DAY 21 - MARY, MIRROR OF JUSTICE, PRAY THAT WE RECEIVE THE FRUIT OF GOODNESS!
GOD'S WORD
HEROES' WORDS
MEDITATION
PRAY A ROSARY
- Rosary of the Day: Sorrowful Mysteries
- Traditional 54 Day Rotation: Glorious Mysteries
1 Now in Caesarea there
was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Cohort called the Italica, 2 devout and GOD-FEARING along with
his whole household, who used to give alms generously
to the Jewish people and pray to God constantly. 3 One afternoon about
three o’clock, he saw plainly in a vision an angel of God come in to him and
say to him, “Cornelius.” 4 He looked intently at
him and, seized with FEAR, said, “What is it, sir?” He said to him,
“Your prayers and almsgiving have ascended as a memorial offering before God.
1.
Do not deny God.
2.
Do not blaspheme God.
3.
Do not murder.
4.
Do not engage in incestuous,
adulterous or homosexual relationships.
5.
Do not steal.
6.
Do not eat of a live animal.
7. Establish courts/legal system to ensure law and obedience.
If I were the Devil[2]
“If I Were the Devil” is a form of social criticism, an essay that postulates what steps the devil might take in order to corrupt human civilization (and the United States in particular) and lead it down the path of darkness — before delivering the catch that all the steps listed are phenomena that are already taking place in the world today. It was written and popularized by national radio commentator and syndicated columnist Paul Harvey.
·
I would gain control of the most powerful nation
in the world.
·
I would delude their minds into thinking that
they had come from man’s effort, instead of God’s blessings;
·
I would promote an attitude of loving things and
using people, instead of the other way around;
·
I would dupe entire states into relying on
gambling for their state revenue;
·
I would convince people that character is not an
issue when it comes to leadership;
·
I would make it legal to take the life of unborn
babies;
·
I would make it socially acceptable to take
one’s own life, and invent machines to make it convenient;
·
I would cheapen human life as much as possible
so that the life of animals are valued more than human beings;
·
I would take God out of the schools, where even
the mention of His name was grounds for a lawsuit;
·
I would come up with drugs that sedate the mind
and target the young, and I would get sports heroes to advertise them;
·
I would get control of the media, so that every
night I could pollute the mind of every family member for my agenda;
·
I would attack the family, the backbone of any
nation.
·
I would make divorce acceptable and easy, even
fashionable. If the family crumbles, so does the nation;
·
I would compel people to express their most
depraved fantasies on canvas and movie screens, and I would call it art;
·
I would convince the world that people are born
homosexuals, and that their lifestyles should be accepted and marveled;
·
I would convince the people that right and wrong
are determined by a few who call themselves authorities and refer to their
agenda as politically correct;
·
I would persuade people that the church is
irrelevant and out of date, and the Bible is for the naive;
·
I would dull the minds of Christians, and make
them believe that prayer is not important, and that faithfulness and obedience
are optional;
·
I guess I would leave things pretty much the way
they are.
MEDITATIONS FOR THE FIRST FRIDAY OF THE MONTH.
At
the hour of our death, when life, like a false friend, is about to forsake us,
we must, in a special manner, increase our confidence in the Heart of Jesus. It
is said that Our Lord appeared one day to a holy soul who had conjured Him to
grant to a pious person a happy passage from this life, and addressed to her
these consoling words:
(My
daughter, where is the pilot who, having brought into port a vessel laden with
precious stones, sinks it in the sea at the moment of his arrival? Can you
suppose that, after having granted so many graces to this soul in the course of
her life, I shall abandon her at the end thereof?
Let
us lean on the heart of Jesus; and driven on the stormy sea of this world, under the
protection which He grants to those who love Him, we shall one day triumphantly
enter the desired port, and enjoy the eternal blessings of that holy guidance.
Death was always precious
in the sight of God, for Jesus was to pass through its portal; it is precious
to Him still, for Jesus has died. No one who is devout to the heart of Jesus
will fail to find at the moment of his death more excellent and abundant
treasures than he had ever expected to receive. Death, precious to Himself,
will not Our Lord render it also inexpressibly so to us?
Faith
cannot mistake the proofs of His tenderness. If we may venture to say so, the
exile of the being He created is a sorrow to Him as much as to the soul itself;
for, like a tender father, God desires that His children should be with Him in
His kingdom. Of all the hours of life this is the one which is the most
precious in the sight of God, exerts the greatest power over His love, and for
this very reason has such a mighty influence over His mercy and justice. In
order to receive the fulness of the new life to be merited by repentance
through the divine reparation every man must undergo the terrible suffering of
death; but is not this suffering, caused by sin, like all other trials, a token
of love on the part of God?
