Our Lady

Our Lady

Today is the Blessed Mother's Birthday. May we all honor Her today and everyday of our lives. May She always be a blessing to us all and forever live in our hearts so Jesus will always have a Home in our Hearts.

Until Tomorrow, God Bless, and may Mary forever cover us with Her Mantle. 

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings

WIS 9:13-18B

Who can know God’s counsel,

or who can conceive what the LORD intends?

For the deliberations of mortals are timid,

and unsure are our plans.

For the corruptible body burdens the soul

and the earthen shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns.

And scarce do we guess the things on earth,

and what is within our grasp we find with difficulty;

but when things are in heaven, who can search them out?

Or who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom

and sent your holy spirit from on high?

And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14-17

R. (1) In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

You turn man back to dust,

saying, “Return, O children of men.”

For a thousand years in your sight

are as yesterday, now that it is past,

or as a watch of the night.

R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

You make an end of them in their sleep;

the next morning they are like the changing grass,

Which at dawn springs up anew,

but by evening wilts and fades.

R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

Teach us to number our days aright,

that we may gain wisdom of heart.

Return, O LORD! How long?

Have pity on your servants!

R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,

that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.

And may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours;

prosper the work of our hands for us!

Prosper the work of our hands!

R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

Reading 2

PHMN 9-10, 12-17

I, Paul, an old man,

and now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus,

urge you on behalf of my child Onesimus,

whose father I have become in my imprisonment;

I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you.

I should have liked to retain him for myself,

so that he might serve me on your behalf

in my imprisonment for the gospel,

but I did not want to do anything without your consent,

so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary.

Perhaps this is why he was away from you for a while,

that you might have him back forever,

no longer as a slave

but more than a slave, a brother,

beloved especially to me, but even more so to you,

as a man and in the Lord. 

So if you regard me as a partner, welcome him as you would me.

Gospel

LK 14:25-33

Great crowds were traveling with Jesus,

and he turned and addressed them,

“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,

wife and children, brothers and sisters,

and even his own life,

he cannot be my disciple.

Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me

cannot be my disciple.

Which of you wishing to construct a tower

does not first sit down and calculate the cost

to see if there is enough for its completion? 

Otherwise, after laying the foundation

and finding himself unable to finish the work

the onlookers should laugh at him and say,

‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’

Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down

and decide whether with ten thousand troops

he can successfully oppose another king

advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? 

But if not, while he is still far away,

he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms. 

In the same way,

anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions

cannot be my disciple.”

Casting Nets

Casting Nets

  Tonight (Last Night) it was a cool night so I decided to go get some Hot Cider and go to the beach and sit and just escape the world for a while. It was just after sunset and there was a nice cool breeze. For some reason this is the kind of night that just makes God become more a live for me but in reality it is I become more receptive to His presence. I started to watch further up on the beach a group of three men fishing. It brought to mind two bible passages. 

    The first is from Matthew 4: 18-20

“As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. At once they left their nets and followed him.”

      The Second is from Luke 5: 1-10

“While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.” When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets  were tearing. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that they were in danger of sinking.When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him, and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”

       I have always liked both of these readings from the Bible. I have even blogged about being "Fishers of Men", but felt a deeper connection and as I said early on that there will be times where we have to revisit what we believe so we can come to a deeper understanding. They have always ignited that spark in me to follow Jesus and cast out my net in the deep and be a fisher of men. There are times that idea of dropping everything and just follow Jesus is all that I want to do. At times I have felt the most alive when I think about that. That pure sense of serving only the Blessed Trinity and becoming not of this world but becoming one of the voices in the desert crying out. I think about what it must have been like to sit on the shore and hear Jesus speak and to witness Him call the Apostles, then to put aside their own wants and desires and cast their nets into the deep and the nets were over filled. As I am typing this I must admit that my eyes are filling with tears because I do not know if I would have been able to do that then or even now. Can I do this? Can I drop everything and truly and fully follow my Lord into the deep? Is that “deep” for me the Priesthood? or a life in the church? 

