Daily Reflections From Fr Showri 2 – https://faithhopeloveministry.org/

FR SHOWRI DAILY REFLECTIONS

Scripture for today...

Mark 8:27-33

Who Do You Say That Jesus Is?

Today’s Gospel explains the basis of our Faith as our acceptance of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God and our Lord and Savior. It also tells us that Christ Jesus suffered, died, and rose again, to become our Savior. Finally, it outlines the three conditions for Christian discipleship, namely, denying oneself, taking up one’s cross, and following Jesus.

This Sunday we begin a series of seven Sunday Gospel readings from Mark’s account of the journey of Jesus and the apostles from northern Galilee to Jerusalem. Along the way Jesus gave them instructions about His identity and what it meant to follow Him (discipleship).

Today’s Gospel, relates the first of Jesus’ three prophecies of his coming passion, death, and Resurrection. This instruction consists of two sections: the Messianic confession of Peter, and Jesus’ prediction of His Passion, death and Resurrection, followed by a clear teaching on discipleship.

Two pertinent questions in a pagan pilgrimage center: In Matthew and Mark, Jesus asked two questions about His identity. The incident occurred at Caesarea Philippi, presently called Banias, twenty-five miles northeast of the Sea of Galilee. This city was founded by King Philip, the son of Herod the Great, to perpetuate his own memory and to honor the Roman emperor Caesar.

It was situated on a beautiful terrace about 1150 feet above sea level on the southwest slope of Mount Hermon overlooking the Jordan valley. The city was a great pilgrimage center for pagans because it held temples for the Syrian gods Bal and Pan, the Roman God Zeus, and a marble temple for the emperor Caesar.

Jesus realized that if the apostles did not know who He really was, then the entire Messianic Mission of ministry, suffering and death would be useless.

Hence, Jesus decided to ask a question in two parts.

The first question:

“What is the public opinion?”

Their answer was, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” John the Baptist was so great a figure that many Jews, including Herod their king, thought that John’s spirit had entered the body of Jesus.

Elijah, the greatest of the prophets was believed to be the forerunner of the Messiah. [“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes”(Mal4:5).]

It was believed that, before the people went into exile, Jeremiah had taken the Ark of the Covenant and the altar of incense out of the Temple, and hidden them away in a lonely cave on Mount Nebo; before the coming of the Messiah, he would return and produce them, and the glory of God would come to the people again (2 Mc 2:1-12).

In 2 Esdr 2:18 (an apocryphal work), the promise of God is: “For thy help I will send my servants Isaiah and Jeremiah.”The phrase, “one of the prophets,” suggested that Jesus had a ministry like that of the former prophets.

When the people identified Jesus with Elijah and with Jeremiah they were, according to their lights, paying Jesus a great compliment, for Jeremiah and Elijah were the expected forerunners of the Anointed One of God. When they arrived, the Kingdom would be very near indeed.

The second question: “What is your personal opinion?”

For the first time in their relationship, Peter, speaking for the other disciples, declared publicly: “You are the Christ (Messiah) the Son of the living God.” Peter was the first apostle to recognize Jesus publicly as the Anointed One(also translated Messiah or Christ). Christ is the Greek word for the Hebrew word Messiah.

To say thatJesus was the Christ, the anointed one of God was to say that He was the Immanuel, the Salvation of God — God who became Man to save sinners! It is evident that Jesus was well pleased with Peter’s answer, for Jesus first pronounced a blessing upon Peter, the only disciple in the Gospels to receive a personal blessing. “Blessed are you, Simon son of John!” Next, Jesus confirmed Peter’s insight as a special revelation from God. “No mere man has revealed this to you, but My Heavenly Father.”

However, Jesus was quick to explain to the disciples that, instead of being a political Messiah who would reestablish the Davidic kingdom after ousting the Romans, Jesus was the suffering Messiah who would redeem mankind by death and Resurrection.

Like the Suffering Servant in the first reading, Jesus accepted suffering out of fidelity toward the One Whom He called Father, as part of the Messianic mission. Jesus’ example provides a challenge for us all to accept the mystery of the cross when our turn comes to follow the Suffering Servant and Suffering Messiah.

No suffering, no death, please: The Jewish religious tradition did include a certain amount of suffering and rejection on the part of its religious leaders. One finds this in several references to Moses and the prophets (Ex 16:2; 17:2-4; Jer 11:18-19; 20:7-10; Mt 23:37).

The concept of suffering or self-sacrifice as having a saving effect was also present in the Jewish tradition (Ex 32:32; Is 53:5, 10, 12). But it received explicit expression in Christian Messianism, not only in the Gospels, but also in the Acts of the Apostles (8:32), and in the Epistles (Rom 5:6-8; Gal 3:13; 1 Pt 2:24-25).

Jesus rebuked Peter when Peter tried to dissuade Jesus from such a course. For Jesus, this was yet another temptation in the guise of a close friend’s counsel. It tested Jesus’ commitment to the mission which His Heavenly Father had entrusted to Him.

“Jesus rejected the term ‘Messiah’ if it meant a political, nationalistic leader. Jesus consistently rejected that program as a diabolical attempt to divert him from His God-given mission.” (Reginald Fuller).

Messages for our Life

1) Jesus wants to become a living, present Reality for us, loving us, forgiving us, helping us, transforming our lives and outlook, and building a personal relationship with each of us. The knowledge of Jesus as Lord and personal Savior needs to become a living, personal experience for each Christian drawing each of us to loving response.

The relationship deepens and grows as we listen to Jesus through the daily, meditative reading of the Bible, speak to Jesus in our daily, personal and family prayers, offer Jesus our lives on the altar in the Holy Mass and seek reconciliation with Jesus, asking forgiveness for our sins every night and in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

In the Eucharistic celebration today, we are celebrating and experiencing in our lives the death and Resurrection of Christ, the Messiah, our Lord and personal Savior.

2) We need to surrender our life to Jesus Whom we experience as our Lord and Savior: The next step is the surrender of our lives to Jesus Whose love we have experienced by rendering humble and loving service to others with the strong conviction that Jesus is present in every person.

The final step is to praise and thank God in all the events of our lives, good and bad, realizing that God’s love shapes every event of our lives.

🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻

“Lord Jesus, I believe and I profess that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Take my life, my will, and all that I have, that I may be wholly yours now and forever.” Amen

✳️✳️✳️✳️🔰🔰🔰🔰✳️✳️✳️✳️

🟢The Story for the Reflection🟢

When Christian Herter was governor of Massachusetts, he was running hard for a second term in office. One day, after a busy morning chasing votes (with no lunch break), he arrived at a Church barbecue. It was late afternoon, and Herter was famished. As Herter moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman who was serving chicken.

She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line. “Excuse me,” Governor Herter said, “do you mind if I have another piece of chicken? “Sorry,” the woman told him. “I’m supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person.” “But I am starved,” the governor said. “Sorry,” the woman said again. “Only one to a customer.”

Governor Herter was a modest and unassuming man, but he decided that this time he would throw a little weight around. “Do you know who I am?” he said. “I am the Governor of this state.” “And do you know who I am?” the woman answered. “I am the lady-in-charge of the chicken. Move along, Mister.” —

In the above story, the governor and the lady-in-charge of the chicken, each tries to exert authority over the other by revealing his/her identity — who each is — and emphatically demanding,” Do you know who I am?”

In the Gospel Reading of today from St. Mark, Jesus asks the apostles the same very question as regards His identity (“Who do you say that I am?”), but in a completely different context. For, Jesus was not exerting personal authority over them, but asking of these men who had shared Jesus life for an extended time a simple and straightforward question.

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

John 3:13-17

So Must the Son of Man Be Lifted Up

Do you know the healing transforming power of the cross of Jesus Christ? The Lord Jesus came to unite earth with heaven and to raise those on earth to the glory of heaven.

Moses delivers his people from death in the wildernessWhat does Jesus mean when he says the “Son of Man must be lifted up?” Jesus links this expression with Moses who “lifted up” the bronze serpent in the wilderness in order to bring about healing and restoration of life to those who were bitten by deadly serpents.

God instructed Moses to “make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live” (Numbers 21:8). Moses lifted high the image of a bronze serpent fixed to the wood of the pole, which resembled a cross.

Those who put their faith in God by repenting of their disobedience were healed and restored to wholeness of life.Jesus links his victory on the cross with Moses’ act of deliverance Jesus clearly links Moses’ act of deliverance in the wilderness with his own impending sacrificial death when he will be “lifted up” on the wood of the cross at Calvary.

Jesus’ victory on the cross also brought about his glorious bodily resurrection to new unending life and his ascension to the right hand of the Father in heaven, where he now rules and intercedes for us. The result of Jesus “being lifted up on the cross,” and his rising and ascending to the Father’s right hand in heaven, is our “new birth in the Spirit” and adoption as sons and daughters of God.

God not only has redeemed us from sin in Christ, he also fills us with his own divine life through the gift of his Spirit that we might share in his own glory. The proof of God’s love for usThere is no greater proof of God’s love for us then the sending of his Son to become one with us in our humanity and to lay down his life for us. “To ransom a slave God gave his Son” (an ancient prayer from the Easter vigil liturgy).

God sent his Son to free us from the worst of tyrannies – slavery to sin and the curse of death. Jesus’ sacrificial death was an act of total love through self-giving. Jesus gave himself completely out of love for his Father.

And he willing laid down his life out of selfless love for our sake and for our salvation. His death on the cross was both a total offering to God and the perfect sacrifice of atonement for our sin and the sin of the world. John tells us that God’s love cannot be limited because it is boundless and encompasses all of creation (John 3:16). His love is not limited to a single nation or a few chosen friends. His love is limitless because it embraces the whole world and every individual created in “his image and likeness”.

God is a persistent loving Father who cannot rest until all of his wandering children have returned home to him. Saint Augustine says, God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love. The love of God is rooted in truth, goodness, and mercyGod gives us the freedom to choose whom and what we will love and not love. We can love the darkness of sin and unbelief or we can love the light of God’s truth, goodness, and mercy.

If our love is guided by truth, goodness, and that which is truly beautiful, then we will choose for God and love him above all else. What we love shows what we prefer. Do you love God who is the supreme good above all else? And do you seek to put him first in all your thoughts, cares, choices, and actions? God’s love sets us free to love and serve othersGod’s love has been poured into our hearts through the gift of the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). Do you allow God’s love to purify your heart and the way your treat others?

Do you allow God’s love to transform your mind and the way you think of others? Do you allow God’s love to conquer every unruly passion and addiction that would enslave you to sin and harmful behavior?

The Holy Spirit gives us his seven-fold gifts of wisdom and understanding, right judgment and courage, knowledge and reverence for God and his ways, and a holy fear in God’s presence (see Isaiah 11) that we may live God’s way of life and serve in the power and strength of his enduring love and mercy. Do you thirst for new life in the Spirit?

🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻

“Lord Jesus Christ, your death brought life for us. Fill me with your Holy Spirit that I may walk in freedom and joy as a child of God and as an heir with Christ of an eternal inheritance.” Amen

🟢The Life Story of the Saint🟢

The Story of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Early in the fourth century, Saint Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, went to Jerusalem in search of the holy places of Christ’s life.

She razed the second-century Temple of Aphrodite, which tradition held was built over the Savior’s tomb, and her son built the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher on that spot. During the excavation, workers found three crosses. Legend has it that the one on which Jesus died was identified when its touch healed a dying woman.

The cross immediately became an object of veneration. At a Good Friday celebration in Jerusalem toward the end of the fourth century, according to an eyewitness, the wood was taken out of its silver container and placed on a table together with the inscription Pilate ordered placed above Jesus’ head: Then “all the people pass through one by one; all of them bow down, touching the cross and the inscription, first with their foreheads, then with their eyes; and, after kissing the cross, they move on.”

To this day, the Eastern Churches, Catholic and Orthodox alike, celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on the September anniversary of the basilica’s dedication.

The feast entered the Western calendar in the seventh century after Emperor Heraclius recovered the cross from the Persians, who had carried it off in 614, 15 years earlier. According to the story, the emperor intended to carry the cross back into Jerusalem himself, but was unable to move forward until he took off his imperial garb and became a barefoot pilgrim.

Reflection

The cross is today the universal image of Christian belief. Countless generations of artists have turned it into a thing of beauty to be carried in procession or worn as jewelry.

To the eyes of the first Christians, it had no beauty. It stood outside too many city walls, decorated only with decaying corpses, as a threat to anyone who defied Rome’s authority—including Christians who refused sacrifice to Roman gods.

Although believers spoke of the cross as the instrument of salvation, it seldom appeared in Christian art unless disguised as an anchor or the Chi-Rho until after Constantine’s edict of toleration.

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Luke 6:27-38

Do Good to Those Who Hate You

What makes Christians different and what makes Christianity distinct from any other religion? It is grace – treating others, not as they deserve, but as God wishes them to be treated – with loving-kindness and mercy.

God is good to the unjust as well as the just. His love embraces saint and sinner alike. God seeks our highest good and teaches us to seek the greatest good of others, even those who hate and abuse us.

Our love for others, even those who are ungrateful and selfish towards us, must be marked by the same kindness and mercy which God has shown to us. It is easier to show kindness and mercy when we can expect to benefit from doing so. How much harder when we can expect nothing in return. Give and forgive – the two wings of prayerAugustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) describes Jesus double precept togive and forgive as two essential wings of prayer:

Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given you. These are the two wings of prayer on which it flies to God. Pardon the offender what has been committed, and give to the person in need” (Sermon 205.3).

“Let us graciously and fervently perform these two types of almsgiving, that is, giving and forgiving, for we in turn pray the Lord to give us things and not to repay our evil deeds” (Sermon 206.2). Bless and do not curseOur prayer for those who do us ill both breaks the power of revenge and releases the power of love to do good in the face of evil. How can we possibly love those who cause us harm or ill-will?

With God all things are possible. He gives power and grace to those who believe in and accept the gift of the Holy Spirit. His love conquers all, even our hurts, fears, prejudices and griefs.

Only the cross of Jesus Christ can free us from the tyranny of malice, hatred, revenge, and resentment and gives us the courage to return evil with good. Such love and grace has power to heal and to save from destruction.

That is why Paul the Apostle tells those who know the love and mercy of Jesus Christ to “bless and not curse.. nor take revenge.. and to overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:14,17,21). Do you know the power of God’s love, mercy, and righteousness (moral goodness) for overcoming evil with good?

🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻

“Lord Jesus, your love brings freedom and pardon. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and set my heart free with your merciful love that nothing may make me lose my temper, ruffle my peace, take away my joy, nor make me bitter towards anyone.” Amen

The Life Story of the Saint

The Story of the Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary

This feast is a counterpart to the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus both have the possibility of uniting people easily divided on other matters.

The feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary began in Spain in 1513 and in 1671 was extended to all of Spain and the Kingdom of Naples. In 1683, John Sobieski, king of Poland, brought an army to the outskirts of Vienna to stop the advance of Muslim armies loyal to Mohammed IV of Constantinople.

After Sobieski entrusted himself to the Blessed Virgin Mary, he and his soldiers thoroughly defeated the Muslims. Pope Innocent XI extended this feast to the entire Church.

Reflection

Mary always points us to God, reminding us of God’s infinite goodness. She helps us to open our hearts to God’s ways, wherever those may lead us.

Honored under the title “Queen of Peace,” Mary encourages us to cooperate with Jesus in building a peace based on justice, a peace that respects the fundamental human rights of all peoples.

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Luke 6:12-19

Jesus Chose Twelve Apostles

What is God’s call on your life? When Jesus embarked on his mission he chose twelve men to be his friends and apostles. In the choice of the twelve, we see a characteristic feature of God’s work: Jesus chose very ordinary people. They were non-professionals, who had no wealth or position.

They were chosen from the common people who did ordinary things, had no special education, and no social advantages. Jesus wanted ordinary people who could take an assignment and do it extraordinarily well. He chose these men, not for what they were, but for what they would be capable of becoming under his direction and power. Give yourself unreservedly to God – he will use you for greatness in his kingdomWhen the Lord calls us to serve, we must not shrug back because we think that we have little or nothing to offer. The Lord takes what ordinary people, like us, can offer and uses it for greatness in his kingdom. Is there anything holding you back from giving yourself unreservedly to God? Jesus offers true freedom and healing for all who are troubled or afflictedWherever Jesus went the people came to him because they had heard all the things he did.

They were hungry for God and desired healing from their afflictions. In faith they pressed upon Jesus to touch him. As they did so power came from Jesus and they were healed. Even demons trembled in the presence of Jesus and left at his rebuke. Jesus offers freedom from the power of sin and oppression to all who seek him with expectant faith. When you hear God’s word and consider all that Jesus did, how do you respond? With doubt or with expectant faith? With skepticism or with confident trust? Ask the Lord to increase your faith in his saving power and grace.

Jesus chose fishermen and tax collectors to be apostles, by Ambrose of Milan, 339-397 A.D.

“It says, ‘He called his disciples, and he chose twelve of them,’ whom he appointed sowers of the faith, to spread the help of human salvation throughout the world. At the same time, observe the heavenly counsel.

He chose not wise men, nor rich men, nor nobles, but fishermen and tax collectors, whom he would direct, lest they seem to have seduced some by wisdom, or bought them with riches, or attracted them to their own grace with the authority of power and nobility. He did this so that the reasoning of truth, not the grace of disputation, should prevail.”

📗📗🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻📗📗

“Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Son of God and the Savior of the world. Inflame my heart with a burning love for you and with an expectant faith in your saving power. Take my life and all that I have as an offering of love for you, who are my All.” Amen

🟢The Life Story of the Saint🟢

Saint Thomas of Villanova

1488

September 8, 1555

Saint Thomas was from Castile in Spain and received his surname from the town where he was raised. He received a superior education at the University of Alcala and became a popular professor of philosophy there.

After joining the Augustinian friars at Salamanca, Thomas was ordained and resumed his teaching–despite a continuing absentmindedness and poor memory.

He became prior and then provincial of the friars, sending the first Augustinians to the New World. He was nominated by the emperor to the archbishopric of Granada, but refused. When the see again became vacant he was pressured to accept.

The money his cathedral chapter gave him to furnish his house was given to a hospital instead. His explanation to them was that “our Lord will be better served by your money being spent on the poor in the hospital. What does a poor friar like myself want with furniture?”

He wore the same habit that he had received in the novitiate, mending it himself. The canons and domestics were ashamed of him, but they could not convince him to change.

Several hundred poor came to Thomas’s door each morning and received a meal, wine, and money. When criticized because he was at times being taken advantage of, he replied, “If there are people who refuse to work, that is for the governor and the police to deal with.

My duty is to assist and relieve those who come to my door.” He took in orphans and paid his servants for every deserted child they brought to him. He encouraged the wealthy to imitate his example and be richer in mercy and charity than they were in earthly possessions.

Criticized because he refused to be harsh or swift in correcting sinners, Thomas said, “Let him (the complainer) inquire whether Saint Augustine and Saint John Chrysostom used anathemas and excommunication to stop the drunkenness and blasphemy which were so common among the people under their care.”

As he lay dying, Thomas commanded that all the money he possessed be distributed to the poor. His material goods were to be given to the rector of his college. Mass was being celebrated in his presence when after Communion he breathed his last, reciting the words: “Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.”

In his lifetime Thomas of Villanova was already called “the almsgiver” and “the father of the poor.” He was canonized in 1658. Thomas of Villanova’s liturgical feast is celebrated on September 22.

Reflection

The absent-minded professor is a stock comic figure. Thomas of Villanova earned even more derisive laughs with his determined shabbiness and his willingness to let the poor who flocked to his door take advantage of him. He embarrassed his peers, but Jesus was enormously pleased with him. We are often tempted to tend our image in others’ eyes without paying sufficient attention to how we look to Christ. Thomas still urges us to rethink our priorities.

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Luke 6:6-11

Is It Lawful to Save Life or to Destroy It?

In a few penetrating words Luke records that Jesus knew their thoughts. They were filled with fury and contempt for Jesus because they had put their own thoughts of right and wrong above God.

They were ensnared in their own legalism because they did not understand or see the purpose of God. Jesus shows them their fallacy by pointing to God’s intention for the Sabbath: to do good and to save liferather than to do evil or to destroy life. Christ’s healing power raises hands and hearts towards heavenWhat is the significance of Jesus’ healing the man with the withered hand?

Ambrose (337-397 AD), the 4th century bishop of Milan who was instrumental in bringing Augustine of Hippo to the Christian faith, comments on this miracle:

“Then you heard the words of the Lord, saying, ‘Stretch forth your hand.’

That is the common and universal remedy. You who think that you have a healthy hand beware lest it is withered by greed or by sacrilege. Hold it out often. Hold it out to the poor person who begs you. Hold it out to help your neighbor, to give protection to a widow, to snatch from harm one whom you see subjected to unjust insult.

Hold it out to God for your sins. The hand is stretched forth; then it is healed. Jeroboam’s hand withered when he sacrificed to idols; then it stretched out when he entreated God (1 Kings 13:4-6).”

Receive God’s gift of sabbath rest and restorationWhy do Christians celebrate Sunday as the Lord’s Day? Most importantly we celebrate it to commemorate God’s work of redemption in Jesus Christ and the new work of creation accomplished through Christ’s death and resurrection (2 Corinthians 5:17).