Without
death life could not attain to its end; without death how could the soul ever
reach eternal life? The rebel angel escaped the sentence of death, but for him
there was no resurrection. It is decreed that man should die, or, rather, the
soul, cleansed by the blood of Our Lord, and vivified by His love, passes into
eternity before the body which it shall one day glorify; united together they
are called by Jesus to reign in heaven in a state so exalted that it could not
have been won by primeval innocence.
Even
in this world, without awaiting the eternal glorifying of humanity, the most beloved
amongst the friends of God experience through their whole being a marvelous
transformation which robs death of its terrors, and wholly disengages them from
this transitory world. The interior light by which they are led is no longer
human, but divine, through Jesus; and a supernatural love is substituted for that
natural love which they made their law; and not only are their criminal
affections destroyed, but the love of God above all things gives them, even in
this life, a foretaste of heaven. They feel no longer an engrossing care for
the preservation of the body, but sigh after death, crying incessantly to God,
with St. Paul, " I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. They
exult when they hear the clock strike, at the thought that one hour less
remains for them to pass in this exile; death is no longer a passage of sorrow,
but the desired way by which they shall go to the Lord; they sigh after it,
they desire it, and would fain hasten the moment of its approach by the ardor
of their desire for the enjoyment of a never-ending eternity. One single thing
restrains them: it is when the perfection of love imposes on them a law of
charity yet stronger, which would detain them in this world for the glory of God
and the good of their brethren; "for," says St. Teresa, "thus do
souls arrive at a strict union with Jesus."
Thus
ardently they have desired to die in order to enjoy the presence of Our Lord;
this is their martyrdom that their exile is prolonged; yet they are so inflamed
with the desire of knowing Him, of making His name hallowed, of being useful to
the souls of others, that far from sighing after death they would wish to live
for many years, even amidst the greatest sufferings, too happy in being able to
add to the glory of their divine Master.
Perfect submission in death is an act of entire adoration, a magnificent profession of faith and praise; its beauty consists in the cheerful and ready sacrifice which the creature makes to the Creator of the life which He had given, shadowing forth God’s power in all its grandeur. Death beholds the soul already in adoration annihilated at the thought of the near approach of eternity; this, we may well imagine, is the kind of death the angels love to contemplate. The soul takes to itself no merit, places no trust on the way in which it has served God, and de sires to possess even the smallest consolation the Church can be stow. It is specially attracted by the sanctity of God, which makes it aspire to become pure, pure almost beyond conception, in order to appear before the inviolable majesty of God; relying only on His mercy; never losing its confidence in the greatness of the divine compassion, but fearing lest its offences may be beyond the reach of pardon; dying the death of a child, with its eyes fixed on the countenance of its tender Father. Why, then, when in a state of grace, should we entertain a fear of death?
"Whosoever dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God abides in him." He who loves God is then sure of His grace, and dying in this state is certain of enjoying forever the sovereign good in the habitations of the elect. And can such a one fear death?
David
has, however, said that no living man is entirely pure in the sight of God.
Thus no one should have the presumption to hope for salvation through his own merits;
for, except Jesus and Mary, no one was ever exempt from sin. But we need not
fear death when we have a true sorrow for our faults, and place our confidence
in the merits of Jesus, Who came on this earth in order to redeem and save sinners,
for whom He shed His blood, for whom He died. The blood of Jesus Christ,"
says the Apostle, cries more loudly in favor of sinners than the blood of Abel
for vengeance against Cain."
Grace
transforms into a brilliant light that which by its nature was plunged in
darkness and obscurity, and the plaintive cry of our misery is changed into a
song of triumph; for the fetters which yet separate the soul of the dying from
the heavenly Jerusalem are so near being severed asunder that the triumphant
alleluias of heaven mingle with the lamentations of earth, and the last gaze of
repentant love is tenderly fixed on the crucifix till earth fades from view.
The transit of the creature from time to eternity is dear to the Creator; for precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.
"Let
us throw aside, then, those vain fears of death, and regard it as a tribute
which all must pay to nature. Let us be ready cheerfully to leave this world
when Our Lord shall call us to the land where the saints await us, and where we
shall meet those who have instructed us in the faith, and whose victory will in
some measure supply for the negligence with which we have performed our own
duties toward our heavenly Father. Let us unite ourselves to those glorious
troops of blessed spirits who are seated in the kingdom of God with Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob; into which the good thief entered in triumph after a life of
sin, and now enjoys, in the company of the elect, the ineffable delights of
paradise; where there is no darkness nor storms, no intense heat, excessive
cold, sickness, or sorrow; and where there is no need of the light of the sun,
because the Sun of justice alone enlightens the heavenly Jerusalem.
