† Saint Quote:What is a vocation? It is a gift from God, so it comes from God. If it is a gift from God, our concern must be to know God's will. We must enter that path: if God wants, when God wants, how God wants. Never force the door. St. Gianna Molla Today's Meditation“Christ Himself taught humility of heart, and the heart must not remain idle, nor fail to produce the necessary acts… It would be absurd to hope for the reward which is promised to the humble without being humble, or at least making acts of humility; humility of heart without the heart’s humbling itself—what folly! Are you foolish enough to believe that this can be done? … it is necessary to humble ourselves when we approach God with prayer to obtain some grace, because God does not regard nor heed nor impart His grace except to the humble … When, therefore, you come to ask God for some grace of the body or of the soul, do you always remember to practice this humility? When we pray, and especially when we say the ‘Our Father’, we are speaking to God; and how many times when you are saying your prayers, do you speak to God with less respect than if you were speaking to one of your fellow creatures?
—Rev. Cajetan da Bergamo, p. 138 Daily VerseFor the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and preserving the way of his saints. Proverbs 2:6-8
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EWTN Daily Saint
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St Peter ChrysologusPatron Saint of: Preachers, speakers, and theologians
Feast Day: July 30 St. Peter Chrysologus (406-450 A.D.) was born in Imola, Italy. He was an adult convert to Christianity and studied under his bishop, Cornelius, who ordained him a deacon. In his day the city of Ravenna was the center of the Roman Empire, making the Archbishop of Ravenna an important position in the Church. When the Archbishop of Ravenna died, a new archbishop was elected by the clergy and the people of Ravenna. Bishop Cornelius of Imola went to Rome with his deacon, St. Peter Chyrsologus, to have the Ravenna appointment confirmed by Pope Sixtus III. When the pope saw St. Peter, he appointed him the new Archbishop of Ravenna instead. St. Peter was an effective shepherd who stamped out paganism, heresy, and ecclesiastical abuses from his diocese, earning the high regard of Emperor Valentinan III who resided in Ravenna. He also organized services to help the poor of the city. St. Peter was renowed for his profound and eloquent sermons, and his skill with taking complex theological truths and putting them in plain language, earning him the name ‘Chrysologus’ meaning ‘the man of golden speech’ or ‘golden word’ as well as the ‘Doctor of Homilies.’ In 1729, Pope Benedict XIII declared him a Doctor of the Church. His feast day is July 30.
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Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary TimeLectionary: 404 Reading 1Jeremiah 18:1-6 This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
Rise up, be off to the potter’s house;
there I will give you my message.
I went down to the potter’s house and there he was,
working at the wheel.
Whenever the object of clay which he was making
turned out badly in his hand,
he tried again,
making of the clay another object of whatever sort he pleased.
Then the word of the LORD came to me:
Can I not do to you, house of Israel,
as this potter has done? says the LORD.
Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter,
so are you in my hand, house of Israel. Responsorial PsalmPsalm 146:1B-2, 3-4, 5-6ab R. (5a) Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD, O my soul;
I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God while I live.
R. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Put not your trust in princes,
in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation.
When his spirit departs he returns to his earth;
on that day his plans perish.
R. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Blessed he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD, his God.
Who made heaven and earth,
the sea and all that is in them.
R. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.
or:
R. Alleluia. AlleluiaActs 16:14 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Open our heart, O Lord,
to listen to the words of your Son.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. GospelMatthew 13:47-53 Jesus said to the disciples:
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,
which collects fish of every kind.
When it is full they haul it ashore
and sit down to put what is good into buckets.
What is bad they throw away.
Thus it will be at the end of the age.
The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous
and throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” “Do you understand all these things?”
They answered, “Yes.”
And he replied,
“Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven
is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom
both the new and the old.”
When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there.
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Praise to You Oh Lord Jesus Christ!
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From Word Among Us WAU.org
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Daily Meditation: Jeremiah 18:1-6Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done? (Jeremiah 18:6) Research has shown that one of the most effective ways to stay healthy is to exercise consistently. But there’s a catch: If we dive right into working out without having first stretched and warmed up our muscles, we’ll end up feeling sore and stiff. And we’ll end up avoiding exercise altogether. The same is true of our spiritual lives. Today’s first reading describes a potter who, seeing that the clay on his wheel isn’t forming correctly, reshapes it. He manipulates it and stretches it so that it becomes soft again, more responsive to his work, and open to change. In a sense, this is what God desires from us: hearts that are still soft enough to be shaped. But like muscles that haven’t been warmed up, our hearts can grow stiff and resistant. We get set in our ways. We cling to our comfortable plans. And when God nudges us to change a habit, to forgive someone, or to try something new, we resist. He wants to shape us and form us in ways that will make us happier and bring us closer to him, but we don’t want to change. It’s not always comfortable being on the potter’s wheel. As it spins, the potter presses, stretches, and coaxes the clay to do his bidding. And yet, in the hands of a skilled potter, that pressure is transformational! Through Jeremiah, God tells us that he has both the power and the desire to shape us according to his will. Whether through situations in our lives or through the voice of our consciences, he is constantly working to take whatever is misshapen in us and form it into something new and beautiful. He doesn’t do it out of anger or frustration but out of mercy and love. Like any potter working the clay, he has a vision in his mind for what we can become, and he will continue to turn his wheel until that vision becomes a reality. Nothing can stop him except our own stiff resistance. So today, imagine yourself as soft clay. Let God stretch you and shape you. Trust the hands that hold you. The potter is patient, and his vision for your life is more beautiful than anything you could form alone. “Lord, help me to keep my heart soft so that it can become something beautiful in your hands.” Psalm 146:1-6
Matthew 13:47-53
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Reflections with Brother Adrian:
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From today's Holy Gospel: "... The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,
which collects fish of every kind.
