Sunday, September 13, 2020
DAY 30 - MARY, HOUSE OF GOLD, PRAY FOR US
SANCTIFY YOURSELF
PRAY A ROSARY
- Rosary of the Day: Glorious Mysteries
- Traditional 54 Day Rotation: Glorious Mysteries
Those who would like to pray with others via The Telephone Rosary, call 1-951-799-9866 daily at 6 pm Eastern.
Introduction to Romans[1]
Romans is the longest and most systematic unfolding of the apostle’s thought, expounding the gospel of God’s righteousness that saves all who believe; it reflects a universal outlook, with special implications for Israel’s relation to the church. Yet, like all Paul’s letters, Romans too arose out of a specific situation, when the apostle wrote from Greece, likely Corinth, between A.D. 56 and 58. Paul at that time was about to leave for Jerusalem with a collection of funds for the impoverished Jewish Christian believers there, taken up from his predominantly Gentile congregations. He planned then to travel on to Rome and to enlist support there for a mission to Spain. Such a journey had long been on his mind. Now, with much missionary preaching successfully accomplished in the East, he sought new opportunities in the West, in order to complete the divine plan of evangelization in the Roman world. Yet he recognized that the visit to Jerusalem would be hazardous, and we know from Acts that Paul was arrested there and came to Rome only in chains, as a prisoner. The existence of a Christian community in Rome antedates Paul’s letter there. When it arose, likely within the sizable Jewish population at Rome. The Roman historian Suetonius mentions an edict of the Emperor Claudius about A.D. 49 ordering the expulsion of Jews from Rome in connection with a certain “Chrestus,” probably involving a dispute in the Jewish community over Jesus as the Messiah (“Christus”). Aquila and Priscilla (or Prisca, as in Rom 16:3) were among those driven out; from them, in Corinth, Paul may have learned about conditions in the church at Rome. Opinions vary as to whether Jewish or Gentile Christians predominated in the house churches in the capital city of the empire at the time Paul wrote. Perhaps already by then Gentile Christians were in the majority. Paul speaks in Romans of both Jews and Gentiles. The letter also refers to those “weak in faith” and those “who are strong”; this terminology may reflect not so much differences between believers of Jewish and of Gentile background, respectively, as an ascetic tendency in some converts combined with Jewish laws about clean and unclean foods. The issues were similar to problems that Paul had faced in Corinth. In any case, Paul writes to introduce himself and his message to the Christians at Rome, seeking to enlist their support for the proposed mission to Spain. The gospel Paul presents is meant to be a familiar one to those in Rome, even though they heard it first from other preachers. This gospel of Paul finds its center in salvation and justification through faith in Christ. While God’s wrath is revealed against all sin and wickedness of Gentile and Jew alike, God’s power to save by divine righteous or justifying action in Christ is also revealed. The consequences and implications for those who believe are set forth, as are results for those in Israel who, to Paul’s great sorrow, disbelieve. The apostle’s hope is that, just as rejection of the gospel by some in Israel has led to a ministry of salvation for non-Jews, so one day, in God’s mercy, “all Israel” will be saved. The fuller ethical response of believers is also drawn out, both with reference to life in Christ’s body and with regard to the world. Others have viewed Romans the relationship between Judaism and Christianity, a topic judged to be much in the minds of the Roman Christians. Each of these religious faiths claimed to be the way of salvation based upon a covenant between God and a people chosen and made the beneficiary of divine gifts. But Christianity regarded itself as the prophetic development and fulfillment of the faith of the Old Testament, declaring that the preparatory Mosaic covenant must now give way to the new and more perfect covenant in Jesus Christ. Paul himself had been the implacable advocate of freedom of Gentiles from the laws of the Mosaic covenant and, especially in Galatia, had refused to allow attempts to impose them on Gentile converts to the gospel. He had witnessed the personal hostilities that developed between the adherents of the two faiths and had written his strongly worded Letter to the Galatians against those Jewish Christians who were seeking to persuade Gentile Christians to adopt the religious practices of Judaism. For him, the purity of the religious understanding of Jesus as the source of salvation would be seriously impaired if Gentile Christians were obligated to amalgamate the two religious’ faiths. Still others find the theme of Israel and the church as to be the heart of Romans. Then the implication of Paul’s exposition of justification by faith rather than by means of law is that the divine plan of salvation works itself out on a broad theological plane to include the whole of humanity, despite the differences in the content of the given religious system to which a human culture is heir. Romans presents a plan of salvation stretching from Adam through Abraham and Moses to Christ and on to the future revelation at Christ’s Parousia. Its outlook is universal. Paul’s Letter to the Romans is a powerful exposition of the doctrine of the supremacy of Christ and of faith in Christ as the source of salvation. It is an implicit plea to the Christians at Rome, and to all Christians, to hold fast to that faith. They are to resist any pressure put on them to accept a doctrine of salvation through works of the law. At the same time, they are not to exaggerate Christian freedom as an abdication of responsibility for others or as a repudiation of God’s law and will.
