Monday, March 14, 2022
Monday 2nd week in Lent
LA FALLA DE SAN CHUSEP-PI DAY
But
now, thus says the LORD, who created you, Jacob, and formed you, Israel: Do not
FEAR, for I have redeemed you; I have
called you by name: you are mine.
God,
as the Ultimate Leader, consistently practices the Law of Sacrifice. Leaders
will do the illogical and surrender valuable possessions in order to fulfill
and capture their dream. Fortunately for us, we are God’s dream. Only through
the prophet Isaiah does God say directly to His people, “I love you.”[1]
The
Law of the Sacrifice – A Leader Must Give Up to Go Up[2]
If
you desire to become the best leader you can be, then you need to be willing to
make sacrifices in order to lead well. If that is your desire, then here are
some things you need to know about the Law of Sacrifice.
1) There Is No Success without
Sacrifice – Every person who has achieved any success in life has made
sacrifices to do so. Effective leaders sacrifice much that is good in order to
dedicate themselves to what is best.
2) Leaders Are Often Asked to Give
Up More Than Others –The heart of leadership is putting others ahead of
yourself. It’s doing what is best for the team. For that reason, leaders have
to give up their rights. The cost of leadership: Leaders must be willing to
give up more than the people they lead. Leadership means sacrifice.
3) You Must Keep Giving Up to Stay
Up – Leadership success requires continual change, constant improvement, and
ongoing sacrifice.
4) The Higher the Level of
Leadership, the Greater the Sacrifice – The higher you go, the more it’s going
to cost you. And it doesn’t matter what kind of leadership career you pick. You
will have to make sacrifices. You will have to give up to go up.
The Value
of Fasting[3]
Prayer and fasting are extraordinary means (we may call them violent means) when other simpler ways are of no avail against the powers of hell. Look into the earthly life of our Savior. He is our model. He dwelt with us in order to teach us how to form our lives inwardly and outwardly. Christ Himself fasted often and accorded it high praise in His teaching. Recall how He fasted forty days before entering upon His work of teaching. At the beginning of Lent the Church wishes to stamp this fact deep in our hearts: our fasting must be in union with and in imitation of Christ's. Recall when the disciples were unable to cure a possessed boy, asked, "Why could we not cast him out?" and Jesus answered, "This kind can be driven out in no way except by prayer and fasting" (Mark 9:29). Now another saying of Jesus comes to mind. When John's disciples began to reproach Him, "Why do Your disciples not fast?" He replied: "Can you make the wedding guests fast as long as the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; in those days they will fast" (Luke 5:35). There is a hidden depth of meaning in these words. The coming of Christ among men was a wedding feast. Fasting had no place. But it is most proper to fast when the divine Bridegroom is taken away. Fasting on Fridays and during Holy Week, then, is in accord with Christ's own wishes. Once our Savior compared Himself with the Baptist in these words, "John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a devil!’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold a glutton and a wine drinker.’" John was a man devoted to penance, an ascetic, who fasted throughout his life. Not so Christ. His way of living was not based exclusively upon self-denial and mortification, but upon an ordered enjoyment of life. So, we learn from the Savior that fasting should be the exception, not the rule, in Christian morality. Let us consider the passage in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus speaks of the three important pious exercises of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. He highly recommends all three but warns against practicing these virtues in a pharisaical manner.
The main
points in Jesus' doctrine on fasting, then, are:
- Fasting is an extremely important means of
resisting the inroads of hell (hence Lent).
- Fasting should be practiced as a memorial of
Christ's death (Friday, Holy Week).
- Fast days occur by way of exception in
Christian life, they are not the normal practice.
- Fasting holds a place alongside prayer and
almsgiving as a pious exercise.
Examination
of Conscience (Daily)
We should
along with our morning offering to God and reception of the sacraments of
confession and Holy Communion do some daily accounting if we are going to make
improvements. We should try to see ourselves and ask God to help us see our day
as He sees it by examining our conscience. Spiritual writers usually divide the
daily examination into two parts general and particular.
The
general exam is an overall review of the day and should be done in the evening
and the particular exam is done throughout the day on how we are doing in those
areas where our rebellion is the greatest or in acquiring a certain virtue.
The
general examination is a weapon of defense. The particular exam is of attack.
The first is the shield. The second is the sword (St. Josemaria Escriva).
Most
people make their general exam near bedtime (This should cure any sleeping
problems). Some people make their particular exam at noon so they can redouble
efforts for the rest of the day. In the evening when we do the general exam, we
should consider the whole day both the big things and the little.
