Fifth Sunday after
Easter
ST. DAMIEN OF MOLOKAI-MOTHERS DAY
Jeremiah,
Chapter 33, Verse 9
Then
this city shall become joy for me, a name of praise and pride, before all the
nations of the earth, as they hear of all the good, I am doing for them. They
shall fear and tremble because of all
the prosperity I give it.
God promised the restoration of Jerusalem which was
fulfilled in 1948. Furthermore, God imagines the world without war; this is why
He sent His son to bring peace to the world. Yet, we are still at war for our
enemy is not just evil men but the devil and his cohort. Therefore, when our enemy
brings forth horse and chariot and all manner of evils; do not be afraid for
the victory has already been won! Trust in Jesus who will send St. Michael the
Archangel to defend us and cover us with his strong shield and lead us safely
through the midst of our enemy. Our prayer then is having fought the good fight
and having a lifetime of devotion to the Blood of Jesus that when the last hour
of our earthly life draws near and we await the awful moment when our soul must
leave our bodies it will be St. Michael that will defend us in our most
vulnerable moments protecting us from the satanic hosts when they make their
final assault upon our souls.
The liberty of the
New Covenant and its perfection in prayer and the Spirit.[2]
THE Introit of the Mass is again a joyful thanksgiving
for our redemption. “Declare the voice of joy, and let it be heard, alleluia;
declare it even to the ends of the earth; the Lord hath delivered His people,
alleluia, alleluia” (Isaias xlviii.20). “Shout with joy to God, all the earth,
sing ye a psalm to His name, give glory to His praise.”
Prayer. O God, from Whom
all good things proceed, grant to Thy suppliants that by Thy inspiration we may
think those things that are right, and by Thy direction perform them.
EPISTLE. James i.
23-27.
Dearly Beloved: Be ye doers of the word, and not
hearers only: deceiving your own selves. But if a man be a hearer of the word,
and not a doer: he shall be compared to a man be holding his own countenance in
a glass: for he beheld himself, and went his way, and presently forgot what
manner of man he was. But he that hath looked into the perfect law of liberty,
and hath continued therein, not becoming a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the
work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. And if any man think himself to be
religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man’s
religion is vain. Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father, is
this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation: and to keep one’s
self unspotted from this world.
GOSPEL. John xvi.
23-30.
At
that time Jesus said to His disciples: Amen, amen I say to you: if you ask the
Father anything in My name, He will give it you. Hitherto you have not asked
anything in My name: ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.
These things I have spoken to you in proverbs. The hour cometh when I will no
more speak to you in proverbs, but will show you plainly of the Father : in
that day you shall ask in My name : and I say not to you, that I will ask the
Father for you: for the Father Himself loveth you, because you have loved Me,
and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and
am come into the world: again, I leave the world and I go to the Father. His
disciples say to Him: Behold now Thou speakest plainly, and speakest no
proverb; now we know that Thou knowest all things, and Thou needest not that
any man should ask Thee. By this we believe that Thou comest forth from God.
Why does God wish
us to pray to Him?
To remind us:
1.
That
all good things come from Him, and that without Him we have nothing.
2.
That
we may confide in Him and try to make ourselves worthy of His divine grace, by
thoughts pleasing to Him, and valuing more, and using better, the graces we
receive.
Why is our prayer
often not heard?
Because we often ask for something that would be more hurtful than profitable
to us.
When ought we to
pray?
At all times, but especially at,
1.
morning,
noon, and night.
2.
in
time of great temptation.
3.
when
receiving the sacraments.
4.
when
about to undertake anything important.
5.
at
the hour of death.
Which is the best
of all prayers?
The Lord’s Prayer: but though we say it a hundred times, it will fail to
produce its beneficial effects if we repeat it thoughtlessly, without thinking
of its meaning or purpose.
SHORT EXPLANATION
OF THE LORD’S PRAYER.
Why does this
prayer commence with Our Father? To encourage us thereby to a child-like
confidence in God. as our Father, Who loves all men, and is ever ready to help
them.
Why do we say, Who
art in heaven, since God is everywhere? To admonish us to lift up our
hearts to heaven, our true home, where God has set up the throne of His
kingdom.
What do we ask of
God in this prayer?
In the first petition, hallowed be Thy name, we pray that God may be
known and loved by all men, and that His name may be glorified by a Christian
life.
In the second petition, Thy kingdom come, we
pray God to enter and rule in our hearts by His grace, to spread His Church
throughout the whole world, and after our death to award us eternal happiness.
In the third petition, Thy will be done on earth,
as it is in heaven, we offer ourselves entirely to God, and declare ourselves
ready to be subject to the dispositions of His holy will, as are the angels in
heaven, and pray to Him for grace to do this.
In the fourth petition, give us this day our daily
bread, we ask for all things which we need; for the body, as food and
clothing, and for the soul, as grace and the divine word.
In the fifth petition, forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those that trespass against us, we pray to God for forgiveness,
but only so far as we forgive those that injure us. We must therefore remember
that we shall not obtain forgiveness from God so long as we have in our heart’s
hatred against anyone
In the sixth petition, and lead us not into
temptation, we acknowledge our frailty, and ask God to remove temptations
from us, or, if He permit us to fall into those which the world, the flesh, and
the devil prepare for us, to give us grace not to consent to them, but, by
combating and overcoming them, to Gain the merit and the crown of justice.