[1]http://usccb.org/bible/scripture.cfm?bk=Romans&ch=
POSITIVE THINKING DAY
Romans,
Chapter 3, verse 10-18
10
“There is no one just, not one, 11 there is no one who
understands, there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have gone astray;
all alike are worthless; there is not one who does good, [there is not] even
one. 13
Their throats are open graves; they deceive with their tongues; the venom of
asps is on their lips; 14 their mouths are full of bitter cursing. 15 Their feet are quick to shed blood; 16
ruin and misery are in their ways, 17
and the way of peace they know not. 18
There is no FEAR of God
before their eyes.”
There is no hope except in Christ; all are broken vessels. Yet, by the gift of fortitude we endure; seeking Him who is our salvation.
As we read in the
gospel: Jesus answered them, “Do you believe now? Behold, the hour is coming
and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will
leave me alone. But I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told
you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have
trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.” (John 16:31-33)
Fifteenth Sunday after
Pentecost
The focus
of this Sunday instructs us to weep over lost souls and rejoice
over converted ones. Today the church retells the rising of the widow of Nain’s
dead son by Christ.
THE Introit of the Mass of this day is a fervent
prayer which may be said in any need or adversity. ‘Bow down Thy ear, O Lord,
to me and hear me; save Thy servant, O my God, that trusteth in Thee; have
mercy on me, O Lord, for I have cried to Thee all day. Give joy to the soul of
Thy servant, for to Thee, O Lord, I have lifted up my soul.”
Prayer.
May continued mercy purify and defend Thy Church, O
Lord; and since without Thee it cannot remain safe, may it ever be governed by
Thy bounty!
EPISTLE. Gal. v. 25, 26; vi. 1-10.
Brethren: If we live in the Spirit, let us also
walk in the Spirit. Let us not be made desirous of vainglory, provoking one
another, envying one another. And if a man be overtaken in any fault, you, who
are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering
thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so you
shall fulfil the law of Christ. For if any man think himself to be something,
whereas he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let everyone prove his own
work, and so he shall have glory in himself only, and not in another. For
everyone shall bear his own burden. And let him that is instructed in the word
communicate to him that instructeth him, in all good things. Be not deceived:
God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap.
For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption: but
he that soweth in the Spirit, of the Spirit shall reap life everlasting. And in
doing good, let us not fail for in due time we shall reap, not failing.
Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to
those who are of the household of the faith.
Explanation.
From this epistle we learn that humility should
teach and admonish us to think little of ourselves to shun self-confidence and
vainglory; charity should incite us, on the other hand, to be meek, loving,
compassionate, and kind to every man, even to sinners; to administer correction
to the erring only with charity, for if this be done with impertinent and
insolent zeal, we shall not only fail to correct offenders, but shall ourselves
fall into the same temptations and sins; for God, by a common and just
judgment, allows the proud, who look down upon others sins, to fall into sin
themselves, that they may learn to be humble, and to have compassion upon those
who have gone astray.
