Say a Chaplet of Reparation that was given by Our Lord to Sr. Mary of St. Peter to battle against the enemies of God, especially communists.
EIGHTH DAY (Friday, 7th Week of Easter)
Friday of the Seventh Week of
Easter
ST.
CHRISTOPHER MAGALLANES AND COMPANIONS
1 Samuel, Chapter 21, Verse 13
David
took note of these remarks and became very much AFRAID of Achish, king of Gath.
One
wonders why David was so afraid. According to David Roper this was David’s
testing.
Just
about the time I think I've got it all together, some unsightly emotional
display, some inappropriate reaction, some other embarrassing behavior blows my
cover and I have that horrible experience of being found out. It's humiliating!
But humiliation is good for the soul. Through it God deals with our
self-admiration and pride. Without it we could never make the most of our
lives. The trouble with us is that we want to be tremendously important. It's a
terrible trait, the essential vice, the utmost evil. It's the sin that turned
the devil into the demon he became.
Obscurity and humility, on the
other hand, release God's greatness.
It is the basis of our life with God and our usefulness in this world. Thomas à
Kempis wrote, "The more humble a man is in himself, and the more subject
unto God; so much more prudent shall he be in all his affairs, and enjoy
greater peace and quietness of heart." Because ambition and pride is the
center of our resistance to God and the source of so much unhappiness,
"God opposes the proud" (James 4:6); he brings us to our knees, where
He can then begin to do something with us.
David
fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. But the servants of Achish said
to him, "Isn't this David, the king of the land? Isn't he the one they
sing about in their dances: 'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens
of thousands'?" David took these words to heart and was very much afraid
of Achish king of Gath.
So,
he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he
acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva
run down his beard. Achish said to his servants, "Look at the man! He is
insane! Why bring him to me? Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring
this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this [mad] man come
into my house?" David [then] left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam
(1 Samuel 21:10-22:1). David fled south from Nob — with Saul in hot pursuit —
and he made his way across the Judean hills and through the Valley of Elah
where a few years before he had engaged Goliath in combat. It was to Gath — the
home of his enemies — that David now turned for shelter from Saul. I don't know
what possessed David to flee to Gath. Perhaps he thought he wouldn't be
recognized, since this was several years after his encounter with Goliath, and
he had grown to manhood.
Perhaps
he disguised himself in some way. But David was instantly recognized, and his
presence was reported to king Achish of Gath: "Isn't this David, the king
of the land? Isn't he the one they sing about in their dances: 'Saul has slain
his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'?" The phrase "they
sing" could be translated, "they still sing," suggesting a
popular tune. David's fame was celebrated everywhere — even in Philistia. You
have to understand the implications of this song. David had slain his ten
thousands of Philistines; his fame had been established at the expense of
bereaved Philistine women and children. Here was an opportunity to take
vengeance. Furthermore, he was considered "the king of the land [of
Israel]." By some means David became aware that he had been found out, and
that he was facing imprisonment and death, so David lost his nerve (see Psalm
34 and 56).
Motivated
by sheer terror, David pretended to go mad, foaming at the mouth and scrawling
crazy slogans on the walls. According to the title of Psalm 56 the Philistines
"seized him" and brought him to Achish, who dismissed him with the
contemptuous remark: "Behold, you see a madman! Why have you brought him
to me? Am I lacking madmen that you have brought this to ply his madness
against me? Must this come into my house?" The word translated "mad
man" (21:15), used three times by Achish, suggests something other than
insanity. The word in other Near Eastern languages means "highly
aggressive" — violent and dangerous — which gives added force to the
king's remark: ". . . you have brought this to ply his madness [ravings]
against me?" Achish was afraid of David.
