Tuesday within the Octave of Corpus
Christi
ST.
ANTHONY
The LORD then said to Joshua: Do
not be AFRAID or dismayed. Take all
the army with you and prepare to attack Ai. I have delivered the
king of Ai into your power, with his people, city, and land.
Joshua
was afraid and demoralized because on the Israelites first attempt at taking Ai
they were defeated. God here tells Joshua to be cheerful and be filled with
calm; be reassured.
John
Maxwell noted author of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Series
states that all Christian leaders need to learn the proper balance between
faith and preparation or planning. Joshua is told by God what to do but not how
to do it.[1]
Joshua planned the particulars of the campaign against the Ai.
Law#4-The Law of Navigation: Anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a
leader to chart the course. To make it happen, you have to
take action. You must do what you know needs doing. You must do it when it
needs to be done. Don’t wait. You can make it happen. Knowing how is not the key. Taking action is.
Where
should you start?
1.
Follow
your conscience.
What do you feel you should do? What do you want to do?
2.
Consider
your passion. What
do you get excited about? What do you need to do?
3.
Consider
your natural talents.
What are you naturally good at without much effort? What hobbies do you have?
What interests do you have?
4.
Consider
what society needs and values.
What do you love to do so much you would do it for free, but people are willing
to pay others to do? What do you see others doing that you would like to do?
If you want
to find your purpose, you must get on the seldom traveled road to significance
filled with setbacks, roadblocks, obstacles, and detours. This road leads to
your purpose. You must develop the vision in order to see where you want to be
next. Then, you must take the steps to move from where you are to where you
want to be. You should always be grateful for where you are and what you have,
but you should never be satisfied.[2]
Blessed
are those who hear the word of God and observe it.
(Lk.
11:28)
St.
Anthony[3]
Anthony
is one of the most popular saints in the Church. He is the patron of lost
things and numerous other causes. In Brazil, he is considered a general of the
army; he is the patron of the poor and has been recognized as a wonderworker
from the moment of his death. He was born in Portugal and entered the
Augustinian monastery of Sao Vicente in Lisbon when he was fifteen. When news
of the Franciscan martyrs in Morocco reached him, he joined the Franciscans at
Coimbra. At his own request, he was sent as a missionary to Morocco, but he
became ill, and on his return journey his boat was driven off course and he
landed in Sicily. He took part in St. Francis' famous Chapter of Mats in 1221
and was assigned to the Franciscan province of Romagna. He became a preacher by
accident. When a scheduled preacher did not show up for an ordination ceremony
at Forli, the Franciscan superior told Anthony to go into the pulpit. His
eloquence stirred everyone, and he was assigned to preach throughout northern
Italy. Because of his success in converting heretics, he was called the
"Hammer of Heretics" and because of his learning, St. Francis himself
appointed him a teacher of theology. St. Anthony of Padua was such a forceful
preacher that shops closed when he came to town, and people stayed all night in
church to be present for his sermons. He became associated with Padua because
he made this city his residence and the center of his great preaching mission. After
a series of Lenten sermons in 1231, Anthony's strength gave out and he went
into seclusion at Camposanpiero but soon had to be carried back to Padua. He
did not reach the city but was taken to the Poor Clare convent at Arcella,
where he died. He was thirty-six years old, and the whole city of Padua turned
out in mourning for his passing. He was canonized within a year of his death
and was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XII in 1946.
Patron: Against
shipwrecks; against starvation; against starving; American Indians; amputees;
animals; asses; barrenness; boatmen; Brazil; diocese of Beaumont, Texas;
domestic animals; elderly people; expectant mothers; faith in the Blessed
Sacrament; Ferrazzano, Italy; fishermen; harvests; horses; Lisbon, Portugal;
lost articles; lower animals; mail; mariners; oppressed people; Padua, Italy;
paupers; poor people; Portugal; pregnant women; sailors; seekers of lost
articles; shipwrecks; starvation; starving people; sterility; swineherds; Tigua
Indians; travel hostesses; travellers; watermen.
Things to
Do
·
St. Anthony was a great lover of the poor.
Deprive yourself of some treat and put the money saved in the poor box.
·
St. Anthony's Bread refers to an episode told in
the Rigaldina, the oldest life of St. Anthony. A Paduan mother, who
lived near the Basilica during its construction, had left little Thomas, her 20-month-old
son, alone in the kitchen. The little boy, while playing, ended up headfirst in
a tub of water. His mother found him lifeless. She screamed desperately but she
didn't give up. She called on the Saint. She made a vow: if she obtained the
blessing of her child back to life, she would donate to the poor bread equal to
the weight of her son to the poor. Her prayer was answered. Read
more about St. Anthony's Bread and consider donating to St. Anthony's
charities.
