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Preserve the warmth of the family, because the warmth of the whole world cannot make up for it.
St. Charbel Makhlouf
Today's Meditation“Prayer is fundamentally an act of justice. We owe God our prayer. It’s not something we do for ourselves (though we gain much from prayer), and it certainly isn’t a favor we do for God (though of course it pleases Him). When we neglect our prayers, we are actually cheating God out of something that He is due. Truly each of us has a right to a personal encounter with Jesus, but so too He has a right to a personal encounter with each of us.”
—J. Augustine Wetta, O.S.B., p. 164
Daily VerseHe who pursues righteousness and kindness will find life and honor. A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the stronghold in which they trust. Proverbs 21:21-22
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EWTN Daily Saint
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St. Hyacinth of PolandPatron Saint of: Poland, Lithuania, missionaries, and against drowning
Feast Day: August 17 St. Hyacinth (1185-1257) was born of noble lineage and reared in a Polish castle. His parents took great care of the development of his mind and soul, entrusting his education to his uncle, a priest who became the Bishop of Krakow. Hyacinth excelled in his studies and was sent to the best universities in Europe. After earning two doctorates, he visited Rome in 1220 and met St. Dominic, who had recently received papal approval for the founding of the Order of Preachers. Hyacinth became one of the first Dominican friars and was sent to establish the order in Poland. He was so effective in his preaching for the salvation of souls that he also preached in many other countries including Austria, Prussia, Lithuania, Bohemia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Russia, and China. He founded many monasteries and churches, and multitudes were converted to the faith through his astounding miracles, even the extraordinary feat of raising a dead boy to life. One day he was saying Mass in Kiev when enemy Tartars invaded the city. After Mass he fled with the Blessed Sacrament, but he stopped when he heard a voice from a statue of the Virgin Mary asking that he take her with him. Although the statue was much too heavy to carry, he found that it became so light that he lifted it with ease. When he came to the Dnieper river with the Holy Eucharist and the Blessed Mother in his arms, he, along with his companions, walked dry-shod across the river as they fled from the Tartars. Worn out from his labors, he died on the Feast of the Assumption. St. Hyacinth is the patron of Lithuania, Krakow, and Poland. His feast day is August 17th.
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Monday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary TimeLectionary: 419 Reading 1Ezekiel 24:15-23 The word of the LORD came to me:
Son of man, by a sudden blow
I am taking away from you the delight of your eyes,
but do not mourn or weep or shed any tears.
Groan in silence, make no lament for the dead,
bind on your turban, put your sandals on your feet,
do not cover your beard, and do not eat the customary bread.
That evening my wife died,
and the next morning I did as I had been commanded.
Then the people asked me, “Will you not tell us what all these things
that you are doing mean for us?”
I therefore spoke to the people that morning, saying to them:
Thus the word of the LORD came to me:
Say to the house of Israel:
Thus says the Lord GOD:
I will now desecrate my sanctuary, the stronghold of your pride,
the delight of your eyes, the desire of your soul.
The sons and daughters you left behind shall fall by the sword.
Ezekiel shall be a sign for you:
all that he did you shall do when it happens.
Thus you shall know that I am the LORD.
You shall do as I have done,
not covering your beards nor eating the customary bread.
Your turbans shall remain on your heads, your sandals on your feet.
You shall not mourn or weep,
but you shall rot away because of your sins and groan one to another. 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. AlleluiaMatthew 5:3 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are the poor in spirit;
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. GospelMatthew 19:16-22 A young man approached Jesus and said,
“Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?”
He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good?
There is only One who is good.
If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
He asked him, “Which ones?”
And Jesus replied, “You shall not kill;
you shall not commit adultery;
you shall not steal;
you shall not bear false witness;
honor your father and your mother;
and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
The young man said to him,
“All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?”
Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go,
sell what you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me.”
When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad,
for he had many possessions.
