Thursday, October 20, 2022
ST IRENE
Luke, Chapter 12, Verse 51
Do you think that I have come to establish PEACE on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.
I smoked cigarettes for ten years when I finally quit it was then that I found out you cannot live the same lifestyle to remain a non-smoker. I found that I must separate myself from my old habits and I needed to become loyal to a healthy lifestyle. In much the same way Christ tells us to choose to be loyal to his cause will cause division.
Jesus does not deny the reality of human needs, but forbids making them the object of anxious care and, in effect, becoming their slave.
X God and Money “No
one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other or be
devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. (Matt.
6:24)
Mammon: An Aramaic word meaning
wealth or property.
X But seek first the kingdom
[of God] and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you
besides. (Matt 6:33)
X Whoever is not with me
is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. (Matt. 12:30)
This saying warns that there can be no neutrality where
Jesus is concerned. Jesus is the shepherd of God’s people, his mission is to
the lost sheep of Israel; the Pharisees, who oppose him, are guilty of
scattering the sheep.
Ø Face in your own life
today the serious fact that you always stand for God's cause or the opposite,
and that in the long run no one ever succeeds in standing for both. When a
man sins, he becomes a representative, an ambassador, an ally of the forces of
destruction in human life. Consider the terrible effects of sensual vice on the
race. Then think what it means that anyone who indulges in vice is a
representative of that cause. Is not the same true of gambling?
dishonesty? lying? Sin is treachery to the cause of human welfare; it
is going over to the race's enemies in the spirit of Benedict Arnold.
Righteousness is loyalty to the Cause of the world's salvation. In the long run
you cannot be on both sides. Which are you standing for?
817 In fact, "in this one and only Church
of God from its very beginnings there arose certain rifts, which the Apostle
strongly censures as damnable. But in subsequent centuries much more serious
dissensions appeared and large communities became separated from full communion
with the Catholic Church - for which, often enough, men of both sides were to
blame." The ruptures that wound the unity of Christ's Body - here we must
distinguish heresy, apostasy, and schism - do not occur without human sin:
Where there are sins, there are also divisions, schisms,
heresies, and disputes. Where there is virtue, however, there also are harmony
and unity, from which arise the one heart and one soul of all believers.
Saint Irene[1]
Irene, a beautiful and chaste Portuguese girl, was murdered before
she reached the age of 20. "An assiduous pupil and a devout believer, the
only times she ever left her house was to attend mass or to pray in the
sanctuary dedicated to Saint Peter on his feast-day. A young nobleman named
Britald happened to see her on one of these rare outings and fell desperately
in love with her. Every time that she went out, he waited to catch a glimpse of
her, followed her to church, and eventually made his suit known to her;
however, Irene gave him to understand that she would never marry him.
"Thus rejected, Britald fell into a deep depression and became so ill that
the doctors who were called in to tend him gave him up for lost. Hearing of
this, Irene visited him and told him that she had refused him because she was
no longer free, having already taken a vow of virginity.
Britald at once accepted her decision and gradually recovered his
health. Before Irene left him, he had sworn that he would respect, and make
others respect, her vocation as a holy virgin, and the two had parted like
brother and sister, promising each other that they would meet again in
Paradise. “Irene returned home and resumed the life of seclusion and study,
intending to make her entrance into a convent before long. But the monk who was
giving her private lessons proved to be a lecherous scoundrel and behaved
towards her in a manner as dishonorable as Britald's was honorable. “Irene
repulsed him and had him dismissed at once; but his lust turning to a desire
for revenge, the monk then began to spread slanderous rumors about her. To
those who asked him why he was no longer giving the girl her private lessons,
he replied that he had left on learning that she was about to become a mother.
This rumor quickly circulated throughout the town and at length
reached Britald who, being frank and trusting and unused to lies, believed what
he was told. In a passion of rage and jealousy, he hired a mercenary soldier to
kill her. Soon afterwards, as she was returning home from visiting an old man
who was crippled, the assassin approached her from behind and killed her with a
single stroke of his sword. “Her body, which was thrown into the river, was
later retrieved by some Benedictines on the banks of the Tagus, near the town
of Scalabris. They gave her a proper burial, made known her story, and not long
afterwards, so great was the veneration in which she was held, the name of the
town of Scalabis was changed to Santarem (Saint Irene)" (verbatim from
Encyclopedia).
Santarem in Portuguese
means “Saint Irene”, patron of the city. In the Church of St. Irene, we can
find the Miraculous Crucifix of Monteiraz. Church documents relates that the
Body of our Lord became alive (like the Miracle of Limpias), Jesus arm came down
from the crucifix and embraced a small shepherd girl of the time of the
Eucharistic Miracle. The crucifix belonged to a community of the 12 benedictine
monks (Abby of 12 apostles) is from the XII century, it is still venerated
today.
Visit this link (http://www.piercedhearts.org/treasures/eucharistic_miracles/santarem.htm) to learn more about the Eucharistic Miracle.
Catechism
of the Catholic Church
PART THREE: LIFE IN CHRIST
SECTION ONE-MAN'S VOCATION LIFE IN THE
SPIRIT
CHAPTER ONE THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN
PERSON
Article 6 MORAL CONSCIENCE
I. The Judgment of Conscience
1777
Moral conscience, present at the heart of the person, enjoins him at the
appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil. It also judges particular
choices, approving those that are good and denouncing those that are evil. It
bears witness to the authority of truth in reference to the supreme Good to
which the human person is drawn, and it welcomes the commandments. When he
listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking.
1778
Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the
moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process
of performing, or has already completed. In all he says and does, man is
obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right. It is by the
judgment of his conscience that man perceives and recognizes the prescriptions
of the divine law:
Conscience is a law of the mind;
yet [Christians] would not grant that it is nothing more; I mean that it was
not a dictate, nor conveyed the notion of responsibility, of duty, of a threat
and a promise.... [Conscience] is a messenger of him, who, both in nature and
in grace, speaks to us behind a veil, and teaches and rules us by his
representatives. Conscience is the aboriginal Vicar of Christ.
1779 It
is important for every person to be sufficiently present to himself in order to
hear and follow the voice of his conscience. This requirement of interiority is
all the more necessary as life often distracts us from any reflection,
self-examination or introspection:
Return to your conscience, question
it.... Turn inward, brethren, and in everything you do, see God as your
witness.
1780 The
dignity of the human person implies and requires uprightness of moral
conscience. Conscience includes the perception of the principles of morality
(synderesis); their application in the given circumstances by practical
discernment of reasons and goods; and finally, judgment about concrete acts yet
to be performed or already performed. the truth about the moral good, stated in
the law of reason, is recognized practically and concretely by the prudent
judgment of conscience. We call that man prudent who chooses in conformity with
this judgment.
1781
Conscience enables one to assume responsibility for the acts performed. If man
commits evil, the just judgment of conscience can remain within him as the
witness to the universal truth of the good, at the same time as the evil of his
particular choice. the verdict of the judgment of conscience remains a pledge
of hope and mercy. In attesting to the fault committed, it calls to mind the
forgiveness that must be asked, the good that must still be practiced, and the
virtue that must be constantly cultivated with the grace of God:
We shall . . . reassure our hearts
before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts,
and he knows everything.
1782 Man
has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make
moral decisions. "He must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience.
Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his conscience, especially in
religious matters."
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Today's Fast: Reparations
for offenses and blasphemies against God and the Blessed Virgin Mary
·
do
a personal eucharistic stations of the cross.
·
Religion
in the Home for Preschool: October
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
· Rosary
Comments
Post a Comment