·
St. Anthony is invoked by women in search of
good husbands, so if you're single and in search of a spouse, today is a good
day to make a visit to a church or shrine dedicated to St. Anthony to make your
petition to this generous saint!
·
Because St. Anthony was buried on a Tuesday and
many miracles accompanied his funeral, Tuesdays are special days of honoring
him throughout the year. It is customary to pray a Novena
to him on thirteen consecutive Tuesdays.
Yukon Territory created,
1898[4]
The Yukon, a territory in
northwest Canada, is wild, mountainous and sparsely populated. Kluane National
Park and Reserve includes Mount Logan, Canada’s highest peak, as well as
glaciers, trails and the Alsek River. In the far north is Ivvavik National Park,
with protected calving grounds for Porcupine caribou. In the south are numerous
glacier-fed alpine lakes, including boldly coloured Emerald Lake.
The '20-5-3' Rule-How
Much Time to Spend Outside[5]
Americans today spend 92 percent of their time indoors, and their physical and mental health are suffering. Use this three-number formula to make yourself stronger and happier.
The herd of
400-pound caribou was running 50 miles an hour and directly at me. The
30 animals had been eating lichen in the Arctic tundra in Alaska when something
spooked them. I was sitting in their escape route. The ground began to vibrate
once they cracked 100 yards. At 50 yards, I could see their hooves smashing the
ground and kicking up moss and moisture. Then they were at 40 yards, then 35.
I could hear their breathing, smell their coats, and see all
the details of their ornate antlers. Just as I was wondering if the rescue
plane would be able to spot my hoof-pocked corpse, one of the caribou noticed
me and swerved. The herd followed, shaking the earth as they swept left and
summited a hillcrest, their antlers black against a gold sky.
That moment when those caribou shook the earth also shook my
soul. It was transcendent, wild as a religious experience. And it’s not even
the most intense thing I did in Alaska. I experienced savage weather, crossed
raging rivers, and faced a half-ton grizzly. My brain was feeling less hunkered
down in its typical foxhole—a state I’d compare to that of a roadrunner on
meth, dementedly zooming from one thing to the next. My mind felt more like it
belonged to a monk after a month at a meditation retreat. I just
felt . . . better. The biologist E. O. Wilson put what I was feeling this way:
“Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive, and even
spiritual satisfaction.”
When I returned from the wild, my Zen-like buzz hung around
for months. To understand what was happening, I met with Rachel Hopman, Ph.D.,
a neuroscientist at Northeastern University. She told me about the nature
pyramid. Think of it like the food pyramid, except that instead of recommending
you eat this many servings of vegetables and this many of meat, it recommends
the amount of time you should spend in nature to reduce stress and be
healthier. Learn and live by the 20-5-3 rule.
20 Minutes
That’s the amount of
time you should spend outside in nature, like a neighborhood park, three times
a week. Hopman led a new study that concluded that something as painless as a
20-minute stroll through a city botanical garden can boost cognition and memory
as well as improve feelings of well-being. “But,” she said, “we found that
people who used their cell phone on the walk saw none of those benefits.”
Other research
discovered that 20 minutes outside three times a week is the dose of nature
that had the greatest effect on reducing an urban dweller’s levels of the
stress hormone cortisol.
In nature, our
brains enter a mode called “soft fascination.” Hopman described it as a
mindfulness-like state that restores and builds the resources you need to
think, create, process information, and execute tasks. It’s mindfulness without
the meditation. A short daily nature walk—or even a walk down a tree-lined
street—is a great option for people who aren’t keen on sitting and focusing on
their breath. But turn off your phone—alerts from it can kick you out of
soft-fascination mode.
5 Hours
The minimum
length of time each month you should spend in semi-wild nature,
like a forested state park. “Spending more time in wilder spaces does seem to
give you more benefits,” said Hopman.
A 2005 survey conducted in Finland found that city dwellers
felt better with at least five hours of nature a month, with benefits
increasing at higher exposures. They were also more likely to be happier and
less stressed in their everyday lives.
The Finnish government then funded another study in 2014 in
which the scientists dumped people in a city center, a city park, and a
forested state park. The two parks felt more Zen than the city center. No
shocker. Except that those walking in a state park had an edge over the
city-park people. They felt even more relaxed and restored. The takeaway: The
wilder the nature, the better.
Nature has these effects on the mind and body because it
stimulates and soothes us in unusual and unique ways. For instance, in nature
you are engulfed in fractals, suggested Hopman. Fractals are complex patterns
that repeat over and over in different sizes and scales and make up the design
of the universe. Think: trees (big branch to smaller branch to smaller branch
and so on), river systems (big river to smaller river to stream and so on),
mountain ranges, clouds, seashells. “Cities don’t have fractals,” said Hopman.
“Imagine a typical building. It’s usually flat, with right angles. It’s painted
some dull color.” Fractals are organized chaos, which our brains apparently
dig. In fact, scientists at the University of Oregon discovered that Jackson
Pollock’s booze-and-jazz-fueled paintings are made up of fractals. This may
explain why they speak to humans at such a core level.