Aspiration.
O St. Paul, procure for me, by thy prayers, the
grace of God, that I may continually walk in humility, may always love my
neighbor, and, in particular, may bear with patience his faults and frailties,
that so I may fulfil the law of God, and reap an abundant harvest.
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.
Why
did Christ have compassion on this widow? To show us that God takes
forsaken and afflicted widows under His care, and becomes Himself their
comforter and helper, and to teach us that we should do likewise. Christ had,
however, still other grounds for His compassion; for He foresaw in this dead
youth of Nairn the death of the sinner, and in the affliction of the mother the
grief which the Church would suffer over the spiritual loss of so many
children.
“Why
did Christ say to this widow, Weep not?” To intimate that He would restore her son to her, and
at the same time to teach us that we should not mourn and weep to excess for
the dead. St. Paul therefore admonishes us not to be sorrowful in regard to the
dead, as others who have no hope of resurrection (i. Thess. iv. 12).
Why
did Christ command the bearers to stand still? To awaken their confidence and to
put it beyond doubt that the resurrection of the dead proceeded from Him. This
should teach us that a soul that is dead cannot be restored to life so long as
the passions which have caused its death, and borne it, as it were, to the
grave, are not brought to a stop.
What
more do we learn from this gospel? That
no one, however young, is safe from death; and that everyone, therefore, should
be always prepared for it.
What is often the cause of early
death among young persons?
1. Gluttony and intemperance; for
by surfeiting and intemperance more perish than by the sword (Ecclus. xxxvii.
34).
2. Lust.
3. Anger “If you bite and devour
one another, take heed you be not consumed one of another” (Gal. v. 15). From
angry words often come strife and blows, and not unfrequently murder itself.
4. Disobedience. We have dreadful
examples to show that God has taken out of the world, early and suddenly,
disobedient children, for instance, Absalom. Not without reason does God say to
children “Honor thy father and mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee,
that thou mayest live a long time, and it may be well with thee in the land”
(Deut. v. 16).
ON
DEATH
Certain
it is that we shall die, but uncertain the hour of our death. Would that we
might never forget this truth that we might earnestly think of it every day!
How different our lives would then be! Have mercy, then, on thine own soul.
Keep thyself in readiness so live that thou mayest have no reason to fear
death. Do in thy lifetime what in the hour of death you will wish that you had
done. Die daily, with St. Paul, by crucifying the flesh with its desires and lusts,
and by voluntarily loosening thy heart from the world, its goods, and its
vanities, before death does this for you by violence. In time of temptation and
passion think of these truths and resist then to die will not be too hard.
Who is it that fears not death…
Whoever walks without blame, doing
what is right, speaking truth from the heart; Who does not slander with his
tongue, does no harm to a friend, never defames a neighbor; Who disdains the
wicked, but honors those who fear the LORD; Who keeps an oath despite the cost,
lends no money at interest, accepts no bribe against the innocent.
Positive
Thinking Day[1]
Positive Thinking Day is a time set aside each year to concentrate on all things positive. An American entrepreneur started this day in 2003 so that people could commemorate the many rewards that can be found in thinking positively.
How to Celebrate Positive Thinking Day
If you are not sure what to do to
celebrate, here are a few suggestions. Start the day positively by saying
“Today is going to be a good day!” This will set the tone for the day ahead of
you.
Say some affirmations. These are positive sentences about you or your circumstances that can give you boldness, confidence and self-esteem.
·
Hang around with positive people.
·
Show gratitude for the simple things in life.
·
Read or watch positive, motivational books and
movies.
·
Be kind to someone today.
·
Finally, the best thing you can do for yourself
and others, today and every day is to simply smile.
35 Promises
of God[2]
cont.
“Submit
yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from
you.”-James 4:7
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 3pm till Monday. Don’t forget the internet.
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Make
reparations to the Holy Face
·
Rosary
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