The
title to Psalm 34 supplies the conclusion of the matter: Achish "drove him
away," out of his court and out of town — David, run out of town on a
rail, utterly humiliated. David, the tough guy, the hero of Israel, the man
they celebrated in song and dance had wimped out in the face of physical danger
and made an utter fool of himself. With no place else to go, unwelcome in both
Israel and Philistia, David fled into a labyrinth of broken ridges and rimrock
about three miles from Gath and crept into a cave. The cavern in which he found
refuge was called the Cave of Adullum (Adullam means refuge). It can't be
located with certainty, but the traditional site is a dark vault located on a
shelf at the top of a near-perpendicular cliff. In that dark place —
humiliated, crushed, alone — he wrote Psalm 34 and Psalm 56.
He
was at his nadir. In that dark place David cried out to God: "This poor
[humiliated] man called, and the LORD heard him." There he learned that
"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in
spirit" (34:6, 18). Lord Byron wrote from Reading Jail, "How else but
through a broken heart can Lord Christ enter in?" Furthermore, David
learned to boast in the Lord rather than in his own ability (34:2). Through
shame and disgrace he became a more modest man — one whom God could shape and
use.[1]
Apostolic Exhortation[2]
Veneremur
Cernui – Down in Adoration Falling
of The Most Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted, Bishop of
Phoenix,
to Priests, Deacons, Religious and the Lay Faithful of the Diocese of Phoenix
on the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist
My beloved Brothers and
Sisters in Christ,
Part I
Eucharist –
Mystery to Be Revered
10. We cannot speak of the Eucharist
without being confronted by its awesome mystery. It is no wonder that it is the
central point of division between Catholics and other Christians. As early as
the second century, we have record of Christians being accused of cannibalism
by the pagan Romans because they ate and drank the Body and Blood of Christ
(cf. First and Second Apologies of St. Justin Martyr). Since the
Protestant Reformation, many Christians stopped believing in the real presence
of Jesus in the Eucharist. Instead, they hold a certain religious service on
Sundays but not the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
11. The perennial biblical verse where the Christian conflict begins and ends is the Bread of Life discourse: “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink” (Jn 6:53-55).
12. Jesus meant exactly what He said –
He is truly present in the Eucharist. Some say that these words are figurative
or that Jesus was only speaking symbolically when He said, “Whoever eats my
flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life”. However, if Jesus had meant it
as a symbol, He would not have repeated this message seven times in this
dialogue: “My flesh is true food, my blood is true drink”. The Jews
understood what He really meant, and they responded with incredulity, “How
can this man give us His flesh to eat?”. Despite the uproar caused by His
teaching, Jesus did not soften His claim. On the contrary, He strengthened it.
Up to this point, the Gospel of Saint John uses the ordinary Greek word for
“eat” (phagein). After the indignant question from the Jews, John shifts
to a stronger word “to chew” or “to munch” (trogein). To capture the
force of this word, we could translate, not as: “Whoever eats my flesh”;
but “Whoever feeds on my flesh”. To be continued…
St. Christopher Magallanes and Companions[3]
Like Blessed
Miguel Agustin Pro, S.J. (November 23), Cristobal and his twenty-four companion
martyrs lived under a very anti-Catholic government in Mexico, one determined
to weaken the Catholic faith of its people. Churches, schools and seminaries
were closed; foreign clergy were expelled. Cristobal established a
clandestine seminary at Totatiche, Jalisco. Magallanes and the other priests
were forced to minister secretly to Catholics during the presidency of Plutarco
Calles (1924-1928).
All of these
martyrs except three were diocesan priests. David, Manuel and Salvador were
laymen who died with their parish priest, Luis Batis. All of these martyrs
belonged to the Cristero movement, pledging their allegiance to Christ and to
the church that he established to spread the Good News in society—even if
Mexico's leaders had made it a crime to receive baptism or celebrate the Mass.
These martyrs
did not die as a single group but in eight Mexican states, with Jalisco and
Zacatecas having the largest number. They were beatified in 1992 and canonized
eight years later.
—
Excerpted from Saint of the Day, Leonard Foley, O.F.M.
Things
to Do:
·
Read "A Mexican Bloodletting"
·
From the Catholic Culture Library read "Viva Cristo Rey! The Cristeros Versus the Mexican
Revolution"
·
Watch "For Greater Glory"
Daily Devotions
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
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