Full Strawberry Moon
According to the almanac today we are having a Full Strawberry Moon; plan to spend make homemade strawberry ice cream and share with your children or grandchildren. Teach them the value of not saying a bad word about others.
Introduction to Micah
This book
consists of a collection of speeches, proclamations of punishment and of
salvation, attributed to the prophet Micah which consists almost entirely of
prophecies of punishment, and prophecies of salvation. The second section moves
from prophecies of punishment to confidence in God’s salvation. Micah was a
contemporary of the prophet Isaiah. His prophetic activity was during the
reigns of three kings of Judah: Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. It identifies him
as a resident of Moresheth, a village in the Judean foothills. Micah during the
reign of Hezekiah went from his small town to proclaim the word of the Lord in
the capital, and his announcements of judgment against Jerusalem moved the king
and the people to repentance. Unlike Isaiah, who was a native of the holy city,
Micah was an outsider from the countryside and must have been a controversial
figure. He would have been unpopular with the leaders whom he condemned and the
wealthy whom he criticized. He was quick to separate himself from priests and
other prophets, whom he considered to be corrupt.
Tradition considers all of
the words to be the recorded speeches of Micah, and some contemporary
commentators agree. On the other hand, some modern scholars have thought of
Micah as exclusively a prophet of doom, and therefore attributed as few as
three of the seven chapters to him. The Book of Micah is focused on Jerusalem,
Zion, and the Judean leadership. The Micah who speaks in this prophetic book
knows the tradition that Zion is the Lord’s chosen place, but he is critical of
the popular view that this election ensures the city’s security. Through the
prophetic voice, the Lord announces the impending punishment of God’s people by
means of military defeat and exile because of their failure to establish
justice. After that punishment God will bring the people back to their land and
establish perpetual peace. The will of
God for human beings is that they do justice, love goodness, and walk humbly
with God.[1]
JUNE 13 Monday
ST. ANTHONY
Micah, Chapter 6,
verse 9-10:
9 The LORD cries aloud to the city (It is prudent to FEAR your
name!): Hear, O tribe and city assembly, 10Am I to bear criminal hoarding and the
accursed short ephah?
Israel was the chosen people, yet they did not fear the Lord. God asks through the prophet a rhetorical question. Is He to bear criminal hoarding and cheating during the sale of goods?
We are to be sons and daughters of God. We must be generous as He is generous. A great example for us to aspire is Mother Teresa who showed us how mercy is the only way to find contentment through selflessness. “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 go along. 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 are 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.” [2]
The will
of God for human beings is that they do justice, love goodness, and walk humbly
with God
Greed[3]
Criminal
hoarding, cheating, bribing, shorting on scales and skimming are all signs of a
person consumed by greed. As things become more important than people wars and
genocide can ensue. One example is the horror of Rowanda. In Rowanda
authorities played on popular fears and greed, some people picked up their
machetes and came readily.
Apostolic Exhortation[4]
Veneremur
Cernui – Down in Adoration Falling
of The Most
Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted, Bishop of Phoenix,
to Priests, Deacons, Religious and the Lay Faithful of the Diocese of Phoenix
on the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist
My
beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Part III
Loving and Adoring the
Eucharistic Lord
IV. Invite a friend to join you
in adoration.
85. Call to mind a loved one
who feels himself or herself to be far from the Church. Think of a friend who
finds the Mass difficult to understand and to engage. Consider an acquaintance
in your life who does not believe in God or in Christ. Now imagine each of
these persons sitting quietly and peacefully next to you in a beautiful place
of adoration for ten minutes of Eucharistic adoration. What gentle but profound
effect might it have in his or her heart?
86. The Gospels present a clear
pattern in which Jesus makes Himself present to people before He teaches, and
certainly long before He draws them into His act of worship in His Paschal
Mystery. We might say the general pattern is: first His presence, then His
worship. The Lord is present in many ways. But do we trust that the Eucharistic
Christ can and will touch the hearts of our friends, if we but invite them to
be near Him there?
