Friday, August 13, 2021
Let Freedom Ring: Freedom from Worldliness
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's reason for taking upon Himself a human nature was to pay for sin by death on the cross and to bring us a higher life ... This higher life which is divine, distinct from the human, is called grace, because it is gratis or a free gift of God ... Man may live at three different levels: the sensate, the intellectual, and the divine. These may be likened to a three-story house.The sensate level, or the first floor, represents those who deny any other reality except the pleasures that come from the flesh. Their house is rather poorly furnished and is capable of giving intermittent thrills which quickly dry up. The occupant of this first floor is not interested in being told of higher levels of existence; in fact, he may even deny their existence.On the second floor, there is the intellectual level of existence, that of the scientist, the historian, the journalist, the humanist; the man who has brought to a peak all of the powers of human reason and human will. This is a much more comfortable kind of existence, and far more satisfying to the human spirit. Those on the second floor may think their floor is 'a closed universe,' regarding as superstitious those who desire a higher form of life.But there is actually a third floor which is the floor of grace by which the human heart is illumined by truths which reason cannot know; by which the will is strengthened by a power quite beyond all psychological aids, and the heart is entranced with the love which never fails; which gives a peace that cannot be found on the two lower levels ...The world, therefore, is divided into the 'once born' and the 'twice born': between the sons of the old Adam, and the sons of the new Adam, Christ; between the unregenerate and the regenerate. There is a real inequality in the world. There are 'superior' and 'inferior' peoples, but the basis of distinction is not color, race, nationality, or wealth. The superior people of the earth are the supermen, the God-men; the inferior people are those who have been called to that superior state but, as yet, have not embraced it."
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)
ST.
HIPPOYTUS -LEFTY DAY-TEA WEEK
1 Maccabees, Chapter 3, Verse 22
He
will crush them before us; so, do not FEAR them.
Judas Maccabee was able to defeat a much larger
force because he believed and was confident in God. Are you confident? We must
be Confident.
As Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati
said, “To live without faith,
without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for
truth –
that is not living, but existing.” Are you and I merely existing? Or are we living our Christian faith as men
fully alive? Recall the famous words of Pope
Emeritus Benedict XVI: “You were not made for comfort; you were
made for greatness.” Any greatness that we might merit as
Catholic men depends upon this fight for holiness. It is the same
fight Jesus Christ fought in the desert and the
same fight our Christian forefathers fought in order to hand down
the faith. Woe to us if we do not pick up the weapons of the Spirit
– offered to us freely – and accept them bravely and gratefully!
Courage, confidence, and
humble reliance on God’s
infinite resources are called for here as we engage. Forward!
Into
the breach![1]
Christians at Rome in Post-Apostolic Times[2]
The Saint of today-St. Hippoytus was a priest and a person of some importance
in the Church in Rome who in his book, “The Apostolic Traditions”, displays the
liturgical life of the Christian at Rome in the first centuries. Of interest is
the tradition of the hours.
Divine Office:
Sunrise-Lauds: "In like manner rise and pray at the hour at which the cock crows . . . full of hope look forward to the day of eternal light that will shine upon us eternally after the resurrection from the dead." Motivation for these "hour prayers" of the early Christians was the conviction that daily they were reliving Christ's death and resurrection. Every new day was a day of resurrection, and daily they were raised with Christ on the Cross. It is an example that should spur us on to give the Mass, the Breviary, and the Bible the place of honor in our lives.
6 a.m. Prime:
"All the faithful, men and women, upon rising in the morning before
beginning work, should wash their hands and pray to God."
12 p.m. Sext: "In a similar way you should pray again at the sixth hour. For at the time when Christ was nailed to the Cross, there came a great darkness. Prayer should therefore be said in imitation of Him who prayed at that hour, viz., Christ before His death."
3 p.m. None: "The ninth hour too should be made perfect by prayer and praise . . . in that hour Christ was pierced by the spear."
6 p.m. Vespers: "Once more ought you to pray before you go to bed."
Matins: "At midnight rise from your bed, wash
yourself and pray. If you have a wife, pray together in antiphonal fashion. If
she is not yet of the faith, withdraw and pray alone and return again to your
place. If you are bound by the bond of marriage duties, do not cease your
prayers, for you are not stained thereby. It is necessary that we pray at that
hour (i.e., Matins), for at that hour all creation is resting and praising God.
