Day 2 Pentecost Novena: Prayer for the Gift of Holy Fear
Come thou father of the poor,
come with treasures that endure,
come thou light of all that live.
Come, O blessed Spirit of Holy Fear, penetrate my inmost heart, that I may set you, my Lord and God, before my face forever; help me to shun all things that can offend you, and make me worthy to appear before the pure eyes of your Divine Majesty in heaven, where you live and reign in the unity of the Blessed Trinity, God, world without end. Amen.
Saturday in the Octave of Ascension
FEAST OF MARY QUEEN OF APOSTLES Armed Forces Day
Deuteronomy, Chapter
17, Verse 18-20
18When he is sitting upon his royal throne, he shall write a copy of this law upon a scroll from the one that is in the custody of the Levitical priests. 19It shall remain with him and he shall read it as long as he lives, so that he may learn to FEAR the LORD, his God, and to observe carefully all the words of this law and these statutes, 20so that he does not exalt himself over his kindred or turn aside from this commandment to the right or to the left, and so that he and his descendants may reign long in Israel.
God commanded that the King should read the scrolls of the law and follow them. The scrolls were the bible of the time. If we wish to have fear, that is wonder and awe at God we need to read the bible every day. Perhaps today would be a good day to shut off the TV and read a chapter a day for every day of your life or read the daily readings for the Mass. Perhaps doing this along with a family dinner where you pray together over the meal and then read the bible together would help strengthen families.
A good resource to peruse to strengthen the family is:
http://www.catholicfamilyfaith.org/
The Judgment of the Nations[1] (Matthew 25:31-46)
31“When the Son of Man
comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious
throne,32 and all the nations will
be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a
shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.33 He will place the sheep on
his right and the goats on his left.34 Then the king will say to
those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you
gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me,36 naked and you clothed me, ill
and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’37 Then the righteous will answer him and say,
‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?38 When did we see you a
stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit
you?’40 And the king will say to
them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least
brothers of mine, you did for me.’41 Then he will say to
those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels.42 For
I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,43 a stranger and you gave me no
welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not
care for me.’44 Then they will answer
and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or
ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’45 He will answer them, ‘Amen, I
say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for
me.’46 And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the
righteous to eternal life.”
Feast of Mary Queen of
Apostles[2]
The feast of the Queen of Apostles was established on the
first Saturday after the Ascension by the Sacred Congregation of Rites at the
request of the Pallottine Fathers. Mary initiated her mission as Queen of
Apostles in the Cenacle. She gathered the apostles together, comforted them,
and assisted them in prayer. Together with them she hoped, desired and prayed;
with them her petitions were heeded, and she received the Holy Spirit on the
day of Pentecost.
Mary is Queen of Apostles because she was chosen to be the
Mother of Jesus Christ and to give him to the world; she was made the apostles'
Mother and our own by our Savior on the cross. She was with the apostles while
awaiting the descent of the Holy Spirit, obtaining for them the abundance of
supernatural graces they received on Pentecost. The most holy Virgin was and
always will be the wellspring for every apostolate.
·
She exercised a universal apostolate, one so
vast that it embraced all others. The apostolate of prayer, the apostolate of
good example, the apostolate of suffering--Mary fulfilled them all. Other
people have practiced certain teachings of the Gospel; Mary lived them all.
Mary is full of grace, and we draw from her abundance.
·
Mary attracts the zealous to the various
apostolates, then protects and defends all these works. She sheds on each the
warmth of her love and the light of her countenance. She presented Jesus in a
manner unparalleled throughout the ages. Her apostolate is of the highest
degree--never to be equaled, much less surpassed.
·
Mary gave Jesus to the world and with Jesus came
every other blessing. Thus, because of Mary we have the Church: "Mary is
the Mother of the Church not only because she is the Mother of Christ and his
most intimate associate in 'the new economy when the Son of God took a human
nature from her, that he might in the mysteries of his flesh free man from
sin,' but also because 'she shines forth to the whole community of the elect as
a model of the virtues' (Lumen Gentium. 55, 65).
·
She now continues to fulfill from heaven her
maternal function as the cooperator in the birth and development of the divine
life in the individual souls of the redeemed" (The Great Sign, by Paul
VI). What do we have of value that we have not received through Mary? It is
God's will that every blessing should come to us through her.
