Monday, April 3, 2023
Monday of Holy Week
Isaiah,
Chapter 50, verse 10
10 Who is there among you that FEARETH the lord, that heareth the voice of his servant, that hath walked in darkness, and hath no light? Let him hope in the name of the lord, and lean upon his god.
The English Standard version of the bible states this verse accordingly, “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.”
It has been said the body is an excellent servant but a poor master. When we obey the voice of our servant, (the body) it ultimately leads to our destruction and eventually we walk in darkness. Yet, when we trust in the Lord and master our bodies from addiction and or lusts of the flesh we thrive. God’s ultimate wish is for us to thrive. The Lord offers a choice to those who walk in darkness: either trust in the true light or walk in their false light and suffer the consequences.
James 1:12-15 “Blessed is
the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the
crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man
say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with
evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn
away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth
forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
Read
more:http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/15-bible-verses-to-help-with-addiction/#ixzz3PFN0cxd2
So let our sacrifice be in your presence today as we follow you unreservedly; for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame. And now we follow you with our whole heart, we fear you and we pray to you. Do not let us be put to shame, but deal with us in your kindness and great mercy. (Dn. 3:40-42)
FOLLOW ONE MASTER ONLY
What a sad life does he lead who wants both to please the world and to serve God! It is a great mistake to make, my friends. Apart from the fact that you are going to be unhappy all the time, you can never attain the stage at which you will be able to please the world and please God. It is as impossible a feat as trying to put an end to eternity. Take the advice that I am going to give you now and you will be less unhappy: give yourselves wholly to God or else wholly to the world. Do not look for and do not serve more than one master, and once you have chosen the one you are going to follow, do not leave him. You surely remember what Jesus Christ said to you in the Gospel: you cannot serve God and Mammon; that is to say, you cannot follow the world and the pleasures of the world and Jesus Christ with His Cross. Of course you would be quite willing to follow God just so far and the world just so far! Let me put it even more clearly: you would like it if your conscience, if your heart, would allow you to go to the altar in the morning and the dance in the evening; to spend part of the day in church and the remainder in the cabarets or other places of amusement; to talk of God at one moment and the next to tell obscene stories or utter calumnies about your neighbor; to do a good turn for your next-door neighbor on one occasion and on some other to do him harm; in other words, to do good and speak well when you are with good people and to do wrong when you are in bad company.[1]
Prayer.
GRANT, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we, who fail through our infirmity,
in so many adversities may be relieved by the passion of Thy Son, making
intercession for us.
EPISTLE.
Isaias 1. 5-10.
In those days Isaias said: The Lord
God hath opened my ear, and I do not resist I have not gone back. I have given
my body to the strikers, and my cheeks to them that plucked them: I have not
turned away my face from them that rebuked me, and spit upon me. The Lord God
is my helper, therefore am I not confounded: therefore, have I set my face as a
most hard rock, and I know that I shall not be confounded. He is near that
justifieth me, who will contend with me? Let us stand together, who is my
adversary? let him come near to me. Behold the Lord God is my helper: who is he
that shall condemn me?
Lo,
they shall all be destroyed as a garment, the moth shall eat them up. Who is
there among you that feareth the Lord, that heareth the voice of His servant,
that hath walked in darkness, and hath no light? let him hope in the name of
the Lord, and lean upon his God.
GOSPEL.
John xii. 1-9.
Six
days before the Pasch Jesus came to Bethania, where Lazarus had been dead, whom
Jesus raised to life. And they made Him a supper there: and Martha served, but
Lazarus was one of them that were at table with Him. Mary therefore took a
pound of ointment of right spikenard, of great price, and anointed the feet of
Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor
of the ointment. Then one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, he that was about
to betray Him, said: Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and
given to the poor?
Now
he said this, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief,
and having the purse, carried the things that were put therein. Jesus therefore
said: Let her alone, that she may keep it against the day of My burial. For the
poor you have always with you: but Me you have not always. A great multitude
therefore of the Jews knew that He was there: and they came, not for Jesus’s
sake only, but that they might see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.
Meditation—Mary
and Judas
Today the liturgy presents two noteworthy characters who play dissimilar
roles in the Lord's passion. One fills us with solace and comfort, the other
with uneasiness and wholesome fear. Their juxtaposition produces a powerful
effect by way of contrast. The two characters are Mary of Bethany and Judas.