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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 19:16-22Sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. (Matthew 19:21) Let’s put ourselves in today’s Gospel story of the rich young man. Imagine that you’re with the crowd following Jesus. Suddenly, you see a young man in fine clothes approaching. He must be wealthy! He asks Jesus what good he must do to gain eternal life. And then he says that he has kept all the commandments. So he’s not only wealthy—he’s upright, too! But Jesus doesn’t simply congratulate him for keeping the Law. In response to the young man’s question “What do I still lack?” (Matthew 19:20), Jesus tells him to sell all his possessions, give the money to the poor, and then follow him. The crowd goes silent, waiting to see what the man will say. Could he embrace a life of traveling dusty roads from town to town with Jesus and his disciples? Would “treasure in heaven” be enough to lure him out of his comfort (19:21)? You feel unexpectedly sad when you see the man’s face fall and his shoulders droop. He turns away without a word. Jesus was offering him so much more than his wealth could bring, but he couldn’t accept it. You wonder if you would have been able to say yes to Jesus. That’s the question for each of us. Because every day, Jesus is inviting us into more of his life—more freedom from sin, more reconciliation and healing in our relationships, more generosity toward those who are suffering or marginalized. He offers us treasure beyond what we could ever imagine, but our possessions can keep us from saying yes to his invitation. Jesus is well aware of what holds us back. We might, like the rich young man, have a comfortable life with ample possessions. Our grip on those resources can make it hard to let go of them and surrender generously to the Lord. But we also might be embracing the false comfort of a pattern of sin or holding onto the “possession” of a long-standing resentment against someone in our lives. Maybe we’ve become comfortable with the status quo. Today, consider what might be holding you back from following Jesus more closely. Open your heart to him, and let go of it. “Come, Holy Spirit, and help me to surrender anything that keeps me from following Jesus!” Ezekiel 24:15-23
(Psalm) Deuteronomy 32:18-21
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Reflections with Brother Adrian:
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From today's Holy Gospel: "....The young man said to him,
“All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?”
Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go,
sell what you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me.”
When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad,
for he had many possessions. ....”
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Bishop Barron said today: "Jesus’s initial response is somewhat enigmatic: “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good.” In fact, it cuts to the heart of the matter. The greatest mistake that the moral searcher can make is to presume that the goal of his quest can be found in any good or truth other than God.
One of the most insistently repeated themes of the Bible is that, since we are made according to God’s image, we will not find fulfillment in anything other than God. And this insight is repeated by practically every major figure in our tradition, most famously and poetically by Augustine: “Our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee.” end quote.
From Robert Juarez:
"Jesus does not condemn riches. The Bible presents many men and women with material goods who lived holily. What the Lord denounces is the heart that puts its security in them. Riches are a means. Never an end. When they become the center of life, they end up dominating the person. The truly rich are not those who own a lot. It is he who knows how to share, who lives with a free heart, who discovers that the greatest treasure is Christ.
The center of the Gospel is not on selling goods. It's in Jesus' last words: "Come and follow me." That is the essential thing. Christianity is not just about following rules, it is a living relationship with Christ. Following him means walking behind him, learning his way of loving, sharing his mission, trusting in his word. Each one will do so according to his or her own vocation: as a priest, as a religious, as a Christian couple, as a young person, as an old man, as a worker, as a student. The important thing is not the state of life, the important thing is to follow Christ.
Each one of us can complete Jesus' phrase today. He may not ask us to sell our goods. But it does ask us to let go of pride, unforgiveness, a bad habit, a dependency, a selfish attitude, a comfort that prevents us from serving. Each one knows what is that "wealth" that it costs them to give. And the Lord never asks for it to impoverish us. He asks for it to make us free." end quote.
From Brother Adrian: What caused the seemingly good rich young man to walk away sad? Our Lord said to him, and to us: “If you wish to be perfect, go,
sell what you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me.” And our Lord says in another scripture: "So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." And what is the first thing we all like to say? "Well I'm not perfect, NOBODY is! " LOL. Right? Yes, of course none other than God is perfect, Jesus is perfect...and therefore, He is asking us to be perfectly...HIS. If He is perfect and you are not, then He is asking for total surrender.
He is asking for our life's goal, our ideal, our surrender, our way of life to be totally His! Amen? But, sadly, we want to stay imperfect. We want to play games with faith. We want to sin, and just be loved "the way we are". Right?
Perfection is hard, but only as hard as we make it to be.
So how can we be perfect? Because ultimately, the rich young man was good....but wanted to be PERFECT.
Our Lord said:
"Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”
Was our Lord talking about taxes? or Wealth?
Sure...but as in everything...it gets deeper than superficial things.
What does total surrender look like?
Look at our Blessed Mother Mary.
She is calling us to God's holy will....always. Perfect. Immaculate even!
Now we are dipping into sanctifying grace. Amen?
And to achieve this, we need habitual grace, a life of constancy in prayer, and striving to be perfect.
And, actual grace comes in as a symbiotic effect of this life lived in grace, a life giving grace. So, first of all, are we actually seeking to be perfect like that rich young man? At least he wanted to know! Some of us do not even bother! Amen? Secondly, are we ready to hear the truth from God? Are we willing to give the sacrifice He desires? Are there rich people in Heaven? Sure. Rich kings and such, yes, saints we say. Are there rich people in Hell? Yes, of course. What was the difference? Their heart. What they set their love on their whole life. If you really love God, you will really follow His voice, and what He is asking for. And only you can answer that, if you are truly listening....searching!
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Random Bible Verse 1
Romans 14:8 "For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s."
Word of the Lord!
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