·
Because the Blessed Mother occupies a most
important position in God's plan of salvation, all humanity should pay homage
to her. Whoever spreads devotion to the Queen of Apostles is an apostolic
benefactor of the human race, because devotion to Mary is a treasure. Blessed
is the person who possesses this treasure! Mary's devotees will never be
without grace; in any danger, in every circumstance they will always have the
means to obtain every grace from God.
Mary - Mother of Christ, Mother of
the Church[3]
963 Since the Virgin Mary's role
in the mystery of Christ and the Spirit has been treated, it is fitting now to
consider her place in the mystery of the Church. "The Virgin
Mary. . . is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of
God and of the redeemer. . . . She is 'clearly the mother of the
members of Christ’. . . since she has by her charity joined in
bringing about the birth of believers in the Church, who are members of its
head.""Mary, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church."
Mary's
Motherhood with Regard to the Church
Wholly
united with her Son. . .
964 Mary's role in the Church is
inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. "This
union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from
the time of Christ's virginal conception up to his death";504 it is
made manifest above all at the hour of his Passion:
Thus,
the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully
persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in
keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity
of his suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother's heart, and
lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her: to be given,
by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross, as a mother to his disciple, with
these words: "Woman, behold your son."
965 After her Son's Ascension,
Mary "aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers." In her
association with the apostles and several women, "we also see Mary by her
prayers imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in
the Annunciation."
966 "Finally the Immaculate
Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her
earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and
exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more
fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and
death." The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation
in her Son's Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other
Christians:
In
giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the
world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived
the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death.
. . .
She is our Mother in the order of grace
967 By her complete adherence to
the Father's will, to his Son's redemptive work, and to every prompting of the
Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church's model of faith and charity. Thus
she is a "preeminent and.. . Wholly unique member of the
Church"; indeed, she is the "exemplary realization" of the Church.
968 Her role in relation to the
Church and to all humanity goes still further. "In a wholly singular way
she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the
Savior's work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason, she is
a mother to us in the order of grace."
969 "This motherhood of Mary
in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she
loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering
beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to
heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold
intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation.
. . . Therefore, the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under
the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix."
970 "Mary's function as
mother of men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ,
but rather shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin's salutary influence on men
. . . flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests
on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its power from
it." "No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate
Word and Redeemer; but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various
ways both by his ministers and the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is
radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of
the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation
which is but a sharing in this one source."
Devotion
to the Blessed Virgin
971 "All generations will
call me blessed": "The Church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is
intrinsic to Christian worship." The Church rightly honors "the
Blessed Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times the Blessed
Virgin has been honored with the title of 'Mother of God,' to whose protection
the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs. . . . This very
special devotion . . . differs essentially from the adoration which
is given to the incarnate Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit,
and greatly fosters this adoration." The liturgical feasts dedicated
to the Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the rosary, an "epitome of
the whole Gospel," express this devotion to the Virgin Mary.
Mary
- Eschatological Icon of the Church
972 After speaking of the Church,
her origin, mission, and destiny, we can find no better way to conclude than by
looking to Mary. In her we contemplate what the Church already is in her
mystery on her own "pilgrimage of faith," and what she will be in the
homeland at the end of her journey. There, "in the glory of the Most Holy
and Undivided Trinity," "in the communion of all the
saints," the Church is awaited by the one she venerates as Mother of
her Lord and as her own mother.
In
the meantime, the Mother of Jesus, in the glory which she possesses in body and
soul in heaven, is the image and beginning of the Church as it is to be
perfected in the world to come. Likewise she shines forth on earth until the
day of the Lord shall come, a sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim
People of God.
973 By pronouncing her
"fiat" at the Annunciation and giving her consent to the Incarnation,
Mary was already collaborating with the whole work her Son was to accomplish.
She is mother wherever he is Savior and head of the Mystical Body.
974 The Most Blessed Virgin Mary,
when the course of her earthly life was completed, was taken up body and soul
into the glory of heaven, where she already shares in the glory of her Son's
Resurrection, anticipating the resurrection of all members of his Body.
975 "We believe that the Holy
Mother of God, the new Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven to
exercise her maternal role on behalf of the members of Christ" (Paul
VI, CPG § 15).