We
read the following touching account in the life of St. Gertrude: The saint once
heard a preacher insist strongly on the strict obligation of a dying person to
love God above all things, and to entertain for his sins a contrition founded
on love. She believed this to be an exaggerated doctrine, and that if pure love
was necessary very few persons would die in the proper dispositions. She became
interiorly disturbed, and a cloud obscured her mind; but Our Lord Himself
vouchsafed to dispel her fears, telling her " that in the last struggle,
if the dying person had during life sought to please Him, and to lead a Christian
life, He would so mercifully reveal Himself that His love would penetrate into
the inmost folding’s of the heart, causing it by His presence to make acts of
the most perfect contrition"; and, added Our Lord, " I would have My
elect to know with what a great desire I wish them to be united to Me at that
important moment. Let this be made known, so that men may rely no less on this
last merciful grace than on all the others which My love has lavished upon
them." Let us propagate this consoling truth, so well calculated to
inflame our hearts with the most lively love for so merciful a God.
Practice.
Let
us pray to the agonizing heart of Jesus for the one hundred fifty thousand
persons who, it is computed, die daily in this world.
EJACULATORY PRAYER.
O
sweet Jesus! grant that I may die the death of those de voted to Thy divine
heart.
[His
Holiness Pius IX., by a brief dated 29th September, 1859, granted an indulgence
of three hundred days, extended afterwards by a new re script to three years,
and a plenary indulgence once a month, on the usual conditions, to the recital
of the following prayers. They are applicable to the faithful departed.
Intentions to be made during Mass, either at the offertory, immediately after
the consecration, or at the communion of the priest.]
Eternal
Father, I offer to Thee the sacrifice which Thy divine Son made of Himself on
the cross, which sacrifice He now renews on our altars. I offer it in the name
of all mankind, with the Masses which are now being celebrated, and which will
be celebrated throughout the world, in order to adore Thee and render Thee all
possible honor and glory; to thank Thee for Thy innumerable benefits; to
appease Thy justice, provoked by our sins; to give Thee the satisfaction Thou
dost expect, also to obtain grace for myself, for Thy Church, and for the whole
world, as also for the souls in purgatory. O Lord, I offer Thee the Masses
which are being said throughout the world, in the name of all mankind, for Thy
glory and the salvation and benefit of Thy creatures. O Lord, I desire to offer
up myself to Thee for all the intentions for which Thou now offerest Thyself to
God Thy Father.
Fitness Friday
Recognizing that God the Father created man on Friday the 6th day
I propose in this blog to have an entry that shares on how to recreate and
renew yourself in strength, mind, soul and heart.
Be smart when sunbathing
·
Everyone
knows that a nice tan gives a healthy glow, so as soon as summer comes, we rush
to enjoy sunbathing. However, the researches show that excessive and irresponsible
sunbathing can cause skin problems including skin cancer. Despite all potential
threats to enjoy the sun, sunbathing can be healthy if you take all measures to
protect your skin from harmful sun rays. Here are some tips for you when and
how to enjoy the sun in order to get a healthy tan without any trouble.
·
Everytime
when you face the sun use a sunscreen with SPF protection. Apply a sunscreen
all over your body and face at least 30 minutes before sunbathing so that your
skin could absorb the cream. When you are in the sun reapply sunscreen every 30
minutes. Also, don’t forget a sunscreen to your lips as the yare very sensitive
to the sun.
·
First
time you shouldn’t stay in the sun for more than 15 minutes. Let your skin to
get used to the sun. Then you can gradually increase the time you spend in the
sun for 5-10 minutes every time.
·
Stay
in the sun before the noon or just after 3 p.m. Time from 12 a.m. to 3 p.m. is the
most dangerous because the sun causes the most damage at this time.
·
Don’t
forget to drink lots of water to avoid dehydration. Make sure to wear
sunglasses as the sun can violate your retina.
·
Moisturize
your skin after sunbathing. The best moisturizers contain aloe vera which has
soothing properties and helps to restore moisture balance of skin cells.
35 Promises
of God[3]
cont.
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and
I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle
and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
-Matt 11:28-29
Daily Devotions
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Laws_of_Noah#Ger_toshav_.28resident_alien.29
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