Nature lifts us in other ways, too: Think smells and sounds.
The feeling of the sun’s warm rays. Or just the fact that you’re getting out of
the stress of your home or office. “It’s probably a mix of a lot of things,”
said Hopman. Environments like cities, with their frenetic pace, right angles,
loud noises, rotten smells, pinging phones, and to-do lists, don’t offer this.
3 Days
This is
the top of the pyramid. Three is the number of days you
should spend each year off the grid in nature, camping or renting a cabin (with
friends or solo). Think: places characterized by spotty cell reception and wild
animals, away from the hustle and bustle.
This dose of the wildest nature is sort of like an extended
meditation retreat. Except talking is allowed and there are no gurus. It causes
your brain to ride alpha waves, the same waves that increase during meditation
or when you lapse into a flow state. They can reset your thinking, boost
creativity, tame burnout, and just make you feel better.
This is likely why one study found that three days in the
wild boost’s creativity and problem-solving abilities and another found that
U. S. military vets who spent four days white-water rafting were still buzzing
off the wild a week later. Their PTSD symptoms and stress levels were down 29
and 21 percent, respectively. Their relationships, happiness, and general
satisfaction with their lives all improved as well.
When I returned from Alaska, my wife and I moved to the edge
of the desert in Las Vegas. She wanted a shorter commute, and I wanted more
access to nature. I now walk my dogs through red-rock trails for at least 20
minutes daily and on Sunday do a long trail run deep into the canyons to rack
up my five-hour quota for the month. This summer, I’m planning a weeklong
backcountry fly-fishing trip in Idaho’s Frank Church–River of No Return
Wilderness Area. Hoping I’ll return less frazzled, fitter, and feeling more
alive.
Adapted from the book The Comfort Crisis: Embrace
Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self, by Michael Easter,
out now from Rodale Books. Copyright © 2021 by Michael Easter.
Apostolic Exhortation[6]
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 III
Loving and Adoring the
Eucharistic Lord
VI. Pastors, have one
Eucharistic procession each year in your parish.
101. Of course, any Eucharistic
procession should be reverent, beautiful, peaceful, festive, and well-planned.
But there will be much variation from parish to parish. For a particular parish
the procession could be several miles and in highly public places; it could be
shorter and simply around the parish campus. Perhaps it involves a few dozen or
several hundred people, or even much larger crowds. For some parishes (like
those in the cooler climates) the feast of Corpus Christi may be the best time
for a procession. For others (like those in warmer places), parishes may want
to choose another day each year. Possibilities include the celebration of Our
Lady of Guadalupe (our diocesan patroness), Christ the King, Epiphany,
Pentecost, the parish’s patronal feast day, and the celebration of the
anniversary of the dedication of the church.
VII. Pastors, consider how you
can make Eucharistic adoration a more available evangelical opportunity.
102. As we discussed above,
Eucharistic adoration can be a significant opportunity for evangelization
because there we truly are able to bring a friend into the sacramental, living,
bodily presence of Christ. The Eucharist is the greatest treasure of the Church
for it is Christ Himself – and it is the treasure to which the church
invites each man and woman in every place and time. But all priests know the
confused and overwhelmed look that can often appear on the face of a
non-Catholic after attending Mass for the first time. We can forget how rich,
complex, and biblical are the symbolic words, images, and gestures in the Mass.
It is like another world with a foreign language. For those unfamiliar with
Catholic liturgy, this complexity can frequently be so alien as to be almost
entirely impenetrable. Eucharistic adoration, on the other hand, is much
simpler and less demanding for an un-evangelized person. It can be a kind of
door or bridge to the full sacramental life of the church.
103. What would it look like if
your parish made Eucharistic adoration more beautiful, available, and
accessible to Catholics who could invite friends? Are times for adoration
widely publicized? Is the place where adoration is held reverent, dignified,
safe, and inviting? How often do Mass-going Catholics receive encouragement to
invite friends and family members to adoration? Are there resources which can
easily assist non-Catholics and fallen-away Catholics in beginning to learn to
pray in the presence of the Eucharistic Lord?
To be continued…
Catechism of the Catholic Church
PART ONE: THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
SECTION ONE-"I BELIEVE" -
"WE BELIEVE"
CHAPTER THREE-MAN'S RESPONSE TO GOD
Article 1 I BELIEVE
III. The Characteristics
of Faith
Faith is a grace
153 When St. Peter confessed
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus declared to him that
this revelation did not come "from flesh and blood", but from
"my Father who is in heaven". Faith is a gift of God, a
supernatural virtue infused by him. "Before this faith can be exercised,
man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior
helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens
the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept and believe the
truth.'"