87. Of course, it takes
prudence and discernment to know when and how to offer such an invitation. But
the times for such friendly invitations do come! In the Gospels we see persons
bringing others into the bodily presence of Christ in various ways. I’ll
mention three different approaches which are instructive for us today:
testimony, invitation, and carrying.
To be continued…
Which are the fruits of the Holy Ghost? They are the twelve following:
1. Charity.
2.
Joy.
3. Peace.
4. Patience.
5. Benignity.
6. Goodness.
7. Longsuffering.
8. Mildness.
9. Faith.
10. Modesty.
11.
Continency.
12.
Chastity.
These fruits
should be visible in the Christian, for thereby men shall know that the Holy
Ghost dwells in him, as the tree is known by its fruit.
Notice I have
placed the Fruits of the Holy Spirit in stairstep fashion so we may
reflect on them seeing that by concentrating on each step of our growth in the
spirit we may progress closer and closer to our heavenly Father. Today we will
be focusing on the seventh step which is Benignity.
St.
Anthony[5]
Anthony is one of the most popular saints in the Church. He is the patron of lost things and numerous other causes. In Brazil, he is considered a general of the army; he is the patron of the poor and has been recognized as a wonderworker from the moment of his death. He was born in Portugal and entered the Augustinian monastery of Sao Vicente in Lisbon when he was fifteen. When news of the Franciscan martyrs in Morocco reached him, he joined the Franciscans at Coimbra. At his own request, he was sent as a missionary to Morocco, but he became ill, and on his return journey his boat was driven off course and he landed in Sicily. He took part in St. Francis' famous Chapter of Mats in 1221 and was assigned to the Franciscan province of Romagna. He became a preacher by accident. When a scheduled preacher did not show up for an ordination ceremony at Forli, the Franciscan superior told Anthony to go into the pulpit. His eloquence stirred everyone, and he was assigned to preach throughout northern Italy. Because of his success in converting heretics, he was called the "Hammer of Heretics" and because of his learning, St. Francis himself appointed him a teacher of theology. St. Anthony of Padua was such a forceful preacher that shops closed when he came to town, and people stayed all night in church to be present for his sermons. He became associated with Padua because he made this city his residence and the center of his great preaching mission. After a series of Lenten sermons in 1231, Anthony's strength gave out and he went into seclusion at Camposanpiero but soon had to be carried back to Padua. He did not reach the city but was taken to the Poor Clare convent at Arcella, where he died. He was thirty-six years old, and the whole city of Padua turned out in mourning for his passing. He was canonized within a year of his death and was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XII in 1946.
Patron: Against
shipwrecks; against starvation; against starving; American Indians; amputees;
animals; asses; barrenness; boatmen; Brazil; diocese of Beaumont, Texas;
domestic animals; elderly people; expectant mothers; faith in the Blessed
Sacrament; Ferrazzano, Italy; fishermen; harvests; horses; Lisbon, Portugal;
lost articles; lower animals; mail; mariners; oppressed people; Padua, Italy;
paupers; poor people; Portugal; pregnant women; sailors; seekers of lost
articles; shipwrecks; starvation; starving people; sterility; swineherds; Tigua
Indians; travel hostesses; travellers; watermen.
Things to
Do
·
St. Anthony was a great lover of the poor.
Deprive yourself of some treat and put the money saved in the poor box.
·
St. Anthony's Bread refers to an episode told in
the Rigaldina, the oldest life of St. Anthony. A Paduan mother, who
lived near the Basilica during its construction, had left little Thomas, her 20-month-old
son, alone in the kitchen. The little boy, while playing, ended up headfirst in
a tub of water. His mother found him lifeless. She screamed desperately but she
didn't give up. She called on the Saint. She made a vow: if she obtained the
blessing of her child back to life, she would donate to the poor bread equal to
the weight of her son to the poor. Her prayer was answered. Read
more about St. Anthony's Bread and consider donating to St. Anthony's
charities.
