† Saint Quote:The accidents of life separate us from our dearest friends, but let us not despair. God is like a looking glass in which souls see each other. The more we are united to Him by love, the nearer we are to those who belong to Him. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Today's Meditation:“There is nothing to be dreaded in human ills except sin—not poverty, or disease, or insult, or ill treatment, or dishonor, or death, which people call the worst of evils. To those who love spiritual wisdom, these things are only the names of disasters, names that have no substance. No, the true disaster is to offend God, to do anything that displeases him.”
—St. John Chrysostom, p. 334 Daily VerseAnd whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it. John 14:13-14
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EWTN Daily Saint
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Pope St. Celestine IPatron Saint of: Diplomats, travelers, and bookbinders
Feast Day: July 27 Pope St. Celestine I (d. 432 A.D.) was a Roman deacon who was elected Supreme Pontiff in 422 A.D. He was a contemporary of St. Augustine, and it is said that the two were good friends. He also lived with St. Ambrose in Milan prior to serving in Rome. Pope St. Celestine lead the Church for nine years during a troubled time of social upheaval. Within the Church there were multiple dangerous heresies spreading and corrupting the faith of the people, especially Nestorianism and Pelagianism, which he staunchly fought against, and for this he is known as a defender of orthodox doctrine. Outside the Church, barbarian hordes were invading the West, leading to the collapse of the Roman Empire. Pope St. Celestine I worked to restore the churches that were attacked when Alaric the Goth sacked Rome. He also established the papal diplomatic service to send ambassadors, known as nuncios, from the Vatican to other governments around the world. He is also the Holy Father who sent St. Patrick to evangelize Ireland, and who introduced the responsorial psalm into the papal Mass at Rome. His feast day is July 27th.
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Monday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary TimeLectionary: 401 Reading 1Jeremiah 13:1-11 The LORD said to me: Go buy yourself a linen loincloth;
wear it on your loins, but do not put it in water.
I bought the loincloth, as the LORD commanded, and put it on.
A second time the word of the LORD came to me thus:
Take the loincloth which you bought and are wearing,
and go now to the Parath;
there hide it in a cleft of the rock.
Obedient to the LORD’s command, I went to the Parath
and buried the loincloth.
After a long interval, the LORD said to me:
Go now to the Parath and fetch the loincloth
which I told you to hide there.
Again I went to the Parath, sought out and took the loincloth
from the place where I had hid it.
But it was rotted, good for nothing!
Then the message came to me from the LORD:
Thus says the LORD:
So also I will allow the pride of Judah to rot,
the great pride of Jerusalem.
This wicked people who refuse to obey my words,
who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts,
and follow strange gods to serve and adore them,
shall be like this loincloth which is good for nothing.
For, as close as the loincloth clings to a man’s loins,
so had I made the whole house of Israel
and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the LORD;
to be my people, my renown, my praise, my beauty.
But they did not listen. Responsorial PsalmDeuteronomy 32:18-19, 20, 21 R. (see 18a) You have forgotten God who gave you birth.
You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you,
You forgot the God who gave you birth.
When the LORD saw this, he was filled with loathing
and anger toward his sons and daughters.
R. You have forgotten God who gave you birth.
“I will hide my face from them,” he said,
“and see what will then become of them.
What a fickle race they are,
sons with no loyalty in them!”
R. You have forgotten God who gave you birth.
“Since they have provoked me with their ‘no-god’
and angered me with their vain idols,
I will provoke them with a ‘no-people’;
with a foolish nation I will anger them.”
R. You have forgotten God who gave you birth. AlleluiaJames 1:18 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Father willed to give us birth by the word of truth
that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. GospelMatthew 13:31-35 Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed
that a person took and sowed in a field.
It is the smallest of all the seeds,
yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.
It becomes a large bush,
and the ‘birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.’” He spoke to them another parable.
“The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast
that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch was leavened.” All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables.
He spoke to them only in parables,
to fulfill what had been said through the prophet: I will open my mouth in parables,
I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation
of the world.
