Fourteenth Sunday after
Pentecost
TERESA OF CALCUTTA
Isaiah, chapter 35,
verse 3-4
3
Strengthen hands that are feeble, make firm knees that are weak, 4 Say to the FEARFUL
of heart: Be strong, do not FEAR! Here is your God, he comes with
vindication; With divine recompense he comes to save you.
Remember to prepare. Isaiah in this chapter is proclaiming the deliverance of Israel specifically but upon examining the wording in this verse it is referring to the day of our death. On that day our hands will be feeble, but our hearts must remain strong. Will you be vindicated and what recompense will be due you? Honestly few will be due recompense, but our Lords love is such that he wishes to save us at this final hour with the sacrament which was formerly called the “Last Rites”.
1524 In addition to the Anointing of the Sick, the Church offers those who are about to leave this life the Eucharist as viaticum. Communion in the body and blood of Christ, received at this moment of "passing over" to the Father, has a particular significance and importance. It is the seed of eternal life and the power of resurrection, according to the words of the Lord: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." The sacrament of Christ once dead and now risen, the Eucharist is here the sacrament of passing over from death to life, from this world to the Father.
1525 Thus, just as the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist form a unity called "the sacraments of Christian initiation," so too it can be said that Penance, the Anointing of the Sick and the Eucharist as viaticum constitute at the end of Christian life "the sacraments that prepare for our heavenly homeland" or the sacraments that complete the earthly pilgrimage.
Such is the Love of our Lord that we should be delivered. His love is such that by receiving our Lord in the viaticum he delivers us to the Father saying here is blood of my blood and He transfers His recompense; His vindication to us. There is no greater love then this!
The Last Blessing
Let us pray. Most gracious God, Father of mercies and God of all consolation, Thou wish none to perish that believes and hopes in Thee, according to Thy many mercies look down favorably upon Thy servant (handmaid) N.____ whom true faith and Christian hope commend to Thee. Visit him (her) in Thy saving mercy, and by the passion and death of Thy only begotten Son, graciously grant to him (her) forgiveness and pardon of all his (her) sins that his (her) soul in the hour of its leaving the earth may find Thee as a Judge appeased, and being washed from all stain in the Blood of Thy same Son may deserve to pass to everlasting life. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
Lord, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve you
as you deserve; to give and not to count the cost…to labor and not to ask for
reward, except to know that I am doing your will. (Saint Ignatius, Prayer for
Generosity)
Lord, let me not fear death with an empty fear, but with a wise and holy fear. An empty fear does not make men any better, but a wise and holy fear urges them to improve their lives. I will prepare for death by trying today to please you more and more in my thoughts, desires, words and actions. If I live this day as You desire, I shall be ready at any moment, and death will be nothing worse than Your loving call. Amen[1]
ON KEEPING THE LORDS DAY HOLY[2]
CHAPTER III
DIES ECCLESIAE
The Eucharistic Assembly:
Heart of Sunday
The table of the word
39. As in every Eucharistic
celebration, the Risen Lord is encountered in the Sunday assembly at the
twofold table of the word and of the Bread of Life. The table of the word
offers the same understanding of the history of salvation and especially of the
Paschal Mystery which the Risen Jesus himself gave to his disciples: it is
Christ who speaks, present as he is in his word "when Sacred Scripture is
read in the Church". At the table of the Bread of Life, the Risen Lord
becomes really, substantially and enduringly present through the memorial of
his Passion and Resurrection, and the Bread of Life is offered as a pledge of
future glory. The Second Vatican Council recalled that "the Liturgy of the
Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist are so closely joined together that they
form a single act of worship". The Council also urged that "the table
of the word of God be more lavishly prepared for the faithful, opening to them
more abundantly the treasures of the Bible". It then decreed that, in
Masses of Sunday and holy days of obligation, the homily should not be omitted
except for serious reasons. These timely decrees were faithfully embodied in
the liturgical reform, about which Paul VI wrote, commenting upon the richer
offering of biblical readings on Sunday and holy days: "All this has been
decreed so as to foster more and more in the faithful 'that hunger for hearing
the word of the Lord' (Am 8:11) which, under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, spurs the People of the New Covenant on towards the perfect unity of the
Church".
Fourteenth
Sunday after Pentecost[3]
Seeking the kingdom of God and its justice.
AT the Introit of the Mass, join with the priest in awaking in your heart a fervent desire for heaven by these words: Behold, O God, our protector, and look on the face of Thy Christ; for better is one day in Thy courts above thousands. How lovely are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord” (Ps. Ixxxiii.).
Prayer. Preserve Thy Church, we beseech Thee, O Lord, with perpetual mercy, and since without Thee mortal man goes astray, may we be ever withheld by Thy grace from what is hurtful, and directed to what is profitable.
EPISTLE. Gal. v. 10-24.
