Wednesday of the Fifth Week of
Easter
CINCO
DE MAYO-FIRST WEDNESDAY
Judges, Chapter 7, Verse 10-11
10
If you are AFRAID to attack, go down to the camp with your aide Purah 11 and listen to what they are saying.
After that you will have the courage to descend on the camp. So, he went down
with his aide Purah to the outposts of the armed men in the camp.
“Take courage;
get up, he is calling you.”
(Mk: 10:49)
Christ
calls us to a greater purpose than he did Gideon:
No
man or woman of good will can renounce the struggle to overcome evil with good.
This fight can be fought effectively only with the weapons of love. When
good overcomes evil, love prevails and where love prevails, there peace
prevails. This is the teaching of the Gospel, restated by the Second
Vatican Council: "the fundamental law of human perfection, and
consequently of the transformation of the world, is the new commandment of
love"…Christians must be
convinced witnesses of this truth. They should show by their lives that love is
the only force capable of bringing fulfillment to persons and societies, the
only force capable of directing the course of history in the way of goodness
and peace…By Christ's death and resurrection, made sacramentally present in
each Eucharistic celebration, we are saved from evil and enabled to do good.
Through the new life which Christ has bestowed on us, we can recognize one
another as brothers and sisters, despite every difference of language,
nationality and culture. In a word, by sharing in the one bread and the one
cup, we come to realize that we are "God's family" and that together
we can make our own effective contribution to building a world based on the
values of justice, freedom and peace.[1]
Cinco de Mayo[2]
Today
is Cinco de Mayo; sometimes referred to as Cinco de Drunko, due to the heavy
consumption of alcohol connected with the hedonistic celebration. Cinco de Mayo
is a relatively minor holiday in Mexico. However, in America it is up there
with some of our most celebrated: like the Fourth of July and St. Patrick’s Day.
The holiday has reinvented itself in America, from celebrating Mexico's win at
the Battle of Puebla, to celebrating Mexican culture, and beer, and tequila. If
we're being completely honest though, the actual meaning of Cinco de Mayo in
America is pretty lost on us, but so is the meaning of St. Patrick’s Day. Today
instead of following this hedonistic celebration try and make it to Mass today.
Things
to Do[3]: other than drinking yourself into unconsciousness
- Attend
a Cinco de Mayo Festival. Popular such festivals can be found in San
Antonio, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston.
- Go
eat or have drinks at a Mexican restaurant.
- Make
Margaritas
with Mexican tequila.
- Attend
a Parade.
- Make
a piñata with your friends. Piñatas usually contain sweets or treats that
fall out once it has been smashed open.
Instruction on Intemperance[4]
“Be sober and watch.” I. Peter v. 8.
St. Peter prescribes sobriety and watchfulness as necessary means for resisting the attacks of the devil, who by day and night goes about seeking whom he may devour. Woe to those who, by reason of their drunkenness, (The term drunkard applies to any person who is caught up in the addiction cycle, whether it is drink, gambling, drugs or sex.) live in a continual night and lie in the perpetual sleep of sin! How will it be with them if, suddenly awakened from this sleep by death, they find themselves standing, burdened with innumerable and unknown sins, before the judgment-seat of God? For who can number the sins, committed in and by reason of drunkenness, which the drunkard either accounts as trifles, easily pardoned, or else, not knowing what he has thought, said, and done in his fit of intoxication, considers to be no sins at all? Will the divine Judge, at the last day, thus reckon? Will He also find no sin in them? Will He let go unpunished the infamous deeds and the scandals of their drunkenness?
He Who demands strict account of every word spoken in vain, will He make no inquiry of so many shameful, scandalous, and blasphemous sayings, of so much time wasted, of so much money squandered, of so many neglects of the divine service, of the education of children, of the affairs of home, and of innumerable other sins? Will they be able to excuse themselves before this Judge by saying that they did not know what they were doing? Or that what they did was for want of reflection, or in jest? Or that they were not strong, and could not bear much? Will not such excuses rather witness against them that they are the worthier of punishment for having taken more than their strength could bear, thereby depriving themselves of the use of reason, making themselves like brutes, and, of their own free will, taking on themselves the responsibility for all the sins of which their drunkenness was the occasion? What, then, awaits them? What else than the fate of the rich glutton who, for his gluttony, was buried in hell? (Luke xvi. 22.)
Yes, that shall be the place and the portion of the drunkard! There shall they in vain sigh for a drop of water. There, for all the pleasures and satisfactions which they had in the world, as many pains and torments shall now lay hold of them (Apoc. xviii. 7); there shall they be compelled to drain the cup of God’s anger to the dregs, as they, in life, forced others into drunkenness. This is what they have to hope for, for St. Paul says expressly that drunkards shall not possess the kingdom of God (i. Cor. vi. 10). What then remains for them but to renounce either their intemperance or heaven? But how rare and difficult is the true conversion of a drunkard! This is the teaching of experience. Will not such a one, therefore, go to ruin?
First Wednesday[5]
Our Heavenly Father desires all three hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph to be honored. And so along with devotion to Jesus on First Fridays, and to Mary on First Saturdays, Our Father longs for us to add devotion to St. Joseph on each First Wednesday of the month.
"The Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph have been chosen by the Most Holy Trinity to bring peace to the world." It is at God's request that "special love and honor be given to them" to help us "imitate" their love and their lives, as well as "offer reparation" for the sins committed against them and their love.
The St. Joseph First Wednesday devotion is:
1. Pray the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary - remembering St. Joseph's love, his life, his role and his sufferings
2. Receive Holy Communion - in union with the love St. Joseph had for Jesus the first time and each time he held him - his son, his God and Savior - in his arms.
In the approved
apparitions of Our Lady of America, St. Joseph revealed:
·
"I
am the protector of the Church and the home, as I was the protector of Christ
and his Mother while I lived upon earth. Jesus and Mary desire that my pure
heart, so long hidden and unknown, be now honored in a special way.
·
Let my
children honor my most pure heart in a special manner on the First Wednesday of
the month by reciting the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary in memory of my life
with Jesus and Mary and the love I bore them, the sorrow I suffered with them.
·
Let them
receive Holy Communion in union with the love with which I received the Savior
for the first time and each time I held Him in my arms.
·
Those
who honor me in this way will be consoled by my presence at their death, and I
myself will conduct them safely into the presence of Jesus and Mary."
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 1
·
Manhood of
the Master-week 12 day 1
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Make
reparations to the Holy Face
[1]https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/messages/peace/documents/hf_jp-ii_mes_20041216_xxxviii-world-day-for-peace.html
[4] Goffine’s Devout Instructions, 1896
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