God’s action is a model for us. If God “rested and was refreshed” on the seventh day, we, too, ought to “rest” and let others, especially the poor, “be refreshed” as well (see Exodus 31:17; 23:12).

Taking “our sabbath rest” is a way of expressing honor to God for all that he has done for us. Such “rest” however does not exempt us from our love for our neighbor. If we truly love the Lord above all else, then the love of God will overflow to love of neighbor as well.

Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) said: “The charity of truth seeks holy leisure; the necessity of charity accepts just work.”How can we make Sunday a day holy to the Lord? First, by refraining from unnecessary work and from activities that hinder the worship we owe to God. We can also perform works of mercy, such as humble service of the sick, the infirm, and the neglected. And we ought to seek appropriate relaxation of mind and body as well.

The joy of the Lord’s Day is a great gift to refresh and strengthen us in our love of God and of neighbor (Nehemiah 8:10). Do you know the joy of the Lord and do you find rest and refreshment in celebrating the Lord’s Day?

📗📗🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻📗📗

“Lord Jesus, in your victory over sin and death on the cross and in your resurrection you give us the assurance of sharing in the eternal rest of heaven. Transform my heart with your love that I may freely serve my neighbor for his good and find joy and refreshment in the celebration of Sunday as the Lord’s Day.” Amen

The Life Story of the Saint

Saint Peter Claver

June 26, 1581

September 8, 1654

A native of Spain, young Jesuit Peter Claver left his homeland forever in 1610 to be a missionary in the colonies of the New World.

He sailed into Cartagena, a rich port city washed by the Caribbean. He was ordained there in 1615.

By this time the slave trade had been established in the Americas for nearly 100 years, and Cartagena was a chief center for it.

Ten thousand slaves poured into the port each year after crossing the Atlantic from West Africa under conditions so foul and inhuman that an estimated one-third of the passengers died in transit. Although the practice of slave-trading was condemned by Pope Paul III and later labeled “supreme villainy” by Pope Pius IX, it continued to flourish.

Peter Claver’s predecessor, Jesuit Father Alfonso de Sandoval, had devoted himself to the service of the slaves for 40 years before Claver arrived to continue his work, declaring himself “the slave of the Negroes forever.”

As soon as a slave ship entered the port, Peter Claver moved into its infested hold to minister to the ill-treated and exhausted passengers.

After the slaves were herded out of the ship like chained animals and shut up in nearby yards to be gazed at by the crowds, Claver plunged in among them with medicines, food, bread, brandy, lemons, and tobacco. With the help of interpreters he gave basic instructions and assured his brothers and sisters of their human dignity and God’s love.

During the 40 years of his ministry, Claver instructed and baptized an estimated 300,000 slaves.

Fr. Claver’s apostolate extended beyond his care for slaves. He became a moral force, indeed, the apostle of Cartagena.

He preached in the city square, gave missions to sailors and traders as well as country missions, during which he avoided, when possible, the hospitality of the planters and owners and lodged in the slave quarters instead.

After four years of sickness, which forced the saint to remain inactive and largely neglected, Claver died on September 8, 1654.

The city magistrates, who had previously frowned at his solicitude for the black outcasts, ordered that he should be buried at public expense and with great pomp.

Peter Claver was canonized in 1888, and Pope Leo XIII declared him the worldwide patron of missionary work among black slaves.

Reflection

The Holy Spirit’s might and power are manifested in the striking decisions and bold actions of Peter Claver. A decision to leave one’s homeland never to return reveals a gigantic act of will difficult for us to imagine.

Peter’s determination to serve forever the most abused, rejected, and lowly of all people is stunningly heroic. When we measure our lives against such a man’s, we become aware of our own barely used potential and of our need to open ourselves more to the jolting power of Jesus’ Spirit.

Saint Peter Claver is the Patron Saint of:

African DiasporaAfrican MissionsColombiaInterracial Justice

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Mark 7:31-37

He Has Done All Things Well

How do you expect the Lord Jesus to treat you when you ask for his help? Do you approach with fear and doubt, or with faith and confidence? Jesus never turned anyone aside who approached him with sincerity and trust. And whatever Jesus did, he did well. He demonstrated both the beauty and goodness of God in his actions. The Lord’s touch awakens faith and brings healingWhen Jesus approaches a man who is both deaf and a stutterer, Jesus shows his considerateness for this man’s predicament. Jesus takes him aside privately, not doubt to remove him from embarrassment with a noisy crowd of gawkers (onlookers).

Jesus then puts his fingers into the deaf man’s ears and he touches the man’s tongue with his own spittle to physically identify with this man’s infirmity and to awaken faith in him. With a word of command the poor man’s ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. What is the significance of Jesus putting his fingers into the man’s ears? Gregory the Great, a church father from the 6th century, comments on this miracle: “The Spirit is called the finger of God. When the Lord puts his fingers into the ears of the deaf mute, he was opening the soul of man to faith through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.” The transforming power of kindness and compassion The people’s response to this miracle testifies to Jesus’ great care for others: He has done all things well. No problem or burden was too much for Jesus’ careful consideration. The Lord treats each of us with kindness and compassion and he calls us to treat one another in like manner.

The Holy Spirit who dwells within us enables us to love as Jesus loves. Do you show kindness and compassion to your neighbors and do you treat them with considerateness as Jesus did?

The Responsorial Psalm (146) praises a God Who gives sight to the blind, raises the downtrodden, and welcomes strangers.

The Second reading, taken from St. James’ Epistle to the Church (2:1-5) reminds us that as sharers in Christ’s healing ministry, we must practice Christian social justice by showing no partiality, — that is, not shaming the poor by denying their rights to favor the rich. Instead, we must practice Christ’s option for the poor.

Today’s Gospel story explains how Jesus fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy by healing a deaf-mute in six stages in an “audio-visual” way.

Jesus i) separates him from the crowd ii) looks to heaven and groans

iii) puts his fingers in the deaf man’s ears ears

iv) applies his own saliva to the mute man’s tongue

v) prays once again and vi) gives the command “Ephphatha!” or “Be opened!”

1) We need to pray daily for healing from our spiritual blindness, so that we really see God’s presence in others, and act on what we see; from our spiritual deafness so that we will attentively listen to the word of God, hear the cry and needs of others, and meet them as far as we can, and end our spiritual muteness, so that we maybe able to to praise and worship God loudly and vibrantly during our family prayers at home and our liturgical prayers and hymns during the Holy Mass.

2) We need to recognize our share in Jesus’ healing ministry by lending him our eyes, ears, tongues, hands, feet, our hearts, and all our talents and blessings so that he may use them for granting all sorts of healing to people around us in our homes, parishes, institutions, and society

🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻

“Lord Jesus, fill me with your Holy Spirit and inflame my heart with love and compassion. Make me attentive to the needs of others that I may show them kindness and care. Make me an instrument of your mercy and peace that I may help others find healing and wholeness in you.” Amen

✳️✳️✳️✳️🔰🔰🔰🔰✳️✳️✳️✳️

🟢The Life Story of the Saint🟢

At the Annual National Prayer Breakfast on February 2, 1984, Ronald Reagan, the former president of the United States, told the old story of “the little monk,” Telemachus, a martyr whose self-sacrificial commitment to Christian ideals opened the blind eyes and deaf ears of the Romans and their fifth century Christian Emperor Honorius.

According to the story, this Turkish monk was led by an inner voice to go to Rome in order to stop the cruel and inhuman gladiatorial fights between slaves. He followed the crowds to the Coliseum where two gladiators were fighting.

He jumped into the arena and tried to stop them, shouting, “In the name of Christ, hold back!” The gladiators stopped, but the spectators became indignant. A group of them rushed into the arena and beat Telemachus to death.

When the crowd saw the brave little monk lying dead in a pool of blood, they fell silent, leaving the stadium, one by one. Three days later, because of Telemachus’ heroic sacrifice of his own life, the Emperor decreed an end to the games. —

In today’s Gospel which describes the miraculous healing of a deaf mute, we are invited to open our ears and eyes, loosen our tongues and pray for the courage of our Christian convictions to become the voice of the voiceless.

✳️✳️✳️✳️🔰🔰🔰🔰✳️✳️✳️✳️

The Story of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Church has celebrated Mary’s birth since at least the sixth century. A September birth was chosen because the Eastern Church begins its Church year with September. The September 8 date helped determine the date for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8.

Scripture does not give an account of Mary’s birth. However, the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James fills in the gap. This work has no historical value, but it does reflect the development of Christian piety. According to this account, Anna and Joachim are infertile but pray for a child.

They receive the promise of a child who will advance God’s plan of salvation for the world. Such a story, like many biblical counterparts, stresses the special presence of God in Mary’s life from the beginning.

Saint Augustine connects Mary’s birth with Jesus’ saving work. He tells the earth to rejoice and shine forth in the light of her birth. “She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley.

Through her birth the nature inherited from our first parents is changed.” The opening prayer at Mass speaks of the birth of Mary’s Son as the dawn of our salvation, and asks for an increase of peace.

Reflection

We can see every human birth as a call for new hope in the world. The love of two human beings has joined with God in his creative work. The loving parents have shown hope in a world filled with travail. The new child has the potential to be a channel of God’s love and peace to the world.

This is all true in a magnificent way in Mary. If Jesus is the perfect expression of God’s love, Mary is the foreshadowing of that love. If Jesus has brought the fullness of salvation, Mary is its dawning.

Birthday celebrations bring happiness to the celebrant as well as to family and friends. Next to the birth of Jesus, Mary’s birth offers the greatest possible happiness to the world.

Each time we celebrate her birth, we can confidently hope for an increase of peace in our hearts and in the world at large.

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Luke 6:1-5

The Son of Man Is Lord of the Sabbath

What does the commandment “keep holy the Sabbath” require of us? Or better yet, what is the primary intention behind this command? The religious leaders confronted Jesus on this issue.

The “Sabbath rest” was meant to be a time to remember and celebrate God’s goodness and the goodness of his work, both in creation and redemption. It was a day set apart for the praise of God, his work of creation, and his saving actions on our behalf. It was intended to bring everyday work to a halt and to provide needed rest and refreshment. The Lord of the Sabbath feeds and nourishes usJesus’ disciples are scolded by the scribes and Pharisees, not for plucking and eating corn from the fields, but for doing so on the Sabbath. In defending his disciples, Jesus argues from the Scriptures that human need has precedence over ritual custom.

In their hunger, David and his men ate of the holy bread offered in the Temple (1 Samuel 21:2-7). On every Sabbath morning twelves loaves were laid before God on a golden table in the Holy Place.

Each loaf represented one of the twelve tribes of Israel. No one was allowed to eat this bread except the priests because it represented the very presence of God. David understood that human need took precedence over rules and ritual regulations. Seek the Lord’s rest and refreshmentWhy didn’t the Pharisees recognize the claims of mercy over rules and regulations? Their zeal for ritual observance blinded them from the demands of charity.

Jesus’ reference to the bread of the Presencealludes to the true bread from heaven which he offers to all who believe in him. Jesus, the Son of David, and the Son of Man, a title for the Messiah, declares that he is “Lord of the Sabbath.”

Jesus healed on the Sabbath and he showed mercy to those in need. All who are burdened can find true rest and refreshment in him. Do you seek rest and refreshment in the Lord and in the celebration of the Lord’s Day?

🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻

“Lord Jesus, you refresh us with your presence and you sustain us with your life-giving word. Show me how to lift the burden of others, especially those who lack the basic necessities of life, and to refresh them with humble care and service.” Amen

The Life Story of the Saint

Blessed Frédéric Ozanam

April 23, 1813

September 8, 1853

A man convinced of the inestimable worth of each human being, Frédéric served the poor of Paris well, and drew others into serving the poor of the world.

Through the Saint Vincent de Paul Society, which he founded, his work continues to the present day.

Frédéric was the fifth of Jean and Marie Ozanam’s 14 children, one of only three to reach adulthood.

As a teenager he began having doubts about his religion. Reading and prayer did not seem to help, but long walking discussions with Father Noirot of the Lyons College clarified matters a great deal.

Frédéric wanted to study literature, although his father, a doctor, wanted him to become a lawyer. Frédéric yielded to his father’s wishes and in 1831, arrived in Paris to study law at the University of the Sorbonne.

When certain professors there mocked Catholic teachings in their lectures, Frédéric defended the Church.

A discussion club which Frédéric organized sparked the turning point in his life. In this club, Catholics, atheists, and agnostics debated the issues of the day.

Once, after Frédéric spoke about Christianity’s role in civilization, a club member said: “Let us be frank, Mr. Ozanam; let us also be very particular. What do you do besides talk to prove the faith you claim is in you?”

Frédéric was stung by the question. He soon decided that his words needed a grounding in action.

He and a friend began visiting Paris tenements and offering assistance as best they could. Soon a group dedicated to helping individuals in need under the patronage of Saint Vincent de Paul formed around Frédéric.

Feeling that the Catholic faith needed an excellent speaker to explain its teachings, Frédéric convinced the Archbishop of Paris to appoint Dominican Father Jean-Baptiste Lacordaire, the greatest preacher then in France, to preach a Lenten series in Notre Dame Cathedral. It was well-attended and became an annual tradition in Paris.

After Frédéric earned his law degree at the Sorbonne, he taught law at the University of Lyons. He also earned a doctorate in literature. Soon after marrying Amelie Soulacroix on June 23, 1841, he returned to the Sorbonne to teach literature. A well-respected lecturer, Frédéric worked to bring out the best in each student.

Meanwhile, the Saint Vincent de Paul Society was growing throughout Europe. Paris alone counted 25 conferences.

In 1846, Frédéric, Amelie, and their daughter Marie went to Italy; there he hoped to restore his poor health. They returned the next year.

The revolution of 1848 left many Parisians in need of the services of the Saint Vincent de Paul conferences. The unemployed numbered 275,000. The government asked Frédéric and his coworkers to supervise the government aid to the poor. Vincentians throughout Europe came to the aid of Paris.

Frédéric then started a newspaper, The New Era, dedicated to securing justice for the poor and the working classes. Fellow Catholics were often unhappy with what Frédéric wrote. Referring to the poor man as “the nation’s priest,” Frédéric said that the hunger and sweat of the poor formed a sacrifice that could redeem the people’s humanity.

In 1852, poor health again forced Frédéric to return to Italy with his wife and daughter. He died on September 8, 1853. In his sermon at Frédéric’s funeral, Fr. Lacordaire described his friend as “one of those privileged creatures who came direct from the hand of God in whom God joins tenderness to genius in order to enkindle the world.”

Frédéric was beatified in 1997. Since Frédéric wrote an excellent book entitled Franciscan Poets of the Thirteenth Century, and since his sense of the dignity of each poor person was so close to the thinking of Saint Francis, it seemed appropriate to include him among Franciscan “greats.” His liturgical feast is celebrated on September 9.

Reflection

Frédéric Ozanam always respected the poor while offering whatever service he could. Each man, woman, and child was too precious to live in poverty. Serving the poor taught Frédéric something about God that he could not have learned elsewhere.

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Luke 5:33-39

The Unity of the New and the Old

Which comes first, fasting or feasting? The disciples of John the Baptist were upset with Jesus’ disciples because they did not fast.

Fasting was one of the three most important religious duties, along with prayer and almsgiving. Jesus gave a simple explanation. There’s a time for fasting and a time for feasting (or celebrating). A time to weep and fast – a time to rejoice and celebrateTo walk as a disciple with Jesus is to experience a whole new joy of relationship akin to the joy of the wedding party in celebrating with the groom and bride their wedding bliss. But there also comes a time when the Lord’s disciples must bear the cross of affliction and purification.

For the disciple there is both a time for rejoicing in the Lord’s presence and celebrating his goodness and a time for seeking the Lord with humility and fasting and for mourning over sin. Do you take joy in the Lord’s presence with you and do you express sorrow and contrition for your sins? A mind closed to God’s wisdomJesus goes on to warn his disciples about the problem of the “closed mind” that refuses to learn new things. Jesus used an image familiar to his audience – new and old wine skins. In Jesus’ times, wine was stored in wine skins, not bottles.

New wine poured into skins was still fermenting. The gases exerted gave pressure. New wine skins were elastic enough to take the pressure, but old wine skins easily burst because they became hard as they aged. What did Jesus mean by this comparison?The Old Testament points to the New – the New Testament fulfills the OldAre we to reject the old in place of the new? Just as there is a right place and a right time for fasting and for feasting, so there is a right place for the old as well as the new.

Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old (Matthew 13:52). A very common expression, dating back to the early beginnings of the Christian church, states that the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New – the two shed light on each other.

The New Testament does not replace the Old – rather it unveils and brings into full light the hidden meaning and signs which foreshadow and point to God’s plan of redemption which he would accomplish through his Son, Jesus Christ. How impoverished we would be if we only had the Old Testament or the New Testament, rather than both.New “wine” of the Holy SpiritThe Lord Jesus gives us wisdom so we can make the best use of both the old and the new. He doesn’t want us to hold rigidly to the past and to be resistant to the new action of his Holy Spirit in our lives.

He wants our minds and hearts to be like the new wine skins – open and ready to receive the new wine of the Holy Spirit. Are you eager to grow in the knowledge and understanding of God’s word and plan for your life?

🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻

“Lord Jesus, fill me with your Holy Spirit, that I may grow in the knowledge of your great love and truth. Help me to seek you earnestly in prayer and fasting that I may turn away from sin and wilfulness and conform my life more fully to your will. May I always find joy in knowing, loving, and serving you..” Amen

✳️✳️✳️✳️🔰🔰🔰🔰✳️✳️✳️✳️

🟢The Life Story of the Saint🟢

Blessed Claudio Granzotto

August 23, 1900

August 15, 1947

Born in Santa Lucia del Piave near Venice, Claudio was the youngest of nine children and was accustomed to hard work in the fields. At the age of 9, he lost his father. Six years later, he was drafted into the Italian army, where he served more than three years.

His artistic abilities, especially in sculpture, led to studies at Venice’s Academy of Fine Arts, which awarded him a diploma with the highest marks in 1929. Even then he was especially interested in religious art. When Claudio entered the Friars Minor four years later, his parish priest wrote, “The Order is receiving not only an artist but a saint.”

Prayer, charity to the poor, and artistic work characterized his life which was cut short by a brain tumor. He died on the feast of the Assumption, August 15, 1947, and was beatified in 1994. His liturgical feast is celebrated on March 23.

Reflection

Claudio developed into such an excellent sculptor that his work still turns people toward God. No stranger to adversity, he met every obstacle courageously, reflecting the generosity, faith, and joy that he learned from Francis of Assisi.

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Luke 5:33-39

The Unity of the New and the Old

Which comes first, fasting or feasting? The disciples of John the Baptist were upset with Jesus’ disciples because they did not fast.

🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻

✳️✳️✳️✳️🔰🔰🔰🔰✳️✳️✳️✳️

🟢The Life Story of the Saint🟢

Blessed Claudio Granzotto

August 23, 1900

August 15, 1947

Reflection

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Luke 5:1-11

You Will Catch People for the Kingdom of God

Why did Jesus perform the miracle of the great catch of fish? No doubt the great crowd of people who had pressed upon Jesus had something to do with this miracle. They were very hungry for God and were eager to hear his word. Jesus wanted to use this occasion to teach his disciples an important lesson.

Although Simon was wearied from a night of fruitless toil, he nonetheless did what the Lord Jesus told him to do: At your word I will let down the nets. When you meet disappointment and failure, do you press upon the Lord, like Simon, to hear his word and to receive his command? God expects greater things than we can do by ourselvesThis incident tells us an important truth about how God works in and through each of us for his glory. God expects of us greater things than we can do by ourselves. When we cooperate in his works, we accomplish far beyond what we can do on our own.

The Creator of the universe awaits the prayer of a poor little soul to save other souls redeemed like it at the price of all his Blood.” When God’s word is spoken his kingdom is revealed and his power is released. When people respond to God’s word with faith and obedience they are changed and made “a new creation” in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Witness the joy of the GospelGod chooses ordinary people, like you and me, as his ambassadors and he uses the ordinary circumstances of our daily lives and work situations to draw others into his kingdom.

Jesus speaks the same message to us today: we will “catch people” for the kingdom of God if we allow the light of Jesus Christ to shine through us. God wants others to see the light of Christ in us in the way we live, speak, and witness the joy of the Gospel.

Paul the Apostle says, “But thanks be to God, who in Christ Jesus always leads us in triumph, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (2 Corinthians 2:15). Do you witness to those around you the joy of the Gospel and do you pray for your neighbors, co-workers, and relatives that they may come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and grow in the knowledge of his love and truth?

Prayer

“Lord Jesus, fill my heart with love and compassion for those who do not know you or follow you. May I be a good witness of your truth and salvation to my family, friends, and co-workers.” Amen

✳️✳️✳️✳️🔰🔰🔰🔰✳️✳️✳️✳️

🟢The Life Story of the Saint🟢

Saint Teresa of Calcutta

August 26, 1910

September 5, 1997

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the tiny woman recognized throughout the world for her work among the poorest of the poor, was beatified October 19, 2003.

Among those present were hundreds of Missionaries of Charity, the order she founded in 1950, as a diocesan religious community. Today the congregation also includes contemplative sisters and brothers, and an order of priests.

