†God loves those who thank Him even in suffering. ▪ St. Arnold Janssen
Today's MeditationToday's Meditation “Chastity is the most unpopular of the Christian virtues. There is no getting away from it; the Christian rule is, ‘Either marriage, with complete faithfulness to your partner, or else total abstinence.’ Now this is so difficult and so contrary to our instincts, that obviously either Christianity is wrong or our sexual instinct, as it now is, has gone wrong. One or the other. Of course, being a Christian, I think it is the instinct which has gone wrong … God knows our situation; He will not judge us as if we had no difficulties to overcome. What matters is the sincerity and perseverance of our will to overcome them. Before we can be cured we must want to be cured. Those who really wish for help will get it; but for many modern people even the wish is difficult … We may, indeed, be sure that perfect chastity—like perfect charity—will not be attained by any merely human efforts. You must ask for God’s help. Even when you have done so, it may seem to you for a long time that no help, or less help than you need, is being given. Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity (or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection.” —C. S. Lewis, p. 95
Daily Verse †It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
- Jeremiah 10:12
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EWTN Daily Saint
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St. JeromePatron Saint of: Translators, librarians, and scripture scholars
Feast Day: September 30 St. Jerome (347 – 420) was born to a wealthy pagan family in Dalmatia. He was sent to Rome for his schooling and there converted to Christianity, being baptized by Pope Liberius. He studied theology and traveled widely to the important intellectual and theological centers across the newly-established Christian Empire. He was ordained a priest at Antioch and lived many years as a hermit in a nearby desert. He became an extraordinary scholar, considered to be the most learned of the Latin Church Fathers. Because of his many significant theological works, most notably the thirty years he spent writing the Latin translation of the Bible (the Latin Vulgate), he is one of the most influential and orthodox theologians in the life of the early Church. In his final years Saint Jerome lived in a monastery that he founded in the Holy Land near Bethlehem, where he worked on writing histories and biographies in addition to drawing deeper into a life of prayer and asceticism. For his important scholarly contributions St. Jerome was named a Doctor of the Church. He is the patron of libraries, archaeologists, students, and translators. St. Jerome’s feast day is September 30th.
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Memorial of Saint Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the ChurchLectionary: 457 Reading 1Job 9:1-12, 14-16 Job answered his friends and said: I know well that it is so;
but how can a man be justified before God?
Should one wish to contend with him,
he could not answer him once in a thousand times.
God is wise in heart and mighty in strength;
who has withstood him and remained unscathed? He removes the mountains before they know it;
he overturns them in his anger.
He shakes the earth out of its place,
and the pillars beneath it tremble.
He commands the sun, and it rises not;
he seals up the stars. He alone stretches out the heavens
and treads upon the crests of the sea.
He made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the constellations of the south;
He does great things past finding out,
marvelous things beyond reckoning. Should he come near me, I see him not;
should he pass by, I am not aware of him;
Should he seize me forcibly, who can say him nay?
Who can say to him, "What are you doing?" How much less shall I give him any answer,
or choose out arguments against him!
Even though I were right, I could not answer him,
but should rather beg for what was due me.
If I appealed to him and he answered my call,
I could not believe that he would hearken to my words. Responsorial PsalmPsalm 88:10bc-11, 12-13, 14-15 R. (3) Let my prayer come before you, Lord.
Daily I call upon you, O LORD;
to you I stretch out my hands.
Will you work wonders for the dead?
Will the shades arise to give you thanks?
R. Let my prayer come before you, Lord.
Do they declare your mercy in the grave,
your faithfulness among those who have perished?
Are your wonders made known in the darkness,
or your justice in the land of oblivion?
R. Let my prayer come before you, Lord.
But I, O LORD, cry out to you;
with my morning prayer I wait upon you.
Why, O LORD, do you reject me;
why hide from me your face?
R. Let my prayer come before you, Lord. AlleluiaPhilippians 3:8-9 R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I consider all things so much rubbish
that I may gain Christ and be found in him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. GospelLuke 9:57-62 As Jesus and his disciples were proceeding
on their journey, someone said to him,
"I will follow you wherever you go."
Jesus answered him,
"Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head."
And to another he said, "Follow me."
But he replied, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father."
But he answered him, "Let the dead bury their dead.
But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God."
And another said, "I will follow you, Lord,
but first let me say farewell to my family at home."
Jesus answered him, "No one who sets a hand to the plow
and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of 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 9:57-62No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62) Remember the story of Lot’s wife? Scripture tells us that she was turned into a pillar of salt because she looked backed at Sodom and Gomorrah as they were being destroyed for their sinful behavior (Genesis 19:26). We can assume that it wasn’t just a momentary glance, either. She was looking back at her former life there, wishing that she could return. Then there’s Elisha, who inherited Elijah’s calling to be a prophet to Israel. When Elijah first called him, Elisha literally had his “hand to the plow,” as he was working on his family’s land (Luke 9:62). Hearing Elijah, Elisha begged, “Let me kiss my father and mother good-bye, and I will follow you” (1 Kings 19:20). Like Lot’s wife, he wanted to look back to “what was left behind” (Luke 9:62). And now, in today’s Gospel, Jesus meets a similar response from a man he was calling to follow him: “First let me say farewell to my family” (Luke 9:61). And Jesus replies by saying that this man is not yet “fit for the Kingdom of God” (9:62). So why is Jesus saying that it’s wrong to look back? Because if you are looking back to what you’ve left behind, you can’t be present to what is in front of you. Jesus is calling us to a life of discipleship. He wants our commitment to him to take priority over everything else. And for that to happen, we need to focus our attention on the same path that he traveled—the path of radical obedience to his Father and the path of loving service to the people around us. It’s true that Jesus’ call is demanding. It can be hard not to “look back” on what we have given up to follow him. But remember that all he is asking is that you take one step at a time. So what’s the next act of obedience? What’s the next act of generosity or mercy? How can you be faithful to the Lord in this moment? Keep your focus on what lies ahead, and the past will loosen its grip on you. Even better, Jesus will be walking beside you, and his embrace will grow stronger with every step! “Lord, help me to keep you first in my life at every moment of every day!” Job 9:1-12, 14-16
Psalm 88:10-15
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Reflections with Brother Adrian:
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From today's Holy Gospel: "And to another he said, "Follow me."