·
I always ask our Lord, what Have I done NOT SO well
today; and listen?
·
Next comes the question, “Lord, what have I done
well?
One aspiration
we should have in our arsenal that we can use at the end is “Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” One thing not to do is give
up. Ask Him for help. Gaining a virtue or losing a habit of sin might take
time; but we will WIN.
Monday
2nd week in Lent[4]
Prayer.
BE propitious, O Lord, to our prayers, and heal the desires of our souls, that,
having received forgiveness, we may ever rejoice in Thy benediction.
EPISTLE,
in. Kings xvii. 8-16.
In those days: The word of the Lord
came to Elias, the Thesbite, saying: Arise, and go to Sarephta a city of the
idonians, and dwell there: for I have commanded a widow woman there to feed
thee. He arose and went to Sarephta. And when he was come to the gate of the
city, he saw the widow woman gathering sticks, and he called her, and said to
her: Give me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. And when she was
going to fetch it, he called after her, saying: Bring me also, I beseech thee,
a morsel of bread in thy hand. And she answered: As the Lord thy God liveth, I
have no bread, but only a handful of meal in a pot, and a little oil in a
cruse: behold I am gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it, for me
and my son, that we may eat it and die. And Elias said to her: Fear not but go
and do as thou hast said: but first make for me of the same meal a little
hearth-cake and bring it to me: and after make for thyself and thy son. For
thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: The pot of meal shall not waste, nor the
cruse of oil be diminished, until the day wherein the Lord will give rain upon
the face of the earth. She went and did according to the word of Elias: and he
ate, and she and her house: and from that day the pot of meal wasted not, and
the cruse of oil was not diminished, according to the word of the Lord, which
He spoke in the hand of Elias.
GOSPEL.
Matt, xxiii. 1-12.
Explanation.
The law of God imposes certain obligations on us. The priest and the teacher
teach God’s Gospel in His name, and we shall be judged if we refuse to believe
God’s truth and, in His Church, because our teachers may not practice what they
preach.
Italy is not the only country that claims great love for Saint Joseph. Here's an explanation of the festivities in Valencia, Spain.
·
Among
the many folk festivals of Spain which each year attract large numbers of
tourists, Saint Joseph's Day in Valencia takes a unique position. La Falla
de San Chusep, as it is called in the local dialect, has been celebrated
for centuries, and it is perhaps the most spectacular, the most colorful of all
Spanish holidays. It starts on March 13 and attains its gala climax six days
later, after a solid week of fun and festivities.
·
San
Chusep (St. Joseph) is the patron saint of Valencia, and since the sixteenth
century his day has been celebrated by the city's artisans and craftsmen with a
great deal of zest, humor, and originality. In the Valencian dialect, falla
means "pyre." It seems that the term originated in the annual custom
of the carpenters who cleaned their shops of shavings and discarded wood at
this time of the year and burned the debris with a short ceremony. With the
scraps, a comical wooden figure depicting the most inept and backward of the
carpenter's apprentices was thrown into the flames. Eventually this developed
into a local tradition with all the guilds participating in the burning of
humorous and satirical effigies of animals, people, or subjects of local or
national ridicule and scorn. Apparently the falla figures are also a
product of Baroque art, with its emphasis on painting on wood, for which
Valencia's craftsmen became justly famous.
·
Today,
each guild, club, or association builds a falla of wood or papier-mâché.
A queen, la reine del Falla, is chosen, and a band accompanies the
queen, her court, and the falla to the contest on the main plaza of
Valencia. The lavish preparations for the festival attract artists and
musicians from the provinces who help the various groups build and exhibit
their entries to the contest of falla During the week, bullfights are
held every day. The streets are jammed with visitors admiring the fallas.
In decorated booths and pavilions food and drinks are being served. And in the
streets and on the city squares people dance to the music of the innumerable
bands which accompany the fallas.
·
The
best productions in art and music are judged for subject-matter and
presentation and awarded prizes. The most outstanding falla is
transferred to a special museum which harbors the prize winners of previous
years. On March 19, at midnight, all the other fallas, some towering
three stories in height, are burned in huge bonfires. Strings of firecrackers
explode around the plaza, and elaborate fireworks illuminate the scene with
brilliant flashes of color. As each falla crumbles into ashes, the
crowds shout with glee amidst the furiously burning pyres. As the fires slowly
burn down to the last embers, the merrymakers leave the scene, exhausted and
jubilant, already dreaming of next year, of the next falla.
