception," in confirmation of this dogma of the Catholic faith which was infallibly defined by the Holy Father just four years previous. Our Lady told Bernadette to drink from an unseen fountain at the grotto, and called for a chapel to be built there. When Bernadette scratched at the ground, a stream of pure spring water surged forth. This stream demonstrated healing properties, and it continues to draw pilgrims to the grotto from around the globe. A basilica was built upon the rock of the Massabielle in response to Our Lady's request, and in 1876 it was consecrated as the "Church of the Rosary." Due to the multitudes of medically documented miraculous healings, the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France is one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in the world. | Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Genesis 1:20—2:4a God said,
"Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures,
and on the earth let birds fly beneath the dome of the sky."
and so it happened:
God created the great sea monsters
and all kinds of swimming creatures with which the water teems,
and all kinds of winged birds.
God saw how good it was, and God blessed them, saying,
"Be fertile, multiply, and fill the water of the seas;
and let the birds multiply on the earth."
Evening came, and morning followed–the fifth day. Then God said,
"Let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures:
cattle, creeping things, and wild animals of all kinds."
and so it happened:
God made all kinds of wild animals, all kinds of cattle,
and all kinds of creeping things of the earth.
God saw how good it was.
Then God said:
"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
the birds of the air, and the cattle,
and over all the wild animals
and all the creatures that crawl on the ground." God created man in his image;
in the divine image he created him;
male and female he created them. God blessed them, saying:
"Be fertile and multiply;
fill the earth and subdue it.
Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air,
and all the living things that move on the earth."
God also said:
"See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth
and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food;
and to all the animals of the land, all the birds of the air,
and all the living creatures that crawl on the ground,
I give all the green plants for food."
And so it happened.
God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.
Evening came, and morning followed–the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth and all their array were completed.
Since on the seventh day God was finished with the work he had been doing,
he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken.
So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy,
because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation. Such is the story of the heavens and the earth at their creation. Responsorial Psalm Psalm 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9 R. (2ab) O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars which you set in place—
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him? R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet. R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
All sheep and oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth! Alleluia Psalms 119:36, 29b R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Incline my heart, O God, to your decrees;
And favor me with your law.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Mark 7:1-13 When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
(For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,
do not eat without carefully washing their hands,
keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace
they do not eat without purifying themselves.
And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,
the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.)
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
"Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?"
He responded,
"Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites,
as it is written: This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."
He went on to say,
"How well you have set aside the commandment of God
in order to uphold your tradition!
For Moses said,
Honor your father and your mother,
and Whoever curses father or mother shall die.
Yet you say,
'If someone says to father or mother,
"Any support you might have had from me is qorban"'
(meaning, dedicated to God),
you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.
You nullify the word of God
in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.
And you do many such things." | Praise to You Oh Lord Jesus Christ! | Daily Meditation: Mark 7:1-13 You have set aside the commandment of God. (Mark 7:9) It was an easy trap to fall into. In their zeal for the faith, some scribes and Pharisees created layers and layers of practices designed to protect them from "contamination" from the Gentile world around them. Most of these practices weren't part of the Law of Moses, but that didn't seem to matter. Over time, these layers began to complicate and eclipse the true nature of the Law—to the point that some people were able to turn the Law on its head. In contrast to the complexities that these traditions introduced, Jesus focused on two simple, fundamental commandments: love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:30, 31). Every single commandment of the Lord can be summed up by these two verses from the Torah. But no matter how simple these commands are, they certainly aren't easy. How can we love everyone all the time? There are times when we can barely tolerate members of our family, let alone the stranger next door or the coworker who gets on our nerves. How can we avoid the temptation to find excuses and work-arounds that free us from the command to love? By letting God's own love teach us how to love. It may not be easy, but it is simple. Jesus loves you. Not because you do the right things. (No one is perfect.) Not because you embrace every one of his teachings. (Everyone struggles with at least one commandment.) And not because you have shown yourself to be better than other people. (God's rain falls on the just and unjust alike.) No, Jesus loves you because he looks into your heart and sees how "very good" it is (Genesis 1:31). He looks past the hurts, the resentments, and the unconfessed sin, and he peers right into the center of who you are. It's right there, in the center, that Jesus sees the love he has placed in you. He sees your desire to please him. He sees the goodness and purity that God created you with. And what he sees pierces his heart with love. With joy. With compassion. It's this gaze that can melt our hearts and teach us to love as he does—simply, mercifully, and equally. "Jesus, teach me to love." Genesis 1:20–2:4
Psalm 8:4-9 | Reflections with Brother Adrian: |  Hear AI Read it for u | From today's Holy Gospel: "So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
"Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?"