Jesus
is in the house of Lazarus, at dinner. Mary approaches, anoints the feet of her
Savior for His burial and dries them with her hair. Judas resents her action
and resolves upon his evil course. These two persons typify man's relation to
Christ. He gives His Body to two types of individuals: to Magdalenes to be
anointed, to Judases to be kissed; to good persons who repay Him with love and
service, to foes who crucify Him. How movingly this is expressed in the Lesson:
"I gave My body to those who beat Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked
them. I did not turn away My face from those who cursed and spit upon Me."
The
same must hold true of His mystical Body. Down through the ages Christ is
enduring an endless round of suffering, giving His body to other Mary’s for
anointing and to other Judases to be kissed, beaten, and mistreated. Augustine
explains how we can anoint Christ's body:
Anoint
Jesus' feet by a life pleasing to God. Follow in His footsteps; if you have an
abundance, give it to the poor. In this way you can wipe the feet of the Lord.
The
poor are, as it were, the feet of the mystical Christ. By aiding them we can
comfort our Lord in His mystical life, where He receives Judas' kisses on all
sides-the sins of Christians.
The
Gospel account may be understood in a very personal way. In everyone's heart,
in my own too, there dwell two souls: a Judas-soul and a Mary-soul. The former
is the cause of Jesus' suffering, it is always ready to apostatize, always
ready to give the traitor's kiss. Are you full master over this Judas-soul
within you? Your Magdalen-soul is a source of comfort to Christ in His
sufferings. May the holy season of Lent, which with God's help we are about to
bring to a successful conclusion, bring victory over the Judas-soul and
strengthen the Magdalen-soul within our breasts.
—Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace,
Pius Parsch
Monday of
Holy Week[2]
The Gospel for the Mass gives an
account of Judas' character, foreshadowing his act of betrayal.
Spring Cleaning
Just as the Hebrews cleaned and swept the whole house
in preparation for the Pasch (Passover), so too is there an ancient custom in
Christianity that the first three weekdays of Holy Week be a time for the
year's most thorough cleaning. Everything is to be scrubbed and polished, and
all work is to be completed by Wednesday evening (in time for Tenebrae).
Tenebrae consists of the divine office of Matins and Lauds for Maundy Thursday. It is generally held on the night of "Spy Wednesday" of Holy Week, so-called because it is believed to be the night on which Judas Iscariot betrayed our Lord.
Timeline of Holy Week[3]
· Jesus curses the fig tree. (Mt 21:18-19; Mk
11:12-14)
· Jesus cleanses the temple. (Mt 21:10-17; Mk
11:11; Lk 19:45-46; Jn 2:13-25)
· Parable of the wicked tenants (Mt 21:33-46;
Mk 12:1-12; Lk 20:9-19)
· Returns to Bethany at night.
On
Monday[4],
Jesus returned with his disciples to Jerusalem. Along the way, He cursed a
fig tree because it had failed to bear fruit. Some scholars believe this
cursing of the fig tree represented God's judgment on the spiritually dead
religious leaders of Israel. Others believe the symbolism extended to all
believers, demonstrating that genuine faith
is more than just outward religiosity. True, living faith must bear spiritual
fruit in a person's life. When Jesus arrived at the Temple he found the courts
full of corrupt money changers.
He began overturning their tables and clearing the Temple, saying, "The
Scriptures declare, 'My Temple will be a house of prayer,' but you have turned
it into a den of thieves." (Luke 19:46) On Monday evening Jesus stayed in
Bethany again, probably in the home of his friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.
Aids in Battle[5] The Devil fears those who pray.
My dear brothers and sisters not
only is prayer very powerful; even more, it’s of the utmost necessity for
overcoming the enemies of our salvation. Look at all the saints: They weren’t
content with watching and fighting to overcome the enemies of their salvation
and with keeping well away from all
that could offer them temptation. They passed their whole lives in prayer, not
only the day, but very often the whole night as well. Yes, my dear children, we
watch over ourselves and all the motions of our hearts in vain, and in vain we
avoid temptation, if we don’t pray. If we don’t continually resort to prayer,
all our other ways will be of no use at all to us, and we’ll be overcome. We
won’t find any sinner converted without turning to prayer. We won’t find one
persevering without depending heavily on prayer. Nor will we ever find a
Christian who ends up damned whose downfall didn’t begin with a lack of prayer.
