Sunday, August 28, 2022

This is not Catholic but it is from Barbados I was stationed there in the Navy from 1972-1973

FEAST OF ST. AGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Acts, Chapter 10, verse 34-35

³⁴ Then Peter proceeded to speak and said, “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality. ³⁵ Rather, in every nation whoever FEARS him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him.

God shows no impartiality. This is true today as it was in the time of Peter. Rome had no fear of God when it came to the sins of the flesh and lust of the eyes having killed an estimated 400,000 human beings in the coliseum. Yet Rome as terrible as it was pales in comparison to the sins of America with 58,586,256 abortions in America since Roe v. Wade in 1973. God shows no impartiality to Nations either. Each receives their due.

God is no respecter of rank or titles and asks us to combat the evil in our day. Pope John Paul has proclaimed “Here is the remedy against evil. Pray, pray, and nothing more.

Michael Brown in his book “Prayer of the Warrior,” reminds us that it was Luke who mentions that Jesus very frequently stated: “Unless you repent you will all perish.” (Lk. 13:3) To save us our Lord has not abandoned us we have His church and the Virgin Mary’s apparitions during these last days. She constantly emphasizes prayer, conversion, fasting, penance, and faith. At Medjugorje she has stated, “Members of all faiths are equal before God. God rules over each faith just like a sovereign over his kingdom. In the world, all religions are not the same because all people have not complied with the commandments of God. They reject and disparage them.” Indeed, God shows no impartiality there are saints of God that are not catholic. The Virgin told the seers of Medjugorje that there was a saint in the village, and they were astonished because this person was a Muslim.

The eight things’ Catholics and Muslims agree on[1]

Senior leaders from the Catholic Church and the Muslim community have issued an eight-point joint statement reflecting their shared beliefs. The document, which is the result of the fourth Catholic-Muslim colloquium on interreligious dialogue, includes a call for basic human rights to be protected by law, a pledge of solidarity with all those in need, a rejection of all forms of proselytism and a focus on the right of young people to an education that is “respectful of diversity”. At the end of a two-day meeting at the Vatican entitled ‘Shared values in social and political life: Christian and Muslim perspectives’. Delegates from a dozen different countries came together, organised by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and Jordan’s Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies. They were joined by Pope Francis on the concluding day. Former Canadian ambassador to the Holy See, Anne Leahy, who currently teaches Catholic Social Thought at McGill University in Montreal said “there was a meeting of minds” on the important values that Muslims and Christians share in terms of being good citizens acting together for the common good. “We hear too much about what our differences are”, she said, so it’s important now “to witness that there are basic values we share that can counter the negativity”. Muslims and Christians can work with all people of good will who do not profess a religion, so “inclusivity was a hallmark here”, she says.

However, a month earlier the Vatican’s chief inter-faith expert, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, warned that dialogue with Muslims had so far produced “negligible results” and failed to prevent the threatened eradication of Christianity in the Middle East. The Cardinal said: "We meet, we observe and listen to each other - but the problem is that all these small achievements don't translate at all into law and administration, or into the lives of ordinary people. The dialogue is just too elitist".

The eight-point agreement stated:

1. We share beliefs and moral values. Our commonalities are much more than our particularities, and they constitute a solid basis peacefully and fruitfully living together, also with persons of good will who do not profess a particular religion.

2. We believe in the humanizing and civilizing role of our religions, when their followers adhere to their principles of worshipping God and loving and caring for the other.

3. We believe that God bestowed upon every person dignity and inalienable rights. They are His gifts that should be recognized, guaranteed and protected by law.

4. We pledge our solidarity with our brothers and sisters in humanity who are in any kind of need regardless of their ethnic, religious or cultural background.

5. Our help to the poor and the needy should be offered out of compassion and for the sake of God's favour. It should never be used to proselytize.

6. We believe that the youth represent not only the future of humanity. They are also an important part of its present. They have the right to proper education that prepares them to be good citizens respectful of diversity.

7. Our world, our "common home", is going through many complicated crises and needs the steady efforts of its inhabitants to make it a suitable place where we can live together peacefully, sharing the resources of the universe, mindful of future generations.

8. We express our proximity and solidarity with all those who suffer, especially from violence and armed conflict. Respect for international law, dialogue, justice, mercy, compassion are values and adequate means to achieve peace and harmony.