He responded,
"Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites,
as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."
He went on to say,
"How well you have set aside the commandment of God
in order to uphold your tradition!
For Moses said,
Honor your father and your mother,
and Whoever curses father or mother shall die......" - Word of the Lord! | From Bishop Barron:
"Friends, in today's Gospel, Jesus calls the Pharisees hypocrites because they "disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."
For instance: "If someone says to father or mother, 'Any support you might have had from me is qorban' (meaning, dedicated to God), you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother." If you claim to be a person of love but fail to honor your parents, something is seriously off. Thus the hypocrisy of the Pharisees is a disregard of love.
In its essence, love is an act of the will—more precisely, the willing of the good of the other as other. To love is really to want what is good for someone else and then to act on that desire.
Real love is a leaping outside of the narrow confines of my needs and desires, and an embrace of the other's good for the other's sake. It is an escape from the black hole of the ego, which tends to draw everything around it into itself...." end quote.
Our Lord said this and still applies today:
"This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts." Last night I was teaching the Adult Confirmation class for our priest as he is out of the country for now. We discussed commandments, and I expounded on the 4th commandment which is right above the command of not committing murders and right below honoring Him on the Sabbath.
Honoring father and mother is right up there with some of the most supreme commandments, the segway from Loving God in the first 3 commandments, to loving neighbor, in the following 7 commandments.
Honoring father and mother, we learned, goes much further than your earthly mom and dad. It goes deep. It goes as far as honoring your teachers, your country, and on all sorts of levels of honor and respect.
Yet, we make laws that let us disrespect. We make human laws that dishonor our teachers and country and so forth. And the world soon becomes more and more chaotic. Why? Because we break from the true vision and point of God's love of, just as my dad said to his death, he wanted faith and unity. All things bound through Him through Sacred love. Obedience is the key.
Who teaches obedience nowadays? Who teaches honor?
You do. By the way you talk. By the way you walk. By the way you live, that is, the way you believe.
The Holy Church, the body of Christ needs to live in Holy Obedience of God's laws, and they go very deep.
Obeying Father in Heaven means everything. Honor your Father, Our Father. And now, we have a mother. Mother Church? Yes. But in a great representation of obedience, honor, and humility...The Blessed and Immaculate Conception, Mother of God in flesh forever, our Mother Mary. If people listen to her, God is honored. For She loves God more than any human can ever possibly do. She honors and serves God and is a perfect example for the church.
Honor her desires and see what happens. In Lourdes, France, she appeared to a teenager girl, who then was mocked, but once they obeyed the girl's message from our Mother, a church was built, and thousands have been healed physically, millions spiritually. If only we obey. She wanted a church to bring souls to God, for salvation.
Her prayer as a teenager was to help God usher in His Kingdom, and this He did...forever.
May we pray like her.
Mother, Immaculate Conception, mother of God, pray for us to be be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Pray for us mother, to be disposed to do the will of God our Father. Pray that we are obedient, not robotic, not focused on rituals, but focused on the point of worship and praise...God Almighty, in Jesus incarnate, one in the body, to bring us as one into Heaven, united in a magnificent light for eternity. |  audio | Random Bible Verse 1
John 8:32 32 "....and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Word of the Lord! Our Lady of Lourdes, Pray for us! | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
