Let Freedom Ring: Freedom from Belligerence
At a word from You the devil and his minions flee in terror.
You are the source of all truth. You are the source of all strength.
By the power of your Cross and Resurrection, we beseech You, O Lord
To extend Your saving arm and to send Your holy angels
To defend us as we do battle with Satan and his demonic forces.
Exorcise, we pray, that which oppresses Your Bride, The Church,
So that within ourselves, our families, our parishes, our dioceses, and our nation
We may turn fully back to You in all fidelity and trust.
Lord, we know if You will it, it will be done.
Give us the perseverance for this mission, we pray.
Amen
St. Joseph...pray for us
St. Michael the Archangel...pray for us
(the patron of your parish )... pray for us
(your confirmation saint)...pray for us
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ graciously hear us
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit, etc.
Holy Trinity, One God,
Heart of Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father,
Heart of Jesus, formed in the womb of the Virgin Mother by the Holy Ghost,
Heart of Jesus, united substantially with the word of God,
Heart of Jesus, of infinite majesty,
Heart of Jesus, holy temple of God,
Heart of Jesus, tabernacle of the Most High,
Heart of Jesus, house of God and gate of heaven,
Heart of Jesus, glowing furnace of charity,
Heart of Jesus, vessel of justice and love,
Heart of Jesus, full of goodness and love,
Heart of Jesus, abyss of all virtues,
Heart of Jesus, most worthy of all praise,
Heart of Jesus, king and center of all hearts,
Heart of Jesus, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,
Heart of Jesus, in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Divinity,
Heart of Jesus, in whom the Father is well pleased,
Heart of Jesus, we have all received,
Heart of Jesus, desire of the everlasting hills,
Heart of Jesus, patient and rich in mercy,
Heart of Jesus, rich to all who invoke Thee,
Heart of Jesus, fount of life and holiness,
Heart of Jesus, propitiation for our sins,
Heart of Jesus, saturated with revilings,
Heart of Jesus, crushed for our iniquities,
Heart of Jesus, made obedient unto death,
Heart of Jesus, pierced with a lance,
Heart of Jesus, source of all consolation,
Heart of Jesus, our life and resurrection, .
Heart of Jesus, our peace and reconciliation,
Heart of Jesus, victim for our sins,
Heart of Jesus, salvation of those who hope in Thee,
Heart of Jesus, hope of those who die in Thee,
Heart of Jesus, delight of all saints,
Spare us, oh Lord.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
Christ graciously spare us.
Lamb of God who takest away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us.
Make our hearts like unto Thine.
Almighty and everlasting God, look upon the Heart of Thy well-beloved Son and upon the acts of praise and satisfaction which He renders unto Thee in the name of sinners; and do Thou, in Thy great goodness, grant pardon to them who seek Thy mercy, in the name of the same Thy Son, Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, world without end. Amen.
__ Daily reflection and prayers
__ Litany of the day
__ Pray a Rosary
__ Divine Mercy Chaplet
__ Spiritual or corporal work of mercy
__ Fast/abstain (according to level)
__ Exercise (according to level/ability)
__ Refrain from conventional media (only 1 hr. of social)
__ Examination of conscience (confession 1x this week)
Friday of the First Week of Lent-Ember Day
GRAND CANYON Established
Numbers, chapter 22, Verse 2-3
2 Now Balak, son of Zippor, saw all
that Israel did to the Amorites, 3 and
Moab FEARED the Israelites greatly
because they were numerous. Moab was in dread of the Israelites.
Fear is
listed by many theologians as the 8th deadly sin. God in making us a
Holy people wants us to be free of fear. Is it any wonder that people without
faith are plagued by fear? Fear Dominates Politics, Media and Human Existence
in America—And It’s Getting Worse according to Don Hazen.
“Fear is the mind-killer” – Frank
Herbert, Dune
People cannot think clearly when
they are afraid. As numerous studies have shown, fear is the enemy of
reason. It distorts emotions and perceptions, and often leads to poor
decisions. For people who have suffered trauma, fear messages can sometimes
trigger uncontrollable flight-or-fight responses with dangerous ramifications.
