Saturday of the Fourth Week of Easter
ST MATTHIAS-Novena St. Rita-Chicken
Dance Day
Ezekiel,
Chapter 11, Verse 8
You FEAR the sword—that sword I will bring
upon you—oracle of the Lord GOD.
Christ
said to Peter, “Put your sword back into
its sheath, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” (Mt.
26:52)
Violence
begets violence and takes us away from the will of God. For violent men death
and damnation is the usual final outcome. John Pridmore
is the exception by the grace of God. John says of himself:
I had what
I thought was everything. Money, power, girls, drugs the lot. But yet there was
something missing... This struck me more than ever, when I thought I had killed
someone. I knew I had to change my life... I now work full time for God. No one
pays me. I live completely off his providence, telling my story all over the
Earth.
Sampson
himself was also a violent man, who was born endowed with great physical
strength started out following God but failed to continue walking in the spirit
of He that Is. John Maxwell[1]
points out that like many men they failed toward the end of their life because
they dilute the vision God had given them and have become too comfortable with
their success and lack the self-control to overcome their weaknesses. John’s
advice to leaders is to be self-disciplined using a quote from Plato, “The first and best victory is to conquer
self.” John points out a five step plan to develop self-discipline in your
life.
1.
Develop and follow your priorities. Time is a precious commodity, do
what’s really important first and release yourself from the rest.
2.
Make a disciplined lifestyle your goal. Set up systems and routines to
ensure you feed the mind, body, spirit and love of neighbor daily.
3.
Challenge your excuses. We all make them; push the
envelope.
4.
Remove rewards until you finish the job. Eat your vegetables first.
5.
Stay focused on results. Focus on the outcomes and not the
difficulties in accomplishing it; envision the change.
Our model
for transformation: Jesus went up to the
mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. (Luke 6:12)
Feast of Saint Matthias, Apostle
The feast
of Saint Matthias[2]
was included in the Roman Calendar in the 11th century and celebrated on
the sixth day to the Calends of March (24 February usually, but 25 February in
leap years). In the revision of the General Roman
Calendar in
1969, his feast was transferred to 14 May, so as not to celebrate it in Lent but instead in Eastertide close to the Solemnity of the
Ascension, the
event after which the Acts of the Apostles recounts that Matthias was selected
to be ranked with the Twelve Apostles.
OF[3]
this apostle nothing certain is known beyond what is contained in the epistle.
In the Introit of the Mass the Church sings: “To me Thy friends, O God, are
made exceedingly honorable; their principality is exceedingly strengthened.
Lord, Thou hast proved me and known me; Thou hast known my sitting down and my
rising up.”
Prayer. O God, Who didst associate blessed
Matthias to the company of the apostles, grant, we beseech Thee, that, by his
intercession, we may ever experience Thy tender mercy towards us.
EPISTLE. Acts i.
15-26.
In
those days Peter rising up in the midst of the brethren said (now the number of
persons together was about a hundred and twenty): Men, brethren, the Scripture
must needs be fulfilled which the Holy Ghost spoke before by the mouth of David
concerning Judas, who was the leader of them that apprehended Jesus: who was
numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry. And he indeed hath
possessed a field of the reward of iniquity, and being hanged burst asunder in
the midst: and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the
inhabitants of Jerusalem: so that the same field was called in their tongue,
Haceldama, that is to say, The field of blood. For it is written in the book of
Psalms: Let their habitation become desolate, and let there be none to dwell
therein. And his bishopric let another take. Wherefore of these men who have
companied with us, all the time that the Lord Jesus came in and went out among
us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day wherein He was taken up
from us, one of these must be made a witness with us of His resurrection. And
they appointed two, Joseph, called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and
Matthias. And praying, they said: Thou, Lord, Who knowest the hearts of all
men, show whether of these two Thou hast chosen to take the place of this
ministry and apostleship, from which Judas hath by transgression fallen, that
he might go to his own place. And they gave them lots, and the lot fell upon
Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
GOSPEL. Matt. xi.
25-30.
At that time
Jesus answered and said I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed
them to little ones. Yea, Father: for so hath it seemed good in Thy sight. All
things are delivered to Me by My Father. And no one knoweth the Son, but the
Father: neither doth anyone know the Father, but the Son, and he to whom it
shall please the Son to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you that labor and are burdened,
and I will refresh you. Take up My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, because I am
meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. For My yoke
is sweet and My burden light. The wise and prudent referred to in this gospel
are the proud scribes and Pharisees, who, in their imaginary wisdom, would not receive
the incarnate and suffering Son of God, but despised and rejected Him; in
general, they represent also all who in their pride would measure everything by
their own understanding, and to whom, consequently, the mysteries of faith seem
foolishness. The little ones are the apostles, who, although taken from a low
condition of life, without a learned education, but rather ignorant, were
enlightened by God to know the deepest mysteries, because they had docile and
humble hearts, desirous of salvation. Thus, God gives grace to the humble,
while the proud go away empty. To those who bear His yoke, and follow Him,
Christ promises peace of mind, temporal and eternal happiness; and, indeed, we
must confess that as often as we are disquieted and discontented the cause of
it is our selfishness and want of submission to the will of God, our pride and
vanity. Learn, then, to love to be meek and humble, if you would enjoy peace,
here or here after.
Prayer
to St. Matthias. O
St. Matthias, glorious apostle and martyr of Jesus Christ, who, by the special
providence of God, wast added to the eleven apostles in the room of the
traitor, I humbly beseech thee to obtain for us the grace of Him Who chose thee
from all eternity, that, assisted thereby, we may, after thy example, keep the
commandments of God, practice good works, and thus merit to be numbered with
the elect. Amen.