Born to Albanian parents in what is now Skopje, Macedonia, Gonxha (Agnes) Bojaxhiu was the youngest of the three children who survived.

For a time, the family lived comfortably, and her father’s construction business thrived. But life changed overnight following his unexpected death.

During her years in public school, Agnes participated in a Catholic sodality and showed a strong interest in the foreign missions

. At age 18, she entered the Loreto Sisters of Dublin. It was 1928 when she said goodbye to her mother for the final time and made her way to a new land and a new life. The following year she was sent to the Loreto novitiate in Darjeeling, India. There she chose the name Teresa and prepared for a life of service.

She was assigned to a high school for girls in Calcutta, where she taught history and geography to the daughters of the wealthy. But she could not escape the realities around her—the poverty, the suffering, the overwhelming numbers of destitute people.

In 1946, while riding a train to Darjeeling to make a retreat, Sister Teresa heard what she later explained as “a call within a call. The message was clear.

I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them.” She also heard a call to give up her life with the Sisters of Loreto and instead, to “follow Christ into the slums to serve him among the poorest of the poor.”

After receiving permission to leave Loreto, establish a new religious community, and undertake her new work, Sister Teresa took a nursing course for several months. She returned to Calcutta, where she lived in the slums and opened a school for poor children.

Dressed in a white sari and sandals–the ordinary dress of an Indian woman–she soon began getting to know her neighbors—especially the poor and sick—and getting to know their needs through visits.

The work was exhausting, but she was not alone for long. Volunteers who came to join her in the work, some of them former students, became the core of the Missionaries of Charity. Others helped by donating food, clothing, supplies, and the use of buildings.

For the next four decades, Mother Teresa worked tirelessly on behalf of the poor. Her love knew no bounds. Nor did her energy, as she crisscrossed the globe pleading for support and inviting others to see the face of Jesus in the poorest of the poor.

In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On September 5, 1997, God called her home. Blessed Teresa was canonized by Pope Francis on September 4, 2016.

Reflection

Mother Teresa’s beatification, just over six years after her death, was part of an expedited process put into effect by Pope John Paul II. Like so many others around the world, he found her love for the Eucharist, for prayer, and for the poor a model for all to emulate.

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Luke 5:1-11

You Will Catch People for the Kingdom of God

Prayer

✳️✳️✳️✳️🔰🔰🔰🔰✳️✳️✳️✳️

🟢The Life Story of the Saint🟢

Saint Teresa of Calcutta

August 26, 1910

September 5, 1997

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the tiny woman recognized throughout the world for her work among the poorest of the poor, was beatified October 19, 2003.

Born to Albanian parents in what is now Skopje, Macedonia, Gonxha (Agnes) Bojaxhiu was the youngest of the three children who survived.

For a time, the family lived comfortably, and her father’s construction business thrived. But life changed overnight following his unexpected death.

During her years in public school, Agnes participated in a Catholic sodality and showed a strong interest in the foreign missions

In 1946, while riding a train to Darjeeling to make a retreat, Sister Teresa heard what she later explained as “a call within a call. The message was clear.

In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On September 5, 1997, God called her home. Blessed Teresa was canonized by Pope Francis on September 4, 2016.

Reflection

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Luke 4:38-44

He Laid His Hands on Every One and Healed Them

Who do you take your troubles to? Jesus’ disciples freely brought their troubles to him because they found him ready and able to deal with any difficulty, affliction, or sickness which they encountered.

When Simon Peter brought Jesus to his home for the Sabbath meal (right after Jesus preached in the synagogue in Capernaum), his mother-in-law was instantly healed because Jesus heard Simon’s prayer. Jesus could not avoid drawing a crowd wherever he went. Jesus wants to set us free todayNo one who asked Jesus for help was left disappointed. Jesus’ numerous healings and exorcisms demonstrated the power and authority of his word, the “good news of the kingdom of God.”

When he rebuked the fever, it immediately left. When he rebuked the demons, they left as well. Why did the demons shudder at Jesus’ presence?

They recognized that he was the Christ, the Son of God and that he had power to destroy their kingdom by releasing those bound by it. Jesus came to set us free from bondage to sin and evil. Do you seek freedom in Christ and trust in his power to set you free? When Jesus and the disciples sought a lonely place to regroup and rest, they found instead a crowd waiting for them! Did they resent this intrusion on their hard-earned need for privacy and refreshment?

Jesus certainly didn’t but welcomed them with open-arms. Jesus put human need ahead of everything else. His compassion showed the depths of God’s love and concern for all who are truly needy. Jesus gave the people the word of God and he healed them physically as well as spiritually. Jesus never tires of hearing and answering our pleasWe can never intrude upon God nor exhaust his generosity and kindness. He is ever ready to give to those who earnestly seek him out. Do you allow Jesus to be the Lord and Healer in your personal life, family, and community? Approach him with expectant faith.

God’s healing power restores us not only to health but to active service and care of others. There is no trouble he does not want to help us with and there is no bondage he can’t set us free from. Do you take your troubles to him with expectant faith that he will help you?

🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻

“Lord Jesus, you have the words of everlasting life. May I never doubt your saving love and mercy, and the power of your word to bring healing, restoration, and freedom from every sin and oppression.” Amen

✳️✳️✳️✳️🔰🔰🔰🔰✳️✳️✳️✳️

🟢The Life Story of the Saint🟢

Saint Rose of Viterbo

1233

March 6, 1251

Even as a child, Rose had a great desire to pray and to aid the poor. While still very young, she began a life of penance in her parents’ house.

She was as generous to the poor as she was strict with herself. At the age of 10, she became a Secular Franciscan and soon began preaching in the streets about sin and the sufferings of Jesus.

Viterbo, her native city, was then in revolt against the pope. When Rose took the pope’s side against the emperor, she and her family were exiled from the city. When the pope’s side won in Viterbo, Rose was allowed to return.

Her attempt at age 15 to found a religious community failed, and she returned to a life of prayer and penance in her father’s home, where she died in 1251. Rose was canonized in 1457.

Reflection

The list of Franciscan saints seems to have quite a few men and women who accomplished nothing very extraordinary. Rose is one of them.

She did not influence popes and kings, did not multiply bread for the hungry, and never established the religious order of her dreams. But she made a place in her life for God’s grace, and like Saint Francis before her, saw death as the gateway to new life.

Saint Rose of Viterbo is the Patron Saint of:

FloristsFlower Growers

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Luke 4:31-37

His Word Was with Authority and Power

When you listen to the word of God in Scripture how do you respond to it? Do you hear it with indifference, selective submission, or with the full assent of faith and obedience? When Jesus taught he spoke with authority. He spoke the word of God as no one had spoken it before. When the Rabbis taught they supported their statements with quotes from other authorities.

The prophets spoke with delegated authority – Thus says the Lord. When Jesus spoke he needed no authorities to back his statements. He was authority incarnate – the Word of God made flesh. When he spoke, God spoke. When he commanded even the demons obeyed. God’s Word is alive and activeCyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD), in his commentary on this passage from the Gospel of Luke, tells us that Jesus had all power and authority to heal every sickness and expel every demonic power because he was the living and active Word of God the Father (John 1:14 and Hebrews 4:12):

The bystanders, witnesses of such great deeds, were astonished at the power of his word.

He performed his miracles, without offering up a prayer, asking no one else at all for the power to accomplish them. Since he is the living and active Word of God the Father, by whom all things exist, and in whom all things are, in his own person he crushed Satan and closed the profane mouth of impure demons. [Commentary on Luke, Homily 12].

God’s Word has power to set us freeGod’s living and abiding Word is truth and life and it has power to set us free from every sin and oppression and bring us healing of body, mind, and spirit. If the demons, the fallen angels, were able to recognize the power and authority of Jesus, the Son of God, how much more should we recognize and believe in the power and authority of the Gospel – the good news of Jesus Christ, and entrust our lives to the Lord Jesus? God’s Word produces life and freedom for usThe Lord Jesus speaks his life-giving Word to us each and every day so that we may walk in the freedom of his love and truth. If we approach the Word of God with meekness and humility, and with an eagerness to do everything the Lord desires, we are in a much better position to learn what God wants to teach us through his word. Are you ready to follow the Lord Jesus and to conform your life according to his word?

🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻

🟢The Life Story of the Saint🟢

Saint Gregory the Great

c. 540 – March 12, 604

Gregory was the prefect of Rome before he was 30. After five years in office he resigned, founded six monasteries on his Sicilian estate, and became a Benedictine monk in his own home at Rome.

Ordained a priest, Gregory became one of the pope’s seven deacons, and also served six years in the East as papal representative in Constantinople. He was recalled to become abbot, but at the age of 50 was elected pope by the clergy and people of Rome.

Gregory was direct and firm. He removed unworthy priests from office, forbade taking money for many services, emptied the papal treasury to ransom prisoners of the Lombards and to care for persecuted Jews and the victims of plague and famine.

He was very concerned about the conversion of England, sending 40 monks from his own monastery. He is known for his reform of the liturgy, and for strengthening respect for doctrine. Whether he was largely responsible for the revision of “Gregorian” chant is disputed.

Gregory lived in a time of perpetual strife with invading Lombards and difficult relations with the East. When Rome itself was under attack, he interviewed the Lombard king.

His book, Pastoral Care, on the duties and qualities of a bishop, was read for centuries after his death. He described bishops mainly as physicians whose main duties were preaching and the enforcement of discipline.

In his own down-to-earth preaching, Gregory was skilled at applying the daily Gospel to the needs of his listeners. Called “the Great,” Gregory has been given a place with Augustine, Ambrose, and Jerome, as one of the four key doctors of the Western Church.

An Anglican historian has written: “It is impossible to conceive what would have been the confusion, the lawlessness, the chaotic state of the Middle Ages without the medieval papacy; and of the medieval papacy, the real father is Gregory the Great.”

Reflection

Gregory was content to be a monk, but he willingly served the Church in other ways when asked. He sacrificed his own preferences in many ways, especially when he was called to be Bishop of Rome.

Once he was called to public service, Gregory gave his considerable energies completely to this work. Gregory’s description of bishops as physicians fits in well with Pope Francis’ description of the Church as a “field hospital.”

Saint Gregory the Great is the Patron Saint of:

EnglandEpilepsyMusiciansTeachers

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Luke 4:31-37

His Word Was with Authority and Power

The bystanders, witnesses of such great deeds, were astonished at the power of his word.

📗📗🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻📗📗

✳️✳️✳️✳️🔰🔰🔰🔰✳️✳️✳️✳️

🟢The Life Story of the Saint🟢

Saint Gregory the Great

c. 540 – March 12, 604

Gregory was the prefect of Rome before he was 30. After five years in office he resigned, founded six monasteries on his Sicilian estate, and became a Benedictine monk in his own home at Rome.

Gregory lived in a time of perpetual strife with invading Lombards and difficult relations with the East. When Rome itself was under attack, he interviewed the Lombard king.

Reflection

Gregory was content to be a monk, but he willingly served the Church in other ways when asked. He sacrificed his own preferences in many ways, especially when he was called to be Bishop of Rome.

Saint Gregory the Great is the Patron Saint of:

EnglandEpilepsyMusiciansTeachers

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Luke 4:16-30

No Prophet Is Acceptable in His Own Country

How would you react if Jesus spoke this message from the pulpit of your church? It was customary for Jesus to go weekly to the synagogue to worship and on occasion to read the Scriptures and comment on them to the people.

His hometown folks listened with rapt attention on this occasion because they had heard about the miracles he had performed in other towns. What sign would he do in his hometown? Jesus startled them with a seeming rebuke that no prophet or servant of God can receive honor among his own people. He then angered them when he complimented the Gentiles who seemed to have shown more faith in God than the “chosen ones” of Israel.

They regarded Gentiles as “fuel for the fires of hell.” Jesus’ praise for “outsiders” caused them offense because they were blind-sighted to God’s mercy and plan of redemption for all nations. The word “gospel” literally means “good news”. Isaiah had prophesied that the Messiah would come in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring freedom to those oppressed by sin and evil (see Isaiah 61:1-2).

Jesus came to set people free from the worst tyranny possible – the tyranny of slavery to sin and the fear of death, and the destruction of both body and soul.

God’s power alone can save us from emptiness and poverty of spirit, from confusion and error, and from the fear of death and hopelessness. The Gospel of salvation is “good news” for us today. Do you know the joy and freedom of the Gospel?

🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻

“Lord Jesus, you are the fulfillment of all our hopes and desires. Your Holy Spirit brings us grace, truth, life, and freedom. Fill me with the joy of the Gospel and inflame my heart with love and zeal for you and for your will” Amen

The Life Story of the Saint

Blessed John Francis Burté’s and Companions’

September 2, 1792

January 21, 1794

These priests were victims of the French Revolution. Though their martyrdom spans a period of several years, they stand together in the Church’s memory because they all gave their lives for the same principle.

In 1791, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy required all priests to take an oath which amounted to a denial of the faith. Each of these men refused and was executed.

John Francis Burté became a Franciscan at 16 and after ordination taught theology to the young friars. Later he was guardian of the large Conventual friary in Paris until he was arrested and held in the convent of the Carmelites.

Appolinaris of Posat was born in 1739 in Switzerland. He joined the Capuchins and acquired a reputation as an excellent preacher, confessor, and instructor of clerics.

Preparing for his assignment to the East as a missionary, he was in Paris studying Oriental languages when the French Revolution began. Refusing the oath, he was swiftly arrested and detained in the Carmelite convent.

Severin Girault, a member of the Third Order Regular, was a chaplain for a group of sisters in Paris. Imprisoned with the others, he was the first to die in the slaughter at the convent.

These three plus 182 others—including several bishops and many religious and diocesan priests—were massacred at the Carmelite house in Paris on September 2, 1792. They were beatified in 1926.

Born in 1737, John Baptist Triquerie became a Conventual Franciscan. He was the chaplain and confessor of Poor Clare monasteries in three cities before he was arrested for refusing to take the oath. He and 13 diocesan priests were martyred in Laval on January 21, 1794. He was beatified in 1955.

Reflection

“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” was the motto of the French Revolution. If individuals have “inalienable rights,” as the Declaration of Independence states, these must come not from the agreement of society—which can be very fragile—but directly from God. Do we believe that? Do we act on it?

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Out of the Heart Come Evil Thoughts

Which is more important to God – clean hands or a clean mind and heart? The Scribes and Pharisees were upset with Jesus because he allowed his disciples to break with their ritual traditions by eating with unclean hands.

They sent a delegation all the way from Jerusalem to Galilee to bring their accusation in a face-to-face confrontation with Jesus. Jesus dealt with their accusation by going to the heart of the matter – by looking at God’s intention and purpose for the commandments.

Allow God’s word to shape your heart and intentions
Jesus explains that they void God’s command because they allow their hearts and minds to be clouded by their own notions of what is true religion.

Jesus accuses them specifically of two things. First of hypocrisy. Like actors, who put on a show, they appear to obey God’s word in their external practices while they inwardly harbor evil desires and intentions.

Allow God’s word to change your way of thinking
Secondly, he accuses them of abandoning God’s word by substituting their own arguments and ingenious interpretations for what God requires. They devised clever arguments based on their own thoughts rather than on God’s word.

Jesus refers them to the prophecy of Isaiah (29:31) where the prophet accuses the people of his day for honoring God with their lips while their hearts were far away from choosing and doing what God asked of them.

Uproot wrong thoughts and attitudes before they grow
Where does evil spring from and what’s the solution for eliminating it from our lives? Jesus deals with this issue in response to the religious leaders’ concern with ritual defilement – making oneself unfit to offer acceptable sacrifice and worship to God. The religious leaders were concerned with avoiding ritual defilement, some no doubt out of fear of God, and others out of fear of pleasing other people.

Jesus points his listeners to the source of true defilement – evil desires which come from inside a person’s innermost being. Sin does not happen. It first springs from the innermost recesses of our thoughts and intentions, from the secret desires which only the individual soul can conceive.

1) We need to keep the spirit of the Church’s laws and practices. For example, our Sunday obligation is intended to allow us to worship God in the parish community, to offer our lives to God, to ask His pardon for our sins, to thank God for His blessings, to present our needs before Him, and to receive Divine Life and strength from Him in receiving Holy Communion.

Our daily family prayers are meant to thank God for His blessings, to present the family’s needs before God, to ask pardon for all our sins, and to maintain the spirit of unity and love in the family.

2) Let us avoid the tendency to become cafeteria Christians. As the Pharisees did, we, too, add to or subtract from God’s laws given in the Bible and taught by the Church.

Some of us pick and choose certain Commandments to follow, ignoring the others as we do food offerings in a cafeteria. For example, some actively do corporal and spiritual works of Charity, but avoid Sunday Mass or remain unfaithful to the obligations attached to the gift of their sexuality or the sacrament of marriage.

Others are interested in fulfilling only the “minimal obligations” of the Faith. They come to Mass late and leave early. They make an effort to avoid serious sins, but don’t go to confession even when they fall into mortal sins.

3) Let us accept the challenge to become hearers and doers of God’s word as St. James instructs us: Let us ask ourselves how the Sunday or daily readings are affecting or changing our lives. That will show us whether we are being attentive listeners to, and doers of, God’s word.

We become more fully Jesus’ family members, only when we consistently “hear the word of God and do it” (Lk 8:21). When we receive Jesus in Holy Communion today, let us ask for the grace to become the doers of his word as Jesus was the doer of his Fathers’ will.

🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻

“Lord Jesus, fill me with your Holy Spirit and make my heart like yours – on fire with love and holiness. Strengthen my will that I may always choose to love what is good and to reject what is evil.” Amen

Story for the Reflection

For almost 50 years Mother Teresa worked in the slums of Calcutta, India. She worked among the most forsaken people on earth. You and I would recoil from most of the people that she touched every day – the dispossessed, the downtrodden, the diseased, the desperate.

And yet, everybody who met Mother Teresa remarked on her warm smile. How, after almost 50 years of working in conditions like that, did she keep a warm smile on her face?

Mother explains, “When I was leaving home in Yugoslavia at age of 18 to become a nun, my mother told me something beautiful and very strange. She said, ‘You go put your hand in Jesus’ hand and walk along with Him.’”

And that was the secret of Mother Teresa’s life ever after. (Rev. King Duncan). — Many of us here have good jobs, we live in nice homes, and we have easy situations. But we don’t have the warm smile on our faces that this little nun, working in the most desperate situation imaginable, had on her face.

What’s the difference? It may be that we’ve never put our hand in Jesus’ hand. It may be that we have Jesus only on our lips as St. James remarks in the second reading and as Jesus remarks in today’s Gospel.

Blessings from
Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Matthew 25:14-30

The Master Will Settle His Account with Them

What can economics and productivity teach us about the kingdom of heaven? Jesus’ story about a businessman who leaves town and entrusts his money with his workers made perfect sense to his audience. Wealthy merchants and businessmen often had to travel abroad and leave the business to others to handle while they were gone.

Why did Jesus tell this story and what can it teach us? Most importantly it tells us something about how God deals with us, his disciples and servants. The parable speaks first of the Master’s trust in his servants. While he goes away he leaves them with his money to use as they think best.

While there were no strings attached, this was obviously a test to see if the Master’s workers would be industrious and reliable in their use of the money entrusted to them. The master rewards those who are industrious and faithful and he punishes those who sit by idly and who do nothing with his money.

The essence of the parable seems to lie in the servants’ conception of responsibility. Each servant entrusted with the master’s money was faithful up to a certain point. The servant who buried the master’s money was irresponsible.

One can bury seeds in the ground and expect them to become productive because they obey natural laws. Coins, however, do not obey natural laws. They obey economic laws and become productive in circulation.

The master expected his servants to be productive in the use of his money. God rewards those who use their gifts for serving him and the good of othersWhat do coins and the law of economics have to do with the kingdom of God?

The Lord entrusts the subjects of his kingdom with gifts and graces and he gives his subjects the freedom to use them as they think best. With each gift and talent, God gives sufficient means (grace and wisdom) for using them in a fitting way. As the parable of the talents shows, God abhors indifference and an attitude that says it’s not worth trying.

God honors those who use their talents and gifts for doing good. Those who are faithful with even a little are entrusted with more! But those who neglect or squander what God has entrusted to them will lose what they have.

There is an important lesson here for us. No one can stand still for long in the Christian life. We either get more or we lose what we have. We either advance towards God or we slip back. Do you seek to serve God with the gifts, talents, and graces he has given to you?

🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻

“Lord Jesus, be the ruler of my heart and thoughts, be the king of my home and relationships, and be the master of my work and service. Help me to make good use of the gifts, talents, time, and resources you give me for your glory and your kingdom.” Amen

The Life Story of the Saint

Saints Joseph of Arimathea’s and Nicodemus

1st century

The actions of these two influential Jewish leaders give insight into the charismatic power of Jesus and his teachings—and the risks that could be involved in following him.

Joseph was a respected, wealthy civic leader who had become a disciple of Jesus. Following the death of Jesus, Joseph obtained Jesus’ body from Pilate, wrapped it in fine linen and buried it. For these reasons, Joseph is considered the patron saint of funeral directors and pallbearers.

