†My confidence is placed in God who does not need our help for accomplishing his designs. Our single endeavor should be to give ourselves to the work and to be faithful to him, and not to spoil his work by our shortcomings. ▪ St. Isaac Jogues
“When a trial is sent to us, it is more difficult than at other times to know how to be thankful to God. We need to acquire sufficient supernatural strength in order to believe that God remains a Father when He makes us feel the weight of the Cross. Behind the suffering that occupies the foreground, we must learn to discover the heart of the One who, by this trial, wishes either to make us grow more spiritually, to permit us to expiate our sins, or to identify us more with His divine Son and to make us participate more fully in the Redemption.” —Raoul Lus, S.J., p. 11
Daily Verse †For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God. ▪ 1 Peter 3:17-18a
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EWTN Daily Saint
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St. Isaac JoguesPatron Saint of: North America, missionaries, and the Mohawk people
Feast Day: October 19 St. Isaac Jogues (1607–1646) was born in France to a middle-class family, and at the age of 17 entered a Jesuit seminary where he displayed a talent for writing and teaching. He was ordained in January of 1636 at the age of 29, and three months later was sent as a missionary priest to the rugged wilderness of New France (now Canada) to work among the Huron and Algonquin Native American tribes. Despite the hardship of life in the wilderness, Isaac experienced great spiritual joy in his mission. One day, six years into his work, he was captured by a Mohawk-Iroquois war party. He was enslaved and ritually tortured, in addition to being malnourished and inadequately clothed. His hands were severely mutilated and many of his fingers destroyed, which prevented his ability to say Mass. He continued to preach the faith and was named Ondessonk, “the indomitable one,” by his Mohawk captors. After over a year in captivity he escaped with the help of Dutch settlers. He went back to France where he was honored as a “living martyr.” He obtained special permission from the pope to say Mass with his mutilated hands. Instead of continuing his life in peace, St. Isaac was zealous to return to his mission field. He returned to New France, and by that time a peace treaty was arranged between the warring native tribes allowing him to work among the Mohawks. However, when they suffered a crisis of crop failure and epidemic disease, the Mohawks blamed the Christians for sorcery and attacked the settlers. St. Isaac Jogues died after being tomahawked in the head, and his body was thrown into the Mohawk River. He is the patron of the Americas and Canada. Isaac Jogues earned the name “Apostle of the Mohawks” for his work. New York state’s first Catholic baptismal record was due to his priestly ministry. He and his companions were the first martyrs of the North American continent officially recognized by the Church. His feast day is October 19th.
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Memorial of Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs[In the Dioceses of the United States] Lectionary: 473 Reading 1Ephesians 2:1-10 Brothers and sisters:
You were dead in your transgressions and sins
in which you once lived following the age of this world,
following the ruler of the power of the air,
the spirit that is now at work in the disobedient.
All of us once lived among them in the desires of our flesh,
following the wishes of the flesh and the impulses,
and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest.
But God, who is rich in mercy,
because of the great love he had for us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions,
brought us to life with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
raised us up with him,
and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,
that in the ages to come
he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace
in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and this is not from you; it is the gift of God;
it is not from works, so no one may boast.
For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works
that God has prepared in advance,
that we should live in them. Responsorial PsalmPsalm 100:1b-2, 3, 4ab, 4c-5 R. (3b) The Lord made us, we belong to him.
Sing joyfully to the LORD all you lands;
serve the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful song.
R. The Lord made us, we belong to him.
Know that the LORD is God;
he made us, his we are;
his people, the flock he tends.
R. The Lord made us, we belong to him.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
his courts with praise.
R. The Lord made us, we belong to him.
Give thanks to him; bless his name, for he is good:
the LORD, whose kindness endures forever,
and his faithfulness, to all generations.
R. The Lord made us, we belong to him. AlleluiaMatthew 5:3 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are the poor in spirit;
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. GospelLuke 12:13-21 Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”
Then he said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Then he told them a parable.
“There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.
He asked himself, ‘What shall I do,
for I do not have space to store my harvest?’
And he said, ‘This is what I shall do:
I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.
There I shall store all my grain and other goods
and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you,
you have so many good things stored up for many years,
rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’
But God said to him,
‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’
Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself
but is not rich in what matters to God.”
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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: Luke 12:13-21. . . rich in what matters to God. (Luke 12:21) We don’t usually need much training in being “rich” in what matters to the world. Our natural tendencies push us to work hard so that we can afford to buy not just sufficient things but nice things as well. But to become rich “in what matters to God” (Luke 12:21)—that takes something more than training and discipline. It requires a transformation of the heart. Think about what prompted Jesus to tell the parable of the rich fool in today’s Gospel. A man tried to enlist him as a mediator in an inheritance dispute with his brother. He wanted Jesus to help him get what he thought was his fair share of his father’s estate. But Jesus had a far different goal in mind. You can almost hear him saying,
Don’t try so hard to become rich in what matters to this world—not unless you are working just as hard to become rich in what matters to my Father.
Or, to use the imagery from his parable,
You don't need a bigger "barn" to store your excess wealth. Give it to those who have nothing!