ON KEEPING THE LORDS DAY HOLY[2]

CHAPTER V

DIES DIERUM

Sunday: The Primordial Feast, Revealing the Meaning of Time

CONCLUSION

86. I entrust this Apostolic Letter to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, that it may be received and put into practice by the Christian community. Without in any way detracting from the centrality of Christ and his Spirit, Mary is always present in the Church's Sunday. It is the mystery of Christ itself which demands this: indeed, how could she who is Mater Domini and Mater Ecclesiae fail to be uniquely present on the day which is both dies Domini and dies Ecclesiae?

As they listen to the word proclaimed in the Sunday assembly, the faithful look to the Virgin Mary, learning from her to keep it and ponder it in their hearts (cf. Lk 2:19). With Mary, they learn to stand at the foot of the Cross, offering to the Father the sacrifice of Christ and joining to it the offering of their own lives. With Mary, they experience the joy of the Resurrection, making their own the words of the Magnificat which extol the inexhaustible gift of divine mercy in the inexorable flow of time: "His mercy is from age to age upon those who fear him" (Lk 1:50). From Sunday to Sunday, the pilgrim people follow in the footsteps of Mary, and her maternal intercession gives special power and fervour to the prayer which rises from the Church to the Most Holy Trinity.

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost[3]

Focus: True and laudable service as we run to attain the eternal promises and increase in faith, hope, and love

Introit of the Mass to-day is the prayer of an afflicted soul entreating God for assistance. “Incline to my aid, O God; O Lord, make haste to help me; let my enemies be con founded and ashamed who seek my soul. Let them be turned backwards, and blush for shame, who desire evils to me.”

Prayer. O almighty and merciful God, from Whose gift it comes that Thou art worthily and laudably served by the faithful, grant us, we beseech Thee, to run without offence to the attainment of Thy promises.

EPISTLE, ii. Cor. iii. 4-9.

Brethren: Such confidence we have through Christ towards God : not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves: but our sufficiency is from God: Who also hath made us fit ministers of the New Testament, not in the letter, but in the spirit: for the letter killeth: but the spirit quickeneth. Now if the ministration of death, engraven with letters upon stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, for the glory of his countenance, which is made void: how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather in glory? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory: much more the ministration of justice aboundeth in glory.

Explanation.

St. Paul here introduces a comparison between the priest hood of the Old and that of the New Law, in order to show that the dignity of the priesthood under the New Law (and consequently the respect and confidence due to it) as far excels the dignity of the priesthood under the Old as the spirit does the letter the truth the figure. For if the ministry of Moses, which consisted in the service of the letter, and imparted no grace, was so glorious, how much more glorious is that priest hood of the New Law, through which is conveyed the sanctifying grace of God! And how much more veneration and obedience should accordingly be paid to the priests of the New Law!

GOSPEL Luke x 23-37

At that time Jesus said to His disciples: Blessed are the eyes that see the things which you see. For I say to you that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things that you see and have not seen them; and to hear the things that you hear and have not heard them. And behold a certain lawyer stood up, tempting Him, and saying: Master, what must I do to possess eternal life? But He said to him: What is written in the law? How readest thou?

He answering, said: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind: and thy neighbor as thyself. And He said to him: Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said to Jesus: And who is my neighbor?

And Jesus answering, said: A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, who also stripped him: and, having wounded him, went away leaving him half dead. And it chanced that a certain priest went down the same way: and seeing him, passed by. In like manner also a Levite, when he was near the place and saw him, passed by. But a certain Samaritan being on his journey came near him: and seeing him, was moved with compassion. And going up to him, bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine: and setting him upon his own beast, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two pence (worth two days wages), and gave to the host, and said: Take care of him: and whatsoever thou shalt spend over and above, I at my return will repay thee. Which of these three in thy opinion was neighbor to him that fell among the robbers? But he said: He that showed mercy to him. And Jesus said to him: Go and do thou in like manner.

Why does Jesus call His disciples blessed? Because they had the happiness which so many kings, patriarchs, and prophets had desired in vain of seeing the Savior of the world, and of hearing His teaching.

What is it to love God? To acknowledge God as the highest and most perfect good; to desire that He should be known, honored, loved, by all men; that His will should be fulfilled by all; and so zealously to observe His commandments that we would lose all the goods of life, and even life itself, rather than transgress these commands and be separated from God.