More important is the courage Joseph showed in asking Pilate for Jesus’ body. Jesus was a condemned criminal who had been publicly executed. According to some legends, Joseph was punished and imprisoned for such a bold act.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee and, like Joseph, an important first-century Jew. We know from John’s Gospel that Nicodemus went to Jesus at night—secretly—to better understand his teachings about the kingdom.

Later, he spoke up for Jesus at the time of his arrest and assisted in Jesus’ burial. We know little else about Nicodemus.

Reflection

Celebrating these two contemporaries of Jesus who played significant roles in Jesus’ life, reminds us of the humanity of Jesus and how he related to his fellow men and women. His gentleness to these two and his acceptance of their help remind us that he treats us in the same gentle way.

Saints Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus are Patron Saints of:

Funeral DirectorsPallbearers

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Matthew 25:1-13

The Foolish Will Miss Heaven’s Wedding Feast

Are you missing out on what’s most important in life? Being unprepared can lead to unnecessary trouble and even disaster! What good is a life-jacket left on the shore when the boat is sinking?

Jesus’ story of ten single ladies waiting for a wedding procession in the middle of the night seems strange to most westerners today. But Jesus’ audience knew all too well how easily this could happen to them. Don’t miss the most important engagement of allWedding customs in ancient Palestine required extra vigilance and preparation for everyone involved. (Some near eastern villages still follow this custom.) The bride and groom did not go away for their honeymoon, but celebrated for a whole week with their family and friends.

It was the custom for the groom, in company with his friends, to come at his discretion and get his bride and bring her to their new home. They would take the longest route possible so that many villagers along the way could join in the wedding procession.

Once they arrived and closed the doors, no one else could be admitted. If the groom decided to come and bring his bride at night, then lights were required by necessity to guide the travelers through the dark and narrow streets. No one was allowed on the village streets at night without a lamp! To show up for a wedding party without proper attire and travel arrangements is like trying to get into a special event today that requires a prearranged permit or reservation.

You just don’t get in without the proper pass. Can you imagine the frustration travelers might experience when going abroad and finding out that they can’t get into some country because they don’t have the right visa or a valid passport. The consequences of being unprepared to meet the LordJesus warns us that there are consequences for being unprepared. There are certain things you cannot obtain at the last moment. For example, students cannot prepare for their exams when the day of testing is already upon them.

A person cannot get the right kind of character, strength, and skill required for a task at hand unless they already possess it, such as a captain with courage and nautical skills who must steer a ship through a dangerous storm at sea. When the Lord Jesus comes to lead you to his heavenly banquet will you be ready to hear his voice and follow? Our eternal welfare depends on our hearing, and many have trained themselves to not hear.

We will not be prepared to meet the Lord, face to face, when he calls us on the day of judgment, unless we listen to him today. The Lord invites us to feast at his heavenly banquet table. Are you ready?

Prayer

“Lord Jesus, make me vigilant and attentive to your voice that I may heed your call at all times. May I find joy in your presence and delight in doing your will.” Amen

The Life Story of the Saint

Saint Jeanne Jugan
October 25, 1792
August 29, 1879

Born in northern France during the French Revolution—a time when congregations of women and men religious were being suppressed by the national government, Jeanne would eventually be highly praised in the French academy for her community’s compassionate care of elderly poor people.

When Jeanne was three and a half years old, her father, a fisherman, was lost at sea. Her widowed mother was hard pressed to raise her eight children alone; four died young.

At the age of 15 or 16, Jeanne became a kitchen maid for a family that not only cared for its own members, but also served poor, elderly people nearby. Ten years later, Jeanne became a nurse at the hospital in Le Rosais. Soon thereafter, she joined a third order group founded by Saint John Eudes.

After six years she became a servant and friend of a woman she met through the third order. They prayed, visited the poor, and taught catechism to children. After her friend’s death, Jeanne and two other women continued a similar life in the city of Saint-Sevran. In 1839, they brought in their first permanent guest. They began an association, received more members, and more guests.

Mère Marie of the Cross, as Jeanne was now known, founded six more houses for the elderly by the end of 1849, all staffed by members of her association—the Little Sisters of the Poor. By 1853, the association numbered 500 and had houses as far away as England.

Abbé Le Pailleur, a chaplain, had prevented Jeanne’s reelection as superior in 1843; nine years later, he had her assigned to duties within the congregation, but would not allow her to be recognized as its founder. In 1890, the Holy See removed him from office.

By the time Pope Leo XIII gave her final approval to the community’s constitutions in 1879, there were 2,400 Little Sisters of the Poor. Jeanne died later that same year, on August 30. Her cause was introduced in Rome in 1970. She was beatified in 1982, and canonized in 2009.

Reflection
Jeanne Jugan saw Christ in what Saint Teresa of Calcutta would describe as his “distressing disguises.” With great confidence in God’s providence and the intercession of Saint Joseph, she begged willingly for the many homes that she opened, relying on the good example of the Sisters and the generosity of benefactors who knew the good that the Sisters were doing.

They now work in 30 countries. “With the eye of faith, we must see Jesus in our old people—for they are God’s mouthpiece,” Jeanne once said. No matter what the difficulties, she was always able to praise God and move ahead.

Blessings from
Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Mark 6:17-29

Herod Feared John – a Righteous and Holy Man

Are you prepared to be a witness, and if necessary, a martyr for Jesus Christ? John the Baptist bridged the Old and New Testaments. He is the last of the Old Testament prophets who pointed the way to the Messiah. He is the first of the New Testament witnesses and martyrs.

Jesus equated the coming of his kingdom with violence. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force(Matthew 11:12). John suffered violence for announcing that the kingdom of God was near. He was thrown into prison and then beheaded. Whose pleasure do you seek?King Herod, the most powerful and wealthy man in Judea, had everything he wanted, except a clear conscience and peace with God. Herod had respected and feared John the Baptist as a great prophet and servant of God.

John, however did not fear to rebuke Herod for his adulterous relationship with his brother’s wife. John ended up in prison because of Herodias’ jealousy. Herod, out of impulse and a desire to please his family and friends, had John beheaded.Why did Herod put John to death when he knew him to be a righteous and holy man? Herod’s power and influence were badly flawed. He was more bent on pleasing others and making friends than on doing what was right and just in the sight of God. He could take a strong stand on the wrong things when he knew the right. Such a stand, however, was a sign of weakness and cowardice. God is our help and our strength Where do you get the strength of will and heart to choose what is right and to reject what is wrong and sinful? The Lord Jesus gives strength and courage to those who humbly acknowledge their dependence on him. The Lord knows our weaknesses better than we do.

He pardons and heals those who ask for his mercy and forgiveness. In whatever situation we find ourselves the Lord is there to guide and direct us. Do you seek the Lord’s strength and wisdom? Ask with expectant faith and trust in the Lord’s help and grace.The love of Christ is stronger than deathSince the martyrdom of John the Baptist to the present time, the kingdom of God has suffered violence and persecution at the hands of violent people.

The blood of Christian martyrs throughout the ages bear witness to this fact. Their testimony to the truth of the Gospel and their willingness to suffer and die for their faith prove victory rather than defeat for the kingdom of God.

What fuels their faith and courage in the face of suffering, persecution, and death? They know and believe with the “eyes of faith” that nothing in this present world can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:35-39).Power to witness the love and mercy of Jesus ChristWhat gives us the power, boldness, and courage to witness to Jesus Christ and to the truth of the Gospel? The Holy Spirit fills us with courage, love, and boldness to make Jesus Christ known and loved.

We do not need to fear those who oppose the Gospel, because the love of Jesus Christ is stronger than fear and death itself. His love conquers all, even our fears and timidity in the face of opposition and persecution. We can trust in his grace and help at all times.

Are you ready to make the Lord Jesus known and loved, and if necessary to suffer for his sake and the sake of the Gospel? Ask the Lord Jesus to fill you with the power and grace of the Holy Spirit.

Prayer

“Lord Jesus Christ, give me faith, boldness, and courage to stand firm in the truth of the Gospel and to not waver in my testimony of your love and mercy. Give me hope and joy in the promise of everlasting life with you in your kingdom.” Amen

The Life Story of the Saint

The Story of the Martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist

The drunken oath of a king with a shallow sense of honor, a seductive dance and the hateful heart of a queen combined to bring about the martyrdom of John the Baptist. The greatest of prophets suffered the fate of so many Old Testament prophets before him: rejection and martyrdom.

The “voice crying in the desert” did not hesitate to accuse the guilty, did not hesitate to speak the truth. But why? What possesses a man that he would give up his very life?

This great religious reformer was sent by God to prepare the people for the Messiah. His vocation was one of selfless giving.

The only power that he claimed was the Spirit of Yahweh. “I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11).

Scripture tells us that many people followed John looking to him for hope, perhaps in anticipation of some great messianic power. John never allowed himself the false honor of receiving these people for his own glory. He knew his calling was one of preparation.

When the time came, he led his disciples to Jesus: “The next day John was there again with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God.’ The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus” (John 1:35-37).

It is John the Baptist who has pointed the way to Christ. John’s life and death were a giving over of self for God and other people. His simple style of life was one of complete detachment from earthly possessions.

His heart was centered on God and the call that he heard from the Spirit of God speaking to his heart. Confident of God’s grace, he had the courage to speak words of condemnation, repentance, and salvation.

Reflection

Each of us has a calling to which we must listen. No one will ever repeat the mission of John, and yet all of us are called to that very mission. It is the role of the Christian to witness to Jesus. Whatever our position in this world, we are called to be disciples of Christ.

By our words and deeds, others should realize that we live in the joy of knowing that Jesus is Lord. We do not have to depend upon our own limited resources, but can draw strength from the vastness of Christ’s saving grace.

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Matthew 23:27-32

True Beauty and Goodness Come from Within

How can you tell if someone is real or fake, genuine or counterfeit? Outward appearances can be deceptive. Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth(Isaiah 11:3-4).

The heart reveals the true intentions and attitudes that form the way we think of others and treat them. Jesus used strong language to warn the religious leaders and teachers about the vanity of outward appearance and pretense – wearing a mask that hides the true intentions and thoughts of the heart.

In Palestine tombs were often placed by the sides of roads. They were painted white which made them glisten in the midday sun, especially around the time of the great feasts, so that people would not accidentally touch them and incur ritual impurity. True beauty and goodness come from withinJesus equates true beauty and goodness with a clean heart and mind that is set on God and his way of love and goodness and sin with a corrupt mind and heart that is set on doing what is wrong and evil. Jesus issued a stern warning to the scribes and Pharisees not to condemn them but to call them to examine their hearts in the light of God’s truth and holiness.

Jesus called them hypocrites because their hearts were set on pleasing themselves rather than God. A hypocrite is an actor or imposter who says one thing but does the opposite or who puts on an outward appearance of doing good while inwardly clinging to wrong attitudes, selfish desires and ambitions, or bad intentions.

Many scribes and Pharisees had made it a regular practice to publicly put on a good show of outward zeal and piety with the intention of winning greater honors, privileges, and favors among the people. Sin is ugly because it corrupts heart and mindJesus warns that what truly corrupts a person is not external ritual impurity but the impurity of wrong and sinful attitudes that come from within a person’s mind and heart – such as pride, greed, sloth, envy, hatred, gluttony, and lust – these are what produce sinful habits (vices) and ways of speaking, acting, judging, and treating others.

That is why every good deed is beautiful in God’s sight and every wrong or sinful deed is ugly in his sight. The scribes and Pharisees were intensely religious in their outward observances, but their outward show didn’t match the inner reality of the state of their minds and hearts.

They not only neglected the poor and the weak, but they were intolerant towards anyone who challenged their idea of religion. That is why so many of the prophets in past ages – who warned about tolerating evil desires and unjust behavior towards one’s neighbor – were persecuted and even killed by their own rulers and people. Jesus chastised the religious leaders for being double-minded and for demanding from others standards which they refused to satisfy. They professed admiration for the prophets who spoke God’s word by building tombs in their honor.

But their outward show of respect did not match their inward refusal to heed the prophets’ warning to turn away from sinful attitudes and from neglecting to lead their people – through teaching and their own example – in God’s way of love and holiness of life.

They shut themselves to heaven and they hindered others from growing in the knowledge of God’s truth and goodness. They rejected Jesus as their Messiah because their hearts were blinded and hardened to the voice of God. The Holy Spirit renews the heart and mindTrue beauty, goodness, and piety come from within – from a heart that is set on pleasing God and a mind that is set on hearing and obeying God’s word.

Jesus came to set us free from slavery to sin and harmful habits and addictions that lead us into wrong and sinful ways of thinking, acting, and relating to others. Only the humble of heart can receive from God true wisdom and understanding, pardon and healing.

The Holy Spirit is ever ready to renew our minds and hearts and to lead us in God’s way of love and holiness. Ask the Holy Spirit to purify your heart and mind and to fill you with the power of God’s love and goodness.

📗📗🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻📗📗

“Lord Jesus, incline my heart to your wisdom and teach me your ways. Fill me with your Holy Spirit that I may love your ways and obey your word.” Amen

✳️✳️✳️✳️🔰🔰🔰🔰✳️✳️✳️✳️
🟢The Life Story of the Saint🟢

Saint Augustine
November 13, 354
August 28, 430

A Christian at 33, a priest at 36, a bishop at 41: Many people are familiar with the biographical sketch of Augustine of Hippo, sinner turned saint. But to get to really know the man is a rewarding experience.

There quickly surfaces the intensity with which he lived his life, whether his path led away from or toward God. The tears of his mother, the instructions of Ambrose and, most of all, God himself speaking to him in the Scriptures, redirected Augustine’s love of life to a life of love.

Having been so deeply immersed in creature-pride of life in his early days and having drunk deeply of its bitter dregs, it is not surprising that Augustine should have turned, with a holy fierceness, against the many demon-thrusts rampant in his day.

His times were truly decadent: politically, socially, morally. He was both feared and loved, like the Master. The perennial criticism leveled against him: a fundamental rigorism.
In his day, Augustine providentially fulfilled the office of prophet.

Like Jeremiah and other greats, he was hard-pressed but could not keep quiet. “I say to myself, I will not mention him/I will speak in his name no more/But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart/imprisoned in my bones/I grow weary holding it in/I cannot endure it” (Jeremiah 20:9).

Reflection
Augustine is still acclaimed and condemned in our day. He is a prophet for today, trumpeting the need to scrap escapisms and stand face-to-face with personal responsibility and dignity.

Saint Augustine is a Patron Saint of:
Converts to ChristianityPrintersTheologians

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Matthew 16:13-19

You Are the Christ – the Son of the Living God

Today in many churches of the East and West the Apostles Peter and Paul are commemorated. Both were martyred in Rome in the first century. They tirelessly worked for the spread of the gospel, not only to the people of Israel, but to all the nations as well.

They risked their lives in the process and gladly poured out their blood in loyalty to their Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul so eloquently stated in his second epistle to Timothy, they courageously fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7).Who do you say I am?How firm is your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? At an opportune time Jesus tested his disciples with a crucial question: Who do men say that I am and who do you say that I am? (Matthew 16:13).

Jesus was widely recognized in Israel as a mighty man of God, even being compared with the greatest of the prophets, John the Baptist, Elijah, and Jeremiah. Peter, always quick to respond, exclaimed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God.Through the gift of faith Peter recognized that Jesus was the “anointed one” (in Hebrew and Greek the word is translated as Messiah and Christ), and the only begotten Son of God sent by the Father in heaven to redeem a fallen human race. No mortal being could have revealed this to Peter; but only God.

Jesus then conferred on Peter authority to govern the church that Jesus would build [which Peter describes as a people redeemed with the precious blood of Christ – First Letter of Peter 1:19], a church that no powers could overcome. Jesus played on Peter’s name which is the same word for “rock” in both Aramaic and Greek. Spiritual rock and living stonesTo call someone a “rock” is one of the greatest of compliments. The ancient rabbis had a saying that when God saw Abraham, he exclaimed: “I have discovered a rock to found the world upon.” Abraham put his trust in God and made God’s word the foundation of his life and the bedrock of his faith.

Through Abraham God established a nation for himself. Through faith Peter grasped who Jesus truly was. He was the first apostle to proclaim that Jesus was truly the Anointed One (Messiah and Christ) and the only begotten Son of God. The New Testament describes the church, the people of God, as a spiritual house and temple of the Holy Spirit with each member joined together as living stones (see 1 Peter 2:5). Faith in Jesus Christ makes us into rocks – spiritual stones. The Lord Jesus tests each of us personally with the same question: Who do you say that I am?

Prayer

“Lord Jesus, I profess and believe that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. You are my Lord and my Savior who has set me free from sin and deception. Make my faith strong like the Apostles Peter and Paul and give me boldness to speak of you to others that they may come to know you as Lord and Savior.”

The Life Story of the Saint

Saints Peter and Paul

Peter (d. 64?)

Saint Mark ends the first half of his Gospel with a triumphant climax. He has recorded doubt, misunderstanding, and the opposition of many to Jesus.

Now Peter makes his great confession of faith: “You are the Messiah” (Mark 8:29b). It was one of the many glorious moments in Peter’s life, beginning with the day he was called from his nets along the Sea of Galilee to become a fisher of men for Jesus.

The New Testament clearly shows Peter as the leader of the apostles, chosen by Jesus to have a special relationship with him. With James and John he was privileged to witness the Transfiguration, the raising of a dead child to life, and the agony in Gethsemane.

His mother-in-law was cured by Jesus. He was sent with John to prepare for the last Passover before Jesus’ death. His name is first on every list of apostles. And to Peter only did Jesus say, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.

And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:17b-19).

But the Gospels prove their own trustworthiness by the unflattering details they include about Peter. He clearly had no public relations person. It is a great comfort for ordinary mortals to know that Peter also has his human weakness, even in the presence of Jesus.

He generously gave up all things, yet he can ask in childish self-regard, “What are we going to get for all this?” (see Matthew 19:27). He receives the full force of Christ’s anger when he objects to the idea of a suffering Messiah: “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (Matthew 16:23b).

Peter is willing to accept Jesus’ doctrine of forgiveness, but suggests a limit of seven times. He walks on the water in faith, but sinks in doubt. He refuses to let Jesus wash his feet, then wants his whole body cleansed. He swears at the Last Supper that he will never deny Jesus, and then swears to a servant maid that he has never known the man.

He loyally resists the first attempt to arrest Jesus by cutting off Malchus’ ear, but in the end he runs away with the others. In the depth of his sorrow, Jesus looks on him and forgives him, and he goes out and sheds bitter tears. The Risen Jesus told Peter to feed his lambs and his sheep (John 21:15-17).

Paul (d. 64?) If the most well-known preacher today suddenly began preaching that the United States should adopt Marxism and not rely on the Constitution, the angry reaction would help us understand Paul’s life when he started preaching that Christ alone can save us.

He had been the most pharisaic of Pharisees, the most legalistic of Mosaic lawyers. Now he suddenly appears to other Jews as a heretical welcomer of Gentiles, a traitor and apostate.

Paul’s central conviction was simple and absolute: Only God can save humanity. No human effort—even the most scrupulous observance of law—can create a human good which we can bring to God as reparation for sin and payment for grace. To be saved from itself, from sin, from the devil, and from death, humanity must open itself completely to the saving power of Jesus.

Paul never lost his love for his Jewish family, though he carried on a lifelong debate with them about the uselessness of the Law without Christ. He reminded the Gentiles that they were grafted on the parent stock of the Jews, who were still God’s chosen people, the children of the promise.

Reflection

We would probably go to confession to Peter sooner than to any of the other apostles. He is perhaps a more striking example of the simple fact of holiness. Jesus says to us as he said, in effect, to Peter: “It is not you who have chosen me, but I who have chosen you. Peter, it is not human wisdom that makes it possible for you to believe, but my Father’s revelation. I, not you, build my Church.”

Paul’s experience of the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus was the driving force that made him one of the most zealous, dynamic, and courageous ambassadors of Christ the Church has ever had. But persecution, humiliation, and weakness became his day-by-day carrying of the cross, material for further transformation. The dying Christ was in him; the living Christ was his life.

Saint Paul is the Patron Saint of:

Greece

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Matthew 16:13-19

You Are the Christ – the Son of the Living God

Prayer

The Life Story of the Saint

Saints Peter and Paul

Peter (d. 64?)

Saint Mark ends the first half of his Gospel with a triumphant climax. He has recorded doubt, misunderstanding, and the opposition of many to Jesus.

He had been the most pharisaic of Pharisees, the most legalistic of Mosaic lawyers. Now he suddenly appears to other Jews as a heretical welcomer of Gentiles, a traitor and apostate.

Reflection

Saint Paul is the Patron Saint of:

Greece

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Mark 12:38-44

This Poor Widow Has Put in More Than the Rest

What is true religion and devotion to God? Jesus warns his disciples against the wrong kind of religion. In his denunciation of the scribes (the religious experts of his day), he warns against three things: the desire for prominence and first place of honor rather than lowly service for the benefit of others.

The desire for deference and recognition (and seeking esteem from others) rather than seeking to promote the good of others through humble service and selfless care for others; and thirdly, attempting to use one’s position (even a religious position) for self-gain and self-advancement. True religion is relating rightly to God and to one’s neighbor with love, honor, and respect.