You never hear about a saint who wished they had a bigger bank account. You never hear about a missionary who wore only the finest silk shirts or dresses. That’s because they discovered a different kind of wealth—the riches of discipleship. These are riches that “neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20). In prayer today, put yourself in place of the man who asked Jesus to help him become wealthier. What kind of wealth are you looking for? To what degree is it riches that matter to the world, and to what degree is it riches that matter to God? Tell Jesus about the balance between the two, and ask him to tell you what he thinks about it. If you let Jesus see your true desires, including whatever “bigger barns” you are hoping for, he will give you a glimpse into his desires for you. He will show you what it could be like if you were more rich in what matters to him—the joys, the spiritual insights, the sense of purpose, and, yes, the challenges. And he will fill you with a deeper desire to pursue that wealth—the wealth that really matters. “Lord, help me to desire your treasures above all else.” Ephesians 2:1-10
Psalm 100:1-5
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Reflections with Brother Adrian:
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“I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.
There I shall store all my grain and other goods
and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you,
you have so many good things stored up for many years,
rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’
But God said to him,
‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’
Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself
but is not rich in what matters to God.”
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From Roberto Juarez end of his reflection: "The parable also helps us to examine our fears. Many times we accumulate because we are afraid: fear that something will be missing, that we will lose what we have achieved, that we will depend on others, or that we will not be able to face the future. It is reasonable to be far-sighted and to take care of our family. But responsibility is one thing, and it is quite another to make material security our god. We can have savings and continue to live anxiously; we can have many things and feel inwardly poor. Christian trust is not about waiting for God to magically solve all our problems. It is about working responsibly, stewarding wisely what we have received, and at the same time recognizing that not everything depends on us. Our life is in His hands. This trust frees us from the need to own everything and allows us to live with greater gratitude. Instead of constantly asking ourselves what we lack, we learn to recognize what we have received. Instead of closing ourselves off for fear of losing, we discover the joy of sharing. Gratitude transforms our relationship with goods. We stop seeing them exclusively as a personal conquest and begin to see them as gifts that imply a responsibility. What we have received can also become a blessing for others.
Let us ask the Virgin Mary to help us to live detached and trusting. She knew how to recognize the wonders that God had done in her life and to put herself at the service of his plan. Her greatness did not lie in accumulating wealth, but in accepting God's will and offering herself entirely to Him. May the Lord grant us the wisdom not to confuse having much with living well. May he help us to build a life rich in faith, love and service. And when the time comes to present ourselves before him, may we be able to show him not only what we have achieved, but, above all, what we have loved and shared." end quote.
- - - From Bishop Barron: "No matter how good, how beautiful a state of affairs is here below, it is destined to pass into nonbeing. That sunset that I enjoyed last night that radiantly beautiful display is now forever gone. It lasted only a while. That beautiful person-attractive, young, full of life, creative, joyful-will eventually age, get sick, break down, and die. An image that always comes to mind when I think of these things is the gorgeous firework that bursts open like a giant flower and then, in the twinkling of an eye, is gone forever. Everything is haunted by nonbeing. Everything, finally, is a bubble. But this is not meant to depress us; it is meant to redirect our attention precisely to the things that are "above," to the eternity of God." end quote.
Your Brother Adrian. It becomes a matter of value. What we choose above other things. Isn't it?
How fair is it? We always ask. But how many of us ask "How do you think God would judge this in the eyes of our Lord JESUS our Lord and God Himself?"
And our Lord speaks on this. And it is a warning really. Advice? Yes. A command, if you care to take it as so, yes.
Because the Word is teaching us His way. If only we care enough, that is, to value it enough to take to His way.
But family feuds exist because of wealth fights. In poor families and in rich families all the same.
It is almost as if our Lord says "Marth, Martha, you are worried and anxious about many things, but Mary has chosen the better part".
And so, people come from other countries to get money they cannot get in their country, for a "better life" and in doing so, they forfeit their faith, they "HAVE TO" work on Sundays, to accumulate the wealth, and to "have nice things".
And the same goes for many more, who work so hard for a great retirement account, and some don't make it to enjoy it. Meanwhile, many had suffered need all along the way for some of those savings.
We better have a "living will" left right? So at least then money could be afforded to those in need! Amen?
But the story goes deeper than money.
This affair is about the heart.
The Sacred Heart of God speaks…Jesus.
He illuminates what is going on at the heart of the matter here.
And this is why we need Him. Direly. To shine the light of truth of what it is that we are facing.
What is then, the wealth we should acquire? Provide for the family, yes…but what about God's children? There are souls starving to death, and dying on the streets. There are women exploited and taken advantage of and then flushing babies in the toilets with the new abortion methods and pills. This is dire poverty, not wealth.
So what is the opposite? Saving lives! Saving souls! Sharing the gospel! Living a life of grace! Living a life of Christ! Where mercy abounds. God sees the heart! That's where He wants to live, move, act, and thrive! But what blocks Him? We do.
We focus on the wrong things. We MISS THE MARK. This means sin. When we choose all things contrary to God's will, grace, and mercy, we miss the mark.
We hate to lose. This is pride.
We hate to be wrong. This is pride.
We hate to be less than others. This is pride.
We begin hating others. This is pride. There is one Saint that just scares me, for being so righteous and holy. And what's funny, is, he never said a word that was written. Saint Joseph, foster father of our Lord Jesus.
Sister Ann Emmerich, a blessed, says he wouldn't even charge people for his carpentry work. He would simply live off of God's providence.
That is TOTAL faith and submission. Humility like no other.
May our Lord bring us to this kind of faith.
Where others are more.
Where love abounds.
Where others can be right, and we wait for the truth to shine.
Very few are striving to be strong and wealthy in the things of God. Very few desire to be Holy Saints!
Lord Help Us Be One With YOU!!
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Random Bible Verse 1
Hebrews 12:3 "Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted."
Word of the Lord!
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