What does it mean to love God with the whole heart, etc.? “With thy whole heart”, signifies with all the motions and inclinations of the heart “with thy whole soul”, with all the thoughts, conceptions of the soul, “with thy whole mind”, with all the desires, wishes, and determination of the will; “with all thy strength”, with all the powers and faculties of body and soul with all the acts and motions of the senses. All these should be directed to God alone, as the last object and end of man.

How can this be done? By doing whatever we do, whether it be mental or manual labor, eating, drinking, or recreation, with the intention of doing the will of God and what is pleasing to Him. By this it is understood that idle talk, intemperance in meat and drink, and in general all sinful works, cannot be offered to God, because they are contrary to His will and therefore deserve punishment.

Is that true love which loves God because He does us good? That love is truly good and praiseworthy, but not perfect, for self-interest creeps in with it.

What, then, is the perfect love of God? When we love God only because He is in Himself the highest good and most worthy of love. In such manner must we endeavor to love God; not out of self-interest, not from the expectation of reward, nor yet from fear of punishment.

Can everyone thus love God? Yes, for there is no state of life in which we cannot refer everything to God. Love does not require great deeds, but that we should avoid evil, and refer everything to God; and all can do this.

Aspiration. O Jesus, rich in love, Who hast so earnestly exhorted us to the love of God and of our neighbor, engrave deep in our hearts, we pray Thee, this commandment of love, that whatever we do or leave undone, all our thoughts, words, and works, may begin and end in love of Thee; and that no tribulation, temptation, or danger, nor even death itself, may ever separate us from Thee. Grant, also, that out of love to Thee we may love our neighbor, whether friend or enemy, as ourselves, and by this love may deserve to have Thee as a Savior and merciful Judge.

Who is our neighbor? Every man be he a foreigner or a fellow-countryman, poor or rich, of our own religion or of any other, a friend or an enemy.

How are we to love our neighbor? We must love our neighbor as ourselves; that is, we must wish for him and do for him what in similar circumstances we should desire for ourselves, and not wish for him or do to him what we would not wish done to ourselves (Matt. vii. 12).

In what way are we particularly to practice the love of our neighbor?

1. By heartily rejoicing over the gifts and graces which our neighbor has received from God, and by sympathizing with him in misfortune.

2. By praying God to grant to our neighbor such gifts as St. Paul, on his knees, besought for the Ephesians, the fulness of the knowledge of God, and of all perfection.

3. By overlooking and patiently bearing our neighbor’s faults, disorders, and infirmities of every kind, as St. Paul says: “Bear ye one another’s burdens and so you shall fulfil the law of Christ”.

4. In general, by both the spiritual and the corporal works of mercy.

With what intention should we love our neighbor? We must love our neighbor in God, and for God’s sake, because He commands it, and because such love is pleasing to Him.

Feast of St. Augustine of Hippo[4]

St. Augustine (354-430) was born at Tagaste, Africa, and died in Hippo. His father, Patricius, was a pagan, his mother, Monica, a devout Christian. He received a good Christian education. As a law student in Carthage, however, he gave himself to all kinds of excesses and finally joined the Manichean sect. He then taught rhetoric at Milan where he was converted by St. Ambrose. Returning to Tagaste, he distributed his goods to the poor, and was ordained a priest. He was made bishop of Hippo at the age of 41 and became a great luminary of the African Church, one of the four great founders of religious orders, and a Doctor of the universal Church.

"Though I am but dust and ashes, suffer me to utter my plea to Thy mercy; suffer me to speak, since it is to God's mercy that I speak and not to man's scorn. From Thee too I might have scorn, but Thou wilt return and have compassion on me. ... I only know that the gifts Thy mercy had provided sustained me from the first moment. ... All my hope is naught save in Thy great mercy. Grant what Thou dost command, and command what Thou wilt" (St. Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, 6, 19).

