† Quote of the Day ""When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice."" -Pope Saint Gregory the Great Today's Meditation "Scripture offers us a look at the fruits we can expect as we grow closer to God: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, forbearance, gentleness, faith, modesty, self-control, and chastity. Cut off from him, we rely on our own well to refresh our souls rather than the un-depletable wellspring available to us as sons and daughters of our eternal Father. We cannot understand who we really are without reference to him who is both the cause and the purpose of our lives, physically and spiritually. We are called to communion with him and this is a process of continually conforming our will to his." –Carrie Gress and Noelle Mering, p.66 Daily Verse "Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the lands! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord is God! It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him, bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures for ever, and his faithfulness to all generations." -Psalm 100 | St Ambrose Edward Barlow St. Ambrose Edward Barlow (1585-1641) was born near Manchester, England, to a noble family. He was baptized Catholic at his birth, but was raised Protestant when Catholicism was outlawed by the reigning monarchy. His grandfather died while imprisoned for his Catholic faith, and his father had two-thirds of his estate confiscated for refusal to conform to the Church of England. Ambrose returned to Catholicism as an adult, recognized his vocation to the priesthood, and traveled to France to enter seminary. He was ordained in 1617 in the Order of St. Benedict. He returned to England to minister to underground Catholics in his native south Lancashire for 24 years, being financially supported with a pension arranged by his grandmother. Ambrose said Mass daily and administered the sacraments secretly to avoid detection by the authorities. He was arrested four times during his priesthood, each time being released without charge. When the king issued a decree that all Catholic priests should immediately flee the country or be arrested and condemned as traitors, St. Ambrose chose to stay, reasoning that he could not die a better death than to be martyred for being a Catholic priest. On April 25, 1631, just as he ended Easter Sunday Mass at Morley Hall near Manchester, he was arrested by a 400-strong armed mob led by the local Anglican vicar. He freely admitted to the charge of being a Catholic priest, and gave a defense of the true faith before his judge. He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, quartered, and boiled in oil on September 10, 1641. His dead body was publicly displayed on a pike as a warning to other Catholic priests. St. Ambrose Edward Barlow is one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. His feast day is September 10th. | Thursday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Colossians 3:12-17 Brothers and sisters:
Put on, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved,
heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,
bearing with one another and forgiving one another,
if one has a grievance against another;
as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.
And over all these put on love,
that is, the bond of perfection.
And let the peace of Christ control your hearts,
the peace into which you were also called in one Body.
And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another,
singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs
with gratitude in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or in deed,
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him. Responsorial Psalm Psalm 150:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6 R.(6) Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the LORD in his sanctuary,
praise him in the firmament of his strength.
Praise him for his mighty deeds,
praise him for his sovereign majesty. R. Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise him with the blast of the trumpet,
praise him with lyre and harp,
Praise him with timbrel and dance,
praise him with strings and pipe. R. Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise him with sounding cymbals,
praise him with clanging cymbals.
Let everything that has breath
praise the LORD! Alleluia.
R. Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Alleluia 1 John 4:12 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
If we love one another,
God remains in us,
and his love is brought to perfection in us.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Luke 6:27-38 Jesus said to his disciples:
"To you who hear I say, love your enemies,
do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you,
pray for those who mistreat you.
To the person who strikes you on one cheek,
offer the other one as well,
and from the person who takes your cloak,
do not withhold even your tunic.
Give to everyone who asks of you,
and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
For if you love those who love you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners love those who love them.
And if you do good to those who do good to you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners do the same.
If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners lend to sinners,
and get back the same amount.
But rather, love your enemies and do good to them,
and lend expecting nothing back;
then your reward will be great
and you will be children of the Most High,
for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
Be merciful, just as also your Father is merciful. "Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you."
