Thursday of the
Fourth Week of Lent
MLK ASSASSINATION
Joshua, Chapter 10, Verse 25
Then Joshua said to them, “Do not be afraid or dismayed, be firm and steadfast. This is what the LORD
will do to all the enemies against whom you fight.”
Joshua, the
warrior of God, had just defeated the five Kings of Jerusalem and had all of
the soldiers put their foot on the Kings neck as a sign of victory over evil.
Additionally, it showed how God had personally empowered each of them to
overcome evil and they are not to be afraid or intimidated.
Joshua defeated
5 Kings is the number significant?
The number 5 symbolizes God's grace,
goodness and favor toward humans and is mentioned 318 times in Scripture. Five
is the number of grace, and multiplied by itself, which is 25, is 'grace upon
grace' (John 1:16). The Ten Commandments contains two sets of 5 commandments.
The first five commandments are related to our treatment and relationship with
God, and the last five concern our relationship with other humans.[1]
Additionally, in
the Rosary there are five daily meditations on the life of Christ where the
faithful pray a decade of Hail Mary’s.
Prayer. GRANT, we beseech
Thee, Almighty God, that we, who are chastised by the fasts we have undertaken,
may rejoice with holy devotion; that, our affections being weakened, we may
more easily apprehend heavenly things.
EPISTLE, iv. Kings
iv. 25-38.
In those days a Sunamite woman came to the
man of God to Mount Carmel: and when the man of God saw her coming towards, he
said to Giezi his servant: Behold that Sunamitess. Go therefore to meet her,
and say to her: Is all well with thee, and with thy husband, and with thy son?
And she answered: Well. And when she came
to the man of God to the mount, she caught hold on his feet: and Giezi came to
remove her. And the man of God said: Let her alone, for her soul is in anguish,
and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me. And she said to him:
Did I ask a son of my lord? did I not say to thee: Do not deceive me?
Then he said to Giezi: Gird up thy loins,
and take my staff in thy hand, and go. If any man meet thee, salute him not:
and if any man salute thee, answer him not: and lay my staff upon the face of
the child. But the mother of the child said: As the Lord liveth, and as thy
soul liveth, I will not leave thee. He arose, therefore, and followed her. But
Giezi was gone before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child, and
there was no voice nor sense: and he returned to meet him, and told him,
saying: The child is not risen. Eliseus therefore went into the house, and
behold the child lay dead on his bed; and going in he shut the door upon him,
and upon the child, and prayed to the Lord. And he went up, and lay upon the
child: and he put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his
hands upon his hands: and he bowed himself upon him, and the child s flesh grew
warm. Then he returned and walked in the house, once to and fro: and he went
up, and lay upon him: and the child gaped seven times, and opened his eyes. And
he called Giezi, and said to him: Call this Sunamitess. And she being called
went in to him: and he said: Take up thy son. She came and fell at his feet,
and worshipped upon the ground: and took up her son, and went out. And Eliseus
returned to Galgal.
GOSPEL. Luke vii.
11-16.
At
that time Jesus went into a city that is called Nairn; and there went with Him
His disciples, and a great multitude. And when He came nigh to the gate of the
city, behold a dead man was carried out, the only son of his mother; and she
was a widow: and a great multitude of the city was with her. Whom when the Lord
had seen, being moved with mercy towards her, He said to her: Weep not. And He
came near, and touched the bier. And they that carried it, stood still. And He
said: Young man, I say to thee, arise. And he that was dead, sat up, and began
to speak. And He gave him to his mother. And there came a fear on them all: and
they glorified God, saying, A great prophet is risen up among us: and, God hath
visited His people.
Lenten Calendar[3]
Read: Today, we
remember St. Isidore of Seville, patron of a medium that didn’t exist when he
lived, the Internet! Read what Pope Benedict XVI. . . has to say about
this saint.
Reflect: “Jesus wants
evangelizers who proclaim the good news not only with words, but above all by a
life transfigured by God’s presence.” (Evangelii Gaudium)
How can you use modern tools, like the
Internet, to evangelize?
Act: Do an honest
status check today on your Lenten spiritual journey so far. Only two weeks
left!
In fact, he was a much greater man
than he is usually given credit for. He is usually thought of as having been a
great benefactor of American blacks. He was that, to be sure. But he was much
more than that. He was a benefactor of American whites as well. For it was he
who, more than anybody else, black or white, persuaded American whites that
racism is wrong, and that America’s long history of racism was something to be
deeply ashamed of. If Plato was right in saying that doing injustice is worse
than suffering injustice, King was a greater benefactor of whites than of
blacks who had suffered injustice, but whites had done the worse thing,
inflicting injustice. In teaching whites to give up their wrongdoing, he was
conferring a greater benefit on them than he had on blacks by freeing them from
their status as victims. Just read his Letter from
Birmingham Jail.
MLK’s greatness was also shown in his leadership abilities. He was probably the
only non-President who was in the same leadership league with Washington,
Lincoln, and FDR. And he was a man of tremendous courage. He knew that he could
be murdered at any moment, and it seems he expected to have his life cut short
by assassination. The talk he gave in Memphis on the
eve of his murder is full of this anticipation. It was as if he knew it
was coming and coming soon. And yet he kept moving forward. He was only 39
years old when he was assassinated. Lincoln and Julius Caesar were in their
fifties. Gandhi was an old man. What a tragedy for Americans, and especially
African-Americans, that his life ended when he was barely halfway through it.
One wonders (at least I wonder) what his response would have been to the
collapse among African-Americans of the married, two-parent family, a collapse
that has prevented millions and millions of blacks from gathering the fruits of
the civil-rights revolution that King led.
Thursday,
April 4, 2019 • 4:00pm
Free
and Open to the public • does not include Museum admission
Guest
Speaker: Omid Safi
Rain
location: Hooks Hyde Hall
DAYLONG
ACTIVITIES:
10am - 3pm – Hands-on activities
for children and families
12pm - 4pm – “Share Your Story”
guest video engagement; Courtyard broadcast of Dr. King's speeches and Movement
music
4pm-6:15pm – April 4th
Commemoration with keynote speaker Dr. Omid Safi and reflections from Dr.
King's colleagues, Rev. James Lawson and Rev. Jesse Jackson.
The
National Civil Rights Museum will remember the life and legacy of Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. at its April 4th Commemoration from the balcony of the
Lorraine Motel. Staff will host children’s activities and community engagement
during the day. The event will begin at 4:00pm and culminate at 6:01pm, the
time the fatal shot was fired 51 years ago. The museum will pause for a
moment of silence and the ceremonial changing of the wreath on the balcony at
Room 306 where Dr. King was slain.
Daily Devotions
[2]
Goffine’s Devout Instructions, 1896
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