Rogation Wednesday
1 Samuel, Chapter 12, Verse 20
“DO NOT FEAR,” Samuel answered them. “You
have indeed committed all this evil! Yet do not turn from the LORD, but serve
him with your whole heart.
Jesus
was fearless. He is the model of a true Israelite. He as a man was fearless. He
as a man was sinless, yet He associated with the sinful: Judas who betrayed;
Peter who denied, Nicodemus who was silent; Herod who mocked, Pilate who washed
his hands, and all the people who preferred Barabbas and cried for Christ’s
torture and death on the cross. Yet He did not turn from his Father but served
Him with his whole heart, a heart that was pierced for our sins. We have indeed
committed all this evil—yet because of Him we can serve with our whole heart.
Now
our goal is to be God’s sons and daughters-Saints of God. To fear the Lord and
serve Him faithfully you must live the Beatitudes of Christ.
The
Beatitudes of Christ encourages us to be focused on the things of heaven,
rather than the things of the earth. Life is so short. All the things we chase
after nice homes, cars, vacations, clothes, etc. are temporary. We chase
temporary things most of the time in our lives. It seems that many of us spend
our lives in pursuit of more money, either to earn more or to keep more of our
money for ourselves. Greed can come in little ways, just as much as the big
ways too. Just check out the shoppers at a store with a good sale on certain
items and you can see this for yourself. There is no harm in trying to save
money so your family can live better, but some people carry this to an extreme.
There are shoppers who use coupons and sales and rebates to the point of buying
a whole cart of groceries and household items for $5. It is like a game for
them, but is it right? Other people worked extremely hard on their jobs to
produce these items to sell in the store. Moderation is the key here, not
greed.[1]
Rogationtide Wednesday[2]
Today would be a good day to reflect on what we want to harvest this fall; so, like farmers we must till the soil of our soul reflecting this day on our use of our TREASURE (yes money/tithe) and look at in what ways we may offer our money to Christ to help build a harvest for His Kingdom. It has been said that money is the root of all evil. Yet, this is not exactly true for the real root of all evil is not money but the LOVE of money. Those who fear the Lord know that money is a gift from God. It is not to be buried but sown. This is the correction that God wishes us to accept. We are all sowers, and we are to spread the seeds or gifts that God gives us out. Does God need a tithe from us? Or Does God need our hearts free from the love of money? Do not make my house a marketplace. For love of money or the lust for money is what corrupts men not the money itself.
Donate a
Day Wages to a Charity Day[3]
We all have causes that we care about,
problems we want to see erased from society, and issues that have affected us
deeply throughout our lives. However, most people are busy and haven’t had the
time or opportunity to dedicate as much as they would want to charities and
causes of their choice. Donate A Day’s Wages To Charity Day is there to change
that. Whether you have trouble keeping up with charitable donations and you
want to make a difference or you believe that you should make a pledge that
matters once a year, it’s the day to do it.
Your Money or Your Life[4]
At this tense moment in our history, when external wars and internal violence make us so conscious of death, an affirmation of the sanctity of human life by renewed attention to the family is imperative. Let society always be on the side of life. Let it never dictate, directly or indirectly, recourse to the prevention of life or to its destruction in any of its phases; neither let it require as a condition of economic assistance that any family yield conscientious determination of the number of its children to the decision of persons or agencies outside the family. Stepped-up pressures for moral and legal acceptance of directly procured abortion make necessary pointed reference to this threat to the right to life. Reverence for life demands freedom from direct interruption of life once it is conceived. Conception initiates a process whose purpose is the realization of human personality. A human person, nothing more and nothing less, is always at issue once conception has taken place. We expressly repudiate any contradictory suggestion as contrary to Judeo-Christian traditions inspired by love for life, and Anglo-Saxon legal traditions protective of life and the person. Abortion brings to an end with irreversible finality both the existence and the destiny of the developing human person.
·
Conscious
of the inviolability of life, the Second Vatican Council teaches: God, the Lord
of life, has conferred on man the surpassing ministry of safeguarding life, a
ministry which must be fulfilled in a manner that is worthy of man. Therefore,
from the moment of its conception life must be guarded with the greatest care
while abortion and infanticide are unspeakable crimes (Gaudium et Spes, 51).