Preparing
for Battle[6]
Know
Your Enemy
Be
sober, be watchful! For your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, goes about
seeking someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith. (1 Peter 5: 8–
9)
Like it or not, you are at war. No
matter who you are— whether or not you know it— you have a mortal enemy who
wants to destroy you, not just in this life, but in the next. No matter where
you live on this planet— whether or not you can see it— you live on a hotly
contested battlefield, and you can’t escape the conflict. It’s a spiritual war
with crucial consequences in your everyday life. And the outcome of that war
will determine your eternal destiny. The first rule of any type of warfare is
to know your enemy.
·
Your
adversary is the Devil, with his army of demons. Your battle with him rages not
only all around you, but also within you, a fierce conflict for control of your
mind, your heart, and your ultimate destiny.
·
Those
who deny the devils existence are easy prey.
Pi Day[7]
Pi Day celebrates the mathematical
constant π (pi) or 3.141592653... . Pi is the ratio between the
circumference (the distance around the circle) and diameter (the distance
through the center of the circle). Pi is a constant, therefore it will be the
same for circles of all sizes. Pi is a special number due to its infinite and
patternless nature, meaning that the digits after the decimal point never
repeat themselves in a specific order. Pi Day celebrations originated in 1988
at the San Francisco Exploratorium when Larry Shaw, a physicist at the
Exploratorium, organized the first Pi Day. It was held on March 14th
(3/14), given that the first digits of Pi are 3.14. Celebrations at the
Exploratorium included taking young museum visitors on a parade to the Pi
Shrine, which is a round brass plaque fixed on the floor of the museum and
serving fruit pies to visitors. Since then, Pi Day celebrations have spread
both nationally and globally. On March 12, 2009, the U.S. House of
Representatives recognized March 14, 2009 as National Pi Day.
Pi
Day Facts & Quotes
·
In
2015 at 9:26:53 (AM and PM), all of the first ten digits of Pi (3.141592653)
were present in the date and time.
·
Pi
is an irrational number, meaning it cannot be expressed properly as a fraction.
·
Albert
Einstein, widely referred to as the father of modern physics, was born on March
14, 1879. Therefore, Pi Day also recognizes Einstein's birthday.
·
According
to the Guinness World Records, Rajveer Meena from India holds the record for
memorizing the most decimal places of Pi. On March 21, 2015, Meena wore a
blindfold and recalled 70,000 decimal places of Pi over a period of 10 hours.
·
Pi
is not just a collection of random digits, pi is a journey; an experience;
unless you try to see the natural poetry that exists in pi, you will find it
very difficult to learn. – Dr. Antranig Basman, Mathematician and Software
Developer
Pi
Day Top Events and Things to Do
·
Memorize
as many digits of Pi as you can (remember, the World Record Holder was able to memorize
70,000 decimal places of pi).
·
Eat
a pie to celebrate Pi day and earn bonus points if you can calculate Pi for
your pie's circumference! Here are some twists on traditional pies that
you can try:
1) Avocado and cream cheese pie
2) Cheeseburger and pickle pie made from ground beef, cheese, and chopped dill
pickles
3) Mac and Cheese Pie topped with bacon
4) Hot dog pie covered with a layer of cheese
5) Twinkie pie topped with whipped cream
·
Practice
your geometry and algebra equations that contain the constant Pi. Here are some
useful formulas to help you:
Circumference of a circle = 2 πr
Area of a Circle = π r^2
Volume of a Cylinder = π r^2h
where r=radius and h=height
·
Go
for a 3.14km walk to celebrate Pi Day.
·
Watch
movies about mathematics:
1) Good Will Hunting (1997)
2) A Beautiful Mind (2001)
3) The Number 23 (2007)
4) Rain Man (1988)
5) The Theory of Everything (2014)
Catechism
of the Catholic Church
V.
Practical indications for the use of this Catechism
18 This catechism is conceived as an organic
exposition of the entire Catholic faith. It is necessary,
therefore, to read it as a unit. For this reason, in the margins of the
text the reader is frequently referred to other places (indicated by smaller
numbers and which refer in turn to other paragraphs that deal with the same
topic) and, with the help of the analytical index at the end of the volume,
each theme is allowed to be seen in its connection with the whole of the faith.
Daily Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Today's Fast: Catholic
Politian’s and Leaders.
·
54 Day Rosary
for Priest’s and Religious Day 23
·
Total Consecration
to St. Joseph Day 27
·
Manhood of
the Master-week 4 day 2
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
· Make reparations to the Holy Face
· Nine
Choirs of Angels Devotion
· Monday: Litany of
Humility
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