The Lord puts his Holy Spirit within us that we may be filled with the joy of his presence, the joy of true worship, and the joy of selfless giving and love for others. True reverence for God frees the heart to give liberally, both to God and to neighbor. Love is more precious than gold or silver Jesus taught his disciples a dramatic lesson in generous giving with love and devotion. Love doesn’t calculate – it spends lavishly! Jesus drove this point home to his disciples while sitting in the temple and observing people offering their tithes.

Jesus praised a poor widow who gave the smallest of coins in contrast with the rich who gave greater sums. How can someone in poverty give more than someone who has ample means? Jesus’ answer is very simple – love is more precious than gold! Real giving comes from a heart full of gratitude Jesus taught that real giving must come from the heart. A gift that is given with a grudge or for display loses most of its value. But a gift given out of love, with a spirit of generosity and sacrifice, is invaluable. The amount or size of the gift doesn’t matter as much as the cost to the giver.

What we have to offer may look very small and not worth much, but if we put all we have at the Lord’s disposal, no matter how insignificant it may seem, then God can do with it and with us what is beyond our reckoning. Do you know the joy and freedom of giving liberally to God and to neighbor with gratitude and love?

🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻

“Lord Jesus, all that I have is yours. Take my life, my possessions, my time and all that I have and use them as you desire for your glory.

The Life Story of the Saint

The Immaculate Heart of Mary was created around 15 BC as a result of the Immaculate Conception, which is a dogma of our faith. As The Immaculate Conception, the Blessed Virgin Mary was preserved from all sin from the first moment of her conception by a singularly unique grace, preemptively bestowed upon her by the merits of her Son’s life, death, and resurrection.

From the moment of her Immaculate Conception, Mary remained free from all sin as a result of her own free choice to cooperate with grace. As a result, she was conceived as a suitable instrument for the Incarnation of God, and she remained a suitable instrument throughout her life.

After Jesus’ birth, the Mother of God continued to perfectly cooperate with grace, accompany her Son, stand at the foot of His Cross, jointly offer Him to the Father, experience His Resurrection and His Ascension into Heaven, participate in the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and help give birth to the nascent Church through her motherly care.

At the completion of her life, she was taken body and soul into Heaven to be with her Son and to be crowned as the Queen of Heaven and Earth, from which she mediates the love and mercy of God, and will do so for all eternity. The immaculate nature and this full view of our Blessed Mother’s life is the “big picture.” Today, we celebrate one specific aspect of that big picture—her Immaculate Heart.

Honoring the Immaculate Heart of Mary leads us to ponder that which she pondered—her own heart filled with perfect love. We first receive a glimpse of her heart in the Gospel of Luke. After the angels appeared to the shepherds in Bethlehem and announced the birth of Christ, they went in haste to where Jesus was born and found Mary, Joseph, and the Child lying in a manger.

They told Mary and Joseph about their experience of the angel, “And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). Twelve years later, Mary and Joseph traveled to Jerusalem from Nazareth for the annual feast of Passover. After completing the customary prayers and sacrifice, they began their journey home, thinking Jesus was in the caravan with relatives.

When they discovered He was not, they returned to Jerusalem to find twelve-year-old Jesus talking with the teachers in the temple and asking them questions, and “all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers” (Luke 2:47).

After inquiring of Jesus why He remained, He told them He had to be in His Father’s house. Though Mary and Joseph did not fully understand the mystery they were witnessing, “his mother kept all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:51).

Every other encounter between Jesus and His mother in Scripture also reveals a sense of mystery and awe that evoked love and pondering. Most notably, as Jesus hung on the Cross, His mother stood before Him, gazing with love.

From the Cross, Jesus entrusted Mary to John, and through John, to the whole Church. Because the Mother of God was and is the Immaculate Conception, free from all sin throughout her life, then every part of who she was and is remained immaculate, including her heart.

Mary’s heart, as with every human heart, is a symbol of every relational virtue that enables one to love. The Mother of God’s human love for her Son was perfect. And that is something worth pondering! Prior to the Mother of God and her Son, the perfection of human love did not exist.

From the time of Adam and Eve, human love was mixed with selfishness and sin. From the moment of the Incarnation, the perfect exchange of human love was established between the Mother of God and her divine Son. Today we celebrate that perfect love and are invited to ponder it and share in it.

As a result of Jesus entrusting His mother to John and the whole people of God and her subsequent Assumption into Heaven and coronation as Queen, we also ponder the perfection of human love for us, her children, that flows from Heaven. By God’s will, that perfection of love is bestowed upon the Church and all Her members through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

We must not only ponder this glorious reality, we must also do all we can to be receptive sons and daughters of the love of our heavenly mother who loves us with a perfect love and bestows upon us the pure and perfect love of her Son’s divine grace that was instilled in her Immaculate Heart.

Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary began in apostolic times and continued through great saints, such as Ephrem the Syrian, Cyril of Alexandria, John Damascene, Gregory of Nazianzus, Ambrose of Milan, Augustine of Hippo, and Jerome.

Though they did not make specific reference to the Immaculate Heart, they spoke of the Blessed Mother’s many virtues. These saints especially helped to lay the foundation for proclaiming Mary as the Mother of God (Theotokos) at the Council of Ephesus in 431.

From the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, a number of saints contributed to the deeping of our understanding of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Among them are Saints Anselm of Canterbury, Bernard of Clairvaux, Mechtilde, Gertrude the Great, Bridget of Sweden, and Bernardino of Siena.

From the sixteenth century to the twentieth centuries, many other saints continued to develop our understanding of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1648, Saint John Eudes, a French priest and founder of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary, instituted a local feast in honor of the Holy Heart of Mary, fostering a realization of the love that the Blessed Mother had for her Son and for all people.

This was the first liturgical feast approved by a local ordinary specifically honoring the “Holy Heart of Mary.” After him, Saints Louis de Montfort and Alphonsus Liguori wrote extensively on the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In 1854, Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which paved the way for the specific title of the Immaculate Heart, and in the early twentieth century, Saint Maximilian Kolbe wrote extensively on the Immaculata.

In 1916, an angel appeared to three children in Fátima, Portugal, speaking of the “infinite merits of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”

The following year, the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of “Our Lady of the Rosary,” appeared six times to the children. During the second apparition, Our Lady said that Jesus “wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.” In 1925 and 1929, Our Lady appeared again to Lúcia to ask that her Immaculate Heart be honored on the first Saturday of each month.

In 1944, Pope Pius XII instituted the universal feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to be celebrated annually on August 22, and in 1969, Pope Paul VI moved the celebration to the Saturday after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart.

As we honor the holy, most pure, and Immaculate Heart of Mary, try to ponder that which the Blessed Virgin Mary pondered during her life. Ponder the love she had for her Son. Ponder the mysteries contained within her heart. As you do, especially ponder the love that her heart has for you.

Only in Heaven will we fully understand the holiness of Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart. For now, we must foster devotion to all that is contained within it and seek to open ourselves to the ongoing outpouring of God’s grace that dwells in an immaculate way in that holy sanctuary of love.

Prayer: Immaculate Heart of Mary, I love you and give praise and thanks to God for the unfathomable graces that were instilled within your heart at the moment of your conception and remain with you today and forever. Please pour down upon me and upon the whole world the loving mercy of Your Son, so that I can more fully become your child and a child of God.

Please pray for me and for the whole world so that one day your Immaculate Heart will triumph and all people will come to know and love your divine Son. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for me. Jesus, I trust in You!

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

John 21:15-19

Do You Love Jesus More Than These?

The Lord Jesus asked Simon Peter and he asks each one of us a very personal and profound question – do you love me more than anything else that might be very dear to you?

How can the love of Jesus Christ be so attractive and so costly at the same time? Jesus on many occasions spoke to his disciples about the nature of God’s unquenchable love.

God is love (1 John 4:16) because he is the creator and source of all that is true love. His love is unconditional, unmerited, and unlimited. We can’t buy it, earn it, demand it. It is a pure gift, freely given, and freely received. God’s love doesn’t change or waver.

It endures because it is eternal and timeless. It’s the beginning and the end – the purpose for which God created us and why he wants us to be united with him in a bond of unbreakable love. And it’s the essence of what is means to be a son or daughter of God the eternal Father. Love gives all for the good of othersThe Lord Jesus shows us that love is a personal choice and a gift freely given – it is the giving of oneself to another person for their sake. Unselfish love is oriented wholly to the good of the other person for their own welfare and benefit.

John the Evangelist tells us that “God so loved the world that he gave us his only-begotten Son” (John 3:16) who took on human flesh for our sake and who died upon the cross for our salvation – to set us free from the power of sin so that we might receive abundant everlasting life and peace with God. God’s love heals and transforms our lives and frees us from fear, selfishness, and greed. It draws us to the very heart of God and it compels us to give him the best we have and all we possess – our gifts, our time, our resources, our full allegiance, and our very lives.

Paul the Apostle tells us that God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given us (Romans 5:5). What can quench such love? Certainly fear, sin, pride, indifference, disbelief, and the loss of hope and trust in God’s promises and his mercy towards us. Do you love me more than these?Why did Jesus question Peter’s loyalty and love three times in front of the other apostles? It must have caused Peter great pain and sorrow since he had publicly denied Jesus three times during the night of Jesus’ betrayal and condemnation by the religious authorities who had sought to kill him.

Now Peter, full of grief and deep remorse, unequivocally stated that he loved his master and was willing to serve and obey him whatever it might cost.

When Jesus asks him “do you love me more than these?” Jesus may have pointed to the boats, fishing nets, and catch of fish from the night’s work. He may have challenged Peter to abandon his work as a fisherman for the task of shepherding the community of God’s people.

Jesus may have also pointed to the other disciples and to Peter’s previous boast: “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away” (Matthew 26:33). Peter now makes no boast or comparison but humbly responds: “You know that I love you.” We love because he loved us firstThe Lord Jesus calls each one of us, even in our own weakness, sins, and failings, to love him above all else.

Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) in his Confession wrote:

“Late have I loved you, O Beauty so ancient and so new. Late have I loved you! …You shone your Self upon me to drive away my blindness. You breathed your fragrance upon me… and in astonishment I drew my breath…now I pant for you! I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst for you. You touched me! – and I burn to live within your peace” (Confession 10:27).

Nothing but our own sinful pride and stubborn wilfullness can keep us from the love of God. He loved us first and our love for him is a response to his exceeding graciousness and mercy towards us. Do you allow God’s love to fill your heart and transform your life?

🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻

“Lord Jesus, inflame my heart with your love and burn away everything within it that may be unloving, unkind, ungrateful, unholy, and not in accord with your will. May I always love what you love and reject what is contrary to your love and will for my life. ” Amen

The Life Story of the Saint

Saint Paschal Baylon

May 24, 1540 – May 15, 1592

In Paschal’s lifetime the Spanish empire in the New World was at the height of its power, though France and England were soon to reduce its influence.

The 16th century has been called the Golden Age of the Church in Spain, for it gave birth to Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Peter of Alcantara, Francis Solano, and Salvator of Horta.

Paschal’s Spanish parents were poor and pious.

Between the ages of seven and 24 he worked as a shepherd and began a life of mortification. He was able to pray on the job and was especially attentive to the church bell, which rang at the Elevation during Mass. Paschal had a very honest streak in him. He once offered to pay owners of crops for any damage his animals caused!

In 1564, Paschal joined the Friars Minor and gave himself wholeheartedly to a life of penance. Though he was urged to study for the priesthood, he chose to be a brother. At various times he served as porter, cook, gardener, and official beggar.

Paschal was careful to observe the vow of poverty. He would never waste any food or anything given for the use of the friars. When he was porter and took care of the poor coming to the door, he developed a reputation for great generosity. The friars sometimes tried to moderate his liberality!

Paschal spent his spare moments praying before the Blessed Sacrament. In time, many people sought his wise counsel. People flocked to his tomb immediately after his burial; miracles were reported promptly. Paschal was canonized in 1690 and was named patron of eucharistic congresses and societies in 1897.

Reflection

Prayer before the Blessed Sacrament occupied much of Saint Francis’ energy. Most of his letters were to promote devotion to the Eucharist. Paschal shared that concern.

An hour in prayer before our Lord in the Eucharist could teach all of us a great deal. Some holy and busy Catholics today find that their work is enriched by those minutes regularly spent in prayer and meditation.

Saint Paschal Baylon is the Patron Saint of:

Eucharistic Congresses and SocietiesShepherds

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

John 16:29-33

Peace in Overcoming the World

How did the disciples come to believe that Jesus is truly the Son of God sent from the eternal Father in heaven? When Jesus taught his disciples he often spoke in parables – using short stories and vivid images which expressed in picture language what God’s kingdom is like and how God’s power can change and transform our lives to be like him.

These stories were intended to make his disciples reflect and think through the inner spiritual truths he wanted them to understand and accept. The Lord Jesus gives hope and strength to those who believe in him and trust in his wordNow Jesus begins to speak more plainly to the disciples about the mission and purpose for which he was sent into the world – not to condemn the world but through love to redeem it (John 3:16).

The disciples professed their belief in Jesus that he truly came from God and taught as one who possessed full knowledge of God. Jesus’ response showed that he fully knew and understood them very well. Jesus could read their hearts like an open book. He knew their weaknesses as well as their strengths. Where do you place your trust and confidence?In spite of their confident faith, Jesus warned his disciples that they would be put to the test and would fail. He knew they would desert him in his hour of trial when he would be arrested and condemned to death on the cross.

Such knowledge of their faltering loyalty could have easily led to bitterness and rejection on his part. Jesus met the injury of betrayal and abandonment with supreme love and earnest prayer for his disciples (Luke 22:32; John 17:15). “He loved them to the very end” (John 13:1) – even when they had left him to die alone on the cross. God’s peace dwells with those who trust in him aloneJesus reassures them of his peace, unfailing love, and victory over the world which is in opposition to God’s reign. Jesus speaks the same reassuring words of enduring love, faithfulness, and victory to his followers today.

“I will never fail you nor forsake you.” While we may forget the Lord and fail him, he will never forget us nor fail to come to our aid. When you are put to the test do you seek the Lord Jesus and place your trust in his help and mercy? The Holy Spirit fills us with expectant faith, persevering hope, and unfailing loveWhile we cannot avoid all pain and suffering which may come our way in this life, the Lord Jesus assures us that he has overcome the world and all that would seek to keep us from his saving help and healing presence.

He promises to guide us safely through any trial or hardship we may have to undergo for his sake.

The Lord Jesus gives us the gift of his Holy Spirit who strengthens us with faith, courage, and perseverance to stay the course which he has set for us. The Holy Spirit fills us with a living hope in the power of Christ’s resurrection (1 Peter 1:3) and reassures our heart with a confident trust in God’s abiding presence. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ and the victory he has won for us (Romans 8:35-39). The Holy Spirit gives us the strength and courage we need to overcome every adversity and to persevere with faith and hope in God. Do you believe in the power of Christ’s love for you and in the victory he has won for you through his death and resurrection?

🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻

“Lord Jesus, help me to trust in your unwavering love and saving help, especially when I meet adversities, trials, and temptations. Give me your peace when I am troubled and let me know the joy of your victory over sin and death.” Amen

🟡The Life Story of the Saint🟡

The Story of Our Lady of Fatima

Between May 13 and October 13, 1917,

three Portuguese children–Francisco and Jacinta Marto and their cousin Lucia dos Santos–received apparitions of Our Lady at Cova da Iria near Fatima, a city 110 miles north of Lisbon. Mary asked the children to pray the rosary for world peace, for the end of World War I, for sinners, and for the conversion of Russia.

Mary gave the children three secrets. Following the deaths of Francisco and Jacinta in 1919 and 1920 respectively, Lucia revealed the first secret in 1927. It concerned devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The second secret was a vision of hell.

When Lucia grew up she became a Carmelite nun and died in 2005 at the age of 97. Pope John Paul II directed the Holy See’s Secretary of State to reveal the third secret in 2000; it spoke of a “bishop in white” who was shot by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows into him.

Many people linked this vision to the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981.

The feast of Our Lady of Fatima was approved by the local bishop in 1930; it was added to the Church’s worldwide calendar in 2002.

Reflection

The message of Fatima is simple: Pray. Unfortunately, some people—not Sister Lucia—have distorted these revelations, making them into an apocalyptic event for which they are now the only reliable interpreters. They have, for example, claimed that Mary’s request that the world be consecrated to her has been ignored.

Sister Lucia agreed that Pope John Paul II’s public consecration in St. Peter’s Square on March 25, 1984, fulfilled Mary’s request. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prepared a June 26, 2000, document explaining the “third secret.”

Mary is perfectly honored when people generously imitate her response “Let it be done to me as you say” (Luke 1:38). Mary can never be seen as a rival to Jesus or to the Church’s teaching authority, as exercised by the college of bishops united with the bishop of Rome.

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

John 16:29-33

Peace in Overcoming the World

He promises to guide us safely through any trial or hardship we may have to undergo for his sake.

🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻

🟡The Life Story of the Saint🟡

The Story of Our Lady of Fatima

Between May 13 and October 13, 1917,

Many people linked this vision to the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981.

The feast of Our Lady of Fatima was approved by the local bishop in 1930; it was added to the Church’s worldwide calendar in 2002.

Reflection

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Mark 16:15-20

The Lord Jesus Was Taken up into Heaven

Why did Jesus leave his disciples forty days after his resurrection? Forty is a significant number in the scriptures. Moses went to the mountain to seek the face of God for forty days in prayer and fasting. The people of Israel were in the wilderness for forty years in preparation for their entry into the promised land.

Elijah fasted for forty days as he journeyed in the wilderness to the mountain of God. For forty days after his resurrection Jesus appeared numerous times to his disciples to assure them that he had risen indeed and to prepare them for the task of carrying on the work which he began during his earthy ministry. The Risen Lord Jesus is with us always to the end of timeJesus’ departure and ascension was both an end and a beginning for his disciples. While it was the end of Jesus’ physical presence with his beloved disciples, it marked the beginning of Jesus’ presence with them in a new way. Jesus promised that he would be with them always to the end of time (Matthew 28:20).

Now as the glorified and risen Lord and Savior, ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven, Jesus promised to send them the Holy Spirit who would anoint them with power on the Feast of Pentecost, just as Jesus was anointed for his ministry at the River Jordan.

When the Lord Jesus departed physically from the apostles, they were not left in sorrow or grief. Instead, they were filled with joy and with great anticipation for the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Risen Lord empowers us to carry on his workJesus’ last words to his apostles point to his saving mission and to their mission to be witnesses of his saving death and his glorious resurrection and to proclaim the good news of salvation to all the world.

Their task is to proclaim the Gospel – the good news of salvation – not only to the people of Israel, but to all the nations as well. God’s love and gift of salvation is not reserved for a few or for one nation alone, but it is for the whole world – for all who will accept it.

The Gospel is the power of God, the power to release people from their burden of guilt, sin, and oppression, and the power to heal, restore, and make us whole. Do you believe in the power of the Gospel? We are ambassadors for Jesus ChristThis is the great commission which the risen Christ gives to the whole church. All believers have been given a share in this task – to be heralds of the good news and ambassadors for Jesus Christ, the only savior of the world. We have not been left alone in this task, for the risen Lord works in and through us by the power of his Holy Spirit.

Today we witness a new Pentecost as the Lord pours out his Holy Spirit upon his people to renew and strengthen the body of Christ and to equip it for effective ministry and mission world-wide. Do you witness to others the joy of the Gospel and the hope of the resurrection?

1) We need to be proclaimers and evangelizers: To be a Christian is to be a proclaimer and an evangelizer. There is a difference between preaching and proclaiming. We preach with words, but we proclaim with our lives. Let us ask the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as we bear witness to Jesus by our transparent Christian lives.

2) We have a teaching mission: Jesus taught us lessons of Faith, Hope, Love, forgiveness, mercy, and salvation by his life and preaching and gave as we have experienced our Lord and Savior.

3) The ascended Jesus is our source of strength and encouragement: We will be able to overcome doubts about our Faith, as well as baseless fears, anxieties and worries, by meditating on Jesus’ Ascension and the lesson it teaches — that we, too, are called to share his glory in Heaven.

🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻

“Lord Jesus, through the gift of your Holy Spirit, you fill us with an indomitable spirit of praise and joy which no earthly trial can subdue. Fill me with your resurrection joy and help me to live a life of praise and thanksgiving for your glory. May I witness to those around me the joy of the Gospel and the reality of your great victory over sin and death.” Amen

🟡The Story for the Reflection🟡

The disciples who completed Puccini’s opera Turandot. The Italian composer Giacomo Puccini wrote La Boheme, Madama Butterflyand Tosca. It was during his battle with terminal cancer in 1922 that he began to write Turandot, which many now consider his best work.

He worked on the score day and night, despite his friends’ advice to rest, and to save his energy. When his sickness worsened, Puccini said to his disciples, “If I don’t finish Turandot, I want you to finish it.” He died in 1924, leaving the work unfinished. His disciples gathered all that was written by Turandot, studied it in great detail, and then proceeded to write the remainder of the opera.

The world premier was performed in La Scala Opera House in Milan in 1926, and Maestro Arturo Toscanini, Puccini’s favorite student, conducted it. The opera went beautifully, until Toscanini came to the end of the part written by Puccini.

He stopped the music, put down the baton, turned to the audience, and announced, “Thus far the master wrote, but he died.” There was a long pause; no one moved. Then Toscanini picked up the baton, turned to the audience and, with tears in his eyes, announced, “But his disciples finished his work.”