As a young man, Augustine prepared for a career as a teacher of Rhetoric and subsequently taught in Carthage and Rome. Unfortunately, despite having a saint for a mother, as his career progressed, he wandered far from his Christian upbringing, and his life sank into an abyss of pride and lust. Like many young pagan men of his time, he lived with a mistress and conceived a child with her out of wedlock. However, the Lord did not want to lose hold of this lost sheep altogether: thus, inspired by the writings of the Roman philosopher Cicero (and, no doubt, prompted by the Holy Spirit), Augustine began what would prove to be a lifelong search for wisdom. This search took him first to the religious cult called the "Manichees," a strange sect that believed the material world is the product of the powers of "darkness," while the spiritual realm is the realm of "light." After becoming disillusioned with the bizarre theories of the Manichees, Augustine adopted the philosophy of the Neo-Platonists. This was a school of philosophy centered on the writings of the ancient philosopher Plotinus, who described the mystical journey that all people ought to undertake as "the flight of the alone to the Alone," in other words, as a mystical, solitary search for the ineffable Source of all things. In 386, Augustine moved to Milan to a new teaching post, and there, by divine providence, he encountered the preaching of the archbishop of the city, the great theologian St. Ambrose. As a result of the example and preaching of this great saint, as well as the prayers and tears of his saintly mother, Augustine was quickly plunged into a profound inner struggle, wrestling with his sins of the flesh and with temptations to intellectual pride. The turning point of this struggle came in the summer of 386 when Augustine was sitting in a garden, recollecting his past life and gazing into the depths of his own soul. He describes what happened next in his autobiographical Confessions (written in 397)[5]:

Such things I said, weeping in the most bitter sorrow of my heart. And suddenly, I heard a voice from some nearby house, a boy's voice or a girl's voice, I do not know but it was a sort of sing-song repeated again and again, "Take and read, take and read." I ceased weeping and immediately began to search my mind most carefully as to whether children were accustomed to chant these words in any kind of game, and I could not remember that I had ever heard any such thing. Damming back the flood of my tears I arose, interpreting the incident as quite certainly a divine command to open my book of Scripture and read the passage at which I should open. ... I snatched it up, opened it, and in silence read the passage upon which my eyes first fell: "Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not in contention and envy, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in its concupiscence’s" (Rom 13:13). I had no wish to read further, and no need. For in that instant, with the very ending of the sentence, it was as though a light of utter confidence shone in my heart, and all the darkness of uncertainty vanished away.

Then we [Augustine and his friend Alypius] went in to my mother and told her, to her great joy. We related how it had come about: she was filled with triumphant exultation and praised You who are mighty beyond what we ask or conceive: for she saw that You had given her more than with all her pitiful weeping she had ever asked. For You converted me to Yourself ... (Confessions, 8.11-12).

A prayer by St. Augustine

Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy.

Act in me, O Holy Spirit, That I love but what is holy.

Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy.

Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, That I always may be holy. Amen.[6]

Things to Do:

Read more about St. Augustine at CatholicIreland.net and at CatholicSaints.Info
Go here for links to the writings of St. Augustine
Also learn more here, St. Augustine of Hippo
See St Augustine, the Holy Trinity, the Child and the SeaShell
Visit Anastpaul for more info including many images

Catechism of the Catholic Church

PART TWO: THE CELEBRATION OF THE CHRISTIAN MYSTERY

SECTION TWO-THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH

I. Its Foundations in the Economy of Salvation

Illness in human life

1500 Illness and suffering have always been among the gravest problems confronted in human life. In illness, man experiences his powerlessness, his limitations, and his finitude. Every illness can make us glimpse death.

1501 Illness can lead to anguish, self-absorption, sometimes even despair and revolt against God. It can also make a person more mature, helping him discern in his life what is not essential so that he can turn toward that which is. Very often illness provokes a search for God and a return to him.

The sick person before God

1502 The man of the Old Testament lives his sickness in the presence of God. It is before God that he laments his illness, and it is of God, Master of life and death, that he implores healing. Illness becomes a way to conversion; God's forgiveness initiates the healing. It is the experience of Israel that illness is mysteriously linked to sin and evil, and that faithfulness to God according to his law restores life: "For I am the Lord, your healer." The prophet intuits that suffering can also have a redemptive meaning for the sins of others. Finally Isaiah announces that God will usher in a time for Zion when he will pardon every offense and heal every illness.

Christ the physician

1503 Christ's compassion toward the sick and his many healings of every kind of infirmity are a resplendent sign that "God has visited his people" and that the Kingdom of God is close at hand. Jesus has the power not only to heal, but also to forgive sins; he has come to heal the whole man, soul and body; he is the physician the sick have need of. His compassion toward all who suffer goes so far that he identifies himself with them: "I was sick and you visited me." His preferential love for the sick has not ceased through the centuries to draw the very special attention of Christians toward all those who suffer in body and soul. It is the source of tireless efforts to comfort them.