In the seventh petition, but deliver us from evil,
we pray to God to preserve us from sin, and the occasions of sin; an evil death
and hell; also, from all temporal evils, so far as may be for the salvation of
our souls.
Joseph De Veuster, the future Father Damien, was
born at Tremelo in Belgium, January 3rd, 1840. His was a large family and his
father was a farmer-merchant. When his oldest brother entered the Congregation
of the Sacred Hearts (called 'Picpus' after the street in Paris where its
Generalate was located), his father planned that Joseph should take charge of
the family business. Joseph, however, decided to become a religious. At the
beginning of 1859 he entered the novitiate at Louvain, in the same house as his
brother. There he took the name of Damien. In 1863, his brother who was to
leave for the mission in the Hawaiian Islands, became ill. Since preparations
for the voyage had already been made, Damien obtained permission from the
Superior General to take his brother's place. He arrived in Honolulu on March
19th, 1864, where he was ordained to the priesthood the following May 21st. He
immediately devoted himself, body and soul, to the difficult service of a
"country missionary" on the island of Hawaii, the largest in the
Hawaiian group. At that time, the Hawaiian Government decided on a very harsh
measure aimed at stopping the spread of "leprosy," the deportation to
the neighboring island of Molokai, of all those infected by what was thought to
be an incurable disease. The entire mission was concerned about the abandoned
"lepers" and the Bishop, Louis Maigret ss.cc., spoke to the priests
about the problem. He did not want to send anyone "in the name of
obedience," because he knew that such an order meant certain death. Four
Brothers volunteered, they would take turns visiting and assisting the
"lepers" in their distress. Damien was the first to leave on May
10th, 1873. At his own request and that of the lepers, he remained definitively
on Molokai. He brought hope to this hell of despair. He became a source of
consolation and encouragement for the lepers, their pastor, the doctor of their
souls and of their bodies, without any distinction of race or religion. He gave
a voice to the voiceless, he built a community where the joy of being together
and openness to the love of God gave people new reasons for living.
After Father Damien contracted the disease in 1885,
he was able to identify completely with them: "We lepers." Father
Damien was, above all, a witness of the love of God for His people. He got his
strength from the Eucharist: "lt is at the foot of the altar that we find
the strength we need in our isolation..." It is there that he found for
himself and for others the support and the encouragement, the consolation and
the hope, he could, with a deep faith, communicate to the lepers. All that made
him "the happiest missionary in the world," a servant of God, and a
servant of humanity. Having contracted "leprosy" himself, Fr. Damien
died on April 15th, 1889, having served sixteen years among the lepers. His
mortal remains were transferred in 1936 to Belgium where he was interred in the
crypt of the church of the Congregation of Sacred Hearts at Louvain. His fame
spread to the entire world. In 1938 the process for his beatification was
introduced at Malines (Belgium): Pope Paul VI signed the Decree on the
"heroicity of his virtues" on July 7th, 1977. He was canonized on
October 11th, 2009.
In Father Damien, the Church proposes an example to
all those who find sense for their life in the Gospel and who wish to bring the
Good News to the poor of our time.
Things to Do:
Be adventurous and prepare a Hawaiian luau in honor
of St. Damien.
Humble
Confession[4]
Mother’s Day
In honor of Mother’s Day, here are a few quotes from John
Paul II’s apostolic letter On the Dignity of Women (Mulieris Dignitatem) about the unique vocation of motherhood.[5]
John Paul II: “Motherhood involves a special
communion with the mystery of life, as it develops in the mother’s womb. The mother is filled with wonder at this mystery of
life, and
‘understands’ with unique intuition what is happening inside her. In the light
of the ‘beginning’, the mother accepts and loves as a person the child she is carrying
in her womb. This unique contact with the new human being developing within her
gives rise to an attitude towards human beings – not only towards her own
child, but every human being – which profoundly marks the woman’s personality.”
“Motherhood implies
from the beginning a special openness to the new person: and this is precisely the woman’s
‘part’. In this openness, in conceiving and giving birth to a child, the woman
‘discovers herself through a sincere gift of self’.”
“Human
parenthood is something shared by both the man and the woman. Even if the
woman, out of love for her husband, says: ‘I have given you a child’, her words
also mean: ‘This is our child’. Although both of them together are parents of
their child, the
woman’s motherhood constitutes a special ‘part’ in this shared parenthood,
and the most demanding part. Parenthood – even though it belongs to both – is
realized much more fully in the woman, especially in the prenatal period. It is
the woman who ‘pays’ directly for this shared generation, which literally
absorbs the energies of her body and soul. It is therefore necessary that the man be fully aware that in their
shared program of parenthood he owes a
special debt to the woman.”
John
Paul II, Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem
(1988), no. 18
·
Take
mom out to brunch or dinner. Be sure to book in advance as Mother's Day
brunches are always very busy.
·
Clean
the house for your mother or grandmother.
·
Send
mom and grandma flowers. You can either pick them up or deliver them yourself
if you are nearby or use one of many online services that ship directly to her
door.
·
Give
mom a gift she will really appreciate - a day at the spa or a weekend off.
·
A
simple phone call to mom will suffice. Let her know that you love her and think
about her.
Daily
Devotions
·
Today in honor of the Holy Trinity do the Divine Office giving
your day to God. To honor God REST: no shopping after SUNSET ON SATURDAY till
Monday. Don’t forget the internet.
[1]
Goffine’s Devout Instructions, 1896.
[2]
http://www.holytrinitygerman.org/paschaltideschema.htm
[3]https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2019-05-10
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