.: 03/31/25

Monday, March 31, 2025

† " Came To Believe ..... "

† Quote of the Day

"Be a Catholic: When you kneel before an altar, do it in such a way that others may be able to recognize that you know before whom you kneel." — St. Maximilian Kolbe

Today's Meditation

"If favored souls are sometimes sensibly conscious of the presence of the Blessed Sacrament in our churches, how much more must holy Joseph, whose spiritual senses were so delicate and refined, have felt his heart burn within him with divine charity, from the nearness of Him who now dwelt in Mary as His living tabernacle!" —Edward Healy Thompson, p. 168
An excerpt from The Life & Glories of Saint Joseph

Daily Verse

"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!...For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen." — Romans 11:33

St. Benjamin

St. Benjamin (d. 424 A.D.) was a deacon martyred in Persia during a forty-year-long Christian persecution under two tyrannical Persian kings. He was imprisoned for a year due to his Christian faith and then released with the help of the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II. As a condition of his release he was ordered to no longer publicly proclaim his faith. Benjamin declared that it was his duty to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he refused to be silenced. He continued preaching Christ crucified, and, when word reached the king, he was arrested again. In response, Benjamin asked the king what opinion he would have of any of his subjects if they were to renounce their allegiance to the king and join in war against him; in the same way Benjamin could not renounce his allegiance to Christ. This comment enraged the king, and he ordered Benjamin to endure cruel tortures. Sharpened reeds were repeatedly jammed underneath his fingernails, toenails, and other tender parts of the body. He died when a knotted stake was jammed into his bowels. St. Benjamin's feast day is celebrated on March 31st.

Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Reading I Isaiah 65:17-21

Thus says the LORD:
Lo, I am about to create new heavens

and a new earth;
The things of the past shall not be remembered

or come to mind.
Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness

in what I create;
For I create Jerusalem to be a joy

and its people to be a delight;
I will rejoice in Jerusalem

and exult in my people.
No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there,

or the sound of crying;
No longer shall there be in it

an infant who lives but a few days,

or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime;
He dies a mere youth who reaches but a hundred years,

and he who fails of a hundred shall be thought accursed.
They shall live in the houses they build,

and eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant.

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 30:2 and 4, 5-6, 11-12a and 13b

R. (2a) I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
I will extol you, O LORD, for you drew me clear

and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.
O LORD, you brought me up from the nether world;

you preserved me from among those going down into the pit.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
Sing praise to the LORD, you his faithful ones,

and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger lasts but a moment;

a lifetime, his good will.
At nightfall, weeping enters in,

but with the dawn, rejoicing.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
"Hear, O LORD, and have pity on me;

O LORD, be my helper."
You changed my mourning into dancing;

O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

Verse before the Gospel Amos 5:14

Seek good and not evil so that you may live,
and the LORD will be with you.

Gospel John 4:43-54

At that time Jesus left [Samaria] for Galilee.
For Jesus himself testified
that a prophet has no honor in his native place.
When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him,
since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast;
for they themselves had gone to the feast.
Then he returned to Cana in Galilee,
where he had made the water wine.
Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum.
When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,
he went to him and asked him to come down
and heal his son, who was near death.
Jesus said to him,
"Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe."
The royal official said to him,
"Sir, come down before my child dies."
Jesus said to him, "You may go; your son will live."
The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.
While the man was on his way back,
his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live.
He asked them when he began to recover.
They told him,
"The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon."
The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him,
"Your son will live,"
and he and his whole household came to believe.
Now this was the second sign Jesus did
when he came to Galilee from Judea.

Praise to You Oh Lord Jesus Christ!

Daily Meditation: Isaiah 65:17-21

The things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind. (Isaiah 65:17)

Today's first reading comes from a time of restoration and rebuilding for the Israelites. After years in exile, the people have returned to their land. Now the Lord promises that he will "create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight" (Isaiah 65:19). He even promises to "create new heavens and a new earth" for them (65:17)!

These are astonishing words, given the many instances of Israel's unfaithfulness. Up to this point, God's people have made so many compromises for the sake of worldly gain that they had fallen into the sin of idolatry. Yet the Lord is willing to blot out every sin from their past, restore them to their land, and rebuild their Temple. It strains the imagination, so great is his mercy toward them.

