Monday Night at the Movies
FEAST OF ST. BENEDICT-POPULATION DAY
Matthew,
Chapter 28, Verse 4-5
4 The guards were shaken with FEAR of him and became like dead men. 5 Then the angel said to the women in reply, “Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified.
Have you ever been so afraid that you lost
consciousness? I must admit I have not; however once when praying intently I
distinctly heard the singing of angelic voices that scared me so bad I hid and
prayed it stop, which it did. Yet it is not impossible for this to happen.
Extreme pain, fear, or stress may bring on fainting. This type of fainting is caused by overstimulation of the vagus nerve, a nerve connected to the brain that helps control breathing and circulation. In addition, a person who stands still or erect for too long may faint. This type of fainting occurs because blood pools in the leg veins, reducing the amount that is available for the heart to pump to the brain. This type of fainting is quite common in older people or those taking drugs to treat high blood pressure.[1]
The Law of Victory[2]
Jesus raised several people from the dead, but in each case differed from His own resurrection. Those people would eventually die again. But Jesus rose from the dead, never to die again. He defeated mankind’s greatest enemy: death. All other problems are problems because they kill us. Once Jesus defeated death, His followers could operate in total security. No struggle is too big for God. No question is unanswerable. No problem is too difficult. The resurrection of Christ trumpeted good news from the graveyard! Jesus in spite of the evil influence of Satan on men practiced the Law of Victory, decisively defeating even death itself.
The Law of Victory: Leaders find a way for the team to win. ~
John C. Maxwell
Leaders make things happen. They are unwilling to accept failure as their reality and choose to do all humanly possible (and sometimes even more) to achieve victory. Not just for themselves, but for their teams. Leaders live and breathe success. Leaders are resilient. They don’t feed off of the past but choose to move forward toward the next victory. Leaders are achievers. Leaders are winners. Leaders understand that they don’t need to win every battle to be victorious. They are patient and understand that victory sometimes takes time and often even sacrifices.[3]
Have courage He has risen, and He has sent
His Mother Mary to help us in the end times. Do not be perplexed and remember
Our Lady said, “In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph!”[4]
Feast of Saint Benedict[5]
Saint Benedict was born in
Nursia in central Italy around the year 480. He was born to a noble family, and
after being homeschooled, he was sent to Rome to complete his education. The
teenaged Benedict was already turning toward the Lord, and when he went to Rome,
he was disappointed and dismayed by the lazy, extravagant ways of the other
young students. Benedict was born into a time of immense social upheaval. The
once grand Roman Empire was on its last legs. The ancient city of Rome was
crumbling due to decadence from within and attacks from without. Seventy years
before Benedict’s birth the city fell to the invasions of the barbarians. The
civil authority was in tatters, the city had been stripped of its grandeur, and
the Church herself was beset with corruption and theological arguments.
Benedict left the chaos of the city and sought a quiet place to study in the
mountains north of Rome. Near the town of Subiaco, he found a community of holy
men, and settled near them to pursue a life of prayer. Eventually Benedict was
asked to be the leader of the community. When that went wrong, he left to start
his own monastic community. One community soon grew to twelve, and to establish
these new communities on a sound foundation Benedict, wrote his simple Rule. We
mustn’t think of Benedict’s communities as the great monasteries that existed
in the Middle Ages. In the sixth century, Benedict’s small communities
consisted of perhaps twenty people. They scratched their living from the land
just like the other peasants with whom they lived. The only difference is that
Benedict’s monks observed celibacy, lived together and followed a disciplined life of prayer, work and study.
This simple, serious life was to prove a powerful antidote to the decadent
chaos of the crumbling Roman Empire. Saint Benedict died on March 21, 547.
After receiving Communion, he died with his arms outstretched, surrounded by
his brothers. He left behind a legacy that would change the world. The
monasteries became centers of learning, agriculture, art, and every useful
craft. In this way, without directly intending it, the monasteries deeply
affected the social, economic, and political life of the emergent Christian
Europe. The monastic schools formed the pattern for the later urban cathedral
schools, which in turn led to the founding of universities. In this way,
monasticism preserved and handed on the wisdom of both Athens and Jerusalem,
the foundations of Western civilization. It is for this reason that Saint
Benedict is named the patron of Europe. Benedict is a great figure in the
history of Western Europe, but his life and writings also give us a sure guide
for a practical spiritual life today. His practical Rule for monks in the sixth
century provides principles for Christian living that are as relevant and
applicable today as they have been for the last 1,500 years.
