Saturday 26th Week of Ordinary Time

 

Feast of the Holy Rosary

Holding Mama’s hand

Padre Pio once said,

“In times of darkness, holding the Rosary is like holding your Blessed Mother’s hand.”

Maybe we are distracted;

Maybe the words are hard to find;

But when we grab hold of the Rosary,

What really matters is that we are grabbing hold of Our Mother;s hand,

And in Mary’s hands

We will find all the love and protection and comfort we need.

That only a Mother can give.

Friday 26th Week of Ordinary Time

 

Woe to Capernaum

Tyre and Sidon were pagan towns filled with debauchery and hedonism.

While Capernaum was Jesus’ hometown after He left Nazareth.

It was there that he healed Peter’s mother in law

It was there that they brought Him,

All the sick, blind and lame and He healed them.

It was there He called Peter, James, John and Matthew.

It was there Jesus preached His Bread of Life discourse.

But Jesus said, Woe to you Capernaum

Because they had received more than any other city;

Yet they did nothing with all that Jesus had given them.

We have the Gospel,

we have the Body and Blood of Jesus;

We have The Catholic Church.

After all that we have been given,

What will Jesus say to us!

Thursday 26th Week of Ordinary Time

 St. Faustina

St. Faustina once said,

“I will not allow myself to be so absorbed in the whirlwind of work as to forget about God. 

Even the greatest saints like Faustina were tempted to place work before prayer.

But it is God who gives us the strength to not only do our work, but for our work to bear fruit.

Work without prayer,

Is putting the cart before the horse.

And when one puts the cart before the horse,

One goes nowhere !

Wednesday 26th Week of Ordinary Time

 

Feast of St. Francis of Assisi

St Francis started off like most people.

He was popular

Liked to hang around with his friends.

Was Middle class

And wanted glory and fame.

And then one day

He knelt in front of a cross

Which spoke to him and said,

“Go repair my Church, which is falling into ruin.”

And his life was never the same.

The cross changes everything!

The way we see life and the world.

What we thought was so important becomes trivial.

And death is not the end

But the door to a new life.

Do we dare to kneel in front of a cross

And wait for the Lord to speak to us?

Tuesday 26th Week of Ordinary Time

 

Calling down Love Lk. 9:51-56

After the death of King Solomon.

The Kingdom of Israel was split in two.

The southern Kingdom of Judah with its capital in Jerusalem

And the Northern Kingdom of Israel with its capital in Samaria.

And ever since Jews and Samaritans have been bitter enemies.

So when Jesus was not accepted in a Samaritan village,

The disciples wanted to call down fire upon them.

And Jesus rebuked them.

Because the way of Jesus is to love our enemies and do good to them.

Many people even today,

Want to call down Fire upon the enemies of Christianity.

If we call down fire to consume our enemies,

then Jesus will rebuke us,

Just as He rebuked His disciples.

Instead of calling down fire upon our enemies,

We should call down the fire of God’s love upon them.

26th Sunday of Ordinary Time

 Attitude Phil. 2:1-11

Ask yourself, “what kind of attitude do I have?”

Our attitude can determine if we have a good day or a bad one.

Attitudes can make or break a relationship

And can determine if one is successful or a failure.

St. Paul tells us that we should have the same attitude as Jesus.

Who Even though Jesus was God,

He did not grasp at all that came with being God.

Instead He chose to be born in a stable instead of a palace.

He chose to be poor with nowhere to lay His head.

In other words, He did not wear His Divinity on His sleeve.

Rather He emptied Himself and took the form of a slave;

Seeking not to be served but to serve.

He sought only to humble Himself;

By becoming obedient to His Father’s Will.

Even to dying on a cross.

Because Jesus did not grasp for glory;

Or sought to do His own Will;

But was obedient to His Father’s Will even to dying on a cross;

His Father raised Him up on high.

Above heaven and earth

And gave Him a Name above every other Name.

Is our attitude the same as Jesus?

Even thought we are made in the Image and Likeness of God

Do we grasp at it?

Do we reach out for money, power, possessions or influence.

Or like Jesus, Do we empty ourselves and seek not our own glory

But the glory of others?

Do we ever look down on others;

Or like Jesus, Do we humble ourselves,

And place others before and above us, as a slave does .

Do we seek to do our own will,

Or like Jesus do we seek to do God’s Will,

Above everything else no matter the cost;

No matter the cross?

If we have the same attitude as Jesus;

Then God will bestow on us the name of Christian;

And we too will be raised up on high one day

above heaven and earth where we will reign with Christ;

And give all the glory to the Father.

Saturday 25th Week of Ordinary Time

 The feast of St. Jerome

St. Jerome spent most of his life in a cave in Bethlehem translating the Scriptures from Greek and Hebrew into Latin.

In doing so He wrote every single word of the Bible.

And in writing every word of the Bible

He really got to know Jesus.

So much so that he said,

“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ”

How well do we really know Jesus?

That all depends on how much time we spend reading the Bible!