Monday, August 5, 2024
Monday Night at the Movies
Alfred Hitchcock, The Wrong Man, 1956
Saints, Feast, Family
- Traditions passed down with Cooking, Crafting, & Caring -
Christopher’s
Corner
·
Let Freedom Ring Day 30 Freedom from Secularism
o
The
left bludgeons anyone who brings Faith into the public square, even priests,
with the Big Lie of "separation of Church and State." But prior to
Lyndon Johnson's amendment and threat of taxation, faithful shepherds spoke up
and spoke out against secular sin. Now, most everyone's a big coward, trembling
in fear about being taxed. Please, dear family, honestly ask and answer two
simple questions: Do we think the Father of Jesus Christ thinks it's a good
idea that we cower in a corner because of oppressive secularism? Do we think
Our Father thinks we should not openly bring Him into the public square? The
answers are obvious. So are the consequences for how we answer those questions.
o
When
Jesus said "give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and give to God what is
God's," the corollary is "don't give to Caesar what belongs to
God." As it was, as it is, as it always will be: God first, last and
always. So let us always acknowledge God before men, and let us always openly
apply our lives of Faith in the public square.
AUGUST 5 Monday
BASILICA
OF SAINT MARY MAJOR IN ROME
Judges, Chapter 6, Verse 1-2
1 The Israelites did
what was evil in the sight of the LORD, who therefore delivered them into the
power of Midian for seven years,
2
so that Midian held
Israel subject. From FEAR of Midian
the Israelites made dens in the mountains, the caves, and the strongholds.
Even though I walk in
the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side.
One
does wonder; what was the evil that the Israelites did in the sight of the
Lord?
Answer:
Baal was the
name of the supreme god worshiped in ancient Canaan and Phoenicia. The practice
of Baal worship infiltrated Jewish religious life during the time of the Judges
(Judges 3:7), became widespread in Israel during the reign of Ahab (1 Kings
16:31-33) and also affected Judah (2 Chronicles 28:1-2). The word baal
means “lord”; the plural is baalim. In general, Baal was a fertility god
who was believed to enable the earth to produce crops and people to produce
children. Different regions worshiped Baal in different ways, and Baal proved
to be a highly adaptable god. Various locales emphasized one or another of his
attributes and developed special “denominations” of Baalism. Baal of Peor
(Numbers 25:3) and Baal-Berith (Judges 8:33) are two examples of such localized
deities.
According
to Canaanite mythology, Baal was the son of El, the chief god, and Asherah, the
goddess of the sea. Baal was considered the most powerful of all gods,
eclipsing El, who was seen as rather weak and ineffective. In various battles
Baal defeated Yamm, the god of the sea, and Mot, the god of death and the
underworld. Baal’s sisters/consorts were Ashtoreth, a fertility goddess
associated with the stars, and Anath, a goddess of love and war. The Canaanites
worshiped Baal as the sun god and as the storm god—he is usually depicted
holding a lightning bolt—who defeated enemies and produced crops. They also
worshiped him as a fertility god who provided children. Baal worship was rooted
in sensuality and involved ritualistic prostitution in the temples. At times,
appeasing Baal required human sacrifice, usually the firstborn of the one
making the sacrifice (Jeremiah 19:5). The priests of Baal appealed to their god
in rites of wild abandon which included loud, ecstatic cries and self-inflicted
injury (1 Kings 18:28).[1]
Dedication of the Basilica of Saint
Mary Major in Rome[2]
On 5 August, at the height of the Roman summer,
snow fell during the night on the summit of the Esquiline Hill. In obedience to
a vision of the Virgin Mary which they had the same night, the couple built a
basilica in honor of Mary on the very spot which was covered with snow.[3]
St.
Mary Major is important to Christendom for three reasons:
(a)
It stands as a venerable monument to the Council of Ephesus (431), at which the
dogma of Mary's divine Motherhood was solemnly defined; the definition of the
Council occasioned a most notable increase in the veneration paid to Mary.
(b)
The basilica is Rome's "church of the crib," a kind of Bethlehem
within the Eternal City; it also is a celebrated station church, serving, for
instance, as the center for Rome's liturgy for the first Mass on Christmas. In
some measure every picture of Mary with the divine Child is traceable to this
church.
(c)
St. Mary Major is Christendom's first Marian shrine for pilgrims. It set the
precedent for the countless shrines where pilgrims gather to honor our Blessed
Mother throughout the world. Here was introduced an authentic expression of
popular piety that has been the source of untold blessings and graces for
Christianity in the past as in the present.
The
beginnings of St. Mary Major date to the Constantinian period. Originally it
was called the Sicinini Basilica; it was the palace of a patrician family by
that name before its transformation into a church by Pope Liberius. The story
of its origin is legendary, dating from the Middle Ages. The Breviary gives
this version:
Liberius
was on the chair of Peter (352-366) when the Roman patrician John and his wife,
who was of like nobility, vowed to bequeath their estate to the most holy
Virgin and Mother of God, for they had no children to whom their property could
go. The couple gave themselves to assiduous prayer, beseeching Mary to make
known to them in some way what pious work they should subsidize in her honor.