Brethren: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the
lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit: and the spirit
against the flesh; for these are contrary one to another: so that you do not
the things that you would. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under
the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are, fornication,
uncleanness, immodesty, luxury, idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, contentions,
emulations, wraths, quarrels, dissensions, sects, envies, murders, drunkenness,
reveling, and such like, of which I foretell you, as I have foretold to you,
that they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God. But the fruit
of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity,
mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity. Against such there is no law.
And they that are Christ’s have crucified their flesh with the vices and
concupiscence’s.
What is it to walk in the Spirit? It is, in all things and at all times, to follow the inspirations of the Holy Spirit and not merely to abstain from the works of the flesh, but rather to crucify the flesh and its lusts, and earnestly to aspire after those fruits which the Holy Ghost produces in men? such as charity, peace, and joy. So shall we belong to Christ, and become partakers of eternal life. Is it not wonderful that while all Christians desire to belong to Christ, and to be heirs of His kingdom, they are unwilling to crucify the flesh with its vices and concupiscence’s, and to destroy its lusts, as though they believed this to be required only of the clergy, whereas it is to all Christians that Christ says: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (Matt. xvi. 24.)
GOSPEL. Matt vi. 24-33.
At that time Jesus said to His disciples: No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore, I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat, and the body more than the raiment? Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they? And which of you by taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow: they labor not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these. And if the grass of the field, which is to-day, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little faith! Be not solicitous therefore, saying: What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God and His justice: and all these things shall be added unto you.
What is meant by serving God? Doing the will of God in all things which He requires of us, in whatever state of life we may be placed, and doing this with fidelity, with unwearied zeal, and out of love for Him.
Who are the two masters whom we cannot serve at the same time? God and an inordinate desire for worldly gain. One cannot serve both, because they demand things that are contradictory.
Who are they that serve mammon, or worldly wealth? The avaricious, who, impelled by their longing for riches, offend God by manifold transgressions of His commandments.
Why does Christ refer us to the birds of the air and the lilies of the field? To awaken in us confidence in Divine Providence. If God feeds the young ravens (Ps. cxlvi. 9) and the birds of the air if He decks so beautifully the flowers of the field, how much more will He not care for men, whom He has created after His own image, and adopted as His children.
Are we, then, to use no care or labor? That by no means follows from what has been said. The Savior forbids only that anxiety, proceeding from little faith, which, in striving for maintenance, neglects God’s honor and commandments, and the good of one’s soul. For the rest, God Himself has commanded man to labor (Gen. iii. 17-19); and St. Paul says, “If any man will not work, neither let him eat” (n. Thess. iii. 10).
What should preserve us from excessive anxiety? A firm and living faith that God can and will help us. That He can is clear, because He is almighty; that He will is certain, for the reason that He is love that He has promised it to us, more than once, most expressly, and that He is faithful in keeping His promises. Let us, then, trust in God, and daily renew our confidence in Him, particularly when we say the Creed, or when, in the Our Father, we pray, Give us this day our daily bread.
Consolation in Poverty
In your misery and poverty, say often, with Job: “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; as it hath pleased the Lord so it is done; blessed be the name of the Lord (Job i.21). Or seek comfort in these words: “We lead indeed a poor life, but we shall have many good things if we fear God and depart from all sin and do that which is good” (Job iv.23).
Warning against Usury (or price gouging)
Usury is that
mortal sin which takes advantage of our neighbor’s poverty and need to extort
from him what is justly his own. Would that usurers might bear in mind what the
Lord says: “What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the
loss of his own soul?” (Matt. xvi. 26.)
The Lord's Day must be kept holy
by participating in Sunday Mass
By St. Pope John Paul II
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
1. The Apostolic Letter Dies Domini on keeping Sunday holy will be published next Tuesday, 7 July. I signed it on 31 May, the day of Pentecost, to emphasize that it is a special fruit of this year which, during the immediate preparation for the Jubilee, is especially dedicated to reflection on the Holy Spirit.
It is, in fact, the Holy Spirit who continually brings to the Church's remembrance the riches of the mystery of Redemption and helps believers in every generation to rediscover and to live them.
Indeed, the
rediscovery of Sunday is one of the urgent priorities in the life of the
Christian community today. For many people, in fact, this day risks being
considered and lived merely as the "weekend". But Sunday is quite
different: it is the day of the week when the Church celebrates Christ's
Resurrection. It is the weekly Easter!
That is why it is the "Lord's Day" par excellence, as its very name "domenica" recalls, retained in Italian and other languages, which corresponds to the Latin "dies dominica" or "dies Domini".
2. In obedience to the third commandment, Sunday must be kept holy, above all by participation in Holy Mass.
There was a time in traditionally Christian countries when this was made easier by the whole cultural context. Today, in order to remain faithful to Sunday practice, it is often necessary to go "against the tide".
Thus, a renewed consciousness of faith is necessary.
Do not be afraid, dear friends, to open your time to Christ! Time given to him is not wasted; on the contrary, it is time gained for our humanity; it is time which fills our days with light and hope.