         As I watched the fisherman tonight a lot of thoughts came to my mind. Then as those passages came to mind and mixed with the thoughts I came to an understanding that I never focused on before. In Luke, it was not until Jesus spoke to the people and they heard the “Word of God” that they cast their nets into the deep and they were filled. The same is for us today. Unless people hear the “ Word of God “ they will not be “caught” in the net of salvation. It is our job to help to evangelize and spread the Gospel. At the end of mass we are asked to to do this. We need to always be casting our lines out there into the deep.  I watched them for about an hour and during that time I watched as they thought they had a bite and reeled in the line to just see no fish and other times it was no fish and no bait. I know how frustrating that is because I do like to fish myself at times. It is the same thing we go through when we evangelize. There are times we have thought people got the message but we realize that they not only did not bite but left the “bait” but there are those times that they did not bite but the “bait” is gone. It is in that moment, understand that means they took what you said or did with them and it will be digested in their soul. You may never see that person again but know you played the part you needed to. They may want more of the word or deed because what you put out there. The Holy Spirit will work but we have to allow Him to work in us and through us. No matter what the out come of what they reeled in or didn’t reel in, they continued to use fresh bait, and cast out their lines again and again and again. 

   
    For all of us how we follow Jesus into the deep to cast out our nets can be different. He calls us to follow Him and in that calling our “Deep” can be discovered. What kind of net we cast can be different as well and maybe not a net at all even. Maybe it is a fishing pole because you are meant to focus on one person at a time. You may be great with that one on one time with a person and that is your calling. Others may be able to talk to many, and they come away with many wanting more. It may be a talent that your voice as you sing brings a persons attention to the words and that speaks to them. Only you know whats the “deep” for you and how you are to cast out. 

    
    I left there feeling what can be best expressed as a “Spiritual Rush”. There were moments that tears started to form because I want to know Him more deeply. I became focused on the words He said “Come and follow me, I will make you fishers of men”. They were to become the First Priests of the Church. Peter was to become our first Pope. They did not have an ounce of knowledge of what was to come and yet they left everything. Everything that “We”, the Catholic Church, have become have come from a simple three letter word we use today,  “Yes”.  From Mary’s yes, to Joseph’s, to the Apostles, to the Disciples, to the Saints, and all the way down to us today. A simple word that carries a deep commitment to love and serve our God, Jesus, Holy Spirit and the Church.

Until tomorrow, God Bless, and may you cast your net into the deep.        

Blessed Mother Teresa

Blessed Mother Teresa 

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

~ Blessed Mother Teresa ~

Feastday: September 5

Patron of World Youth Day

1910 - 1997

Beatified By: Pope John Paul II

The remarkable woman who would be known as Mother Theresa began life named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Born on August 26, 1910 in Skopje, she was the youngest child born to Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu, Receiving her First Communion at the age of five, she was confirmed in November 1916. Her father died while she was only eight years old leaving her family in financial straits.

Gonxha's religious formation was assisted by the vibrant Jesuit parish of the Sacred Heart in which she was very involved as a youth.

Subsequently moved to pursue missionary work, Gonxha left her home in September 1928 at the age of 18 to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto, in Ireland. She received the name Sister Mary Teresa after St. Therese of Lisieux. In December of 1929, she departed for her first trip to India, arriving in Calcutta. After making her First Profession of Vows in May 1931, Sister Teresa was assigned to the Loreto Entally community in Calcutta and taught at St. Mary's School for girls.

Sister Teresa made her Final Profession of Vows, On May 24, 1937, becoming, as she said, the "spouse of Jesus" for "all eternity." From that time on she was called Mother Teresa.

She continued teaching at St. Mary's and in 1944 became the school's principal. Mother Teresa's twenty years in Loreto were filled with profound happiness. Noted for her charity, unselfishness and courage, her capacity for hard work and a natural talent for organization, she lived out her consecration to Jesus, in the midst of her companions, with fidelity and joy.

It was on September 10, 1946 during a train ride from Calcutta to Darjeeling for her annual retreat,Mother Teresa received her "inspiration, her call within a call." On that day, in a way she would never explain, Jesus' thirst for love and for souls took hold of her heart and the desire to satiate His thirst became the driving force of her life.