Mary
answered their petition and confirmed her reply by means of the following
miracle. On the fifth of August — a time when it is unbearably hot in the city
of Rome — a portion of the Esquiline would be covered with snow during the
night. During that same night the Mother of God directed John and his wife in
separate dreams to build a church to be dedicated to the Virgin Mary on the
site where they would see snow lying. For it was in this manner that she wanted
her inheritance to be used.
John
immediately reported the whole matter to Pope Liberius, and he declared that a
similar dream had come to him. Accompanied by clergy and people, Liberius
proceeded on the following morning in solemn procession to the snow-covered
hill and there marked off the area on which the church in Mary's honor was to
be constructed.
Under
Pope Sixtus III (432-440) the basilica was rebuilt, and upon the occasion of
the definition of Mary's divine Motherhood by the Council of Ephesus,
consecrated to her honor (432). He decorated the apse and walls with mosaics
from the lives of Christ and His blessed Mother, which even to this day
beautify the church and belong to the oldest we possess. As early as the end of
the fourth century a replica of the Bethlehem nativity grotto had been added;
on this account the edifice became known as "St. Mary of the Crib."
To the Christian at Rome this church is Bethlehem. Other names for the basilica
are: Liberian Basilica, because it dates to the time of Pope Liberius; St. Mary
Major (being the largest church in Mary's honor in Rome); Our Lady of the Snow,
because of the miracle that supposedly occasioned its erection.
We
could point out how the divine Motherhood mystery dominates all Marian liturgy;
for the Theotokos doctrine has kept Mariology Christo-centric in the Church's
worship. Although recent popular devotion to Mary has become to a certain
extent soft and sentimental and has, one may say, erected its own sanctuary
around Mary as the center, devotion to our Blessed Mother in the liturgy has
always remained oriented to Christ. In the liturgy the divine Motherhood has
always been the bridge from Mary to Jesus. One need only examine Matins in
honor of Mary or the Masses from her Common to be reassured. Everywhere Christ
takes the central position, and Mary is the Christbearer. (Christopher)
—Excerpted
from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch
Patronage: Italy; diocese of Reno, Nevada;
Italy: Arzachena, Atella, Castiglione in Teverina, Conco, Rovereto, San Marco
in Lamis, Susa, Torre Annunziata; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Almagro, Spain; Utah
Highlights and Things
to Do:
- Pray
that your devotion to Mary remain solidly constructed upon dogma that is
Christo-centric, for such is the fruit of a living faith in Mary's divine
Motherhood.
- Read
this article from the Catholic Culture Library on Our Lady of the Snows.
- Find
more information see:
- Catholic Encyclopedia
- New Liturgical Movement
- My Catholic Life
- Franciscan Media
- Anastpaul 1
- Anastpaul 2
- Find
out more about the Basilica of St. Mary Major:
Catechism
of the Catholic Church
Day
52
III. "MALE AND FEMALE HE
CREATED THEM"
Equality and difference willed
by God
369 Man and woman have been
created, which is to say, willed by God: on the one hand, in perfect equality
as human persons; on the other, in their respective beings as man and woman.
"Being man" or "being woman" is a reality which is good and
willed by God: man and woman possess an inalienable dignity which comes to them
immediately from God their Creator. Man and woman are both with one and
the same dignity "in the image of God". In their
"being-man" and "being-woman", they reflect the Creator's
wisdom and goodness.
370 In no way is God in man's
image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there is no
place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective
"perfections" of man and woman reflect something of the infinite
perfection of God: those of a mother and those of a father and husband.
"Each for the other"
- "A unity in two"
371 God created man and woman
together and willed each for the other. the Word of God gives us to understand
this through various features of the sacred text. "It is not good that the
man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him." None of
the animals can be man's partner. The woman God "fashions" from
the man's rib and brings to him elicits on the man's part a cry of wonder, an
exclamation of love and communion: "This at last is bone of my bones and
flesh of my flesh." Man discovers woman as another "I",
sharing the same humanity.
372 Man and woman were made
"for each other" - not that God left them half-made and incomplete:
he created them to be a communion of persons, in which each can be
"helpmate" to the other, for they are equal as persons ("bone of
my bones. . .") and complementary as masculine and feminine. In marriage
God unites them in such a way that, by forming "one flesh", they
can transmit human life: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the
earth." By transmitting human life to their descendants, man and
woman as spouses and parents co-operate in a unique way in the Creator's work.
373 In God's plan man and woman have the vocation of "subduing" the earth as stewards of God. This sovereignty is not to be an arbitrary and destructive domination. God calls man and woman, made in the image of the Creator "who loves everything that exists", to share in his providence toward other creatures; hence their responsibility for the world God has entrusted to them.
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: True
Masculinity
·
Eat waffles and Pray for the assistance of the Angels
·
Religion
in the Home for Preschool: August
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Monday: Litany of
Humility
·
Rosary
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