| Praise to You Oh Lord Jesus Christ! | Daily Meditation: Luke 6:27-38 Love your enemies, . . . bless those who curse you. (Luke 6:27-28) These are such radical words from Jesus! How could we possibly look our worst enemy in the eye and bless them? One example that is especially relevant on the twenty-fourth anniversary of the tragedy of September 11, 2001 can help us answer that question. When Professor Orlando Rodriguez and his wife, Phyllis, lost their son, Greg, in the attack on the World Trade Center in New York, they sensed that God was calling them to transform their pain into peace. Together with family members of other victims of the attack, they formed Peaceful Tomorrows, an organization that connects and supports families who have lost their loved ones to similar acts of violence. A few weeks after the attacks, Zacarias Moussaoui was indicted for his involvement. Through Peaceful Tomorrows, Phyllis and Orlando met with Aicha el-Wafi, Moussaoui's mother. "There was an immediate bonding," Phyllis recalled. "We embraced and cried. . . . She spoke no English, and none of us spoke French, but we were able to communicate, human to human." Their encounter with Aicha and their decision to offer forgiveness had a profound impact on them. When Moussaoui was later found guilty with the possibility of the death penalty, Orlando chose to testify that nothing would be achieved by executing him. It would only force yet another mother to mourn the loss of her son. Beginning with St. Stephen, the first martyr, history is filled with stories of people offering the same radical forgiveness that Jesus offered from the cross. People in every age have come to love their enemies and forgive those who have caused them great harm. Forgiveness doesn't always come easily, and the deeper the wounds, the harder it can be. But these people's stories tell us it is far from impossible. Today, as we remember the tragedy of September 11, let's also remember those who found the grace to rise above hatred and vengeance to offer true forgiveness. Let's remember how merciful Jesus is to us and to everyone. And let's allow that mercy to teach us to love our own enemies. "Lord, give me the courage to love beyond my hurt." Colossians 3:12-17
Psalm 150:1-6 | Reflections with Brother Adrian: |  Hear AI Read it for u | From today's Holy Gospel: "But rather, love your enemies and do good to them,
and lend expecting nothing back;
then your reward will be great
and you will be children of the Most High,
for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
Be merciful, just as also your Father is merciful. "Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you."......" Word of the Lord. | From Bishop Barron: "Friends, our Gospel today is taken from Jesus's Sermon on the Plain in Luke. It is one of the more puzzling texts in the New Testament. It speaks of loving our enemies. Not tolerating them or vaguely accepting them but loving them. When you hate your enemy, you confirm him as your enemy. But when you love him in response to his hatred, you confuse and confound him, taking away the very energy that feeds his hatred. There is a form of oriental martial arts called aikido. The idea of aikido is to absorb the aggressive energy of your opponent, moving with it, continually frustrating him until he comes to the point of realizing that fighting is useless. Some have pointed out that there is a great deal of this in Jesus's strategy of nonviolence and love of the enemy. You creatively absorb the aggression of your opponent, really using it against him, to show him the futility of violence. So when someone insults you, send back a compliment instead of an insult. When someone conspires against you, work to help him. " end quote.
God is merciful to the wicked? Really? Is that right? Is that fair?
If we tune into some of the many recent converts that are on fire, many of them are indeed from really bad backgrounds. I've been tuning into an ex convict, I spoke about him once here, and another was a young lady completely devoted to drugs and the dark life, and she experienced God, in the love she was given, and both of these though, had a near death experience....and the encounter was with Love, God Himself. They have come back transfromed from the inside out.
Today, we are remembering the evil attacks on our country, instigating wars. Yesterday, a man speaking about prolife and marriage at a campus, Charlie Kirk was shot as he spoke on these issues and was gaining much attention. He leaves behind a baby and a toddler and a wife.
This attack is demonic in every sense. The way it was laid out is for the country to divide. Demons want division. It wants more blood, more wars, more weakness so they can take over. In other words, humans are fed by powers, moved by unknown powers....and it is our decision to let which powers rule our lives. We know, though, that there is only one power that is truly good, and that power is the True God and Our Father in Heaven, to which we are united intimately with our Lord Jesus the Christ.
These constant attacks are serving a purpose. A plan that can be good, if only we are faithful and adhere to our Lord's calling.
There will be justice, in the end. There will be a judge. There will be condemnation issued but we are not that judge, we are not to condemn...or else...we could be heaping coals upon ourselves...as if we know better than God Himself.
I would want the same mercy that the most wicked can receive, for who knows how much my failures can harm...the world. I spoke with several teenagers including mine, and I was amazed how many knew this Charlie Kirk, and actually followed him.
I too have been affected by the death of Charlie, a non-Catholic, who lately had said that the world, especially protestants, should take good notice of Mother Mary The Blessed Virgin Mary, to lead us against the movement that is pushing off men as if lesser than women. We need her purity, we need her humility, we need her obedience to God in each of us. As if we were not created with a purpose, to compliment and needing one another? Jesus is the groom, we are the bride. What is the one without the other? We are so blessed that Jesus loves us. We are! We are so fortunate that He is fighting...for our Love. Fighting and dying in modern martyrs, of blood and deed. If only we would let Him win us over. And like everything else..it is totally up to you and me. We true lovers of Christ let Him live and die for Love, love of God.
Let His Grace fuel us.
Let us spread the wildfire of the truth and mercy of our Lord Jesus. He wishes the world to be set ablaze. This is a light. This is The Truth. This is what the world needs. God our Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, we need you in our hearts, give us the power to do Your Holy Will....amen and forever amen. |  audio | Random Bible Verse 1
Colossians 3:16 "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."
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