By means of interior locutions and visions, Jesus revealed to her the desire of His heart for "victims of love" who would "radiate His love on souls." "Come be My light,'"He begged her. "I cannot go alone."
Jesus revealed His pain at the neglect of the poor, His sorrow at their ignorance of Him and His longing for their love. He asked Mother Teresa to establish a religious community, Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to the service of the poorest of the poor.

Nearly two years of testing and discernment passed before Mother Teresa received permission to begin. On August 17, 1948, she dressed for the first time in a white, blue-bordered sari and passed through the gates of her beloved Loreto convent to enter the world of the poor.

After a short course with the Medical Mission Sisters in Patna, Mother Teresa returned to Calcutta and found temporary lodging with the Little Sisters of the Poor. On December 21, she went for the first time to the slums. She visited families, washed the sores of some children, cared for an old man lying sick on the road and nursed a woman dying of hunger and tuberculosis. She started each day with communion then went out, rosary in her hand, to find and serve Him amongst "the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for." After some months, she was joined, one by one, by her former students.

On October 7, 1950 the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially established in the Archdiocese of Calcutta. By the early 1960s, Mother Teresa began to send her Sisters to other parts of India. The Decree of Praise granted to the Congregation by Pope Paul VI in February 1965 encouraged her to open a house in Venezuela. It was soon followed by foundations in Rome and Tanzania and, eventually, on every continent. Starting in 1980 and continuing through the 1990s, Mother Teresaopened houses in almost all of the communist countries, including the former Soviet Union, Albania and Cuba.

In order to respond better to both the physical and spiritual needs of the poor, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity Brothers in 1963, in 1976 the contemplative branch of the Sisters, in 1979 the Contemplative Brothers, and in 1984 the Missionaries of Charity Fathers.

Mother Theresa's inspiration was not limited to those with religious vocations. She formed the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa and the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, people of many faiths and nationalities with who she shared her spirit of prayer, simplicity, sacrifice and her apostolate of humble works of love.

This spirit later inspired the Lay Missionaries of Charity. In answer to the requests of many priests, in 1981 Mother Teresa also began the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests as a "little way of holiness" for those who desire to share in her charisma and spirit.

During the years of rapid growth the world began to turn its eyes towards Mother Teresa and the work she had started. Numerous awards, beginning with the Indian Padmashri Award in 1962 and notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, honored her work, while an increasingly interested media began to follow her activities. She received both prizes and attention 'for the glory of God and in the name of the poor."

There was a heroic side of this great woman that was revealed only after her death. Hidden from all eyes, even from those closest to her, was her interior life marked by an experience of a deep, painful and abiding feeling of being separated from God, even rejected by Him, along with an ever increasing longing for His love. She called her inner experience, the darkness. The "painful night" of her soul, which began around the time she started her work for the poor and continued to the end of her life, led Mother Teresato an ever more profound union with God. Through the darkness she mystically participated in the thirst of Jesus, in His painful and burning longing for love, and she shared in the interior desolation of the poor.

In spite of increasingly severe health problems towards the end of her life, Mother Teresa continued to govern her Society and respond to the needs of the poor and the Church. By 1997, Mother Teresa's Sisters numbered nearly 4,000 members and were established in 610 foundations in 123 countries of the world. In March 1997 she blessed her newly-elected successor as Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity and then made one more trip abroad. After meeting Pope John Paul II for the last time, she returned to Calcutta and spent her final weeks receiving visitors and instructing her Sisters.

On September 5, Mother Teresa's earthly life came to an end. She was given the honor of a state funeral by the Government of India and her body was buried in the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity. Her tomb quickly became a place of pilgrimage and prayer for people of all faiths, rich and poor alike.

Mother Teresa left a testament of unshakable faith, invincible hope and extraordinary charity. Her response to Jesus' plea, "Come be My light," made her a Missionary of Charity, a "mother to the poor," a symbol of compassion to the world, and a living witness to the thirsting love of God. As a testament to her most remarkable life, Pope John Paul II permitted the opening of her Cause of Canonization. On December 20, 2002 he approved the decrees of her heroic virtues and miracles.

