Sunday, August 27, 2017
12TH SUNDAY
AFTER PENTECOST (21st S. Ord. Time)
Psalm 19, Verse 10-11
10 The fear
of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The statutes of the LORD are true, all
of them just; 11 More desirable than
gold, than a hoard of purest gold, Sweeter also than honey or drippings from
the comb.
Our Lord showed no fear of the money changers or the
priests when He overturned the tables in holy zeal for the statutes of the Lord.
Is the Holy Spirit moving you to make a real change today? Are you being called
to be holier, stronger, more committed to God and better prepared for the
trials and persecution of our world? Consider the message of The Holy League.[1]
The Holy League
History-Pope St. Pius V
formed the original Holy League in response to the dire situation in which
Christian Europe found itself in 1571. Small bands of Catholic men and remnant
armies from various nations came together under the spiritual leadership of the
saintly pontiff and the military leadership of Don John of Austria. By prayer
and fasting, they implored the help of God’s grace, through the intercession of
the Mother of God, and, by the grace of Almighty God, on October 7, 1571, at
the Battle of Lepanto, the Christian fleet won a crushing victory over the
OttomanTurks, saving Christendom and western civilization.
The Battle Today
At this particular moment in time, the Church finds
itself in a similar situation to that of the Church in the late Sixteenth
Century. However, instead of a physical enemy on the horizon, the Church and
the family (the domestic Church) are threatened daily by relativism,
secularism, impurity, and confusion regarding Church teaching. The battle today
“is not against human forces but against the principalities and powers, the
rulers of this world of darkness, the evil spirits in the heavens” (Ephesians
6: 10-12). To combat the forces of evil in today’s society, the Holy League
strives to call men back to the state of grace and to transforming the culture
through prayer.” The Holy League, in fidelity to its mission as a Roman
Catholic solidarity movement:
·
Provides a Holy Hour format which incorporates:
Eucharistic adoration, prayer, short spiritual reflections, the availability of
the Sacrament of Confession, Benediction and fraternity;
·
Encourages consecration to the Most Sacred Heart
of Jesus, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the Purest Heart of Joseph;
·
Promotes the Precepts and Sacraments of the
Church; especially through devotion to the Most Blessed Sacrament and the
praying of the Most Holy Rosary;
·
Creates a unified front, made up of members of
the Church Militant, for spiritual combat;
·
Strives to have a regular monthly Holy League
Holy Hour available to men in every Roman Catholic parish.
Holy League Vision
The Vision of the Holy League is to develop a
network of parish based regular monthly Holy Hours with confession and
fraternity for men.
Our Mission
The Holy League, in a Spirit of Marian Chivalry,
under the patronage of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Joseph, seeks to provide
opportunities for the faithful to unite in prayer, especially monthly
Eucharistic Holy Hours, for purification from sin and predisposition to
Supernatural Grace for the fuller exercise of the threefold offices of Priest,
Prophet, and King received at Baptism. The particular prayer of the Holy League
is the monthly Eucharistic Holy Hour.
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecoste[2]
Increase in faith, hope, and love
Why does Jesus call
His disciples blessed? Because they had the happiness which so many kings,
patriarchs, and prophets had desired in vain of seeing the Savior of the world,
and of hearing His teaching.
What is it to love
God? To
acknowledge God as the highest and most perfect good; to desire that He should be
known, honored, loved, by all men; that His will should be fulfilled by all; and
so zealously to observe His commandments that we would lose all the goods of life,
and even life itself, rather than transgress these commands and be separated from
God.
What does it mean
to love God with the whole heart, etc.? “With thy whole heart”, signifies with
all the motions and inclinations of the heart “with thy whole soul”, with all the
thoughts, conceptions of the soul, “with thy whole mind”, with all the desires,
wishes, and determination of the will; “with all thy strength”, with all the powers
and faculties of body and soul with all the acts and motions of the senses. All
these should be directed to God alone, as the last object and end of man.
How can this be done? By doing
whatever we do, whether it be mental or manual labor, eating, drinking, or recreation,
with the intention of doing the will of God and what is pleasing to Him. By this
it is understood that idle talk, intemperance in meat and drink, and in general
all sinful works, cannot be offered to God, because they are contrary to His will
and therefore deserve punishment.
Is that true
love which loves God because He does us good? That love is truly
good and praiseworthy, but not perfect, for self-interest creeps in with it.
What, then, is the
perfect love of God? When
we love God only because He is in Himself the highest good and most worthy of love.
In such manner must we endeavor to love
God; not out of self-interest, not from the expectation of reward, nor yet from
fear of punishment.
Can every one thus
love God? Yes;
for there is no state of life in which we cannot refer everything to God. Love does
not require great deeds, but that we should avoid evil, and refer everything to
God; and all can do this.
Daily Devotions/Prayers
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