Fortnight for Freedom 2014

  This years Fortnight for Freedom starts on June 21st to July 4th.  During this time we, as Catholic Americans, need to focus our prayers and action to ensure our Religious Freedoms. We are under attack for our beliefs and with programs, like health care, causes people, companies, and religious organizations to include things that go against the teachings of our Faith.  It happens to take place at a time when the Liturgical Calendar celebrates martyrs, like St Thomas More, St John Fisher, St John the Baptist, Saint Peter and St Paul, and the First Martyrs of the Church of Rome. All who remained faithful in the face of persecution by political power. 

     For information and facts on how right are being taken away or threatened please click here. This will bring you to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website. To see the one page fact sheets please click here. For prayers please click here.  I have included one prayer below. Please visit the site to educate yourself so we can educate others as well. It is very easy for our freedom to be taken away because it is being done in a slow processes. I hope and pray that we all can gather in prayer over the next two weeks and pray for our freedom.  Thank You all in advance. 

Until tomorrow, God Bless, and may our Faith guide us and protect us as we stand for the freedom to Worship and Act out our Faith and Beliefs. 

O GOD OUR CREATOR,
from your provident hand we have received
our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. You have called us as your people and given us
the right and the duty to worship you, the only true God, and your Son, Jesus Christ.
Through the power and working of your Holy Spirit,
you call us to live out our faith in the midst of the world, bringing the light and the saving truth of the Gospel
to every corner of society.
We ask you to bless us
in our vigilance for the gift of religious liberty.
Give us the strength of mind and heart
to readily defend our freedoms when they are threatened; give us courage in making our voices heard
on behalf of the rights of your Church
and the freedom of conscience of all people of faith.
Grant, we pray, O heavenly Father,
a clear and united voice to all your sons and daughters gathered in your Church
in this decisive hour in the history of our nation,
so that, with every trial withstood
and every danger overcome—
for the sake of our children, our grandchildren,
and all who come after us—
this great land will always be “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Memorial of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious
Lectionary: 370

Reading 1

2 CHR 24:17-15

After the death of Jehoiada,

the princes of Judah came and paid homage to King Joash,

and the king then listened to them.

They forsook the temple of the LORD, the God of their fathers,

and began to serve the sacred poles and the idols;

and because of this crime of theirs,

wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem.

Although prophets were sent to them to convert them to the LORD,

the people would not listen to their warnings.

Then the Spirit of God possessed Zechariah,

son of Jehoiada the priest.

He took his stand above the people and said to them:

“God says, ‘Why are you transgressing the LORD’s commands,

so that you cannot prosper?

Because you have abandoned the LORD, he has abandoned you.’”

But they conspired against him,

and at the king’s order they stoned him to death

in the court of the LORD’s temple.

Thus King Joash was unmindful of the devotion shown him

by Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, and slew his son.

And as Zechariah was dying, he said, “May the LORD see and avenge.”

At the turn of the year a force of Arameans came up against Joash.

They invaded Judah and Jerusalem,

did away with all the princes of the people,

and sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus.

Though the Aramean force came with few men,

the LORD surrendered a very large force into their power,

because Judah had abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers.

So punishment was meted out to Joash.

After the Arameans had departed from him,

leaving him in grievous suffering,

his servants conspired against him

because of the murder of the son of Jehoiada the priest.

He was buried in the City of David,

but not in the tombs of the kings.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 89:4-5, 29-30, 31-32, 33-34

R. (29a) For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.

“I have made a covenant with my chosen one,

I have sworn to David my servant:

Forever will I confirm your posterity

and establish your throne for all generations.”

R. For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.

“Forever I will maintain my kindness toward him,

and my covenant with him stands firm.

I will make his posterity endure forever

and his throne as the days of heaven.”

R. For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.

“If his sons forsake my law

and walk not according to my ordinances,

If they violate my statutes

and keep not my commands.”

R. For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.

“I will punish their crime with a rod

and their guilt with stripes.

Yet my mercy I will not take from him,

nor will I belie my faithfulness.”

R. For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.

Gospel

MT 6:24-34

Jesus said to his disciples:

“No one can serve two masters.

He will either hate one and love the other,

or be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,

what you will eat or drink,

or about your body, what you will wear.

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds in the sky;

they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns,

yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are not you more important than they?

Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?

Why are you anxious about clothes?

Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.

They do not work or spin.

But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor

was clothed like one of them.

If God so clothes the grass of the field,

which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,

will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?

So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’

or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’

All these things the pagans seek.

Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,

and all these things will be given you besides.

Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.

Sufficient for a day is its own evil.”