When it is full they haul it ashore
and sit down to put what is good into buckets.
What is bad they throw away.
Thus it will be at the end of the age.
The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous
and throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. .... ”
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From Bishop Barron: "Friends, today’s Gospel reminds us of the final judgment, when the wicked will be separated from the righteous. When good and evil are confused or intermingled, divine judgment separates them, clarifying the issue.
Bob Dylan said, “The enemy I see wears the cloak of decency.” One of the favorite ruses of evil is to cover itself in the mantle of justice and piety, at the same time aping and hiding behind that which it opposes. Christ’s judgment rips away these cloaking devices, these deceits, and shows things as they are.
Authentic Christianity is a fighting religion, and it calls evil by its name. The Church knows what stands outside of itself, and it turns its back on it. The bearer of light and truth, it separates good from evil, sometimes painfully, like a “two-edged sword.”
...” End quote.
From Roberto Juarez: " Let us ask the Lord to grant us a heart that is always open to his call. May we live each day prepared for the encounter with Him. And that, as true disciples of the Kingdom, we may know how to draw from the treasury of our faith words and deeds that bring many closer to Jesus Christ. May Mary, the Lord's first disciple, teach us to accept the Word, to keep it in our hearts and to bring it joyfully into the world....." end quote.
At the end of the age, the wicked will be separated, like those weeds plucked out and thrown into the fire.
You know, there is something that gets me here.
And it has little to do with God's justice and mercy, it is always available.
But, free will. I am troubled with it. And to think that there still might be some free will in Heaven? That is perplexing.
I try not to sin on earth, and it is difficult at times. And in Heaven, it will be much easier to see sin for what it really is, but there is still that free will, because, of the story of how Lucifer was cast from Heaven by another angel, Archangel Michael. And about a third of them were cast from these realms of unbelievable graces.
This is troubling, because, I do not desire to offend God, yet I do what I do not want. Flesh binds us many times with body chemicals, and being tricked by spirits that lurk in unknown things and places.
This is why our Lord asks us to be on full time watch and alert, for that which is dark and is lurking for an opportunity to seize a soul for itself.
Have I gone off subject? Not if we are talking about good and evil. Not if we are talking about salvation. Not if we are talking about Heaven and hell.
Very few people talk about hell, very few are believing in hell, and some say they are going there and they don't care.
What a strange notion, that you do not care about your own soul, or that of other's souls.
This notion is best expressed as modern demons say "just believe whatever you want, be free" and then the separation from God the Father begins. And we hear "I don't need church, I got my own thing going on with God". And that is its own religion, a set of beliefs in which you make your own beliefs about salvation and the eschatological things.
What's that? You don't know what eschatological things are? Then how can you be a master that knows more than the master that walked this earth? JESUS.
Eschatological means relating to eschatology, which is the part of theology or philosophy concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and humankind. Key topics include end times, the end of the world, and the ultimate state of the universe.
Hell is a place that is beyond sad. Why? Because, on earth, we can feel the existence of God among us, in our hearts, in His laws, in His calling that we choose to ignore at times. But in hell, there is absolutely NOTHING about God in existence.
And if you love God on earth, then this place of hell would be the saddest place in existence because the one you love is gone...forever.
Who goes to hell? Sister Faustina says that souls fall to hell like snow flakes, to the tune of millions even it seems. Most...because of impurity.
You see, purity is something that is not desired. Humility is what shows purity exists. On the contrary, pride is always on the prowl, to devour the humble. But to be humble does not mean to be weak. To be meek is not to be weak.
See what God can do if we let ourselves be humiliated by earthly terms.
Look at the cross. Look at our King Jesus. Look at the treacherous suffering. Look at the disdain. Look at how everyone practically abandoned Him, except 2 or 3.
The crucifix shows us something beyond triumph and hope. The crucifix shows us someone submissive...obedient and humble...to the very Holy Will of God the Father.
We are shown the way....to remain in Him forever....
And THIS is good news.
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Random Bible Verse 1 Matthew 6:2–4 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."
Word of the Lord!
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God Bless You! Peace
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