The opera closed to thunderous applause and found a permanent place in the annals of great works. — Jesus instructs us in his Ascension message to finish his work of saving mankind by proclaiming His Good News by words and deeds.

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Mark 16:15-20

The Lord Jesus Was Taken up into Heaven

2) We have a teaching mission: Jesus taught us lessons of Faith, Hope, Love, forgiveness, mercy, and salvation by his life and preaching and gave as we have experienced our Lord and Savior.

🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻

🟡The Story for the Reflection🟡

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

John 16:23-28

Ask in Jesus’ Name, That Your Joy May Be Full

Do you pray with confidence to your heavenly Father? Jesus often taught his disciples by way of illustration or parable. Here he speaks not in “figures” (the same word used for parables), but in plain speech.

Jesus revealed to them the hidden treasure of the heavenly kingdom and he taught them how to pray to the Father in his name. Now Jesus opens his heart and speaks in the plainest of language: “The Father himself loves you!” How can the disciples be certain of this? The Lord Jesus unites us with the Father through the love and power of the Holy SpiritPaul the Apostle states that “All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:14). Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, Jesus makes it possible for his disciples to have a new relationship as sons and daughters of God the Father (Romans 8:14-17).

No one would have dared to call God his or her Father before this! Because of what Jesus has done for us in offering his life for our redemption we now can boldly and confidently pray to God as our Father in heaven. The presence and action of the Holy Spirit within us is living proof of this new relationship with the Father. Paul the Apostles says that “when we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:15-16). We can boldly approach God as our Father and ask him for the things we need. In love he bids us to draw near to his throne of grace and mercy. Do you approach the Father with confidence in his love and with expectant faith in his promise to hear your prayers?

🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻

“Heavenly Father, your love knows no bounds and your mercies are new every day. Fill me with gratitude for your countless blessings and draw me near to your throne of grace and mercy. Give me confidence and boldness to pray that your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Amen

🟡The Life Story of the Saint🟡

Saint Ignatius of Laconi

Dec 17, 1701 – May 11, 1781

Ignatius is another sainted begging brother.

He was the second of seven children of peasant parents in Sardinia. His path to the Franciscans was unusual. During a serious illness, Ignatius vowed to become a Capuchin if he recovered. He regained his health but ignored the promise.

When he was 20, a riding accident prompted Ignatius to renew the pledge, which he acted on the second time. Ignatius’s reputation for self-denial and charity led to his appointment as the official beggar for the friars in Cagliari. He fulfilled that task for 40 years, despite being blind for the last two years.

While on his rounds, Ignatius would instruct the children, visit the sick, and urge sinners to repent. The people of Cagliari were inspired by his kindness and his faithfulness to his work. Ignatius was canonized in 1951.

Reflection

Why did the people of Cagliari support the friars? These followers of Francis worked hard but rarely at jobs that paid enough to live on. The life of Ignatius reminds us that everything God considers worthwhile does not have a high-paying salary attached to it.

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

John 16:20-23

Your Sorrow Will Turn into Joy

Why did the Lord Jesus tell his disciples that they would weep and be sorrowful? Jesus was neither a pessimist nor a masochist, and he was certainly more than a realist!

The way to happiness and joy in the kingdom of God is through the cross. Sin must be brought to the cross of Jesus Christ and evil can only be completely mastered by the power of God’s redeeming love.

Jesus told his disciples that it was more blessed to mourn for sin because it would yield the fruit of peace, joy, and righteousness. Jesus knew that the cross would be a stumbling block for those who refused to believe in him. We, too, have a share in the victory and joy of Christ’s resurrection The cross for Jesus was not defeat but victory – victory over sin, over the forces of evil in the world, and over the devil – the arch-enemy of God and the human race.

Through his atoning sacrifice on the cross Jesus won for us new abundant life and freedom over the power of sin, despair, and death. He was raised in power from the tomb on the third day and his glorified body will never taste death again.

The Easter victory of the Lord Jesus gives us courage, strength, and confident hope in the face of suffering and death. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ our fears are laid to rest. His resurrection is total and final triumph over death, and for us peace and joy in the confident hope that we, too, will be raised to everlasting life with Christ. We will have trials in this present age – .but, through the eyes of faith, we know the final outcome – complete victory over sin, suffering, and death in Jesus Christ.

That is why we can pray confidently now, knowing that the Father in heaven will give us everything we need to live as his children and as disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know the Easter joy of Christ’s victory over sin and death?

🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻

“Lord Jesus, we are an Easter people, and alleluia is our song. Fill us with your Holy Spirit that we may we radiate the joy of your Resurrection and live in the reality of your great victory over sin and death.” Amen

🟡The Life Story of the Saint🟡

St Damien de Veuster of Moloka’i

January 3, 1840 – April 15, 1889

When Joseph de Veuster was born in Tremelo, Belgium, in 1840, few people in Europe had any firsthand knowledge of leprosy, Hansen’s disease. By the time he died at the age of 49, people all over the world knew about this disease because of him. They knew that human compassion could soften the ravages of this disease.

Forced to quit school at age 13 to work on the family farm, Joseph entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary six years later, taking the name of a fourth-century physician and martyr.

When his brother Pamphile, a priest in the same congregation, fell ill and was unable to go to the Hawaiian Islands as assigned, Damien quickly volunteered in his place. In May 1864, two months after arriving in his new mission, Damien was ordained a priest in Honolulu and assigned to the island of Hawaii.

In 1873, he went to the Hawaiian government’s leper colony on the island of Moloka’i, set up seven years earlier. Part of a team of four chaplains taking that assignment for three months each year, Damien soon volunteered to remain permanently, caring for the people’s physical, medical, and spiritual needs. In time, he became their most effective advocate to obtain promised government support.

Soon the settlement had new houses and a new church, school and orphanage. Morale improved considerably. A few years later, he succeeded in getting the Franciscan Sisters of Syracuse, led by Mother Marianne Cope, to help staff this colony in Kalaupapa.

Damien contracted Hansen’s disease and died of its complications. As requested, he was buried in Kalaupapa, but in 1936 the Belgian government succeeded in having his body moved to Belgium.

Part of Damien’s body was returned to his beloved Hawaiian brothers and sisters after his beatification in 1995.

When Hawaii became a state in 1959, it selected Damien as one of its two representatives in the Statuary Hall at the US Capitol. Damien was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 11, 2009.

Reflection

Some people thought Damien was a hero for going to Moloka’i and others thought he was crazy. When a Protestant clergyman wrote that Damien was guilty of immoral behavior, Robert Louis Stevenson vigorously defended him in an “Open Letter to Dr. Hyde.”

🩵📿54 Days Novena to Holy Rosary📿🩵

53rd Day

Sign of the Cross

Hail Mary

Petition Prayer (first 27 days)

Hail, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, my Mother Mary, hail! At thy feet, I humbly kneel to offer thee

a Crown of Roses, snow-white buds to remind thee of thy joys. Each bud recalling to thee a holy

mystery. Each ten bound together with my petition for a particular grace.

O Holy Queen, dispenser of God’s graces, and Mother of all who invoke thee! Thou canst not look

upon my gift and fail to see its binding. As thou receivest my gift, so wilt thou receive my petition.

From thy bounty thou wilt give me the favor I so earnestly and trustingly seek. I despair of nothing

that I ask of thee. Show thyself my Mother!

Thanksgiving Prayer (final 27 days)

Hail, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, my Mother Mary, hail! At thy feet, I gratefully kneel to offer

thee a Crown of Roses, snow-white buds to remind thee of thy joys. Each bud recalling to thee a holy

mystery. Each ten bound together with my petition for a particular grace.

O Holy Queen, dispenser of God’s graces, and Mother of all who invoke thee! Thou canst not look

upon my gift and fail to see its binding. As thou receivest my gift, so wilt thou receive my thanksgiving. From thy bounty thou hast given me the favor I so earnestly and trustingly sought. I

despaired not of what I asked of thee. Thou hast truly shown thyself my Mother.

The Apostles’ Creed

Our Father

3 Hail Marys

Glory Be

The Sorrowful Mysteries Continued

– The Agony in the Garden

– The Scourging at the Pillar

– The Crowning with Thorns

– Jesus Carries His Cross

– The Crucifixion

Pray after every decade:

I bind these blood-red roses with a petition for the virtue of patience in adversity and humbly lay

this bouquet at thy feet.

Concluding Prayer

Hail, Holy Queen….Amen

In Petition (first 27 days)

Sweet Mother Mary, I offer thee this Spiritual Communion to bind my bouquets in a wreath to place

upon thy brow. O my Mother! Look with favor upon my gift, and in thy love obtain for me (specify request)

In Thanksgiving (final 27 days)

Sweet Mother Mary, I offer thee this spiritual communion to bind my bouquets in a wreath to place

upon thy brow in thanksgiving for (specify request) which thou in thy love hast obtained for me.

Hail Mary – Sign of the Cross

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

John 16:20-23

Your Sorrow Will Turn into Joy

Why did the Lord Jesus tell his disciples that they would weep and be sorrowful? Jesus was neither a pessimist nor a masochist, and he was certainly more than a realist!

🐣🐣🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻🐣🐣

🔅🔅🔅🔅🐣🐣🐣🐣🔅🔅🔅🔅

🟡The Life Story of the Saint🟡

St Damien de Veuster of Moloka’i

January 3, 1840 – April 15, 1889

Damien contracted Hansen’s disease and died of its complications. As requested, he was buried in Kalaupapa, but in 1936 the Belgian government succeeded in having his body moved to Belgium.

Part of Damien’s body was returned to his beloved Hawaiian brothers and sisters after his beatification in 1995.

When Hawaii became a state in 1959, it selected Damien as one of its two representatives in the Statuary Hall at the US Capitol. Damien was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 11, 2009.

Reflection

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

John 16:20-23

Your Sorrow Will Turn into Joy

Why did the Lord Jesus tell his disciples that they would weep and be sorrowful? Jesus was neither a pessimist nor a masochist, and he was certainly more than a realist!

🐣🐣🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻🐣🐣

🔅🔅🔅🔅🐣🐣🐣🐣🔅🔅🔅🔅

🟡The Life Story of the Saint🟡

St Damien de Veuster of Moloka’i

January 3, 1840 – April 15, 1889

Damien contracted Hansen’s disease and died of its complications. As requested, he was buried in Kalaupapa, but in 1936 the Belgian government succeeded in having his body moved to Belgium.

Part of Damien’s body was returned to his beloved Hawaiian brothers and sisters after his beatification in 1995.

When Hawaii became a state in 1959, it selected Damien as one of its two representatives in the Statuary Hall at the US Capitol. Damien was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 11, 2009.

Reflection

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

John 16:12-15

The Holy Spirit Will Guide You into All the Truth

Are you hungry for truth? Jesus proclaimed that he is the Truth, the Way, and the Life (John 14:6). Truth is not something we create nor is it our discovery. It is the gift of God who is the possessor and giver of all truth. Jesus tells his disciples that it is the role of the Holy Spirit to reveal what is true, right, and good. How can this be? Many skeptics of truth don’t want to believe in an absolute, objective, and unchanging Truth.

If truth is objective then it must be asserted to as trustworthy and right and be submitted to as authoritative and binding. Some fear the truth because they think it will inhibit their freedom to act, think, and judge as they wish. Jesus told his disciples that the truth will set you free(John 8:32). The truth liberates us from whatever is false, misleading, doubtful, or deceptive.

In God there is no lie or falsehood since he is utterly true, good, and just. Since he is the author and source of all that is true and good, then the closer we draw near to him in order to listen to his word and understand his mind and will for us, the more we will grow in the knowledge of God and of his great love, wisdom, and plan for us. The Spirit of truthJesus told his disciples that he would send them the Spirit of truth who will guide you into all the truth ..and declare to you the things that are to come (John 16:13).

Jesus knew that his disciples could not fully understand on their own everything he had taught and revealed to them while he was physically present with them. He knew that they would need the ongoing guidance and help of the Holy Spirit after he returned to his Father in heaven.

That is why he assured them that the Holy Spirit would take what he had spoken to them and guide them into a fuller understanding of God’s wisdom, power, and glory he wished to share with them so they could live in the joy and freedom of his love and truth. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) explains the progressive work of the Spirit in guiding the disciples of Jesus in all the truth:
“Accordingly, when he says, ‘He will teach you all truth’ or ‘will guide you into all truth,’ I do not think the fulfillment is possible in anyone’s mind in this present life. For who is there, while living in this corruptible and soul-oppressing body (Wisdom 9:15), that can know all truth when even the apostle says, ‘We know in part’?

But it is effected by the Holy Spirit, of whom we have now received the promise (2 Corinthians 1:21), that we shall attain also to the actual fullness of knowledge that the same apostle references when he says, ‘But then face to face’ and ‘Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known’ (1 Corinthians 13:12).

He is not talking about something he knows fully in this life but about something that would still be in the future when he would attain that perfection. This is what the Lord promised us through the love of the Spirit, when he said, ‘He will teach you all truth’ or ‘will guide you unto all truth.'” (TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 96.4)

On the day of Pentecost after the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the first disciples of Jesus, the apostles boldly began to carry out the mission Jesus had entrusted to them – to proclaim the truth of the Gospel and to make disciples [followers of Jesus] of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age (Matthew 28:19-20).The Holy Spirit is our Teacher and HelperToday, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we, too, proclaim the same ancient faith which the apostles taught – that Jesus died, and was buried, and rose again on the third day, and will come again to judge, raise the dead, and give everlasting life (from the Apostles Creed). We not only share the same faith which was given to the apostles, we also have the same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead.

The Lord Jesus gives each of us his Holy Spirit as our divine Teacher and Helper that we may grow in the knowledge, wisdom, and strength of God. Do you listen attentively to God’s word and allow his Holy Spirit to give you understanding of God’s truth and plan for your life?

🐣🐣🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻🐣🐣

“Lord Jesus, fill me with your Holy Spirit and guide me in your way of life, truth, and goodness. Free me from ignorance of your truth, and from deception and moral blindness caused by sinful pride and the refusal to believe and obey your word of truth. May I love you with all of my heart, mind, and strength, and seek to please you in all things.” Amen

Saint Peter of Tarentaise
1102 – 1174

There are two men named Saint Peter of Tarentaise who lived one century apart. The man we honor today is the elder Peter, born in France in the early part of the 12th century. The other man with the same name became Pope Innocent the Fifth.

The Peter we’re focusing on today became a Cistercian monk and eventually served as abbot. In 1142, he was named archbishop of Tarentaise, replacing a bishop who had been deposed because of corruption.

Peter tackled his new assignment with vigor. He brought reform into his diocese, replaced lax clergy, and reached out to the poor. He visited all parts of his mountainous diocese on a regular basis.

After about a decade as bishop, Peter “disappeared” for a year and lived quietly as a lay brother at an abbey in Switzerland. When he was found out, the reluctant bishop was persuaded to return to his post.

He again focused many of his energies on the poor.
Peter died in 1174 on his way home from an unsuccessful papal assignment to reconcile the kings of France and England. His liturgical feast is celebrated on September 14.

Reflection
We probably know a lot of people who would welcome the chance to receive some honor or honorary position. They relish the thought of the glamour and glory. But saints like Peter of Tarentaise remind us that humility and the avoidance of glory is the way of the Gospel.

54 Days Novena to Holy Rosary

51st Day
Sign of the Cross
Hail Mary
Petition Prayer (first 27 days)

Hail, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, my Mother Mary, hail! At thy feet, I humbly kneel to offer thee
a Crown of Roses, snow-white buds to remind thee of thy joys. Each bud recalling to thee a holy
mystery. Each ten bound together with my petition for a particular grace.

O Holy Queen, dispenser of God’s graces, and Mother of all who invoke thee! Thou canst not look
upon my gift and fail to see its binding. As thou receivest my gift, so wilt thou receive my petition.
From thy bounty thou wilt give me the favor I so earnestly and trustingly seek. I despair of nothing
that I ask of thee. Show thyself my Mother!

Thanksgiving Prayer (final 27 days)

Hail, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, my Mother Mary, hail! At thy feet, I gratefully kneel to offer
thee a Crown of Roses, snow-white buds to remind thee of thy joys. Each bud recalling to thee a holy
mystery. Each ten bound together with my petition for a particular grace.

O Holy Queen, dispenser of God’s graces, and Mother of all who invoke thee! Thou canst not look
upon my gift and fail to see its binding. As thou receivest my gift, so wilt thou receive my thanksgiving. From thy bounty thou hast given me the favor I so earnestly and trustingly sought. I
despaired not of what I asked of thee. Thou hast truly shown thyself my Mother.

The Apostles’ Creed
Our Father
3 Hail Marys
Glory Be

The Glorious Mysteries Continued
– The Resurrection of Jesus
– The Ascension of Jesus
– The Descent of the Holy Spirit
– The Assumption of Mary
– The Coronation of the Blessed Mother

Pray after every decade:
I bind these blood-red roses with a petition for the virtue of patience in adversity and humbly lay
this bouquet at thy feet.

Concluding Prayer
Hail, Holy Queen….Amen

In Petition (first 27 days)

Sweet Mother Mary, I offer thee this Spiritual Communion to bind my bouquets in a wreath to place
upon thy brow. O my Mother! Look with favor upon my gift, and in thy love obtain for me (specify request)

In Thanksgiving (final 27 days)
Sweet Mother Mary, I offer thee this spiritual communion to bind my bouquets in a wreath to place
upon thy brow in thanksgiving for (specify request) which thou in thy love hast obtained for me.
Hail Mary – Sign of the Cross

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

John 16:5-11

I Will Send the Counselor to You

Why does God seem far from us at times? Separation and loss of relationship often lead to grief and pain. The apostles were filled with sorrow when Jesus spoke about his imminent departure. Jesus explained that it was for their sake that he must leave them and return to his Father. He promised, however, that they would never be left alone. He will send in his place the best of friends, the Holy Spirit. Paul reminds us that “nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:39). By sending the Holy Spirit to his followers, the Lord Jesus makes his presence known to us in a new and on-going way. We are not left as orphans, but the Lord himself dwells within us through the power of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 4:9; 6:16b). The work of the Holy SpiritJesus tells his disciples three very important things about the work of the Holy Spirit – to convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. The original word for convince also means convict. The Holy Spirit is our Sanctifier.

He makes us holy as God is holy. He does this first by convicting us of our unbelief and sin and by bringing us humbly to the foot of the Cross. The Spirit convinces us of God’s love and forgiveness and of our utter dependence on God for his mercy and grace. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to lead us from the error of our unbelief and sinful ways and to show us the way of love and truth.The Jews who had condemned Jesus as a blasphemer and false messiah thought they were serving God rather than sinning when they crucified Jesus. When the Gospel was later preached on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:37), many were pricked in their heart and convicted of their sin. What made them change their mind about Jesus?

The Holy Spirit opened their hearts to recognize Jesus as the true Messiah sent by the Father in heaven. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to both convict us of our unbelief and wrongdoing and to convince us of God’s truth. The Spirit convinces us of the righteousness (moral truth and goodness) of Christ, backed by the fact that Jesus rose again and went to his Father.

The Holy Spirit also convicts us of judgment. The Spirit gives us the inner and unshakable conviction that we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. God’s judgments are just and good. He not only forgives those who repent of their wrongdoing, he also vindicates the innocent who have been unjustly treated and restores their rights and he rewards those who have done what is just and good.

When we heed his judgments we find true peace, joy and reconciliation with God. Do you allow the Holy Spirit free reign in your life that he may set you free from the grip of sin and set you ablaze with the fire of God’s love?

Prayer

“Come Holy Spirit, and let the fire of your love burn in my heart. Let me desire only what is pure, lovely, holy and good and in accord with the will of God and give me the courage to put away all that is not pleasing in your sight.” Amen

🟡The Life Story of the Saint🟡

Saint Rose Venerini

February 9, 1656 – May 7, 1728

Rose was born at Viterbo in Italy, the daughter of a doctor. Following the death of her fiancé she entered a convent, but soon returned home to care for her newly widowed mother. Meanwhile, Rose invited the women of the neighborhood to recite the rosary in her home, forming a sort of sodality with them.

As she looked to her future under the spiritual guidance of a Jesuit priest, Rose became convinced that she was called to become a teacher in the world rather than a contemplative nun in a convent. Clearly, she made the right choice: She was a born teacher, and the free school for girls she opened in 1685 was well received.

Soon the cardinal invited her to oversee the training of teachers and the administration of schools in his diocese of Montefiascone. As Rose’s reputation grew, she was called upon to organize schools in many parts of Italy, including Rome.

Her disposition was right for the task as well, for Rose often met considerable opposition but was never deterred. She died in Rome in 1728, where a number of miracles were attributed to her. She was beatified in 1952 and canonized in 2006.

The sodality, or group of women she had invited to prayer, was ultimately given the rank of a religious congregation. Today, the so-called Venerini Sisters can be found in the United States and elsewhere, working among Italian immigrants.

Reflection

Whatever state of life God calls us to, we bring with us an assortment of experiences, interests and gifts—however small they seem to us. Rose’s life stands as a reminder that all we are is meant to be put to service wherever we find ourselves.