We can see, too, how much the Devil fears those who pray, since there’s not a
moment of the day when he tempts us more than when we’re at prayer. He does
everything he possibly can to prevent us from praying. When the Devil wants to
make someone lose his soul, he starts out by inspiring in him a profound
distaste for prayer. However good a Christian he may be, if the Devil succeeds
in making him either say his prayers badly or neglect them altogether, he’s
certain to have that person for himself. Yes, my dear brothers and sisters,
from the moment that we neglect to pray, we move with big steps towards hell.
We’ll never return to God if we don’t resort to prayer.
ST.
JOHN VIANNEY
Catechism
of the Catholic Church
PART FOUR: CHRISTIAN PRAYER
SECTION ONE-PRAYER IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
CHAPTER TWO-THE TRADITION OF PRAYER
Article 2-THE WAY OF PRAYER
2663 In the living tradition of prayer, each Church proposes to
its faithful, according to its historic, social, and cultural context, a
language for prayer: words, melodies, gestures, iconography. the Magisterium of
the Church has the task of discerning the fidelity of these ways of
praying to the tradition of apostolic faith; it is for pastors and catechists
to explain their meaning, always in relation to Jesus Christ.
Prayer to
the Father
2664 There is no other way of Christian prayer than Christ.
Whether our prayer is communal or personal, vocal or interior, it has access to
the Father only if we pray "in the name" of Jesus. the sacred
humanity of Jesus is therefore the way by which the Holy Spirit teaches us to
pray to God our Father.
Prayer to
Jesus
2665 The prayer of the Church, nourished by the Word of God and
the celebration of the liturgy, teaches us to pray to the Lord Jesus. Even
though her prayer is addressed above all to the Father, it includes in all the
liturgical traditions forms of prayer addressed to Christ. Certain psalms,
given their use in the Prayer of the Church, and the New Testament place on our
lips and engrave in our hearts prayer to Christ in the form of invocations: Son
of God, Word of God, Lord, Savior, Lamb of God, King, Beloved Son, Son of the
Virgin, Good Shepherd, our Life, our Light, our Hope, our Resurrection, Friend
of mankind....
2666 But the one name that contains everything is the one that
the Son of God received in his incarnation: JESUS. the divine name may not be
spoken by human lips, but by assuming our humanity the Word of God hands it
over to us and we can invoke it: "Jesus," "YHWH
saves." The name "Jesus" contains all: God and man and the
whole economy of creation and salvation. To pray "Jesus" is to invoke
him and to call him within us. His name is the only one that contains the
presence it signifies. Jesus is the Risen One, and whoever invokes the name of
Jesus is welcoming the Son of God who loved him and who gave himself up for
him.
2667 This simple invocation of faith developed in the tradition
of prayer under many forms in East and West. the most usual formulation,
transmitted by the spiritual writers of the Sinai, Syria, and Mt. Athos, is the
invocation, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners."
It combines the Christological hymn of Philippians 2:6-11 with the cry of the
publican and the blind men begging for light. By it the heart is opened to
human wretchedness and the Savior's mercy.
2668 The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest
way of praying always. When the holy name is repeated often by a humbly
attentive heart, the prayer is not lost by heaping up empty phrases, but
holds fast to the word and "brings forth fruit with
patience." This prayer is possible "at all times" because
it is not one occupation among others but the only occupation: that of loving
God, which animates and transfigures every action in Christ Jesus.
2669 The prayer of the Church venerates and honors the Heart of
Jesus just as it invokes his most holy name. It adores the incarnate Word and
his Heart which, out of love for men, he allowed to be pierced by our sins.
Christian prayer loves to follow the way of the cross in the Savior's steps.
the stations from the Praetorium to Golgotha and the tomb trace the way of
Jesus, who by his holy Cross has redeemed the world.
"Come,
Holy Spirit"
2670 "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy
Spirit." Every time we begin to pray to Jesus it is the Holy Spirit
who draws us on the way of prayer by his prevenient grace. Since he teaches us
to pray by recalling Christ, how could we not pray to the Spirit too? That is
why the Church invites us to call upon the Holy Spirit every day, especially at
the beginning and the end of every important action.
If the
Spirit should not be worshiped, how can he divinize me through Baptism? If he
should be worshiped, should he not be the object of adoration?
2671 The traditional form of petition to the Holy Spirit is to
invoke the Father through Christ our Lord to give us the Consoler
Spirit. Jesus insists on this petition to be made in his name at the very
moment when he promises the gift of the Spirit of Truth. But the simplest
and most direct prayer is also traditional, "Come, Holy Spirit," and
every liturgical tradition has developed it in antiphons and hymns.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and
enkindle in them the fire of your love.