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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: Matthew 13:31-35The birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches. (Matthew 13:32) It’s amazing how, in two short parables, Jesus gives such an expansive picture of the kingdom of God. First, he talks about a mustard tree being so large that the “birds of the sky” are free to make their home in it (Matthew 13:32). Then he talks about a woman mixing yeast with “three measures” of flour, an amount large enough to feed as many as one hundred people (13:33). That’s quite a kingdom! Try to imagine this kingdom. Close your eyes, and picture one hundred people gathering to break bread together. Do they all look alike? Or are they a diverse crowd similar to the mix that you see in many churches on a Sunday morning? And what about all those birds nesting in that mustard tree? Are they all starlings? Or are there thrushes, robins, ravens, and maybe some hawks and doves living together? This is the nature of the kingdom. It brings together all kinds of people, and somehow they find a way to celebrate their unity in Christ. Their differences, in fact, pale in comparison to what they have in common: their need to find shelter in the midst of an uncaring world and their need for the Bread of Life in a world whose “bread” can never sustain or satisfy. Jesus came “to gather into one the dispersed children of God” (John 11:52). He came to break down every “dividing wall of enmity” that kept people at odds with each other (Ephesians 2:14). And he did it by overcoming the root of all division and enmity, which is sin. It’s the selfishness of sin that convinces us that God’s love is a limited resource. It’s the arrogance of sin that convinces us that we are more deserving of his love than someone else. But it’s the generosity and mercy of God that prove that there’s room for everyone in his kingdom. It’s the wide-open arms of the crucified Christ that welcome everyone into “many dwelling places” in his Father’s house (John 14:2). What a privilege! Jesus has welcomed you into a kingdom filled with countless treasures meant for countless people—as numerous as the “birds of the sky.” “Jesus, thank you for bringing me into your kingdom!” Jeremiah 13:1-11
(Psalm) Deuteronomy 32:18-21
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Reflections with Brother Adrian:
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From today's Holy Gospel: "... Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed
that a person took and sowed in a field.
It is the smallest of all the seeds,
yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.
It becomes a large bush,
and the ‘birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.’” .... ”
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From Bishop Barron: "We are all, through baptism, members of that body, hence organically related to him and to each other. Our purpose is his purpose: to carry the nonviolent and forgiving love of God to a hungry world, to go to the darkest places in search of sinners, to be both judge and bearer of salvation.
The Church’s responsibility is not so much to make itself accessible to the world but rather to transform the world. It is the mustard seed, the leaven. In Augustine’s terms, it is the city of God making its way within the city of man.
When we are most authentically ourselves, embodying the spirit of Jesus—or better, being his body—we are most compelling and convincing. When we make up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ, we exercise our mission properly. .” End quote.
From Roberto Juarez: "We often think that evangelizing consists only of preaching. However, most evangelism happens through witness. A coherent life is like leaven. It doesn't make noise, but it transforms. We may never know the good we do when we live the gospel simply. God knows. And it makes fruitful that which seems insignificant. Today's parables invite us to look at reality with God's eyes. Let's not despise small beginnings. Let us not lose hope when the fruits are slow to appear. Let us not think that our effort is useless. The Kingdom of God often grows in silence. Like a seed. Like the yeast hidden in the dough. Let us ask the Lord for the grace to trust more in his action than in our strength. May we know how to sow good every day, even if it seems small. May we patiently accept God's timing. And may our life, simple but full of faith, be like that mustard seed and like that leaven that, united to Christ, silently transforms the world from within." end quote.
For years, scientists have been studying nano technology, things that are needing powerful microscopes, to understand creation, and what they call a mysterious "black matter". They are continuously being amazed at their findings. And these things are life changing, life saving, and in some cases, life shattering, like the atomic bomb, when it was realized with atoms being studied and helped usher in nuclear dynamics.
But is our Lord speaking of physical anatomical designs? When our Lord speaks of natural things, He is speaking about creation, yes, but about what is going on inside...the very meaning of things. And this is what we have lost in the last several decades, even centuries. What gives meaning...to everything. I hear about angels bowing in Heaven before our Lord Jesus. That in of itself is a "meaning". I see a scroll, or a book of life handed to our Lord. And THAT in of itself is a meaning. They don't need books in those realms, but Revelation talks about books. It is about the meaning of things.
And so, we must ponder the meaning of the mustard seed, and the yeast.
What does this mean? What does it mean that this onset, this trigger gives life to a bigger organism that other organisms come and find shelter and life?
What does it mean that yeast, an organism, give fullness to more organisms, and then feed a greater whole?
What does this parable say about the feeding of five thousand men with a piece of bread?
Is God the Mustard seed? Is the Word of God the mustard seed? And the yeast that makes for more enjoyable bread, is that our part as well? What is yeast? They say it is like a fungus, and that word to us means bad things, like "bacteria". But, watch what God does with "bad things". Watch what grows from it. Like those Christians that are being shot and blown up in Africa continuously, the fire of Christ is now spreading and if it continues, the continent of Africa may become the biggest Christian Nations we know of. Communist countries have got smart and stopped killing so many after hundreds of years of doing so.
Watch what God can do in your life with those "bad things" if they offered up to Him and His children.
Smash your toe or finger...offer it up, to Him or purgatory souls!
Tragedy strikes? Hang on to dear life...CHRIST!
And that in of itself becomes the mustard seed.
A little faith goes a long...very long way, amen?
If only we would apply this God given gift.
All things start small, even though we would like to start big, Amen? Apply love to the seed, water, and great care. This gift God our Father has given you.
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Philippians 2:13 "...for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."
Word of the Lord!
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