Enough Said...

Enough Said...

Sometimes there are just not any words that can be said to explain what the reality is but just the reality itself.

Until tomorrow, God Bless, and may your doubts disappear by the light of the Son.

Prayer & Fasting

Prayer & Fasting 

   Pope Francis has called for a day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria, in the Mideast region, and throughout  the whole world, this Saturday, September 7th. Below I have included a portion of His appeal. I hope that we all may gather in prayer in our own way so that the prayers may be heard.

“To this end, brothers and sisters, I have decided to proclaim for the whole Church on 7 September next, the vigil of the birth of Mary, Queen of Peace, a day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria, the Middle East, and throughout the world, and I also invite each person, including our fellow Christians, followers of other religions and all men of good will, to participate, in whatever way they can, in this initiative. On 7 September, in Saint Peter’s Square, here, from 19:00 until 24:00, we will gather in prayer and in a spirit of penance, invoking God’s great gift of peace upon the beloved nation of Syria and upon each situation of conflict and violence around the world. Humanity needs to see these gestures of peace and to hear words of hope and peace! I ask all the local churches, in addition to fasting, that they gather to pray for this intention.

Let us ask Mary to help us to respond to violence, to conflict and to war, with the power of dialogue, reconciliation and love. She is our mother: may she help us to find peace; all of us are her children! Help us, Mary, to overcome this most difficult moment and to dedicate ourselves each day to building in every situation an authentic culture of encounter and peace. Mat, Queen of Peace, pray for us!”

Until tomorrow, God Bless, and may our hearts be open to the prayers of peace and change. 

Saint Michael the Archangel Litany

Saint Michael the 

Archangel Litany

  Came across this today and I know for myself I call on the aid of Saint Michael in my daily life. I figured I would share this so we all may draw closer and ask for the protection of the Angel that defeated Satan. 

Litany of Saint Michael the Archangel

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us.

Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of Heaven,

Have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world,

Have mercy on us.

God the Holy Spirit,

Have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, One God,

Have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, Queen of the Angels, pray for us.

St. Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Most glorious attendant of the Triune Divinity, pray for us

*Pray for us is repeated after each invocation

Standing at the right of the Altar of Incense,

Ambassador of Paradise,

Glorious Prince of the heavenly armies,

Leader of the angelic hosts,

Warrior who thrust Satan into Hell,

Defender against the wickedness and snares of the devil,

Standard-bearer of God’s armies,

Defender of divine glory,

First defender of the Kingship of Christ,

Strength of God,

Invincible prince and warrior,

Angel of peace,

Guardian of the Christian Faith,

Guardian of the Legion of Saint Michael,

Champion of God’s people,

Champion of the Legion of Saint Michael,

Guardian angel of the Eucharist,

Defender of the Church,

Defender of the Legion of Saint Michael,

Protector of the Sovereign Pontiff,

Protector of the Legion of Saint Michael,

Angel of Catholic Action,

Powerful intercessor of Christians,

Bravest defender of those who hope in God,

Guardian of our souls and bodies,

Healer of the sick,

Help of those in their agony,

Consoler of the souls in Purgatory,

God’s messenger for the souls of the just,

Terror of the evil spirits,

Victorious in battle against evil,

Guardian and Patron of the Universal Church

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world,

Spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world,

Graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world,

Have mercy on us.

Pray for us, O glorious Saint Michael,

That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let Us Pray 

Sanctify us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, with Thy holy blessing, and grant us, by the intercession of Saint Michael, that wisdom which teaches us to lay up treasures in Heaven by exchanging the goods of this world for those of eternity, Thou Who lives and reigns, world without end. Amen. 

Relying, O Lord, upon the intercession of Thy blessed Archangel Michael, we humbly beg of Thee, that the Holy Eucharist in whose presence we kneel, may make our soul holy and pleasing to Thee. Through Christ Our Lord. 

R. Amen.