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

John 15:18-21

I Have Called You Friends

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you.” John 14:15–17

Imagine a spouse or a friend saying to you, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Such a statement might cause you to react with surprise. Ordinarily, we do not see obedience to another as a sign that we love them. However, what if a parent were to say to a child, “If you love me, you will be obedient.”

That statement is easier to accept because of the unique role of a parent to their children. In regard to our love of God, obedience to His divine will is the greatest act of love we can offer. This is because God’s will is perfect.

It’s exactly what we need in life. It’s what we were made for. And it is the one and only way to achieve the human fulfillment that we seek. Only God can say such a thing to us because only God is God.

Jesus followed up His call to obedience by saying that obedience to Him will result in Jesus and His Father bestowing the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth upon you. The Holy Spirit will remain “with you, and will be in you.” This is such a profound statement from our Lord.

In fact, so much of what He says within this sermon given at the Last Supper is profound beyond comprehension.

One clear thing this tells us is that obedience to God leads to a discovery of the Truth. And as Jesus says elsewhere, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31–32)

Obedience leads to Truth. Truth leads to freedom.

This begs the question: Do you want to be free? Clearly you do. We cannot not want to be free. Meaning, we are obliged to want freedom, just as we are obliged to want happiness.

Why? Because the desire for freedom and happiness is written upon our very nature. It is a desire that we cannot escape. It’s how we are wired. However, it is quite possible to become confused about the way we achieve these desires. For many, obedience is not always understood as the pathway to that desired freedom and happiness.

Consider, again, a child. Imagine a parent telling that child not to eat a certain wild berry that grows behind their house because the parent knows the berry is poisonous and will cause the child to become sick. If the child disobeys and eats the berry anyway, he will learn the important lesson that he should have been obedient.

Or if the child were to get in a fight with his brother and was angry and crying, the parent may tell him to say he’s sorry and reconcile with his brother. If the child refuses, he will remain angry and crying. But if he obeys, then he and his brother will once again be able to have fun together.

On a grand scale, this is what God does for us. He is the perfect Father Who always knows what is best for us. For that reason, we must not only conform to His will, we must desire it, seek it out and desire to be obedient to the greatest degree. This is the path to Truth. It is the path to freedom. It is the path to the happiness we desire.

Reflect, today, upon your own level of obedience to the will of God and your understanding of the importance of that obedience. Do you realize that God’s will is perfect? Perhaps you do intellectually, but how about practically?

When you read through the Scriptures and hear Jesus’ commands of love, do you seek to follow them without hesitation? For example, do you forgive those who seem undeserving? Can you say, with our Lord from the Cross, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do?”

Reflect upon anything this past year that was difficult for you to embrace from God. Ponder it, pray over it and seek to obey whatever He has revealed to you. Doing so will be the first step toward the fulfillment of your deepest desires in life.

Most glorious Jesus, Your will is perfect in every way. Obedience to Your will leads to the fulfillment of my life and my every desire. Please bestow the Spirit of Truth upon me so that I will always know Your will and embrace it with all my might. Jesus, I trust in You.

🐣🐣🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻🐣🐣

“Lord Jesus, may the fire of your love fill my heart with an eagerness to please you in all things. May there be no rivals to my love and devotion to you who are my all.” Amen

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

John 21:1-14

You Have Found Favor with God

How does God reveal his favor to us? In the psalms we pray, “Lord, show me a sign of your favor” (Psalm 86:17). In the Old Testament God performed many signs and miracles to demonstrate his love and mercy for his people, such as their deliverance from slavery in Egypt and the miraculous crossing of the Red sea on dry land (Psalm 78:43-53).

When Ahaz, king of Judah and heir to the throne of David (735 B.C.) was surrounded by forces that threatened to destroy him and his people, God offered him a sign to reassure him that God would not abandon the promise he made to David and his descendants.

King Ahaz, however, had lost hope in God and refused to ask for a sign of favor. God, nonetheless, gave a sign to assure his people that he would indeed give them a Savior who would rule with peace and righteousness (Isaiah 7:11ff). God’s unfolding plan of redemptionWe see the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy and the unfolding of God’s plan of redemption in the events leading up to the Incarnation, the birth of the Messiah King. The new era of salvation begins with the miraculous conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary.

This child to be born is conceived by the gracious action of the Holy Spirit upon Mary, who finds favor with God (Luke 1:28). As Eve was the mother of all humanity doomed to sin, now Mary becomes the mother of the new Adam who will father a new humanity by his grace (Romans 5:12-21).

This child to be conceived in her womb is the fulfillment of all God’s promises. He will be “great” and “Son of the Most High” and “King” and his name shall be called “Jesus” (Luke 1:31-32), which means “the Lord saves.” “He will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

The angel repeats to Mary, the daughter of the house of David, the promise made to King David: “The Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end” (2 Samuel 7:12-16, Isaiah 9:6-7, Luke 1:32-33). How does Mary respond to the word of God delivered by the angel Gabriel? She knows she is hearing something beyond human capability. It will surely take a miracle which surpasses all that God has done previously.

Her question, “how shall this be, since I have no husband” is not prompted by doubt or skepticism, but by wonderment! She is a true hearer of the Word and she immediately responds with faith and trust. Mary’s prompt response of “yes” to the divine message is a model of faith for all believers. Mary believed God’s promises even when they seemed impossible. She was full of grace because she trusted that what God said was true and would be fulfilled. She was willing and eager to do God’s will, even if it seemed difficult or costly. Mary is the “mother of God” because God becomes incarnate when he takes on flesh in her womb.

When we pray the ancient creed (Nicene Creed) we state our confession of faith in this great mystery: “For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.” Trust and yield to God’s graceGod gives us grace and he expects us to respond with the same willingness, obedience, and heartfelt trust as Mary did. When God commands he also gives the help, strength, and means to respond. We can either yield to his grace or resist and go our own way. Do you believe in God’s promises and do you yield to his grace?

Prayer

“Heavenly Father, you offer us abundant grace, mercy, and forgiveness through your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Help me to live a grace-filled life as Mary did by believing in your promises and by giving you my unqualified ‘yes’ to your will and plan for my life.”

Amen

🟡The Life Story of the Saint🟡

Saint Julie Billiart

July 12, 1751 – April 8, 1816

Born in Cuvilly, France, into a family of well-to-do farmers, young Marie Rose Julie Billiart showed an early interest in religion and in helping the sick and poor. Though the first years of her life were relatively peaceful and uncomplicated, Julie had to take up manual work as a young teen when her family lost its money. However, she spent her spare time teaching catechism to young people and to the farm laborers.

A mysterious illness overtook her when she was about 30. Witnessing an attempt to wound or even kill her father, Julie was paralyzed and became a complete invalid. For the next two decades, she continued to teach catechism lessons from her bed, offered spiritual advice, and attracted visitors who had heard of her holiness.

When the French Revolution broke out in 1789, revolutionary forces became aware of her allegiance to fugitive priests.

With the help of friends, she was smuggled out of Cuvilly in a haycart. She then spent several years hiding in Compiegne, being moved from house to house despite her growing physical pain. She even lost the power of speech for a time.

But this period also proved to be a fruitful spiritual time for Julie.

It was at this time she had a vision in which she saw Calvary surrounded by women in religious habits and heard a voice saying, “Behold these spiritual daughters whom I give you in an institute marked by the cross.”

As time passed and Julie continued her mobile life, she made the acquaintance of an aristocratic woman, Françoise Blin de Bourdon, who shared Julie’s interest in teaching the faith.

In 1803, the two women began the Institute of Notre Dame, which was dedicated to the education of the poor, young Christian girls, and the training of catechists. The following year the first Sisters of Notre Dame made their vows. That was the same year that Julie recovered from the illness: She was able to walk for the first time in 22 years.

Though Julie had always been attentive to the special needs of the poor and that always remained her priority, she also became aware that other classes in society needed Christian instruction.

From the founding of the Sisters of Notre Dame until her death, Julie was on the road, opening a variety of schools in France and Belgium that served the poor and the wealthy, vocational groups, teachers. Ultimately, Julie and Françoise moved the motherhouse to Namur, Belgium. Julie died there in 1816 and was canonized in 1969.

Reflection

Julie’s immobility in no way impeded her activities. In spite of her suffering, she managed to co-found a teaching order that tended to the needs of both the poor and the well-to-do. Each of us has limitations, but the worst malady any of us can suffer is the spiritual paralysis that keeps us from doing God’s work on earth.

Saint Julie Billiart is a Patron Saint of:

Educators/Teachers

The Story of the Annunciation of the Lord

The feast of the Annunciation, now recognized as a solemnity, was first celebrated in the fourth or fifth century. Its central focus is the Incarnation: God has become one of us. From all eternity God had decided that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity should become human. Now, as Luke 1:26-38 tells us, the decision is being realized.

The God-Man embraces all humanity, indeed all creation, to bring it to God in one great act of love. Because human beings have rejected God, Jesus will accept a life of suffering and an agonizing death: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).

Mary has an important role to play in God’s plan. From all eternity, God destined her to be the mother of Jesus and closely related to him in the creation and redemption of the world. We could say that God’s decrees of creation and redemption are joined in the decree of Incarnation.

Because Mary is God’s instrument in the Incarnation, she has a role to play with Jesus in creation and redemption. It is a God-given role. It is God’s grace from beginning to end. Mary becomes the eminent figure she is only by God’s grace. She is the empty space where God could act. Everything she is she owes to the Trinity.

Mary is the virgin-mother who fulfills Isaiah 7:14 in a way that Isaiah could not have imagined. She is united with her son in carrying out the will of God (Psalm 40:8-9; Hebrews 10:7-9; Luke 1:38).

Together with Jesus, the privileged and graced Mary is the link between heaven and earth. She is the human being who best, after Jesus, exemplifies the possibilities of human existence. She received into her lowliness the infinite love of God. She shows how an ordinary human being can reflect God in the ordinary circumstances of life.

She exemplifies what the Church and every member of the Church is meant to become. She is the ultimate product of the creative and redemptive power of God. She manifests what the Incarnation is meant to accomplish for all of us.

Reflection

Sometimes spiritual writers are accused of putting Mary on a pedestal and thereby, discouraging ordinary humans from imitating her. Perhaps such an observation is misguided. God did put Mary on a pedestal and has put all human beings on a pedestal.

We have scarcely begun to realize the magnificence of divine grace, the wonder of God’s freely given love. The marvel of Mary—even in the midst of her very ordinary life—is God’s shout to us to wake up to the marvelous creatures that we all are by divine design.

54 Days Novena to Holy Rosary

20th Day

Sign of the Cross

Hail Mary

Petition Prayer (first 27 days)

Hail, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, my Mother Mary, hail! At thy feet, I humbly kneel to offer thee

a Crown of Roses, snow-white buds to remind thee of thy joys. Each bud recalling to thee a holy

mystery. Each ten bound together with my petition for a particular grace.

O Holy Queen, dispenser of God’s graces, and Mother of all who invoke thee! Thou canst not look

upon my gift and fail to see its binding. As thou receivest my gift, so wilt thou receive my petition.

From thy bounty thou wilt give me the favor I so earnestly and trustingly seek. I despair of nothing

that I ask of thee. Show thyself my Mother!

Thanksgiving Prayer (final 27 days)

Hail, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, my Mother Mary, hail! At thy feet, I gratefully kneel to offer

thee a Crown of Roses, snow-white buds to remind thee of thy joys. Each bud recalling to thee a holy

mystery. Each ten bound together with my petition for a particular grace.

O Holy Queen, dispenser of God’s graces, and Mother of all who invoke thee! Thou canst not look

upon my gift and fail to see its binding. As thou receivest my gift, so wilt thou receive my thanksgiving. From thy bounty thou hast given me the favor I so earnestly and trustingly sought. I

despaired not of what I asked of thee. Thou hast truly shown thyself my Mother.

The Apostles’ Creed

Our Father

3 Hail Marys

Glory Be

The Sorrowful Mysteries Continued

– The Agony in the Garden

– The Scourging at the Pillar

– The Crowning with Thorns

– Jesus Carries His Cross

– The Crucifixion

Pray after every decade:

I bind these blood-red roses with a petition for the virtue of patience in adversity and humbly lay

this bouquet at thy feet.

Concluding Prayer

Hail, Holy Queen….Amen

In Petition (first 27 days)

Sweet Mother Mary, I offer thee this Spiritual Communion to bind my bouquets in a wreath to place

upon thy brow. O my Mother! Look with favor upon my gift, and in thy love obtain for me (specify request)

In Thanksgiving (final 27 days)

Sweet Mother Mary, I offer thee this spiritual communion to bind my bouquets in a wreath to place

upon thy brow in thanksgiving for (specify request) which thou in thy love hast obtained for me.

Hail Mary – Sign of the Cross

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

John 20:19-31

Unless I see – I will not believe

Do you know the joy of the resurrection?

The Risen Lord Jesus revealed the glory of his resurrection to his disciples gradually and over a period of time. Even after the apostles saw the empty tomb and heard the reports of Jesus’ appearance to the women, they were still weak in faith and fearful of being arrested by the Jewish authorities.

When Jesus appeared to them he offered proofs of his resurrection by showing them the wounds of his passion, his pierced hands and side. He calmed their fears and brought them peace, the peace which reconciles sinners and makes us friends of God.

Live and proclaim the Gospel of mercy in the power of the Holy Spirit

Jesus did something which only love and trust can do. He commissioned his weak and timid apostles to bring the good news of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

This sending out of the disciples is parallel to the sending out of Jesus by his heavenly Father. Jesus fulfilled his mission through his perfect love and obedience to the will of his Father. He called his first disciples and he now calls each one of us to do the same.

Just as he gave his first disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit, so he breathes on each of us the same Holy Spirit who equips us with new life, power, joy, and courage to live each day as followers of the Risen Lord.

The last apostle to meet the resurrected Lord was the first to go with him to Jerusalem at Passover time.

The apostle Thomas was a natural pessimist. When Jesus proposed that they visit Lazarus after receiving news of his illness, Thomas said to the disciples: “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (John 11:16). While Thomas deeply loved the Lord, he lacked the courage to stand with Jesus in his passion and crucifixion.

After Jesus’ death, Thomas made the mistake of withdrawing from the other apostles. He sought loneliness rather than fellowship in his time of trial and adversity. He doubted the women who saw the resurrected Jesus and he doubted his own fellow apostles.

Through the gift of faith we recognize the Risen Lord and receive new life

When Thomas finally had the courage to rejoin the other apostles, the Lord Jesus made his presence known to him and reassured him that he had indeed overcome death and risen again.

When Thomas recognized his Master, he believed and exclaimed that Jesus was truly Lord and truly God! Through the gift of faith we, too, proclaim that Jesus is our personal Lord and our God. He died and rose that we, too, might have new life in him.

The Lord offers each of us new life in his Holy Spirit that we may know him personally and walk in this new way of life through the power of his resurrection. Do you believe in the good news of the Gospel and in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring you new life, hope, and joy?

Prayer

“Lord Jesus Christ, through your victory over sin and death you have overcome all the powers of sin and darkness. Help me to draw near to you and to trust in your life-giving word. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and strengthen my faith in your promises and my hope in the power of your resurrection.”

Amen

❣️Divine Mercy Sunday❣️

A Whole Ocean of Graces

Saint Faustina reports in her Diary what Jesus told her about Divine Mercy Sunday:

“My daughter, tell the whole world about My inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy.

The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day are open all the divine floodgates through which graces flow” (Diary #699).

That day is today! It is the Feast of Divine Mercy! Today’s feast is among the newer feasts in our Church. Though Jesus’ desire that this feast be celebrated on the eighth day of Easter was spoken to Sister Maria Faustina Kowolska back in 1931, it was not solemnly instituted until the year 2000.

On April 30 of that year, Saint Pope John Paul II canonized Saint Faustina and inaugurated the Feast of Divine Mercy as a universal feast within the Church. Because this Feast is so recent within the Church, we can be certain that we still have much to learn about the message of this Solemnity as well as the numerous messages about God’s mercy revealed in Saint Faustina’s Diary.

Among the many messages contained within her Diary, Jesus revealed to us that this Sunday, the eighth and final day of the Octave of Easter, is a day like none other.

Though grace and mercy are continuously poured out from Heaven upon us, Jesus is very clear that today is unique. Today, “a whole ocean of graces” is poured forth upon souls who approach the font of His mercy. Sit with that image for a time. “A whole ocean of graces.” What does that mean?

Symbolically speaking, a whole ocean is meant to depict the infinite. Try to imagine what it would be like to have the entire ocean poured upon you—it’s beyond comprehension! Thus, God is saying that the infinity of grace is given today.

The question for us all to ponder is this: How receptive am I to those infinite graces?

By analogy, imagine that your life was like a thimble, and an ocean of water was poured upon you. As a thimble, you could not contain all that was given.

Therefore, we should realize that God wants to stretch our capacity to receive His mercy more abundantly by widening our capacity for mercy. What if your soul were like a large pond? Still, the waters of the ocean could not be contained within that pond. What is it that is capable of receiving an entire ocean of mercy?

Only an ocean can contain an ocean. For that reason, God desires to first prepare our souls to receive an infinity of mercy by transforming us into vessels of infinite capacity.

Saint Teresa of Ávila, in her spiritual classic, “Interior Castles,” teaches us that the soul is, indeed, capable of infinite capacity for the simple fact that God dwells within.

The soul is like an interior castle with many interlinked dwelling places through which we must pass so as to arrive at the central chamber. She teaches that the goal of the spiritual life is to travel through these various dwelling places to the center of our souls where the infinite God dwells so that we can be present to Him there.

Therefore, we must understand that our souls are indeed capable of receiving the infinite waters of mercy, because God created us with this ability when He chose to live within us. The key to being able to fully receive this fullness of mercy is to seek out the infinite God, dwelling within. How is this done?

The heart of the path laid out in the Diary of Saint Faustina is as follows: Go to Confession and receive Holy Communion so as to obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment.

However, as many of the great spiritual writers explain, such as Saint Teresa of Ávila, there are many levels we must pass on our spiritual journey so as to be able to encounter God in His fullness. This, of course, includes encountering God’s mercy given to us in Holy Communion and Confession.

Those who receive these Sacraments while dwelling only in the first dwelling places, for example, will never benefit from them to the extent that those who dwell in the seventh and central mansion where the King dwells in fullness.

Thus, mercy is given in its fullness but unless we make the transforming journey to God through conversion and purification of our souls, we will never be able to receive the ocean of graces God bestows.

Reflect, today, upon this ocean being poured forth upon you. How much of this mercy are you able to receive right now in your life? As you humbly admit your limited openness to God’s grace, know that God patiently waits for you, dwelling in His fullness deep within you, waiting for you to make the journey to Him.

Commit yourself to this journey by prayer, fasting, penance, the reading of Scripture, the celebration of the Sacraments and spiritual reading. There is an ocean of the fullness of life waiting for you. Dive in and allow His mercy to deepen your capacity to receive Him most fully.

My Lord, You are The Divine Mercy, the source of all grace and the Bestower of this grace in superabundance. I thank You for the infinity of Your generosity and pray that my soul will be more fully disposed to receive You. Please stretch the capacity of my soul through my ongoing journey of purification and conversion so that I will receive all that You wish to bestow.

Jesus, I trust in You.

The Story for the reflection

The news is filled with illustrations of mercy—or the need for mercy—in our world. One of the most moving stories came to us on October 6, 2006, when an armed man entered an Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania.

He chased out the little boys and lined up the 10 little girls in front of the blackboard. He shot all of them and then killed himself. Five of the girls died.

After the medics and police left, the families of the fallen came and carried their slain children home. They removed their bloody clothes and washed the bodies. They sat for a time and mourned their beloved children.

After a while they walked to the home of the man who killed their children. They told his widow they forgave her husband for what he had done, and they consoled her for the loss of her spouse. They buried their anger before they buried their children.

— Amish Christians teach us that forgiveness is central. They believe in a real sense that God’s forgiveness of themselves depends on their extending forgiveness to other people. That’s what the mercy of God is all about.

That mercy is why we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday. (Rev. Alfred McBride, O.Praem: Catholic Update – March 2008)

❤️❤️The Divine Mercy ❤️❤️

The Divine Mercy Message

The message of The Divine Mercy is simple. It is that God loves us – all of us. And, He wants us to recognize that His mercy is greater than our sins, so that we will call upon Him with trust, receive His mercy, and let it flow through us to others. Thus, all will come to share His joy.

A – Ask for His Mercy. God wants us to approach Him in prayer constantly, repenting of our sins and asking Him to pour His mercy out upon us and upon the whole world.

B – Be merciful. God wants us to receive His mercy and let it flow through us to others. He wants us to extend love and forgiveness to others just as He does to us.

C – Completely trust in Jesus. God wants us to know that all the graces of His mercy can only be received by our trust. The more we open the door of our hearts and lives to Him with trust, the more we can receive.

This message and devotion to Jesus as The Divine Mercy is based on the writings of Saint Faustina Kowalska, an uneducated Polish nun who, in obedience to her spiritual director, wrote a diary of about 600 pages recording the revelations she received about God’s mercy.

Even before her death in 1938, the devotion to The Divine Mercy had begun to spread.