Armed Forces Day[4]
Armed Forces Day is a day
to recognize members of the Armed Forces that are currently serving. In 1947,
the Armed Forces of the US were united under one department which was renamed
the Department of Defense. In 1949, President Harry S. Truman supported the
creation of a day for the nation to unite in support and recognition or our
military members and their families. On August 31, 1949, Secretary of Defense
Louis Johnson announced that Armed Forces Day would take the place of other
individual branch celebrations, and all branches of the military would be
honored this single day. Armed Forces Day takes place on the third
Saturday in May.
·
According
to the US Dept of Defense, as of 2017, there are 1,281,900 personnel serving in
active duty in the United States.
·
One
of the best ways to keep peace
is to be prepared for war. - General George Washington
Armed Forces Day Top Events and
Things to Do
·
Attend
a parade or a military air show.
·
Send
a care package to military personnel stationed overseas. Free flat-rate boxes
are available at USPS. Use these to mail to military bases for a low cost.
·
Fly
the American Flag.
·
Visit
a local Veteran's Hospital or Nursing Home to show your gratitude.
· Honor Military Working Dogs by
donating to the ASPCA or other charitable
organizations that protect and serve these heroic animals.
10 habits of mentally strong people[5]
Despite West Point Military Academy’s
rigorous selection process, one in five students drop out by graduation day. A
sizeable number leave the summer before freshman year, when cadets go through a
rigorous program called “Beast.” Beast consists of extreme physical, mental,
and social challenges that are designed to test candidates’ perseverance. University
of Pennsylvania psychologist Angela Duckworth conducted a study in which she
sought to determine which cadets would make it through the Beast program. The
rigorous interviews and testing that cadets went through to get into West Point
in the first place told Angela that IQ and talent weren’t the deciding factors.
So, Angela developed her own test to determine which cadets had the mental
strength to conquer the Beast. She called it the “Grit Scale,” and it was a
highly accurate predictor of cadet success. The Grit Scale measures mental
strength, which is that unique combination of passion, tenacity, and stamina
that enables you to stick with your goals until they become a reality. To increase
your mental strength, you simply need to change your outlook. When hard times
hit, people with mental strength suffer just as much as everyone else. The
difference is that they understand that life’s challenging moments offer
valuable lessons. In the end, it’s these tough lessons that build the strength
you need to succeed. Developing mental strength is all about habitually doing
the things that no one else is willing to do. If you aren’t doing the following
things on a regular basis, you should be, for these are the habits that
mentally strong people rely on.
1.
You have to fight when you already feel
defeated.
A reporter once asked Muhammad Ali how many sit-ups he
does every day. He responded, “I don’t count my sit-ups, I only start counting
when it starts hurting, when I feel pain, cause that’s when it really matters.”
The same applies to success in the workplace. You always have two choices when
things begin to get tough: you can either overcome an obstacle and grow in the
process or let it beat you. Humans are creatures of habit. If you quit when
things get tough, it gets that much easier to quit the next time. On the other
hand, if you force yourself to push through a challenge, the strength begins to
grow in you.
2.
You have to delay gratification.
There was a famous Stanford experiment in which an
administrator left a child in a room with a marshmallow for 15 minutes. Before
leaving, the experimenter told the child that she was welcome to eat it, but if
she waited until he returned without eating it, she would get a second
marshmallow. The children that were able to wait until the experimenter
returned experienced better outcomes in life, including higher SAT scores,
greater career success, and even lower body mass indexes. The point is that
delay of gratification and patience are essential to success. People with
mental strength know that results only materialize when you put in the time and
forego instant gratification.
3.
You have to make mistakes, look like an
idiot, and try again — without even flinching.
In a recent study at the College of William and Mary,
researchers interviewed over 800 entrepreneurs and found that the most
successful among them tend to have two critical things in common: they’re
terrible at imagining failure and they tend not to care what other people think
of them. In other words, the most successful entrepreneurs put no time or
energy into stressing about their failures as they see failure as a small and
necessary step in the process of reaching their goals.
4.
You have to keep your emotions in check.
Negative emotions challenge your mental strength every
step of the way. While it’s impossible not to feel your emotions, it’s
completely under your power to manage them effectively and to keep yourself in
control of them. When you let your emotions overtake your ability to think
clearly, it’s easy to lose your resolve. A bad mood can make you lash out or
stray from your chosen direction just as easily as a good mood can make you
overconfident and impulsive.