With this Apostolic Letter I would like first of all to address Pastors, sharing with them this basic pastoral concern. I would also like, in a certain sense, to have an open-hearted dialogue with all the individual members of the faithful, as I am accustomed to doing on my visits to the parishes of Rome. I intend to return to this theme during our forthcoming Sunday meetings for the Angelus.
I offer this new document to you all, dear brothers and sisters, at the beginning of this holiday season of legitimate relaxation, but one which does not mean a time of "emptiness". Why not take this booklet with you and devote a few hours to quietly reading it? It might prove, at least in certain respects, to be an interesting "discovery".
3. We pray that
the Blessed Virgin will prepare the Christian community to accept the message
of this Apostolic Letter. May she spur the faithful to ask themselves about the
way they spend Sunday and encourage Pastors to give this topic all the
importance it deserves, despite the difficulties of our time. This will also be
a valuable contribution to the celebration of the Great Jubilee.
After praying
the Angelus, the Holy Father said:
Teresa of Calcutta[4]
Mother Teresa of Calcutta,
known as the "saint of the gutters", feast day will be September 5
for the church calendar, during her life, was declared a saint of the Roman
Catholic Church by Pope Francis (September 4, 2016) just 19 years after her
death. A Nobel peace laureate, her legacy complements Pope Francis's vision of
a humble church that strives to serve the poor. Francis said she was a
"dispenser of divine mercy" and held world powers to account
"for the crimes of poverty they created. For Mother Teresa, mercy was the
salt which gave flavor to her work, it was the light which shone in the
darkness of the many who no longer had tears to shed for their poverty and
suffering. She showed we can't all do everything, but little gestures made with
so much love are what's important."
Foundation of Love[5]
John
McCain in his book “Character is Destiny” stated Mother Teresa shows us how
mercy is the only way to find contentment by being selfless. Great
leadership is based on a foundation of love. McCain states, “She chose to live
amid squalor and sickness and desperation, endured hardship and endless toil,
and might have been the happiest person on earth.” Mother did not flee from the
Lord; nor did she fear anyone. When the Lord called her; she knew the call was
authentic because it filled her with joy.
The
first counsel of Mother Teresa is to put your hand in His and walk all the way
with Him. When you hear the call to follow follow. To Mother Teresa it was
never more complicated than that. To her care of the dying was the purest
expression of love. Who around you is dying-physically, emotionally or
spiritually? Love might not heal every wound of disease, but it heals the
heart. McCain notes that Mother Teresa showed that rather than chasing
ambition the greatest contentment comes from having a foundation of love. “She
loved and was loved, and her happiness was complete.”
International Day of Charity[6]
The International Day of Charity
seeks to promote and recognize charity and its role in easing humanitarian
crises and suffering in the world. The day also serves to recognize the work of
charitable organizations and individuals around the globe whose philanthropic
actions have contributed to the creation of more inclusive and resilient
societies. The International Day of Charity was designated by the United Nations
General Assembly in an effort to mobilize the world to help others. The day is
celebrated every year on September 5th, the anniversary of the death of Mother
Theresa of Calcutta, one of the most philanthropic individuals of our time.
Mother Theresa passed away in 1997 at the age of 87 after a lifetime of
charitable work with the sick and dying in India.
International
Day of Charity Facts & Quotes
·
Any
charity donations that are made are tax deductible in many countries the year
they are made.
·
Americans
donated approximately 2% of their disposable income to charity in 2014. This
amount has remained constant over the past decade, despite large fluctuations
in the economy.
·
The
annual average US household charitable donation is $2,974.
·
98.4%
of high earning households give to charity and 63% say that a major motivation
for their donations is to give back to the community.
·
Let
us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love. –
Mother Teresa, world-renowned nun and missionary.
International
Day of Charity Top Events and Things to Do
·
Watch
a movie about the impact and importance of charitable work. Some suggestions
are: Pay it Forward (2000), It Could Happen to You (1994), and The Letters
(2014).
·
Spread
awareness about the holiday by using the hashtags #InternationalDayofCharity,
#Charity and #MamaT.
·
Buy
a book
that directly supports charity. All net proceeds from any of the books listed
go directly to charity. Ready a great story and support a good cause all at
once!
·
Donate
to your favorite charity. If you do not have a charity of choice, Charity Navigator can help you find one. There’s a charity that just
about everyone can find reason to support out there. Check out Cross
Catholic Outreach
·
Read
a book about the impact and importance of charitable work and about the
charitable life that Mother Teresa led. Some suggestions are: Abundance, Systems
Thinking for Social Change, Start Something that Matters, The Joy in Loving and
Mother Teresa: A Simple Path.
Daily Devotions
·
Today in honor of the
Holy Trinity do the Divine Office giving your day to God. To honor God REST: no
shopping after 6 pm Saturday till Monday. Don’t forget the internet.
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Today's Fast: Authentic
Feminism
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Make
reparations to the Holy Face
·
Go to MASS
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