Stars, trees, water are as if they were standing still; all the hosts of angels
are holding divine services together with the souls of the just. They are
praising almighty God at that hour." What an inspiring passage!
Fitness Friday-Suffering[3]
When
I first started training for marathons a little over ten years ago, my coach told me something I’ve never
forgotten: that I would need to learn how to be comfortable with being
uncomfortable. I didn’t know it at the time, but that skill, cultivated
through running, would help me as much, if not more, off the road as it would
on it. It’s not just me, and it’s not just running.
Ask anyone whose day regularly includes a hard bike ride, sprints in the pool,
a complex problem on the climbing wall, or a progressive powerlifting circuit,
and they’ll likely tell you the same: A difficult conversation just doesn’t seem
so difficult anymore. A tight deadline is not so intimidating. Relationship
problems are not so problematic. Maybe it’s that if you’re regularly working
out, you’re simply too tired to care. But that’s probably not the case.
Research shows that, if anything, physical activity boosts short-term brain
function and heightens awareness. And even on days they don’t train — which
rules out fatigue as a factor — those who habitually push their bodies tend to
confront daily stressors with a stoic demeanor. While the traditional benefits
of vigorous exercise — like prevention and treatment of diabetes, heart
disease, stroke, hypertension, and osteoporosis — are well known and often
reported, the most powerful benefit might be the lesson that my coach imparted
to me: In a world where comfort is king, arduous physical activity provides a
rare opportunity to practice suffering. Few hone this
skill better than professional endurance and adventure athletes. Regardless of
sport, the most resounding theme, by far, is that they’ve all learned how to
embrace uncomfortable situations:
† Olympic marathoner Des Linden told
me that at mile 20 of 26.2, when the inevitable suffering kicks in, through
years of practice she’s learned to stay relaxed and in the moment. She repeats
the mantra: “calm, calm, calm; relax, relax, relax.”
† World-champion big-wave surfer Nic
Lamb says being uncomfortable, and even afraid, is a prerequisite to riding
four-story waves. But he also knows it’s “the path to personal development.”
He’s learned that while you can pull back, you can almost always push through.
“Pushing through is courage. Pulling back is regret,” he says.
† Free-soloist Alex Honnold explains
that, “The only way to deal with [pain] is practice. [I] get used to it during
training so that when it happens on big climbs, it feels normal.”
† Evelyn Stevens, the women’s record
holder for most miles cycled in an hour (29.81 – yes, that’s nuts), says that
during her hardest training intervals, “instead of thinking I want these to
be over, I try to feel and sit with the pain. Heck, I even try to embrace it.”
† Big-mountain climber Jimmy Chin,
the first American to climb up — and then ski down — Mt. Everest’s South Pillar
Route, told me an element of fear is there in everything he does, but he’s
learned how to manage it: “It’s about sorting out perceived risk from real
risk, and then being as rational as possible with what’s left.”
But
you don’t need to scale massive vertical pitches or run five-minute miles to
reap the benefits. Simply training for your first half marathon or CrossFit
competition can also yield huge dividends that carry over into other areas of
life. In the words of Kelly Starrett, one of the founding fathers of the
CrossFit movement, “Anyone can benefit from cultivating a physical practice.”
Science backs him up. A study published in the British Journal of Health Psychology found
that college students who went from not exercising at all to even a modest
program (just two to three gym visits per week) reported a decrease in stress,
smoking, alcohol and caffeine consumption, an increase in healthy eating and
maintenance of household chores, and better spending and study habits. In
addition to these real-life improvements, after two months of regular exercise,
the students also performed better on laboratory tests of self-control. This
led the researchers to speculate that exercise had a powerful impact on the
students’ “capacity for self-regulation.” In laypeople’s terms, pushing through
the discomfort associated with exercise — saying “yes” when their bodies and
minds were telling them to say “no” — taught the students to stay cool, calm,
and collected in the face of difficulty, whether that meant better managing
stress, drinking less, or studying more. For this
reason, the author Charles Duhigg, in his 2012 bestseller The
Power of Habit,
calls exercise a “keystone habit,” or a change in one area life that brings
about positive effects in other areas. Duhigg says keystone habits are powerful
because “they change our sense of self and our sense of what is possible.” This
explains why the charity Back on My
Feet uses running
to help individuals who are experiencing homelessness improve their situations.