This passage reveals an amazing truth about our God: he is willing to forgive—and forget—even the gravest of sins! Yet, try as we may, we often hold on to our memories and our guilt over past wrongdoing—even after we have repented. This can be a huge obstacle to receiving the free gift of God's mercy.

If this is something you struggle with, ask yourself: Why is God so willing to forget the past and wipe the slate clean? And why does he want to turn the page and begin a new chapter with us? The answer is that he deeply desires a relationship with us. Because he wants to be close to you, he is willing to forgive and forget all your sins, no matter what you have done in the past—or even what you will do in the future!

If God chooses not to focus on your past, why should you? Just as the Lord was eager to begin again with the Israelites, so he is with you. So let today be a new day—free from the pain of the past—to drink from the deep well of God's endless love and mercy!

"Lord God, give me the grace to put the past behind me so that my relationship with you can only deepen."

Psalm 30:2, 4-6, 11-13
John 4:43-54

Reflections with Brother Adrian:

Hear AI Read it for u

From today's Holy Gospel:

"Jesus said to him,
"Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe."
The royal official said to him,
"Sir, come down before my child dies."
Jesus said to him, "You may go; your son will live."
The man believed what Jesus said to him and left....." - Word of the Lord!

From Roberto Juarez:
"On the way home, the official receives the news that his son has been healed at the very moment Jesus declared him healed. This strengthens his faith and that of his entire family. The miracle not only healed the son, but led to a profound conversion of the entire household. How can I strengthen my faith and help others believe in God's power?

• Do I trust God's word even when I don't see immediate changes in my life?

• How do I react to the tests? Do I despair or do I keep my faith?

• Do I bear witness of the miracles and blessings God has done in my life?

'Lord
Help me to trust your word,
even if you don't see the results right away.
Increase my faith so that I do not depend on signs,
but of the certainty of your love and your power.
May my testimony help others to believe in You.
Amen.'
......." end quote Roberto Juarez.

From Bishop Barron:

"Theologian Paul Tillich said that "faith" is the most misunderstood word in the religious vocabulary. And this is a tragedy, for faith stands at the very heart of the program; it is the sine qua non of the Christian thing. What is it? The opening line of Hebrews 11 has the right definition: "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
Faith is a straining ahead toward those things that are, at best, dimly glimpsed. But notice, please, that it is not a craven, hand-wringing, unsure business. It is confident and full of conviction. Think of the great figures of faith, from Abraham to John Paul II: they are anything but shaky, indefinite, questioning people. Like the royal official, they are clear, focused, assured....." end quote.

From brother Adrian:
We got to admit, faith can be hard, right?

What is faith again? "The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen", right?
It is not, then, about getting always what we want. It is about our belief in God! Amen? I don't always get what I want, and thank God, because sometimes, I don't know really what I need, I don't really know what I am asking for!

But, as I grow in faith, I start to see what and how to pray, a little more clearly. And a mature saint prays in the will of God. This is a difficult mastering of mind, body, and soul. To me, it is still not clear, but, I can see that praying in God's will involves a surrender like no other, a faith like no other, a belief, an assurance, like a child expects of a father, or a mother that is all loving and all giving. Like the child caught under a building after an earthquake, as he told his classmates "don't worry, my father will find us". And the father did find them after much effort of practically hand digging day and night for days after most others had given up.
Be rest assured of our Father in Heaven's love for us.
Be rest assured, that your pleading prayers are heard. Take heart, and do not doubt, for doubt is what brought evil into the world. Doubt God's will and chaos soon ensues.
Therefore, let us pray into His Divine Will. The boy's father never doubted for once, He knew that Jesus would heal, however it may be. And don't we all need healing, for self or others? I ask this to the youth and they look at me perplexed. They don't experience sickness or death like someone like me with so many people I know who are sick or have passed, to the tune of perhaps hundreds of funerals that I have helped in. I was watching a video of my eldest daughter quinceanera for the first time in 5 years, and immediately we noticed my dad, who recently passed, and my aunt recently passed singing in the video, and my brother in law who passed in the COVID pandemic too. So many things have passed in the past 5 years. How are we sill moving forward?

Faith. We are assured, that if we believe, God will take care of us, and my hope is that we take care of Our Father's business, that is, the Kingdom of Our Father in Heaven.