Heavenly King, Consoler Spirit, Spirit of Truth, present everywhere and filling
all things, treasure of all good and source of all life, come dwell in us,
cleanse and save us, you who are All Good.
2672 The Holy Spirit, whose anointing permeates our whole
being, is the interior Master of Christian prayer. He is the artisan of the
living tradition of prayer. To be sure, there are as many paths of prayer as
there are persons who pray, but it is the same Spirit acting in all and with
all. It is in the communion of the Holy Spirit that Christian prayer is prayer
in the Church.
In communion
with the holy Mother of God
2673 In prayer the Holy Spirit unites us to the person of the
only Son, in his glorified humanity, through which and in which our filial
prayer unites us in the Church with the Mother of Jesus.
2674 Mary gave her consent in faith at the Annunciation and
maintained it without hesitation at the foot of the Cross. Ever since, her
motherhood has extended to the brothers and sisters of her Son "who still
journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties." Jesus, the
only mediator, is the way of our prayer; Mary, his mother and ours, is wholly
transparent to him: she "shows the way" (hodigitria), and is herself
"the Sign" of the way, according to the traditional iconography of
East and West.
2675 Beginning with Mary's unique cooperation with the working
of the Holy Spirit, the Churches developed their prayer to the holy Mother of
God, centering it on the person of Christ manifested in his mysteries. In
countless hymns and antiphons expressing this prayer, two movements usually
alternate with one another: the first "magnifies" the Lord for the
"great things" he did for his lowly servant and through her for all
human beings The second entrusts the supplications and praises of the
children of God to the Mother of Jesus, because she now knows the humanity
which, in her, the Son of God espoused.
2676 This twofold movement of prayer to Mary has found a
privileged expression in the Ave Maria:
Hail Mary [or Rejoice, Mary]: the greeting of the angel Gabriel opens this
prayer. It is God himself who, through his angel as intermediary, greets Mary.
Our prayer dares to take up this greeting to Mary with the regard God had for
the lowliness of his humble servant and to exult in the joy he finds in her.
Full of grace, the Lord is with thee: These two phrases of the angel's greeting
shed light on one another. Mary is full of grace because the Lord is with her.
the grace with which she is filled is the presence of him who is the source of
all grace. "Rejoice . . . O Daughter of Jerusalem . . . the Lord your God
is in your midst." Mary, in whom the Lord himself has just made his
dwelling, is the daughter of Zion in person, the ark of the covenant, the place
where the glory of the Lord dwells. She is "the dwelling of God . . . with
men." Full of grace, Mary is wholly given over to him who has come to
dwell in her and whom she is about to give to the world.
Blessed art
thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. After the angel's
greeting, we make Elizabeth's greeting our own. "Filled with the Holy
Spirit," Elizabeth is the first in the long succession of generations who
have called Mary "blessed." "Blessed is she who believed...." Mary
is "blessed among women" because she believed in the fulfillment of
the Lord's word. Abraham. because of his faith, became a blessing for all the
nations of the earth. Mary, because of her faith, became the mother of
believers, through whom all nations of the earth receive him who is God's own
blessing: Jesus, the "fruit of thy womb."
2677 Holy Mary, Mother of God: With Elizabeth we marvel,
"and why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to
me?" Because she gives us Jesus, her son, Mary is Mother of God and
our mother; we can entrust all our cares and petitions to her: she prays for us
as she prayed for herself: "Let it be to me according to your
word." By entrusting ourselves to her prayer, we abandon ourselves to
the will of God together with her: "Thy will be done."
Pray for us
sinners, now and at the hour of our death: By asking Mary to pray for us, we
acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the
"Mother of Mercy," the All-Holy One. We give ourselves over to her
now, in the Today of our lives. and our trust broadens further, already at the
present moment, to surrender "the hour of our death" wholly to her
care. May she be there as she was at her son's death on the cross. May she
welcome us as our mother at the hour of our passing to lead us to her son,
Jesus, in paradise.
2678 Medieval piety in the West developed the prayer of the
rosary as a popular substitute for the Liturgy of the Hours. In the East, the
litany called the Akathistos and the Paraclesis remained closer to the choral
office in the Byzantine churches, while the Armenian, Coptic, and Syriac
traditions preferred popular hymns and songs to the Mother of God. But in the
Ave Maria, the theotokia, the hymns of St. Ephrem or St. Gregory of Narek, the
tradition of prayer is basically the same.