5. You
have to make the calls you’re afraid to make.
Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do
because we know they’re for the best in the long-run: fire someone, cold-call a
stranger, pull an all-nighter to get the company server back up, or scrap a
project and start over. It’s easy to let the looming challenge paralyze you,
but the most successful people know that in these moments, the best thing they
can do is to get started right away. Every moment spent dreading the task
subtracts time and energy from actually getting it done. People that learn to
habitually make the tough calls stand out like flamingos in a flock of
seagulls.
6.
You have to trust your gut.
There’s a fine line between trusting your gut and
being impulsive. Trusting your gut is a matter of looking at decisions from
every possible angle, and when the facts don’t present a clear alternative, you
believe in your ability to make the right decision; you go with what looks and
feels right.
7.
You have to lead when no one else follows.
It’s easy to set a direction and to believe in
yourself when you have support, but the true test of strength is how well you
maintain your resolve when nobody else believes in what you’re doing. People
with mental strength believe in themselves no matter what, and they stay the
course until they win people over to their ways of thinking.
8.
You have to focus on the details even when it
makes your mind numb.
Nothing tests your mental strength like mind-numbing
details, especially when you’re tired. The more people with mental strength are
challenged, the more they dig in and welcome that challenge, and numbers and
details are no exception to this.
9.
You have to be kind to people who are rude to
you.
When people treat you poorly, it’s tempting to stoop
to their level and return the favor. People with mental strength don’t allow
others to walk all over them, but that doesn’t mean they’re rude to them,
either. Instead, they treat rude and cruel people with the same kindness they
extend to everyone else, because they don’t allow another person’s negativity
to bring them down.
10.
You have to be accountable for your actions,
no matter what.
People are far
more likely to remember how you dealt with a problem than they are to recall
how you created it in the first place. By holding yourself accountable, even
when making excuses is an option, you show that you care about results more
than your image or ego.
World Whiskey Day[6]buy
a soldier a drink today.
If you’re friends with Jack and Jim
and spend your weekends with Jameson and Johnnie, then World Whisky Day is
going to hold a special significance for you. Whisky is one of the iconic
drinks of true lovers of alcohol and is the foundation of some of the most
wonderful drinks known to man. But honestly, who needs an excuse to imbibe in these
wonderful libations? If you need one, World Whisky Day is it!
History of World Whisky Day
One of the most common forms of whisky that is sought after is Irish Whisky,
and perhaps appropriately so. The origins of the word Whisky can be found in
the Gaelic Language. Uisce Beatha was the original name of whiskey in classical
Gaelic, which ultimately became Uisce Beatha in Ireland and Uisge Beatha in
Scotland. Both of these names mean “Water of Life” and tells us just how
important and vital this particular distillation was to the Gaels. It was later
shortened to just Uisce/Uisge, and then anglicized to Whisky. So now you know,
when someone is concerned about your whisky consumption, you can just tell them
you’re drinking the water of life!
So what, exactly, is whisky? Whisky is
what happens when you create take rich flavorful grains and ferment them into a
mash, and then take that mash and distil it down into a pure delicious spirit.
Distillation takes place in a still, a device whose whole purpose is the
purification of the alcohol from the fermented mash. One of the most important
secrets of distillation is that it must take place in a copper (Or copper
lined) still, as the copper removes the sulfur from the drink that would make
this otherwise divine beverage decidedly unpleasant to drink.
How to Celebrate World Whisky Day?
World Whisky Day reminds us that there
is an incredibly broad range of whisky out there to try, and it’s unlikely that
we’ve managed to try all of it. Whisky can be made from barley, corn, rye, and
wheat, just to name a few, and those grains are often mixed in different
proportions before fermenting and distilling. The results are then aged in
casks, with both the cask and the time inside changing the flavor. Needless to
say, you may need more than one day to sample every kind available to you!
World Whisky Day is a great opportunity for you to expand your palette and
share your experiences with your friends.
Apostolic Exhortation[7]
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 I
II.
The Mass as the eternal memorial of Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross
22.
For the title of this Exhortation, I have chosen the words “Veneremur
cernui” which comes from the hymn Tantum Ergo that we sing at the
end of solemn adoration and benediction. These words composed by Saint Thomas
Aquinas can be translated as “may we adore with body prostrated” or “down
in adoration falling”. My dear sons and daughters, Jesus our Lord and God
is present to us in the Sacrament of the Eucharist in His self-offering to the
Father and His merciful outpouring of love for us. Let us adore Him with ever
increasing reverence!