Since launching in 2009, Back on My Feet has had over 5,500 runners, 40 percent
of whom have gained employment after starting to run with the group and 25
percent of whom have found permanent housing. This is also likely why it’s so
common to hear about people who started training for a marathon to help them
get over a divorce or even the death of a loved one.
Another study, this one published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology,
evaluated how exercise changes our physiological response to stress.
Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, in Germany, divided students
into two groups at the beginning of the semester and instructed half to run
twice a week for 20 weeks. At the end of the 20 weeks, which coincided with a
particularly stressful time for the students — exams — the researchers had the
students wear heart-rate monitors to measure their heart-rate variability,
which is a common indicator of physiological stress (the more variability, the
less stress). As you might guess by now, the students who were enrolled in the
running program showed significantly greater heart-rate variability. Their
bodies literally were not as stressed during exams: They were more comfortable
during a generally uncomfortable time. What’s
remarkable and encouraging about these studies is that the subjects weren’t
exercising at heroic intensities or volumes. They were simply doing something
that was physically challenging for them – going from no exercise to some
exercise; one need not be an elite athlete or fitness nerd to reap the
bulletproofing benefits of exercise. Why does
any of this matter? For one, articles that claim prioritizing big fitness goals
is a waste of time (exhibit A: “Don’t Run a
Marathon”) are
downright wrong. But far more important than internet banter, perhaps a broader
reframing of exercise is in order. Exercise isn’t just about helping out your
health down the road, and it’s certainly not just about vanity. What you do in
the gym (or on the roads, in the ocean, etc.) makes you a better,
higher-performing person outside of it. The truth, cliché as it may sound, is
this: When you develop physical fitness, you’re developing life fitness, too.
International Left-Handers Day[4]
International
Left-Handers Day is a day to bring attention to the struggles which lefties
face daily in a right-handed society. August 13th is observed as International
Left-Handers Day.
International
Left-Handers Day Facts
·
10%
of people are left-handed according to a report by Scientific American.
·
Geniuses
are more likely to be left-handed - 20% of the top scoring SAT takers are
left-handed.
·
In
2013, 31% of Major League Baseball pitchers are left-handed.
·
lefties:
Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Leonardo da Vinci
Afternoon Tea Week[5]
Sometimes the wait for
dinner is far too long, and lunch passed too many hours ago, and the length of
the day is starting to wear at you. When this happens, it’s time to settle in with a warm cup
of tea and some light sandwiches, take some time to appreciate the day, and
bolster yourself for the rest of the evening. Afternoon Tea Week taps into the
British Tradition of afternoon tea to help bring a bit of elegance and pomp to
an otherwise unremarkable time of day. Afternoon Tea Week was established to
help secure a tradition that has graced British afternoons since the 1840’s. In those days, dinner often wasn’t served until 8pm, and lunch wasn’t actually a thing, so what was a
hungry person to do? Create a new mini meal in the middle of the day of course!
Traditionally this meal contains tiny finger sandwiches, scones with jam and
clotted cream, and sweet dainties like cakes and pastries to help lift the
spirits, bolster energy, and see you through the rest of the day. This simple
afternoon meal grew into a social event, especially for those who spent their
lives in the upper echelons of the day’s
society. This became even more prominent once Queen Victoria herself took part
in this tradition. At that point the concept of the ‘tea reception’ was born, lavish and fancy
afternoon repasts that could host anywhere from a close collection of friends
to a couple hundred of society’s
most important faces. As the name suggests, tea was a central part of this
meal, a tradition started by Anna, 7th Duchess of Bedford. She often found
herself feeling weary or worn down in the middle of the day, and a pot of tea
with a snack just seemed to be the best way to take care of it. She soon
invited friends to join her for walks in the field, and the snowball that would
become Afternoon Tea began.
How to celebrate
Afternoon Tea Week
Celebrating Afternoon Tea
Week is simple, for the length of a week make a pause for Afternoon Tea a part
of your day. Warm tea, a few sweets, and a small repast will help lift your
spirits and drive you through the rest of your day. If you really want to go
all out you can organize a tea reception, and even go so far as to wear
Victorian Costume to honor the history of this holiday. Even if you just have a
cup of tea each day, remember Afternoon Tea Week and take a few breaths to Keep
Calm, and Carry On.
Daily Devotions
·
Offering to the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
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