· The judgment of the Church on the evil of terminating life derives from the Christian awareness that men are not the masters but the ministers of life. Hence, the Council declares: Whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or willful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person...all these things and others of their like are infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are a supreme dishonor to the Creator" (Gaudium et Spes, 27)
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Are
these words just words highlighted by men during the age of enlightenment or
are they the inspired will of the creator? America is special in that the
founders realized this when they wrote our constitution which was established
to ensure that laws are enacted and enforced that support life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. Much of our misery in this country is caused by laws that
reverse the order ensuring that wealth trumps liberty and liberty trumps life.
No, it must be life first.
The
transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people
collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator. It has always been a
source of great joy to them, even though it sometimes entails many difficulties
and hardships.
The
fulfillment of this duty has always posed problems to the conscience of married
people, but the recent course of human society and the concomitant changes have
provoked new questions. The Church cannot ignore these questions, for they
concern matters intimately connected with the life and happiness of human
beings.
The protection of Life has primacy.
·
If we are the children of the creator, we know
that life must be protected at conception to its natural end.
·
We must seek the dignity of the unborn, the
living and the aged in our laws and traditions.
Are
you into composting?[5]
When Americans die, most are buried or
cremated. Washington could soon become the first state to allow another option:
human composting. The novel approach, known as “recomposition,” involves
placing bodies in a vessel and hastening their decomposition into a
nutrient-dense soil that can then be returned to families. The aim is a less
expensive way of dealing with human remains that is better for the environment
than burial, which can leach
chemicals into the ground, or cremation, which releases
earth-warming carbon dioxide.
“People
from all over the state who wrote to me are very excited about the prospect of
becoming a tree or having a different alternative for themselves,” said state
Sen. Jamie Pedersen, a Democrat, who is sponsoring a bill in Washington’s
Legislature to expand the options for disposing of human remains. The recomposition
bill would also make Washington the 17th state to allow alkaline hydrolysis,
the dissolving of bodies in a pressurized vessel with water and lye until just
liquid and bone remains. Pedersen plans to introduce the bill when the new
legislative session begins next month.
This is scary, sounds like the movie “Soylent Green” was
prophetic. Maybe if you are over fifty you need to stay healthy as possible for
as long as you can.
Memorial Day Build Up
Every day from now to Memorial Day I
ask your prayers for each service and all of our defenders to include police
and fire on Memorial Day.
US Air Force[6]
Fighting at 25,000 feet in
thin, freezing air that no warriors had ever encountered before, bomber crews
battled new kinds of assaults on body and mind. Air combat was deadly but
intermittent: periods of inactivity and anxiety were followed by short bursts
of fire and fear. Unlike infantrymen, bomber boys slept on clean sheets, drank
beer in local pubs, and danced to the swing music of Glenn Miller’s Air Force
band, which toured U.S. air bases in England. But they had a much greater
chance of dying than ground soldiers. In 1943, an American bomber crewman stood
only a one-in-five chance of surviving his tour of duty, twenty-five missions.
The Eighth Air Force lost more men in the war than the U.S. Marine Corps. The
bomber crews were an elite group of warriors who were a microcosm of America —
white America, anyway. (African Americans could not serve in the Eighth Air
Force except in a support capacity.) The actor Jimmy Stewart was a bomber boy,
and so was the “King of Hollywood,” Clark Gable. And the air war was filmed by
Oscar-winning director William Wyler and covered by reporters like Andy Rooney
and Walter Cronkite, all of whom flew combat missions with the men. The
Anglo-American bombing campaign against Nazi Germany was the longest military
campaign of World War II, a war within a war. Until Allied soldiers crossed
into Germany in the final months of the war, it was the only battle fought
inside the German homeland.
Every Wednesday is
Dedicated to St. Joseph
The Italian culture has
always had a close association with St. Joseph perhaps you could make
Wednesdays centered around Jesus’s Papa. Plan an Italian dinner of pizza or
spaghetti after attending Mass as most parishes have a Wednesday evening Mass.
You could even do carry out to help restaurants. If you are adventurous, you
could do the Universal Man Plan: St. Joseph style. Make the evening a family
night perhaps it could be a game night. Whatever you do make the day special.
·
Devotion to the 7 Joys and Sorrows of St.
Joseph
·
Do the St.
Joseph Universal Man Plan.
Daily
Devotions
·
Litany of the Most
Precious Blood of Jesus
·
Total Consecration
to St. Joseph Day 2
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Make
reparations to the Holy Face
[1] https://www.acatholic.org/living-the-beatitudes/
[3]https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/donate-a-days-wages-to-charity-day/
[4]http://usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/abortion/excerpts-from-human-life-in-our-day.cfm
[5]https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/washington-could-become-first-state-legalize-human-composting-n952421
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