23.
Whether we may be weak or strong, I encourage you to pray for the grace of
faith in God’s presence in the Eucharist as well as the grace to worship as the
angels do. This is what the Church prays when she ends the preface and begins
the Eucharistic prayer with the words, “May our voices, we pray, join with
theirs in humble praise, as we acclaim: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts”
(Roman Missal, Preface of Eucharistic Prayer I).
24.
It is in the Eucharist where Our Lord meets us and becomes our faithful
companion along every instance of our life. After Mass, the remaining
consecrated Hosts are reserved in the tabernacle so that Holy Communion can be
brought to the sick and throughout the week we can come and pray in His presence.
He wants to remain with us so that whenever we need Him, we will find Him there
to be our light, strength, comfort, and guidance.
25.
“I will be with you always until the end of times.” (Mt 28:20). Since
that Last Supper of Holy Thursday until now, Our Lord Jesus has faithfully kept
His promise – wherever there is a tabernacle in the world that contains the
Eucharist, there is Jesus truly present among us. His presence is not like a
memory or a symbol that a person keeps in a photo album. He is truly, really,
and substantially present in the Eucharist. The Catechism affirms: “In the
most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist, the body and blood, together with the
soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is
truly, really and substantially contained” (CCC 1374). The same Jesus that
walked the countryside of Palestine, the same Jesus that preached, cured the
sick and raised the dead, the same Jesus who suffered, died, and rose is truly
present in the Eucharist. Indeed, our Lord is ever near us, and we might recall
with joy the exultant words of Deuteronomy 4:7: “What great nation is there
that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us?”.
26.
Immeasurable is the value of every Mass! Unfathomable is the grace made so
accessible to us in the Mass, where Jesus Christ is ever present! It is here
that a quality and abundance of life beyond this world is given to us.
To
be continued…
Catechism of the
Catholic Church
PART
ONE:
THE
PROFESSION OF FAITH
SECTION
ONE
"I
BELIEVE" - "WE BELIEVE"
CHAPTER ONE-MAN'S
CAPACITY FOR GOD
II. Ways of Coming to Know God
31 Created in God's image and called to know and love him,
the person who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know him. These
are also called proofs for the existence of God, not in the sense of proofs in
the natural sciences, but rather in the sense of "converging and
convincing arguments", which allow us to attain certainty about the truth.
These "ways" of approaching God from creation have a twofold point of
departure: the physical world, and the human person.
32 The world: starting from movement, becoming,
contingency, and the world's order and beauty, one can come to a knowledge of
God as the origin and the end of the universe.
As St. Paul says of
the Gentiles: For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has
shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature,
namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things
that have been made.
And St. Augustine
issues this challenge: Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of
the sea, question the beauty of the air distending and diffusing itself,
question the beauty of the sky. . . question all these realities. All respond:
"See, we are beautiful." Their beauty is a profession [confessio].
These beauties are subject to change. Who made them if not the Beautiful One
[Pulcher] who is not subject to change?
33 The human person: with his openness to truth and beauty,
his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with
his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about
God's existence. In all this he discerns signs of his spiritual soul. the soul,
the "seed of eternity we bear in ourselves, irreducible to the merely
material", can have its origin only in God.
34 The world, and man, attest that they contain within
themselves neither their first principle nor their final end, but rather that
they participate in Being itself, which alone is without origin or end. Thus,
in different ways, man can come to know that there exists a reality which is
the first cause and final end of all things, a reality "that everyone
calls God".
35 Man's faculties make him capable of coming to a
knowledge of the existence of a personal God. But for man to be able to enter
into real intimacy with him, God willed both to reveal himself to man, and to
give him the grace of being able to welcome this revelation in faith. (so) the
proofs of God's existence, however, can predispose one to faith and help one to
see that faith is not opposed to reason.
Daily Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters
of St. Joseph by joining
them in fasting: Reparations for offenses and blasphemies
against God and the Blessed Virgin Mary
·
Saturday
Litany of the Hours Invoking the Aid of Mother Mary
·
Litany of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to the sacred heart of Jesus
· Rosary
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