But he replied, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father."
But he answered him, "Let the dead bury their dead.
But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God."
And another said, "I will follow you, Lord,
but first let me say farewell to my family at home."
Jesus answered him, "No one who sets a hand to the plow
and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God."
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From Roberto Juarez: "…Let us not forget that Jesus is precisely "on his way to Jerusalem". He is walking towards the cross. He does not ask his disciples for something that he himself has not experienced. Jesus knows what it means to leave assurances. He knows what it means to be rejected, what it means to give one's life. And yet he goes forward. He does not look back. He walks towards Jerusalem because there his mission of love will be fulfilled. Therefore, when Jesus tells us: "Follow me", he is not simply calling us to comply with rules. He is inviting us to walk with him. To share his journey, to learn from him, to discover that true life consists in giving oneself out of love. Today's Gospel leaves us with a question that we can take to our hearts: What am I putting before Jesus? What is that "first" that prevents me from giving myself completely? What do I have to leave behind? What fear, what comfort, what security or what attachment prevents me from moving forward? Perhaps today Jesus is saying to us personally, "Follow me." He does not promise us that the road will always be easy. But he does promise us something much greater: that He will be with us on the way.
Let us ask him today for the grace not to live a faith that has been postponed. May we not say: "Lord, yes, but tomorrow". May we say: "Lord, here I am. I want to follow you today". For those who put their hand to the plow and trust in the Lord can discover that, behind every renunciation, there is not a loss, but a new path to true life." end quote.
From Bishop Barron:
"Jesus answers with devastating laconicism: “Let the dead bury their dead.” We’re stunned by this deeply insensitive answer! This violates every sense of ethics and decorum that we have. Be honest: If you heard this from a religious teacher, wouldn’t you be tempted to leave him?
Here’s the point: Jesus hasn’t one little thing against family obligations. But he will insist that our relationship to him is more important than even those most sacred of obligations. Even this most precious thing must fall away if we are to make him absolutely first. " end quote.
From bro. Adrian: Sometimes I get very distracted, don't you?
But what if something distracts a decision, an important one at that?
Distractions, I said at our safety meeting, can be even deadly. Think of texting and driving! Think of thinking wrong or other things while someone is speaking to you. Yesterday, a shop manager was giving me the daily report, of all the machines that were fixed and what was pending, a routine here. But, at the same time, I was involved in 3 other discussions, on the phone, texts, and emails. I let him speak, but I could never focus entirely on what could mean thousands in expenditures there too. And so, decisions were blurred. But there is something worse than that: indecision.
To not decide, is to decide. Amen?
Our Lord came from Heaven, and invited us to follow Him back home. A proposal really, in its fullest sense, that hinges on a decision. And if you tell the fiance "let me think about it", what does that say? It says "I am not ready or fully committed to you, I have doubts, and I need more time to think this through", right? How do you think the fiance would feel at that moment of getting on one knee before you and the whole world? Shot down? Hurt? Not loved as you thought? Not…ready? Not ready for when the groom comes?
Some people want to decide when they are dying…but most don't get that chance.
The next point. Design of Body. I have been pondered this creation, the design of the body. Why a face? It is like the display screen, but also the place that take input of information. Why does it face forward and no eyes behind the head? Wouldn't it make sense to know a 360 surrounding?
Just that alone, this design means something.
Look Forward. Not back. It means God intends us, to look forward, not to focus on the past. Even the feet are designed to walk forward. Sure you can walk backwards but you will be tripping!
And so, back to what our Lord speaks about….a decision.
The choice. In the beginning, Eve was tempted with a decision.
Every day we are facing decisions. Will you fall into gossip or temptation? Will you decide if today you will focus on the Lord?
Will you decide then, that you will do His Holy Will?
And not only this moment, or this day….but the rest of your life….
Choose God's Way. Jesus.
See what happens….and salvation enter the world.
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Random Bible Verse 1
Deuteronomy 7:9
"Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations"
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Word of the Lord!
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Month of Our Lady of Sorrows (Mater Dolorosa)
Devotion of the Month Opening prayer of Novena to Our Lady of Sorrows: O, Mother most holy and sorrowful, Queen of Martyrs, you who stood by your Son as He agonized on the cross; by the sufferings of your life, by that sword of pain that pierced your heart, by your perfect joy in heaven, look down on me kindly as I kneel before you, sympathizing with your sorrows and offering you my petition with childlike trust. Dear Mother, since your Son refuses you nothing, ask of His Sacred Heart to mercifully grant what I ask, through the merits of His sacred passion, along with those of your sufferings at the foot of the cross. Mother most merciful, to whom shall I go in my misery if not to you who pities us poor, sinful exiles in this valley of tears? In our name, offer Jesus but one drop of His most precious blood, but one pang of His loving heart. Remind Him that you are our sweetness, our life, and our hope, and your prayer will be heard. Amen.
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God Bless You! Peace
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