·
St. Anthony is invoked by women in search of
good husbands, so if you're single and in search of a spouse, today is a good
day to make a visit to a church or shrine dedicated to St. Anthony to make your
petition to this generous saint!
·
Because St. Anthony was buried on a Tuesday and
many miracles accompanied his funeral, Tuesdays are special days of honoring
him throughout the year. It is customary to pray a Novena
to him on thirteen consecutive Tuesdays.
The '20-5-3' Rule-How
Much Time to Spend Outside[6]
Americans today spend 92 percent of their time indoors, and their physical and mental health are suffering. Use this three-number formula to make yourself stronger and happier.
The herd of
400-pound caribou was running 50 miles an hour and directly at me. The
30 animals had been eating lichen in the Arctic tundra in Alaska when something
spooked them. I was sitting in their escape route. The ground began to vibrate
once they cracked 100 yards. At 50 yards, I could see their hooves smashing the
ground and kicking up moss and moisture. Then they were at 40 yards, then 35.
I could hear their breathing, smell their coats, and see all
the details of their ornate antlers. Just as I was wondering if the rescue
plane would be able to spot my hoof-pocked corpse, one of the caribou noticed
me and swerved. The herd followed, shaking the earth as they swept left and
summited a hillcrest, their antlers black against a gold sky.
That moment when those caribou shook the earth also shook my
soul. It was transcendent, wild as a religious experience. And it’s not even
the most intense thing I did in Alaska. I experienced savage weather, crossed
raging rivers, and faced a half-ton grizzly. My brain was feeling less hunkered
down in its typical foxhole—a state I’d compare to that of a roadrunner on
meth, dementedly zooming from one thing to the next. My mind felt more like it
belonged to a monk after a month at a meditation retreat. I just
felt . . . better. The biologist E. O. Wilson put what I was feeling this way:
“Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive, and even
spiritual satisfaction.”
When I returned from the wild, my Zen-like buzz hung around
for months. To understand what was happening, I met with Rachel Hopman, Ph.D.,
a neuroscientist at Northeastern University. She told me about the nature
pyramid. Think of it like the food pyramid, except that instead of recommending
you eat this many servings of vegetables and this many of meat, it recommends
the amount of time you should spend in nature to reduce stress and be
healthier. Learn and live by the 20-5-3 rule.
20 Minutes
That’s the amount of
time you should spend outside in nature, like a neighborhood park, three times
a week. Hopman led a new study that concluded that something as painless as a
20-minute stroll through a city botanical garden can boost cognition and memory
as well as improve feelings of well-being. “But,” she said, “we found that
people who used their cell phone on the walk saw none of those benefits.”
Other research
discovered that 20 minutes outside three times a week is the dose of nature
that had the greatest effect on reducing an urban dweller’s levels of the
stress hormone cortisol.
In nature, our
brains enter a mode called “soft fascination.” Hopman described it as a
mindfulness-like state that restores and builds the resources you need to
think, create, process information, and execute tasks. It’s mindfulness without
the meditation. A short daily nature walk—or even a walk down a tree-lined
street—is a great option for people who aren’t keen on sitting and focusing on
their breath. But turn off your phone—alerts from it can kick you out of
soft-fascination mode.
5 Hours
The minimum
length of time each month you should spend in semi-wild nature,
like a forested state park. “Spending more time in wilder spaces does seem to
give you more benefits,” said Hopman.
A 2005 survey conducted in Finland found that city dwellers
felt better with at least five hours of nature a month, with benefits
increasing at higher exposures. They were also more likely to be happier and
less stressed in their everyday lives.
The Finnish government then funded another study in 2014 in
which the scientists dumped people in a city center, a city park, and a
forested state park. The two parks felt more Zen than the city center. No
shocker. Except that those walking in a state park had an edge over the
city-park people. They felt even more relaxed and restored. The takeaway: The
wilder the nature, the better.