1504 Often Jesus asks the sick to believe. He makes use of signs to heal: spittle and the laying on of hands, mud and washing. The sick try to touch him, "for power came forth from him and healed them all." and so in the sacraments Christ continues to "touch" us in order to heal us.

1505 Moved by so much suffering Christ not only allows himself to be touched by the sick, but he makes their miseries his own: "He took our infirmities and bore our diseases." But he did not heal all the sick. His healings were signs of the coming of the Kingdom of God. They announced a more radical healing: the victory over sin and death through his Passover. On the cross Christ took upon himself the whole weight of evil and took away the "sin of the world," of which illness is only a consequence. By his passion and death on the cross Christ has given a new meaning to suffering: it can henceforth configure us to him and unite us with his redemptive Passion.

"Heal the sick . . ."

1506 Christ invites his disciples to follow him by taking up their cross in their turn. By following him they acquire a new outlook on illness and the sick. Jesus associates them with his own life of poverty and service. He makes them share in his ministry of compassion and healing: "So they went out and preached that men should repent. and they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them."

1507 The risen Lord renews this mission ("In my name . . . they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.") and confirms it through the signs that the Church performs by invoking his name. These signs demonstrate in a special way that Jesus is truly "God who saves."

1508 The Holy Spirit gives to some a special charism of healing so as to make manifest the power of the grace of the risen Lord. But even the most intense prayers do not always obtain the healing of all illnesses. Thus St. Paul must learn from the Lord that "my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness," and that the sufferings to be endured can mean that "in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his Body, that is, the Church."

1509 "Heal the sick!" The Church has received this charge from the Lord and strives to carry it out by taking care of the sick as well as by accompanying them with her prayer of intercession. She believes in the life-giving presence of Christ, the physician of souls and bodies. This presence is particularly active through the sacraments, and in an altogether special way through the Eucharist, the bread that gives eternal life and that St. Paul suggests is connected with bodily health.

1510 However, the apostolic Church has its own rite for the sick, attested to by St. James: "Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders [presbyters] of the Church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven." Tradition has recognized in this rite one of the seven sacraments.

A sacrament of the sick

1511 The Church believes and confesses that among the seven sacraments there is one especially intended to strengthen those who are being tried by illness, the Anointing of the Sick:

This sacred anointing of the sick was instituted by Christ our Lord as a true and proper sacrament of the New Testament. It is alluded to indeed by Mark, but is recommended to the faithful and promulgated by James the apostle and brother of the Lord.

1512 From ancient times in the liturgical traditions of both East and West, we have testimonies to the practice of anointings of the sick with blessed oil. Over the centuries the Anointing of the Sick was conferred more and more exclusively on those at the point of death. Because of this it received the name "Extreme Unction." Notwithstanding this evolution the liturgy has never failed to beg the Lord that the sick person may recover his health if it would be conducive to his salvation.

1513 The Apostolic Constitution Sacram unctionem infirmorum, following upon the Second Vatican Council, established that henceforth, in the Roman Rite, the following be observed:

The sacrament of Anointing of the Sick is given to those who are seriously ill by anointing them on the forehead and hands with duly blessed oil - pressed from olives or from other plants - saying, only once: "Through this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit. May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up."

MTV Video Music Awards[7]

Today is MTV music awards; sadly, most of the music awarded much like the academy awards promote evil and the ways of the world; the degradation of the flesh and the promotion of the New World Order.

My advice is to avoid, the MTV, and have a Wiener Schnitzel instead. Whether breaded or in the bun, because today is also Wiener Schnitzel day.

A breaded cutlet that is deep-fried in oil, Wiener Schnitzel is traditionally made from veal, but also can be made from pork. In Australia, it might even be found made out of chicken or beef.

This dish is actually named after the city where it was invented, as “Wien” is the way Vienna is written in German.

Week Ahead

· August 29-Passion of St John the Baptist

· September 2, First Friday

· September 3, First Saturday

· September 4, Thirtieth Sunday after Pentecost

Daily Devotions

· 30 DAY TRIBUTE TO MARY 14^th ROSE: Proclamation of the Kingdom of God