Yet over time, many interlocking
aspects of our society have become increasingly sophisticated at communicating
messages and information that produce fear responses. Advertising, political
ads, news coverage and social media all send the constant message that people
should be afraid—very afraid.
In addition, television and film
are filled with extreme violence and millions of fictional deaths, far out of
proportion to what happens in real life, as researchers have pointed out…All this,
despite statistics indicating that in most parts of the country, the
crime rate is actually on the decline.
Fear is so pervasive that experts
have made the case we live in a generalized “culture of fear,” also the name of
a book by Barry Glassner which underscores the fact that we often fear the
wrong things, and incredibly out of proportion to reality. Statistics show you
have a much higher chance of being killed by lightning than by a
terrorist.[1]
Friday
of the First Week of Lent[2]
BE
merciful, O Lord, to Thy people, and as Thou makest them devout to Thee,
mercifully refresh them with kind assistance.
EPISTLE.
Ezech. xviii. 20-28.
Thus, saith the Lord God: The soul that sinneth, the
same shall die: the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, and the
father shall not bear the iniquity of the son: the justice of the just shall be
upon him and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. But if the wicked
do penance for all his sins, which he hath committed, and keep all My
commandments, and do judgment and justice, living he shall live, and shall not
die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he hath done in his justice
which he hath wrought, he shall live. Is it My will that a sinner should die,
saith the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and
live?
But if the just man turn himself away from his
justice, and do iniquity according to all the abominations which the wicked man
useth to work, shall he live? all his justices which he had done, shall not be
remembered: in the prevarication, by which he hath prevaricated, and in his
sin, which he hath committed, in them he shall die. And you have said: The way
of the Lord is not right. Hear ye, therefore, O house of Israel: Is it My way
that is not right, and are not rather your ways perverse?
For when the just turneth himself away from his
justice, and committeth iniquity, lie shall die therein: in the injustice that
he hath wrought he shall die. And when the wicked turneth himself away from his
wickedness, which he hath wrought, and doeth judgment and justice: he shall
save his soul alive. Because he considereth and turneth away himself from all
his iniquities which he hath wrought, he shall surely live, and not die, saith
the Lord Almighty.
GOSPEL.
John v. 1-15.
At
that time there was a festival-day of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is at Jerusalem a pond, called Probatica, which in Hebrew is named
Bethsaida, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick, of
blind, of lame, of withered, waiting for the moving of the water. And an angel
of the Lord descended at certain times into the pond: and the water was moved.
And he that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water, was
made whole of whatsoever infirmity he lay under. And there was a certain man
there, that had been eight-and-thirty years under his infirmity. Him when Jesus
had seen lying, and knew that he had been now a long time, He saith to him:
Wilt thou be made whole? The infirm man answered Him: Sir, I have no man, when
the water is troubled, to put me into the pond. For whilst I am coming, another
goeth down before me. Jesus saith to him: Arise, take up thy bed, and walk. And
immediately the man was made whole: and he took up his bed and walked. And it
was the Sabbath that day. The Jews therefore said to him that was healed: It is
the Sabbath, it is not lawful for thee to take up thy bed. He answered them: He
that made me whole, He said to me: Take up thy bed, and walk. They asked him
therefore: Who is that man who said to thee: Take up thy bed, and walk? But he
who was healed, knew not who it was. For Jesus went aside from the multitude
standing in the place. Afterwards Jesus findeth him in the temple, and saith to
him: Behold thou art made whole: sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to
thee. The man went his way and told the Jews that it was Jesus Who had made him
whole.
Ember Friday[3]
Have you ever heard about
the Ember days, observed for most of the history of the Church prior to the
late 20th century? If you haven’t, don’t feel bad. Like many traditional
practices in the Church laden with deep meaning, Ember days have been chucked
down the Catholic memory hole. But fear not! This is why God created the
Internet: so, we can find all the neat things about Catholicism that are
worth knowing and sharing.
Four times a year, the
Church sets aside three days to focus on God through His marvelous creation.