Faith is a human act
154 Believing is possible only
by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is no less true that
believing is an authentically human act. Trusting in God and cleaving to the
truths he has revealed is contrary neither to human freedom nor to human
reason. Even in human relations it is not contrary to our dignity to believe
what other persons tell us about themselves and their intentions, or to trust
their promises (for example, when a man and a woman marry) to share a communion
of life with one another. If this is so, still less is it contrary to our
dignity to "yield by faith the full submission of... intellect and will to
God who reveals", and to share in an interior communion with him.
155 In faith, the human
intellect and will co-operate with divine grace: "Believing is an act of
the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God
through grace."
Faith and understanding
156 What moves us to believe is
not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light
of our natural reason: we believe "because of the authority of God himself
who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived". So
"that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with
reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to
the internal helps of the Holy Spirit." Thus the miracles of Christ
and the saints, prophecies, the Church's growth and holiness, and her
fruitfulness and stability "are the most certain signs of divine
Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all"; they are "motives of
credibility" (motiva credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith
is "by no means a blind impulse of the mind".
157 Faith is certain. It is
more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of
God who cannot lie. To be sure, revealed truths can seem obscure to human
reason and experience, but "the certainty that the divine light gives is
greater than that which the light of natural reason gives." "Ten
thousand difficulties do not make one doubt."
158 "Faith seeks
understanding": it is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to
know better the One in whom he has put his faith, and to understand better what
He has revealed; a more penetrating knowledge will in turn call forth a greater
faith, increasingly set afire by love. the grace of faith opens "the eyes
of your hearts" to a lively understanding of the contents of
Revelation: that is, of the totality of God's plan and the mysteries of faith,
of their connection with each other and with Christ, the centre of the revealed
mystery. "The same Holy Spirit constantly perfects faith by his gifts, so
that Revelation may be more and more profoundly understood." In the
words of St. Augustine, "I believe, in order to understand; and I
understand, the better to believe."
159 Faith and science:
"Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy
between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses
faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny
himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth." "Consequently,
methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in
a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict
with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive
from the same God. the humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of
nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it
is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are."
The freedom of faith
160 To be human, "man's
response to God by faith must be free, and... therefore nobody is to be forced
to embrace the faith against his will. the act of faith is of its very nature a
free act." "God calls men to serve him in spirit and in truth. Consequently
they are bound to him in conscience, but not coerced. . . This fact received
its fullest manifestation in Christ Jesus." Indeed, Christ invited
people to faith and conversion, but never coerced them. "For he bore
witness to the truth but refused to use force to impose it on those who spoke
against it. His kingdom... grows by the love with which Christ, lifted up on
the cross, draws men to himself."
The necessity of faith
161 Believing in Jesus Christ
and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that
salvation. "Since "without faith it is impossible to please
(God) " and to attain to the fellowship of his sons, therefore without
faith no one has ever attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal
life 'But he who endures to the end.'"]
Perseverance in faith
162 Faith is an entirely free
gift that God makes to man. We can lose this priceless gift, as St. Paul
indicated to St. Timothy: "Wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good
conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of
their faith." To live, grow and persevere in the faith until the end
we must nourish it with the word of God; we must beg the Lord to increase our
faith; it must be "working through charity," abounding in hope,
and rooted in the faith of the Church.
Faith - the beginning of
eternal life
163 Faith makes us taste in
advance the light of the beatific vision, the goal of our journey here below.
Then we shall see God "face to face", "as he is". So
faith is already the beginning of eternal life:
When we contemplate the blessings of faith even now, as if gazing at a
reflection in a mirror, it is as if we already possessed the wonderful things
which our faith assures us we shall one day enjoy.
164 Now, however, "we walk
by faith, not by sight"; we perceive God as "in a mirror,
dimly" and only "in part". Even though enlightened by him
in whom it believes, faith is often lived in darkness and can be put to the
test. the world we live in often seems very far from the one promised us by
faith. Our experiences of evil and suffering, injustice and death, seem to
contradict the Good News; they can shake our faith and become a temptation
against it.
165 It is then we must turn to
the witnesses of faith: to Abraham, who "in hope... believed against
hope"; to the Virgin Mary, who, in "her pilgrimage of
faith", walked into the "night of faith" in sharing the
darkness of her son's suffering and death; and to so many others:
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let
us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run
with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer
and perfecter of our faith."
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Victims
of clergy sexual abuse
·
St. Anthony Novena
1-on thirteen consecutive Tuesdays.
· Make
reparations to the Holy Face-Tuesday Devotion
· Pray Day 2
of the Novena for our Pope and Bishops
· Tuesday:
Litany of St. Michael the Archangel
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
[1]
John Maxwell, The Maxwell Leadership Bible.
[2]https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141120221705-25477363-the-law-of-navigation-it-s-all-about-knowing-where-you-re-going
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