Things to do:
o
Practice the Liturgy of the Hours
Ora and Labora (Work
and Prayer)[6]
THE BENEDICTINE MONASTIC OFFICE
The Benedictine Office is
a rich collection of prayer that is based on the Rule of St. Benedict.
Historically it is distinct from the Roman Office – also recently called the Liturgy
of the Hours –
which, after the Second Vatican Council, was reshaped to simplify and make more
practical the prayer of the hours for the secular clergy, as well as the
religious who use it, and the laity who make it a part of their life of prayer.
In 1966 the Breviarium
Monasticum was the universal order of Divine Office for Benedictines. In that
year the monks were given a period of time for liturgical experimentation,
allowing each congregation of monasteries to adapt the tradition for its
particular use, under certain guidelines. To this day the Breviarium Monasticum
remains “official” and the time of experimentation is
still in effect. In that circumstance, communities are using various forms of
the Divine Office, and a few communities have even elected to take the new
Roman Office (Liturgy of the Hours) as a convenient guideline because of its
universal use among the secular clergy.
The following is a brief,
general description of the centuries old Benedictine tradition of prayer in
word and action. Reference is made occasionally to the Roman Office as another
point of reference. The structure of the Office described below and outlined is
according to the use at St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman, Alabama.
|
Traditional
Monastic Hours |
New Roman
Office (Liturgy of the Hours) |
|
Matins (Vigils) |
Matins (Office of Readings) – any time of day |
|
Lauds |
Lauds (Morning Prayer) |
|
Prime |
Prime omitted in New Roman Office |
|
Terce |
Terce (Mid-Morning Prayer) |
|
Sext |
Sext (Mid-Day Prayer) |
|
None |
None (Mid-Afternoon Prayer) |
|
Vespers |
Vespers (Evening Prayer) |
|
Compline |
Compline (Night Prayer) |
World Population Day[7]
World Population Day seeks to draw attention to issues related to a growing global population. The world's population as of April 2016, is over 7.4 billion. The world's population is rapidly surging with birth rates on the rise and life expectancy increases. Over the last century, between 1916 and 2012, global life expectancy more than doubled from 34 to 70 years while world population has quintupled from 1.5 billion to 7.3 billion between 1900 and 2016.
In 1989, the United Nations designated July 11th as World
Population Day in an effort to garner attention for population issues and
crises such as displaced people, rights and needs of women and girls and population safety on a global
level. With an ever-growing world population, World Population Day serves to
highlight the challenges and opportunities of this growth and its impact on
planet sustainability, heavy urbanization, availability of health care and youth empowerment.
Agenda 2030's Goal
#12 Will Exterminate Six Billion People[8]
Move over, Mao, Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot, there is a new extermination king in town. It is called Agenda 2030. The Agenda 2030 conference in Paris is being guided by 17 goals which contains targets that will forever alter humanity and change the planet forever. Of particular concern is goal #12, as it is the conduit from which the globalist depopulation agenda will be ushered in.
- Agenda 2030 Goal #12: Ensure sustainable
consumption and production patterns Following the
planned economic collapse, Agenda 2030 will enforce the most brutal
austerity programs ever conceived of, or ever enforced. Just as it
was in the Hunger Games
movie, all food, water and medicine will be rationed. Inhabitants
will be forced to take the Mark of the Beast, the dreaded but largely
unknown RFID chip. We are already witnessing the birth of a cashless
society. Soon, cash will be banned. Automation will bring promises of
unlimited food production. The public will be sold on the widespread use
of robots to achieve this goal. It will be a ruse. The goal is to replace
human workers with robots. The globalists will horde the food in
order to help wipe out the ‘useless eaters’ through starvation. Then the
population will be forced into a devastating World War III.
Subsequently, Ted Turner and the other globalists will be able to
achieve their goals of reducing the world's population to a low of 500,000,000.
Catholic
Population Principles[9]
In order to provide a
moral perspective, we affirm the following principles derived from the social
teaching of the Church.
1. Within the limits of
their own competence, government officials have rights and duties with regard
to the population problems of their own nations—for instance, in the matter of
social legislation as it affects families, of migration to cities, of
information relative to the conditions and needs of the nation. Government's
positive role is to help bring about those conditions in which married couples,
without undue material, physical or psychological pressure, may exercise
responsible freedom in determining family size.
2. Decisions about
family size and the frequency of births belong to the parents and cannot be
left to public authorities. Such decisions depend on a rightly formed
conscience which respects the divine law and takes into consideration the
circumstances of the places and the time. In forming their consciences, parents
should take into account their responsibilities toward God, themselves, the
children they have already brought into the world and the community to which
they belong, "following the dictates of their conscience instructed about
the divine law authentically interpreted and strengthened by confidence in
God."