These quarterly periods take place around the beginnings of the four natural
seasons that “like some virgins dancing in a circle, succeed one another with
the happiest harmony,” as St. John Chrysostom wrote. These four times are each
kept on a successive Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday and are known as “Ember
Days,” or Quatuor Tempora,
in Latin. The first of these four times comes in Winter, after the the Feast of St. Lucy; the second comes in Spring, the week after Ash Wednesday;
the third comes in Summer, after Pentecost Sunday; and the last comes in Autumn,
after Holy Cross Day. Their dates can be remembered by
this old mnemonic:
Father Peter Carota at the
blog Traditional Catholic Priest offers
some
additional historical information on
Ember days:
The Ember days are true
Catholic tradition dating actually dating back to the Apostles, (Pope Leo The
Great claims it was instituted by the Apostles). Pope Callistus (217-222)
in the “Liber Pontificalis” has laws ordering all to observe a fast three times
a year to counteract the hedonistic and pagan Roman rites praying for:
By the time of Pope
Gelasius, (492-496), he already writes about there being four times a years,
including Spring. He also permitted the conferring of priesthood and deaconship
on the Saturdays of Ember week. This practice was mostly celebrated
around Rome, from Pope Gelasius’ time, they began to spread throughout the
Church. St. Augustin brought them to England and the Carolingians into Gaul and
Germany. In the eleventh century, Spain adopted them. It was not until
Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) that these Ember days were prescribed for the
whole Catholic Church as days of fast and abstinence. He placed these
“four mini Lents” consisting of three days; Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
The purposes of these “mini Lents” were to pray, fast and
to thank God for the gifts He gives us through nature. They follow the four seasons
of the year with the beauty and uniqueness of each particular season.
They are here for us to teach us to use, with moderation, what God gives us
through nature, and to also share these gifts with the poor.
So,
what does this mean for you? Well,
because of the changes in Church law, not a whole lot. At least not officially.
The mandatory observation of Ember days was excised from Church practice during
the pontificate of Pope Paul VI. But as a voluntary practice, there is much that is salutary in
observing the Ember days of the Church.
I don’t know about you,
but as a typically indulgent American, I’ve never been very good at fasting.
Lately, I’ve noticed more and more people are advocating fasting as a
counter-measure in today’s troubling times. This is the first year I will be
observing these fasts, and I’ve got to tell you, I’m already pretty famished and
a bit punchy. But the way I see it, there’s no point in continuing to put off
the inevitable penance that I’m going to have to do for being a big, fat
sinner. To say nothing about making reparations for the increasingly hostile
darkness of a world steeped in its own sins. Fasting isn’t going to get easier
at some point in the future when I get “holier.” In fact, I’m guessing the
latter isn’t going to happen until I master the former. I don’t think there’s
ever been a time where fasting and penance are more needed than right this
moment. We can’t rely on others to do it for us. Gotta cowboy up and put
our mortification where our mouth is. What
do you say? Who will be hungry with
me?!
What the
Grand Canyon tells us about God[4]
(est.
today in 1919)
Many years ago, I was
telling my spiritual director that I found it easiest to pray in a beautiful
garden, and I was warming to my sense of myself as a contemplative. The wise
Dominican asked with disarming candor: “But are you in the garden, or is the
garden in you?” It took a long time even to realize what the question meant. I
remember another similarly disarming question at the very beginning of my adult
search for God. I was an undergraduate and took myself to a Benedictine
monastery for a few days’ retreat in Lent. I was captivated by the silence,
prayer and retreat from the world, swept up in the chant and the romance of
monastic life. What I did not realize was that I was attracted to it as
something that would make it less painful to be what I thought I was –
something I needed for my religious amour-propre. Thus, many searches for God
begin, but one can only search for God because he has already found you. What
must happen is that someone else must put a belt around you and lead you where
you would rather not go. It is not the intensity of the search, but of the
willingness to be led that is ultimately the measure of vocation. Vocation is
not finding the garden in you, it is finding yourself in the garden.