Novena of St. Rita[4]
This novena prayer,
although short is sufficient. It would be better of course to add, if time
permits, three Hail Mary’s or say five times the Our Father, Hail Mary and
Glory be to the Father, or to use some of the many well-loved novena prayers
from other sources. Remember that prayers must be said with the lips in order
to gain the indulgences. This novena begins on May 14 and ends on May 22. Rita
is the patron of the impossible.
Prayer:
O
glorious St. Rita! You who so wonderfully participated in the Passion of our
Lord Jesus Christ, obtain for me the grace to suffer with patience the pains of
this life and protect me in all my needs.
Today
it is my daughter Dara Hope’s
birthday; (her name means: House of Compassion and Hope) please pray the Novena
of St. Rita for her. Also today is National Chicken Dance Day! Yes, she loves
to do the chicken dance.
Chicken Dance Day[5]
We’ve all seen it, it’s
utterly ridiculous and usually performed in a bout of intoxicant driven lunacy.
You tuck your hands into your armpits to make ‘wings’, and then you flap like
an idiot in time with some particularly unfortunate music. All that aside,
you’re having complete giggle fits with a bunch of your friends while you
behave in a fashion that has the local sanitarium eyeballing you for
membership. What are we talking about? The Chicken Dance of course! Chicken
Dance Day commemorates this dance and its origins, and even gives you a chance
to learn WHY anyone would do this terrible, terrible thing.
History of Chicken
Dance Day
“Der Ententanz” was the
name of the song that inspired all of this, and while the dance has come to be
called “The Chicken Dance”, the song itself is called The Duck Dance.
At least that was its original name, and now it has spread all over the world,
undergoing multiple name changes in the process. It has been known as
everything from The Little Bird Dance to De Vogeltjesdans, or
“The dance of the little birds.” This rendition was actually the B-Side of a
single released by a band called “De Electornica’s”. The A-Side simply wasn’t
being well received by the radio stations audiences, so they flipped it over.
At that moment, history was made and it rocketed to the Dutch charts and stayed
there for nearly a year. So much has its popularity exploded that it has been
recorded in no less than 140 versions with over 40,000,000 records published
over its lifetime. In 1981 the dance brought to Oktoberfest in the United
States, and due to a complete lack of duck costumes anywhere near the event,
they had to settle for chicken costumes instead. The result of which is the
name by which it is now known. The song responsible gets new covers done almost
every year, with new lyrics added all the time. That’s right, there’s lyrics.
You’re welcome.
How to Celebrate
Chicken Dance Day
Need we say it? The best
way to celebrate Chicken Dance Day is by getting out there and doing the
Chicken Dance! It’s quite simple, and it all starts with making a beak with
your hands, and ‘squawk’ them four times in beat with the music, then you make
wings as described earlier, and flap them four times in time with the music.
Then… ya know what? Just watch this: How to Chicken Dance.
Catechism
of the Catholic Church
PART ONE: THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
SECTION TWO I. THE CREEDS
CHAPTER TWO-I BELIEVE IN JESUS
CHRIST, THE ONLY SON OF GOD
Article
4 "JESUS CHRIST SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE, WAS CRUCIFIED, DIED AND WAS
BURIED"
Paragraph 3.
JESUS CHRIST WAS BURIED
Christ
in the tomb in his body
625 Christ's
stay in the tomb constitutes the real link between his passible state before
Easter and his glorious and risen state today. the same person of the
"Living One" can say, "I died, and behold I am alive for
evermore":
God
[the Son] did not impede death from separating his soul from his body according
to the necessary order of nature, but has reunited them to one another in the
Resurrection, so that he himself might be, in his person, the meeting point for
death and life, by arresting in himself the decomposition of nature produced by
death and so becoming the source of reunion for the separated parts.
626 Since
the "Author of life" who was killed is the same "living one
[who has] risen", The divine person of the Son of God necessarily
continued to possess his human soul and body, separated from each other by
death:
By
the fact that at Christ's death his soul was separated from his flesh, his one
person is not itself divided into two persons; for the human body and soul of
Christ have existed in the same way from the beginning of his earthly
existence, in the divine person of the Word; and in death, although separated
from each other, both remained with one and the same person of the Word.
"You
will not let your Holy One see corruption"
627 Christ's
death was a real death in that it put an end to his earthly human existence.
But because of the union his body retained with the person of the Son, his was
not a mortal corpse like others, for "divine power preserved Christ's body
from corruption." Both of these statements can be said of Christ:
"He was cut off out of the land of the living", and "My
flesh will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let
your Holy One see corruption." Jesus' Resurrection "on the third
day" was the proof of this, for bodily decay was held to begin on the
fourth day after death.
"Buried
with Christ. . ."
628 Baptism,
the original and full sign of which is immersion, efficaciously signifies the
descent into the tomb by the Christian who dies to sin with Christ in order to
live a new life. "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death,
so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too
might walk in newness of life."
IN
BRIEF
629 To
the benefit of every man, Jesus Christ tasted death (cf Heb 2:9). It is truly
the Son of God made man who died and was buried.
630 During
Christ's period in the tomb, his divine person continued to assume both his
soul and his body, although they were separated from each other by death. For
this reason, the dead Christ's body "saw no corruption" (Acts 13:37).
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Catholic Politian’s and Leaders
· Saturday Litany of the Hours
Invoking the Aid of Mother Mary
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Manhood of
the Master-week 12 day 7
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
· Make reparations to the Holy Face
· Total
Consecration to Mary Day 17
· Rosary
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