2679 Mary is the perfect Orans (prayer), a figure of the
Church. When we pray to her, we are adhering with her to the plan of the
Father, who sends his Son to save all men. Like the beloved disciple we welcome
Jesus' mother into our homes, for she has become the mother of all the
living. We can pray with and to her. The prayer of the Church is sustained by
the prayer of Mary and united with it in hope.
PRAYERS AND TEACHINGS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
The Theological Virtues[6]
The theological virtues are the foundation of Christian moral activity; they animate it and give it its special character. They inform and give life to all the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life. They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being. They dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have the One and Triune God for their origin, motive, and object. There are three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity. By faith, we believe in God and believe all that he has revealed to us and that Holy Church proposes for our belief. By hope we desire, and with steadfast trust await from God, eternal life and the graces to merit it. By charity, we love God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves for love of God. Charity, the form of all the virtues, "binds everything together in perfect harmony" (Col 3:14).
Faith
Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that
he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief,
because he is truth itself. By faith "man freely commits his entire self
to God." For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God's will.
"The righteous shall live by faith." Living faith "work[s]
through charity."
The gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned against it. But "faith
apart from works is dead": when it is deprived of hope and love, faith
does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living
member of his Body.
The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also
profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it: "All however
must be prepared to confess Christ before men and to follow him along the way
of the Cross, amidst the persecutions which the Church never lacks."
Service of and witness to the faith are necessary for salvation: "So every
one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father
who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my
Father who is in heaven."
The theological virtues are the foundation of Christian moral activity; they
animate it and give it its special character. They inform and give life to all
the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to
make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life. They
are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties
of the human being. There are three theological virtues: faith, hope, and
charity.
Hope
Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and
eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and
relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy
Spirit.
The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed
in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men's activities
and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man
from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up
his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he is
preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity.
Christian hope takes up and fulfills the hope of the chosen people, which has
its origin and model in the hope of Abraham, who was blessed abundantly by the
promises of God fulfilled in Isaac, and who was purified by the test of the
sacrifice. "Hoping against hope, he believed, and thus became the father
of many nations."
Christian hope unfolds from the beginning of Jesus' preaching in the
proclamation of the beatitudes; they trace the path that leads through the
trials that await the disciples of Jesus. Hope is expressed and nourished in
prayer, especially in the Our Father, the summary of everything that hope leads
us to desire.
We can therefore hope in the glory of heaven promised by God to those who love
him and do his will. In every circumstance, each one of us should hope, with
the grace of God, to persevere "to the end" and to obtain the joy of
heaven, as God's eternal reward for the good works accomplished with the grace
of Christ. In hope, the Church prays for "all men to be saved."
Charity
Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his
own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.
Jesus makes charity the new commandment. Whence Jesus says: "As the Father
has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love." And again:
"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved
you."
Fruit of the Spirit and fullness of the Law, charity keeps the commandments of
God and his Christ: "Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you
will abide in my love."
Christ died out of love for us, while we were still "enemies." The
Lord asks us to love as he does, even our enemies, to make ourselves the
neighbor of those farthest away, and to love children and the poor as Christ
himself.
The Apostle Paul says: "charity is patient and kind, charity is not
jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Charity does not insist on its
own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but
rejoices in the right. Charity bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, endures all things." "If I . . . have not charity," says
the Apostle, "I am nothing." Whatever my privilege, service, or even
virtue, "if I . . . have not charity, I gain nothing." Charity is
superior to all the virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues:
"So faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But the greatest of these is
charity."
The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity, which
"binds everything together in perfect harmony. Charity upholds and
purifies our human ability to love, and raises it to the supernatural
perfection of divine love.
The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence
and fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity and remains
disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion. Love is itself the
fulfillment of all our works.
Masters Golf Tournament--April
3-9--Tee up for the granddaddy of all golf tournaments. The 78th Masters Tournament kicks
off the first of 4 major championships, with plenty of betting odds. Head to
Augusta, GA!
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Today's Fast: The
Pope
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
· Make reparations to the Holy Face
·
30
Days with St. Joseph Day 15
[3]https://www.catholicconvert.com/wp-content/uploads/Timeline-of-Holy-Week.pdf
[5] Thigpen, Paul. Manual for Spiritual
Warfare. TAN Books.
[6]http://www.legionofmarytidewater.com/news/news07/april/divinemysteries.htm
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