Perhaps the wise abbot
sensed this. Anyway, I remember being rather discombobulated by his direct
manner. As I emoted about the spiritual life, he looked at me carefully and
asked: “Is God real to you?” It was like a torpedo below the waterline of all
my high-sounding talk about my attraction to the monastic life versus secular
priesthood, the script I was busy constructing of an encounter with the living
God in which I remained firmly the star. The best answer I could manage was: “I
think so.” In the moment of asking I doubted it, or rather I realized suddenly
that so much of what I thought was God wasn’t actually God. It was the
paraphernalia of God, of religion. (In fact, the moment wasn’t too confounding,
for soon there came another answer from deep inside: “He’s real to me in the
Blessed Sacrament.” There – perhaps because, as Aquinas put it, “Sight, touch
and taste in thee are each deceived” – I couldn’t confuse feeling for the
reality.
I realized that I had been
given something to work with.) All of this came to mind when I visited the
Grand Canyon at the end of my trip to America. What’s the connection? One may
grasp what one might call the paraphernalia of the Grand Canyon. It was formed
by billions of years of imperceptibly slow change, of almost every possible
kind of geological activity: sediment layering, tectonic plates shifting,
glaciers melting and rivers carving a gorge a mile and a half deep into solid
rock. These are processes that can be mapped and understood, but the result
overwhelms the sum and the mind of man. Its astonishing, ancient beauty can
only be contemplated – that is, it must act on you, overwhelm your mind with its
four-billion-year-old scale, stillness and silence which is in constant change.
Spontaneously, the words
of the psalmist rose from my heart at the breathtaking sight: “Before the
mountains or the hills were brought forth, you are God, without beginning or
end.” Contemplation always involves knowledge of one’s true scale, of a reality
that dwarfs the ego. As if this were not enough, as the sun set, the sky above
came alive with stars. I have never seen so many or so clearly. They were like
the lights of some vast celestial city calling, a million points of light and
security like some distant homeland, like the medieval fantasy that the stars
were rents in the sky through which one could see the light of heaven. To count
them I must be eternal, like God. The psalmist said: “When I see the heavens,
the work of your hands, the moon and stars which you have made, what is man,
that thou art mindful of him?” And the answer comes back that in Jesus Christ
the Father has united himself to the heart of every person in such a way that
the vastness of the universe becomes an image not of alienation, but of the
vastness of a love that was there before the hills were set in order. This love
causes even rocks to exude a soft beauty which seems like the desire of the
Eternal Hills for the Heart of their maker.
The
Devil and Temptations[5]
There are many and varied
ways in which sin and evil are presented to us in an attractive way.
Freeing My Own Self from the Power of Evil
·
Through
his passion, death, and resurrection, Jesus has broken the power of the Evil
One. When the influence of evil is perceived in one's own life, it most
frequently comes about from personal sin. Family members suffer because of the
sin of an individual member of the family. It is through the sacred power that
the Lord has placed in his Church that the evil of sin is conquered.
·
Through
medicine, psychology and other human means, suffering can often be alleviated.
But Jesus in his Church, has given us basic helps that are often neglected.
·
In
our day the Sacrament of Reconciliation has fallen into disuse. There exists a
power in this sacrament to break the power of the Evil One and sin that is not
possible otherwise.
·
Our
faith in the Eucharist is weakened. In this sacrament is the power and presence
of Jesus Himself. Persons who have actually needed exorcism from the power of
the Evil One have been cured by sitting in church in the presence of the
Blessed Sacrament, an hour each day, for one or two months. These were very
difficult cases.
·
Our
Blessed Mother has been designated by God as the one who crushes the head of
the serpent (Gen. 3:1s). The Rosary is a very powerful means of protection and
salvation. Many sons and daughters have been saved from the power of sin and
the loss of faith through the perseverance of their parents in saying the Holy
Rosary.
Daily Devotions
·
Manhood of
the Master-week 2 day 3
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
[1]http://www.alternet.org/fear-america/fear-dominates-politics-media-and-human-existence-america-and-its-getting-worse
[2]Goffine’s Devout Instructions
[4]http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/issues/february-27th-2015/what-the-grand-canyon-tells-us-about-god/
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