Saints, Feast, Family
- Traditions passed down with Cooking, Crafting, & Caring -
April 27
Saint of the day:
Patron Saint of Domestic Workers, Maids, Servants
Saturday of the Fourth Week of
Easter
Job, Chapter 21, Verse 9
Their homes are safe, without FEAR, and the rod of God is not upon
them.
With the current
political climate of today-North Korea, Kenya, Venezuela, Sanctuary Cities,
Gangs etc.; we may not be feeling safe in our homes. We may feel God’s rod is
upon us. Yet, we learn that God does not wish to destroy us but bring about the
best in us. The wages of sin are usually destruction, but God is mercy. As in
the parable of the wheat and tares God allows the weeds to grow with the wheat.
We often ask with Job, “Why do the wicked keep on living, grow old, become
mighty in power? Mercy!
Zophar
& His Asps[1]
·
Zophar decides to beat a dead horse.
·
Not literally.
·
He tells Job that the wicked get what they
deserve from God.
·
For good measure, he adds that the venom of asps
will poison people's stomachs and kill the sinners. Well that's graphic.
Job
Refutes Zophar
·
Job sticks to his guns.
·
The wicked, he says, go unpunished all the time.
Not that he's cool with that. He prays for the sinners' destruction, and then
tells Zophar to stop being so depressing.
The
LORD, your God, shall you fear; him
shall you serve, and by his name shall you swear."
Evil in our Time[2]
The North Korean cult of
personality surrounding its ruling family, the Kim family, has
existed in North Korea for decades and can be found in many examples of North
Korean culture. The personality cult began soon after Kim Il-sung took power in 1948, and was
greatly expanded after his death in 1994. While other countries have had cults
of personality to various degrees (such as Joseph Stalin's in the Soviet
Union), the pervasiveness and extreme nature of North Korea's personality cult
surpasses that of Stalin or Mao Zedong. The cult is also marked by the
intensity of the people's feelings for and devotion to their leaders, and the
key role played by a Confucianized ideology of familism both in maintaining the cult and
thereby in sustaining the regime itself. The cult of personality surrounding
the Kim family requires total loyalty and subjugation to the Kim family and
establishes the country as a one-man dictatorship through successive
generations. There is even widespread belief that Kim Il-sung "created the
world" and that Kim Jong-il controlled the weather. Korean society,
traditionally Confucian, places a strong emphasis on
paternal hierarchy and loyalty. North Korean authorities have co-opted portions
of Christianity and Buddhism, and adapted them to their own uses, while greatly
restricting
all religions in
general as they are seen as a threat to the regime. An example of this can be
seen in the description of Kim Il-sung as a god, and Kim Jong-il as
the son of a god or "Sun of the Nation".
Time to Get Serious About Fatima[3]
The world's gone mad. Take
the attack in Nice, France, let alone the regular atrocities and outrages
perpetrated by ISIS upon their neighbors or the persecutions of the Church in
China and North Korea, and the list could go on. But it's pointless to compare
tragedies, to try to determine who's most wounded, who is most in pain. Rather,
it's time and long past time to apply the solutions we've had all along. I'm
talking, of course, about the message of Fatima, specifically Our Lady's calls for
the daily Rosary for peace in the world and the Five First Saturday’s devotion.
My fellow Marian Fr. Seraphim Michalenko sometimes tells a
story that a priest ministering in Japan shared with him in Rome. This priest
was attending an international gathering of Christians from across the world,
attended by foreign dignitaries. The ambassador from Japan approached the
priest, verified that the priest served in Japan and was a Catholic priest, and
then said, "War is your fault." The priest was surprised and asked
what the ambassador meant. The ambassador said, "You Catholics, all of you
— we do not have peace in the world. It is your fault." The priest said,
"Ambassador, why do you blame us?" The ambassador said, "I've
read about this. The Lady came to you at Fatima, right? That's what you
believe? She told you what to do to secure peace in the world. Well, there's no
peace in the world, so obviously you Catholics haven't done it." The
priest had to acknowledge that the ambassador was correct, but still tried to
protest, saying, "Isn't peace everyone's responsibility?" The
ambassador was vehement. "No, she came to you Catholics. Not to Buddhists.
Not to Hindus. She came to you, and it is your responsibility."
We've
been given the answer. Pray the Rosary daily for peace in the world and invite
others to pray with you. At college, there would occasionally be "sit ins
for peace." A number of my fellow students, passionately convinced and
righteously indignant though they were, would go and sit outside the student
center with signs. That was their sit in for peace. It always massively
frustrated me because here we were, a Catholic school, armed with a whole host
of powerful prayers and devotions, and there they were just sitting. If they'd
just bothered to pray the Rosary, their protest would have meant a great deal
in this world and the next. Why not
arrange for a Rosary for peace at your colleges and universities, if not every
day, then at least every Saturday, traditionally set aside as Our Lady’s Day?
Why not revive the tradition of family and neighborhood Rosaries, offered
specifically for the intention of peace in the world? What about having a
regular Rosary for peace at your parish, maybe even before Mass with the
permission of your pastor? And as we come up on the 100th anniversary (May
13-Oct. 13, 2017) of Our Lady's apparitions at Fatima in 1917, let's embrace
the whole message of Fatima.
• Make the Five First Saturdays devotion
• Consecrate yourself to the
Immaculate Heart,
and encourage others to do the same.
• Become invested in the Brown Scapular.
• Do penance for your sins and on behalf of poor sinners everywhere. Don't just
sit there — the world is in trouble, and we have the answer.
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.
Vinny’s
Corner-Things to do this Weekend.
·
King’s
Day in Amsterdam--April 27--Enjoy a ride
along Amsterdam’s canals, and
don your brightest orange, for the Netherlands’ annual King’s Day. The national
holiday celebrates the Dutch royal house (and current King Willem-Alexander)
with plenty of “orange madness,” in keeping with the Dutch national colors.
·
Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival—April
27 thru May 7-- Take in the small-town charm of
Winchester, VA, in this 6-day celebration of spring. First held in 1924, the
annual festival packs a wallop of more than 30 events into its lineup: band
competitions, dances, parades, carnival, a 10K race, the coronation of Queen
Shenandoah and so much more, attracting crowds in excess of 250,000.
·
Lyte
Sky Lantern Festival is coming to the
Tucson, AZ area Saturday, April 27th, 2024.
o Arizona- Tucson,
Arizona
o Saturday, April
27th, 2024
o 5:00 PM – 10:00
P
·
Tucson's tropical
escape Kon Tiki hits 61 years old
The midtown tiki bar is the fifth-oldest working tiki bar
in America.
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Today's Fast: Protection
of Life from Conception until natural death.
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Make
reparations to the Holy Face
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