Nature has these effects on the mind and body because it
stimulates and soothes us in unusual and unique ways. For instance, in nature
you are engulfed in fractals, suggested Hopman. Fractals are complex patterns
that repeat over and over in different sizes and scales and make up the design
of the universe. Think: trees (big branch to smaller branch to smaller branch
and so on), river systems (big river to smaller river to stream and so on),
mountain ranges, clouds, seashells. “Cities don’t have fractals,” said Hopman.
“Imagine a typical building. It’s usually flat, with right angles. It’s painted
some dull color.” Fractals are organized chaos, which our brains apparently
dig. In fact, scientists at the University of Oregon discovered that Jackson
Pollock’s booze-and-jazz-fueled paintings are made up of fractals. This may
explain why they speak to humans at such a core level.
Nature lifts us in other ways, too: Think smells and sounds.
The feeling of the sun’s warm rays. Or just the fact that you’re getting out of
the stress of your home or office. “It’s probably a mix of a lot of things,”
said Hopman. Environments like cities, with their frenetic pace, right angles,
loud noises, rotten smells, pinging phones, and to-do lists, don’t offer this.
3 Days
This is
the top of the pyramid. Three is the number of days you
should spend each year off the grid in nature, camping or renting a cabin (with
friends or solo). Think: places characterized by spotty cell reception and wild
animals, away from the hustle and bustle.
This dose of the wildest nature is sort of like an extended
meditation retreat. Except talking is allowed and there are no gurus. It causes
your brain to ride alpha waves, the same waves that increase during meditation
or when you lapse into a flow state. They can reset your thinking, boost
creativity, tame burnout, and just make you feel better.
This is likely why one study found that three days in the
wild boost’s creativity and problem-solving abilities and another found that
U. S. military vets who spent four days white-water rafting were still buzzing
off the wild a week later. Their PTSD symptoms and stress levels were down 29
and 21 percent, respectively. Their relationships, happiness, and general
satisfaction with their lives all improved as well.
When I returned from Alaska, my wife and I moved to the edge
of the desert in Las Vegas. She wanted a shorter commute, and I wanted more
access to nature. I now walk my dogs through red-rock trails for at least 20
minutes daily and on Sunday do a long trail run deep into the canyons to rack
up my five-hour quota for the month. This summer, I’m planning a weeklong
backcountry fly-fishing trip in Idaho’s Frank Church–River of No Return
Wilderness Area. Hoping I’ll return less frazzled, fitter, and feeling more
alive.
Adapted from the book The
Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self,
by Michael Easter, out now from Rodale Books. Copyright © 2021 by Michael
Easter.
Catechism
of the Catholic Church
PART
ONE: THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
SECTION
TWO I. THE CREEDS
CHAPTER
THREE-I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
Article 11 "I BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION OF THE
BODY"
IN BRIEF
1015 "The flesh is the hinge of salvation"
(Tertullian, De res. 8, 2: PL 2, 852). We believe in God who is creator of the
flesh; we believe in the Word made flesh in order to redeem the flesh; we
believe in the resurrection of the flesh, the fulfillment of both the creation
and the redemption of the flesh.
1016 By death the soul is separated from the body, but in the
resurrection God will give incorruptible life to our body, transformed by
reunion with our soul. Just as Christ is risen and lives for ever, so all of us
will rise at the last day.
1017 "We believe in the true resurrection of this flesh
that we now possess" (Council of Lyons II: DS 854). We sow a corruptible
body in the tomb, but he raises up an incorruptible body, a "spiritual
body" (cf 1 Cor 15:42-44).
1018 As a consequence of original sin, man must suffer
"bodily death, from which man would have been immune had he not
sinned" (GS # 18).
1019 Jesus, the Son of God, freely suffered death for us in
complete and free submission to the will of God, his Father. By his death he
has conquered death, and so opened the possibility of salvation to all men.
Monday Night at the Movies
The Week Ahead
·
Tuesday, June 14th Flag Day
·
June 19th Corpus
Christi
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Victims
of clergy sexual abuse
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
[2] McCain, John and Salter, Mark. (2005) Character is destiny. Random
House, New York.
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