3. Public
authorities can provide information and recommend policies regarding population,
provided these are in conformity with moral law and respect the rightful
freedom of married couples.
4. Men and women
should be informed of scientific advances of methods of family planning
whose safety has been well proven and which are in accord with the moral law.
5. Abortion, directly willed and procured, even if for therapeutic reasons, is to be absolutely excluded as a licit means of regulating births.
Catechism
of the Catholic Church
PART TWO: THE CELEBRATION OF THE CHRISTIAN MYSTERY
SECTION ONE THE SACRAMENTAL ECONOMY
CHAPTER TWO-THE SACRAMENTAL CELEBRATION OF THE PASCHAL
MYSTERY
Article 1 CELEBRATING THE CHURCH'S LITURGY
IV. Where
is the Liturgy Celebrated?
1179 The worship "in Spirit and in truth" of the
New Covenant is not tied exclusively to any one place. the whole earth is
sacred and entrusted to the children of men. What matters above all is that,
when the faithful assemble in the same place, they are the "living
stones," gathered to be "built into a spiritual house." For
the Body of the risen Christ is the spiritual temple from which the source of
living water springs forth: incorporated into Christ by the Holy Spirit,
"we are the temple of the living God."
1180 When the exercise of religious liberty is not thwarted, Christians
construct buildings for divine worship. These visible churches are not simply
gathering places but signify and make visible the Church living in this place,
the dwelling of God with men reconciled and united in Christ.
1181 A church, "a house of prayer in which the Eucharist
is celebrated and reserved, where the faithful assemble, and where is
worshipped the presence of the Son of God our Savior, offered for us on the
sacrificial altar for the help and consolation of the faithful - this house
ought to be in good taste and a worthy place for prayer and sacred
ceremonial." In this "house of God" the truth and the
harmony of the signs that make it up should show Christ to be present and
active in this place.
1182 The altar of the New Covenant is the Lord's Cross, from
which the sacraments of the Paschal mystery flow. On the altar, which is the
center of the church, the sacrifice of the Cross is made present under
sacramental signs. the altar is also the table of the Lord, to which the People
of God are invited. In certain Eastern liturgies, the altar is also the
symbol of the tomb (Christ truly died and is truly risen).
1183 The tabernacle is to be situated "in churches in a
most worthy place with the greatest honor." The dignity, placing, and
security of the Eucharistic tabernacle should foster adoration before the Lord
really present in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar.
The sacred chrism (myron), used in anointing's as the sacramental sign of the
seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit, is traditionally reserved and venerated in
a secure place in the sanctuary. the oil of catechumens and the oil of the sick
may also be placed there.
1184 The chair (cathedra) of the bishop or the priest "should express his office of presiding over the assembly and of directing prayer."
The lectern (ambo): "The dignity of the Word of God requires the church to
have a suitable place for announcing his message so that the attention of the
people may be easily directed to that place during the liturgy of the
Word."
1185 The gathering of the People of God begins with Baptism; a church must have a place for the celebration of Baptism (baptistry) and for fostering remembrance of the baptismal promises (holy water font).
The renewal of the baptismal life requires penance. A church, then, must lend itself to the expression of repentance and the reception of forgiveness, which requires an appropriate place to receive penitents.
A church must also be a space that invites us to the recollection and silent
prayer that extend and internalize the great prayer of the Eucharist.
1186 Finally, the church has an eschatological significance. To
enter into the house of God, we must cross a threshold, which symbolizes
passing from the world wounded by sin to the world of the new Life to which all
men are called. the visible church is a symbol of the Father's house toward
which the People of God is journeying and where the Father "will wipe
every tear from their eyes." Also for this reason, the Church is the
house of all God's children, open and welcoming.
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: End
Sex Trafficking, Slavery
·
Tired of thinking of the
New World Order: Just make yourself a Mojito!
·
Eat waffles and Pray for the assistance
of the Angels
·
Novena
to Our Lady of Mount Carmel-Day 5
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Practice fidelity to baptismal
vows
·
Monday:
Litany of Humility
·
Let
Freedom Ring Day 5
·
Rosary
[2] John Maxwell, the Maxwell
Leadership Bible.
[4] Third apparition, Fatima, July
13, 1917.
[6] https://stbernardabbey.com/the-divine-office/
[8]https://thecommonsenseshow.com/conspiracy/agenda-2030s-goal-12-will-exterminate-six-billion-people
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