The message and devotional practices proposed in the Diary of Saint Faustina and set forth in this web site and other publications of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception are completely in accordance with the teachings of Church and are firmly rooted in the Gospel message of our Merciful Savior. Properly understood and implemented, they will help us grow as genuine followers of Christ.

Spend time to learn more about the mercy of God, learn to trust in Jesus, and live your life as merciful to others, as Christ is merciful to you.

Plenary Indulgence

What do a certain Polish nun and a certain Polish pope have in common? They both became saints and they were both instrumental in the institution of Divine Mercy Sunday, which offers many graces to the faithful.

Be sure to thank St. John Paul II and St. Maria Faustina Kowalska this April 16 because as Divine Mercy Sunday rolls around again this year, the faithful have the opportunity to take refuge in the depths of Christ’s mercy by receiving either a plenary or partial indulgence.

Here are some facts about Divine Mercy Sunday, including the Church’s guidance on how to receive indulgences on the day:

What is Divine Mercy Sunday?

Divine Mercy Sunday is the Sunday after Easter each year. Divine Mercy Sunday was first announced in an April 2000 homily given by John Paul II for the Mass celebrating the canonization of Maria Faustina Kowalska.

St. Faustina Kowalska was a Polish nun who received prophetic messages from Christ. These messages included revelations about the infinite mercy of God — coined the “divine mercy” — and her obligation to spread the message to the world as recorded in her diary, “Divine Mercy in My Soul.”

The late pope said in his homily that “the light of divine mercy, which the Lord in a way wished to return to the world through Sr. Faustina’s charism, will illumine the way for the men and women of the third millennium.”

John Paul II granted plenary and partial indulgences to the faithful who observed certain pious practices on Divine Mercy Sunday each year in a June 2002 decree He did this in order to inspire the faithful in devotion to the Divine Mercy.

What is an indulgence?

An indulgence is the remission of the temporal punishment due to sins that have already been forgiven, and it can be plenary or partial.

Plenary indulgence

A plenary indulgence can be obtained by going to a church on Divine Mercy Sunday “in a spirit that is completely detached from the affection for a sin, even a venial sin,” and participating in the prayers held in honor of Divine Mercy, the 2002 decree says.

Those practices could consist of devotions such as the divine mercy chaplet, eucharistic adoration, and the sacrament of confession.

The faithful could also visit the Blessed Sacrament either exposed or in the tabernacle and recite the Our Father, the Nicene Creed, and a devout prayer to Christ. The example of a devout prayer that is given in the decree is “Merciful Jesus, I trust in you!”

In order to receive the indulgence, the three usual conditions of going to confession, receiving holy Communion, and praying for the intentions of the Holy Father must also be met.

While it is appropriate that the two sacraments be received on the same day, the Church permits them to be received up to about 20 days before or after the day the indulgenced work is performed.

Can’t make it to a church?

Be not afraid

For the sick or others who are unable to make it to church that day, a plenary indulgence may still be obtained.

One must intend to make a confession, receive holy Communion, and pray for the intentions of the Holy Father as soon as possible, while praying one Our Father and the Nicene Creed before an image of Jesus. In addition, one also must pray “a devout invocation” to Christ such as “Merciful Jesus, I trust in you.”

For those faithful who cannot fulfill those obligations either, it is still possible to earn a plenary indulgence.

If “with a spiritual intention” people unite themselves to all the faithful hoping to obtain the indulgence through the prescribed prayers and they offer a prayer and their sufferings to Christ, then they are able to obtain the plenary indulgence.

They also must intend to go to

confession, receive holy Communion, and pray for the pope as soon as possible.

Partial indulgence

A partial indulgence is granted to the faithful who on that day pray “a legitimately approved invocation” with a contrite heart. As is written in the decree, this invocation could be “Merciful Jesus, I trust in you!”

This story was first published on CNA on April 21, 2022, and was updated April 13, 2023.

Blessings from

Fr Showri R Narra

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

Mark 16:9-15

Go and preach the Gospel to the whole creation

Do you believe the Lord Jesus is truly alive and ready to make his presence known to everyone who believes in him? The first to see the risen Lord was not Peter or one of the apostles, but a woman noted for her demonized living!

She had been forgiven much, and loved her Master greatly. She was first at the tomb to pay her respects. Unfortunately for the disciples, they would not believe her account of the Risen Master. Jesus had to scold his apostles because of their unbelief and stubborn hearts.

The Holy Spirit makes our faith in Jesus Christ come alive

Are you like the apostles or like Mary – slow to believe or quick to run to Jesus? Do you doubt because you do not see?

The Lord makes his presence known to us through the work and power of the Holy Spirit. He gives us the gift of faith to know him personally and to understand the mystery of his death and rising. Do you believe his word and do you listen to his voice?

We are Christ’s ambassadors and witnesses of his victory over sin and death

After his appearance to his beloved apostles, Jesus commissions them to go and preach the Gospel to the whole creation. Their task is to proclaim the good news of salvation, not only to the people of Israel but to all the nations. This is the great commission which the risen Christ gives to the whole church.

All believers have been given a share in this task – to be heralds of the good news and ambassadors for Jesus Christ, the only savior of the world.

We have not been left alone in this task, for the risen Lord works in and through us by the power of his Holy Spirit. Do you witness to others the joy of the Gospel and the hope of the resurrection?

🐣🐣🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻🐣🐣

“Lord Jesus Christ, increase my faith and hope in the power of your resurrection. And give me joy and courage to be your witness to others and to boldly speak of what you have done to save us from sin and death.”

Amen

🔅🔅🔅🔅🐣🐣🐣🐣🔅🔅🔅🔅

❣️Saturday in Easter Octave❣️

The Beauty of Repentance

When Jesus had risen, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. Mark 16:9

The first person recorded in Scripture to whom Jesus appeared was Mary Magdalene. Notably, she was the one out of whom Jesus cast seven demons. Being possessed by seven demons has traditionally been understood to mean that she was completely possessed. Prior to Jesus freeing her, satan and His demons had completely taken over her will by her free submission to evil.

And yet, it was to her, a woman with such a horrible past, that Jesus chose to give the honor of His first appearance. What an amazing fact!

Everyone has a past. Some have been grave sinners. Others, like Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, have never committed a mortal sin.

Obviously, the beauty of a soul like Saint Thérèse is deeply admirable, and such a soul will be greatly rewarded in Heaven. But what about the grave sinner? What about those like Mary Magdalene who have lived horribly sinful lives? What does our Lord think about them?

The fact that Mary Magdalene is the first person recorded in Scripture to have seen the risen Lord should tell us much about how Jesus views a person who has greatly struggled with serious sin but has later overcome that sin and turned wholeheartedly to our Lord. Sin is demoralizing. When unrepented, it leaves a loss of dignity and integrity.

However, even after one has repented, some people will continue to struggle with unhealthy guilt and shame. And for some, these struggles can become a weapon by which the evil one tries to discourage them from feeling worthy to serve our Lord with zeal and passion.

But the truth in the mind of God is that repentant sinners are true jewels and beautiful in the eyes of our Lord. They are worthy of the greatest honors. God does not dwell on our past sin. Instead, our past sin, when it has been repented of and forgiven, will be an eternal sign of the love and mercy of God.

How do you deal with your past sin? First, have you completely acknowledged it, repented of it and sought forgiveness from our Lord? If so, does it still haunt you? Does the evil one still try to remind you of your past and strip away your hope in the mercy of God?

Reflect, today, upon the most grievous of your past sins. If you haven’t yet confessed them, then do so as soon as you can. If you have, try to see your soul through the eyes of God. God does not see your past sins with anger and disgust. Rather, He sees only the depth of your conversion, sorrow and repentance.

And, to Him, this is holy and beautiful. Ponder the beauty of your repentant heart and know that, as you do, you will be looking at your own heart through the eyes of God.

My most merciful God, You love the sinner and hate the sin. You love me in ways that are beyond my understanding.

Help me to understand how deeply You love my heart when I completely repent. And help me to see my heart only through Your eyes. I thank You for Your love and mercy, dear Lord. Help me to l

ove You all the more.

Jesus, I trust in You.

🔅🔅🔅🔅🐣🐣🐣🐣🔅🔅🔅🔅

🟡The Life Story of the Saint🟡

Saint Crescentia Hoess

Oct 20,1682 – April 5,1744

Crescentia was born in 1682, the daughter of a poor weaver, in a little town near Augsburg.

She spent play time praying in the parish church, assisted those even poorer than herself and had so mastered the truths of her religion that she was permitted to make her first Holy Communion at the then unusually early age of 7. In the town she was called “the little angel.”

As she grew older, she desired to enter the convent of the Tertiaries of Saint Francis. But the convent was poor, and because Crescentia had no dowry, the superiors refused her admission. Her case was then pleaded by the Protestant mayor of the town to whom the convent owed a favor.

The community felt it was forced into receiving her, and her new life was made miserable. She was considered a burden and assigned nothing other than menial tasks. Even her cheerful spirit was misinterpreted as flattery or hypocrisy.

Conditions improved four years later when a new superior was elected who realized her virtue. Crescentia herself was appointed mistress of novices. She so won the love and respect of the sisters that, upon the death of the superior, Crescentia was unanimously elected to that position.

Under her, the financial state of the convent improved and her reputation in spiritual matters spread. She was soon being consulted by princes and princesses; bishops and cardinals too sought her advice. And yet, a true daughter of Francis, she remained ever humble.

Bodily afflictions and pain were always with her. First it was headaches and toothaches. Then she lost the ability to walk, her hands and feet gradually becoming so crippled that her body curled up into a fetal position.

In the spirit of Francis she cried out, “Oh, you bodily members, praise God that he has given you the capacity to suffer.” Despite her sufferings she was filled with peace and joy as she died on Easter Sunday in 1744.

She was beatified in 1900 and canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2001. The liturgical feast of Saint Crescentia Hoess is celebrated on June 15.

Reflection

Although she grew up in poverty and willingly embraced it in her vocation, Crescentia had a good head for business. Under her able administration, her convent regained financial stability.

Too often, we think of good money management as, at best, a less-than-holy gift. But Crescentia was wise enough to balance her worldly skills with such acumen in spiritual matters that heads of State and Church both sought her advice.

🔅🔅🔅🔅🐣🐣🐣🐣🔅🔅🔅🔅

❤️❤️The Divine Mercy Novena of Chaplets❤️❤️

Ninth Day:

Today bring to Me SOULS WHO HAVE BECOME LUKEWARM,* and immerse them in the abyss of My mercy. These souls wound My Heart most painfully.

My soul suffered the most dreadful loathing in the Garden of Olives because of lukewarm souls. They were the reason I cried out: ‘Father, take this cup away from Me, if it be Your will.’ For them, the last hope of salvation is to run to My mercy.

Most compassionate Jesus, You are Compassion Itself. I bring lukewarm souls into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart. In this fire of Your pure love, let these tepid souls, who, like corpses, filled You with such deep loathing, be once again set aflame.

O Most Compassionate Jesus, exercise the omnipotence of Your mercy and draw them into the very ardor of Your love, and bestow upon them the gift of holy love, for nothing is beyond Your power.

Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon lukewarm souls who are nonetheless enfolded in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. Father of Mercy, I beg You by the bitter Passion of Your Son and by His three-hour agony on the Cross: Let them, too, glorify the abyss of Your mercy. Amen.

♦️♦️❣️♦️♦️❣️♦️♦️❣️

Prayer

Asking for His Mercy

Through the passion and death of Jesus, an infinite ocean of mercy was made available for all of us. But God, who created us free, will not force anything on us, not even His mercy. He must wait for us to turn from our sinfulness and ask: “Ask and it will be given to you … for everyone who asks receives” (Mt 7:7, 8).

The Scriptures are filled with examples of how to trust in God and ask for His mercy: the psalms; the faith of Abraham and Moses who pleaded and “bargained” with God; the man who persuaded his friend to get up in the middle of the night to lend him some bread; the persistent widow who secured justice from the unjust judge; the Canaanite woman who “argued” with Jesus about her right to His mercy; and the witness of Mary, whose appeal for mercy at Cana led Jesus to perform His first public miracle, thus acknowledging that His time had indeed come.

Pope John Paul II echoes this scriptural message with a new urgency for our own times: “At no time… especially at a moment as critical as our own — can the Church forget the prayer that is a cry for the mercy of God… The Church has the right and the duty to appeal to the God of mercy ‘with loud cries’ ” (Rich in Mercy, 15).

To St. Faustina, Jesus revealed this same message once again. He gave her three new ways to ask for mercy on the strength of His passion: the Chaplet, the Novena, and prayer at three o’clock; and He taught her to transform her daily life into a continuous prayer for mercy.

Through her, He calls us all to ask for His mercy:

Souls that make an appeal to My mercy delight Me. To such souls I grant even more graces than they ask. I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to My compassion (Diary, 1146). Beg for mercy for the whole world (570). No soul that has called upon My mercy has ever been disappointed (1541).

🙏Prayer to be Merciful to Others🙏

This prayer gives us a true measure of our mercy, a mirror in which we observe ourselves as merciful Christs. We can make it our morning invocation and our evening examination of conscience.

O Most Holy Trinity! As many times as I breathe, as many times as my heart beats, as many times as my blood pulsates through my body, so many thousand times do I want to glorify Your mercy.

I want to be completely transformed into Your mercy and to be Your living reflection, O Lord. May the greatest of all divine attributes, that of Your unfathomable mercy, pass through my heart and soul to my neighbor.

Help me, O Lord, that my eyes may be merciful, so that I may never suspect or judge from appearances, but look for what is beautiful in my neighbors’ souls and come to their rescue.

Help me, that my ears may be merciful, so that I may give heed to my neighbors’ needs and not be indifferent to their pains and moanings.

Help me, O Lord, that my tongue may be merciful, so that I should never speak negatively of my neighbor, but have a word of comfort and forgiveness for all.

Help me, O Lord, that my hands may be merciful and filled with good deeds, so that I may do only good to my neighbors and take upon myself the more difficult and toilsome tasks.

Help me, that my feet may be merciful, so that I may hurry to assist my neighbor, overcoming my own fatigue and weariness. My true rest is in the service of my neighbor.

Help me, O Lord, that my heart may be merciful so that I myself may feel all the sufferings of my neighbor. I will refuse my heart to no one. I will be sincere even with those who, I know, will abuse my kindness. And I will lock myself up in the most merciful Heart of Jesus. I will bear my own suffering in silence. May Your mercy, O Lord, rest upon me.

You Yourself command me to exercise the three degrees of mercy.

The first: the act of mercy, of whatever kind.

The second: the word of mercy — if I cannot carry out a work of mercy, I will assist by my words.

The third: prayer — if I cannot show mercy by deeds or words, I can always do so by prayer.

My prayer reaches out even there where I cannot reach out physically.

O my Jesus, transform me into Yourself, for You can do all things.

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!

Scripture for today...

John 20:11-18

I have seen the Lord!

Do you recognize the Lord’s presence when you hear his word? How easy it is to miss the Lord Jesus when our focus is on ourselves! Mary did not at first recognize the Lord because her focus was on the empty tomb and on her own grief. It took only one word from the Master, when he called her by name, for Mary to recognize him. The Risen Lord Jesus reveals himself to us as we listen to his wordMary’s message to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, is the very essence of Christianity.

It is not enough that a Christian know about the Lord, but that we know him personally. It is not enough to argue about him, but to meet him. In the resurrection we encounter the living Lord Jesus who loves us personally and shares his glory with us.

The Lord Jesus gives us “eyes of faith” to see the truth of his resurrection and his victory over sin and death (Ephesians 1:18). And he opens our ears to recognize his voice as we listen to the “good news” proclaimed in the Gospel message today.The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the foundation of our hope – the hope that we, too, who believe in him will see the living God face to face and share in his everlasting glory and joy.

“Without having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls”(1 Peter 1:8-9).

Do you recognize the Lord’s presence with you, in his word, in the “breaking of the bread,” and in his church, the body of Christ?

🐣🐣🙏🏻Prayer🙏🏻🐣🐣

“Lord Jesus, may I never fail to recognize your voice nor lose sight of your presence as you open the Scriptures for me and speak your life-giving word.”

Amen

Tuesday in Easter Octave

Cling to Jesus Now!

Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” John 20:17

Mary of Magdala was one of the first persons to whom Jesus appeared. She was deeply devoted to Him, especially because of the great mercy He offered her when He forgave her manifest sins and expelled seven demons from her.

After He had done that, Mary became a devout follower and was one of the few who remained faithful to Him, even as He hung upon the Cross.

On the first day of the week, the Sunday after the Crucifixion, Mary came to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body in accord with Jewish custom. But when she arrived, Jesus’ body was gone.

And when Jesus appeared to her as she was weeping, she didn’t immediately recognize Him, for He had His new glorified body. But when Jesus spoke her name, Mary, she recognized Him. But rather than embracing her, Jesus said, “Stop holding on to me…” Why would Jesus say this?

Even though Mary’s attachment and devotion to Jesus was beautiful and holy, it wasn’t yet perfected. She wanted her Lord Whom she had come to know and followed. She wanted her former relationship with Jesus to be returned to her.

But for this reason, Jesus said, “Stop holding on to me…” Jesus wanted much more. He was telling her that her relationship with Him was soon to change for the better.

No longer would He simply be her earthly companion; instead, He would soon live within her, dwell within her very heart, become one with her, and be her Bridegroom for eternity. But this could only happen once Jesus ascended to the Father in Heaven to complete His divine mission of salvation.

At times, we also seek favors from our Lord that are purely temporal. Though we do need to trust Him for “our daily bread,” meaning, for all the basic necessities of life, we must realize that the gifts God wants to give us far surpass anything in this world. The supernatural gift of grace, the gift of the Indwelling of the Most Holy Trinity, the gift of oneness with our Lord is what we are made for and is the end goal and desire of our Lord.

Reflect, today, upon these words Jesus spoke to Mary: “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.” But do so with the knowledge that, now, Jesus has indeed ascended to the Father. Therefore, He now invites us all to cling to Him as He reigns in Heaven. Ponder the deep desire in the heart of our Lord that you cling to Him with every fiber of your being.

He wants to dwell within you, to become one with you and to transform you in every way. This holy union is now being enjoyed for all eternity by Saint Mary of Magdala, and this same gift is being offered to you. Cling to Him and never let go, for this will be your eternal joy.

My risen and ascended Lord, You now reign in Heaven in perfect glory and splendor. Draw me into Your glorious life and invite me to cling to You with all my heart. I invite You, dear Lord, to come and make Your dwelling within me so that I can hold

on to You forevermore.

Jesus, I trust in You.

The Life Story of the Saint

Saint Stanislaus

July 26, 1030 – Apr 11, 1079

Anyone who reads the history of Eastern Europe cannot help but chance on the name of Stanislaus, the saintly but tragic bishop of Kraków, patron of Poland. He is remembered with Saints Thomas More and Thomas Becket for vigorous opposition to the evils of an unjust government.

Born in Szczepanow near Kraków on July 26, 1030, he was ordained a priest after being educated in the cathedral schools of Gniezno, then capital of Poland, and at Paris.

He was appointed preacher and archdeacon to the bishop of Kraków, where his eloquence and example brought about real conversion in many of his penitents, both clergy and laity. He became bishop of Kraków in 1072.

During an expedition against the Grand Duchy of Kiev, Stanislaus became involved in the political situation of Poland. Known for his outspokenness, he aimed his attacks at the evils of the peasantry and the king, especially the unjust wars and immoral acts of King Boleslaus II.

The king first excused himself, then made a show of penance, then relapsed into his old ways.

Stanislaus continued his open opposition in spite of charges of treason and threats of death, finally excommunicating the king. Enraged, the latter ordered soldiers to kill the bishop. When they refused, the king killed Stanislaus with his own hands.

Forced to flee to Hungary, Boleslaus supposedly spent the rest of his life as a penitent in the Benedictine abbey in Osiak.

Reflection

Saints John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, Thomas More, and Stanislaus are a few of the prophets who dared to denounce corruption in high places. They followed in the footsteps of Jesus himself, who pointed out the moral corruption in the religious leadership of his day. It is a risky business.

Saint Stanislaus is the Patron Saint of:

Poland

❤️❤️The Divine Mercy Novena of Chaplets❤️❤️

Fifth Day

Today bring to Me THE SOULS OF THOSE WHO HAVE SEPARATED THEMSELVES FROM MY CHURCH,* and immerse them in the ocean of My mercy. During My bitter Passion they tore at My Body and Heart, that is, My Church. As they return to unity with the Church, My wounds heal and in this way they alleviate My Passion.Most Merciful Jesus, Goodness Itself, You do not refuse light to those who seek it of You. Receive into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart the souls of those who have separated themselves from Your Church.

Draw them by Your light into the unity of the Church, and do not let them escape from the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart; but bring it about that they, too, come to glorify the generosity of Your mercy.Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon the souls of those who have separated themselves from Your Son’s Church, who have squandered Your blessings and misused Your graces by obstinately persisting in their errors.

Do not look upon their errors, but upon the love of Your own Son and upon His bitter Passion, which He underwent for their sake, since they, too, are enclosed in His Most Compassionate Heart. Bring it about that they also may glorify Your great mercy for endless ages. Amen.

Prayer

Asking for His Mercy

Through her, He calls us all to ask for His mercy:

Prayer to be Merciful to Others