Monday Night at the Movies
William Wyler, Ben Hur, 1959.
Christopher’s
Corner
·
How to celebrate Aug 26th
o Start your
day by enjoying a refreshing cherry popsicle for breakfast, celebrating National
Cherry Popsicle Day. Then, take advantage of the Late Summer
Bank Holiday by organizing a picnic in your backyard or a local
park. Make sure to bring along a roll of toilet paper to use as napkins, in
honor of National
Toilet Paper Day.
o As you
relax in the sun, take a moment to appreciate the hard work and dedication of
webmasters around the world on National
Webmistress Day. Consider giving a shoutout on social media to your
favorite website creators.
o Next, spend
quality time with your furry friend on National Dog Day. Take your
pup for a long walk, play at the dog park, or simply snuggle up together on the
couch. Don’t forget to treat them to a special homemade dog treat to show your
appreciation.
o
Wrap up your day by honoring the real heroes in your
life on National
Heroes’ Day. Write a thank-you note to a frontline worker,
healthcare professional, or someone who has made a positive impact on your
community. Reflect on their bravery and selflessness, and consider ways you can
support them in the future.
·
30
DAY TRIBUTE TO MARY 12th ROSE: Baptism of Jesus, Identifies Himself
to Sinners
o
30 Days of Women and Herbs –
Frauendreissiger
MEDICINAL PLANTS Day 9 FOOD SHORTAGES-Revealed by Heaven to Luz
De María
IN THE FACE
OF FOOD SHORTAGES Store up food, it will become scarce. Prepare Blessed Grapes
and keep honey. Have the Oil of the Good Samaritan with you and the medicines
that My House has made known to you. Our Lord Jesus
Christ
09.21.2021
“People of
Our King and Lord Jesus Christ, the Earth is shaking strongly. You must
maintain provisions of what is specifically necessary for survival, not only
for personal and family needs but also for your brothers and sisters. Store
honey, as this food is beneficial.”
“My beloved
daughter, a spoonful of honey and some nuts will be sufficient food for the
survival of the body; they provide what is necessary for all organs to function
properly. Share this with My children so that it may be a blessing for them in
times of famine.”
AUGUST 26 Monday
OUR LADY OF CZESTOCHOWA
Proverbs, Chapter 15, Verse 16
Better a little with FEAR of the LORD than a great fortune
with anxiety.
The
sages favor wealth over poverty—but not at any price. Wisdom makes poverty not
only bearable but even joyful like the joy of feast days.[1]
Finding Joy[2]
Stress
isn't new. Modern technology has made some tasks easier, but stress levels have
stayed the same or increased. About 27% of U.S. adults report that they are so
stressed most days that they are unable to function. Over 75% experienced at
least one stress-related symptom in the last month, like headache, fatigue,
nervousness or feeling depressed.
Joy
is a powerful emotion and harnessing it can be a remedy for stress-related
burnout. Contentment and joy can positively improve
physical and mental health and
overall well-being.
Here's
what you need to know to build, cultivate and sustain joy in your life.
·
Focus
on what you can control.
o
"Our
attitudes are often a choice. We can spend time ruminating on something that is
negative and out of our control or decide to see the good in something and
choose joy,"
·
Express
gratitude.
·
Assume
good intent when dealing with others.
·
Concentrate
on building relationships.
o
"Part
of being a good friend, good partner and good spouse is to recognize what is
great in everyone and lift them up. Sharing in their joy and cheering them on
helps us recognize the good things in ourselves, too."
·
Keep
perspective.
o
As
you strive for joy, remember to keep perspective on which situations and
decisions are monumental and which are not, like little annoyances.
Our Lady of Czestochowa (The Black
Madonna)[3]
While stationed in
the Army I was responsible for the security and protection of ammunition depots
which for the most part was protected by the Polish Labor
Service.
My faith was formed by interacting with men who always professed great devotion
to Our Lady of Czestochowa.
In some areas today Our Lady of
Czestochowa is commemorated. According to tradition, the icon of Jasna Góra
was painted by Luke the Evangelist on a tabletop built by Jesus himself, and
the icon was discovered by St. Helen, mother of Emperor Constantine and
collector of Christian relics in the Holy Land. The icon was then enshrined in
the imperial city of Constantinople, according to the legend, where it remained
for the next 500 years.
The image of Our Lady of Czestochowa,
also known as the Black Madonna, was traditionally believed to have been
painted by St. Luke the Evangelist on a cypress wood panel from a table used by
the Holy Family in Nazareth. It was said to have been brought from Jerusalem by
St. Helen and was enshrined in Constantinople for 500 years. It was given to a
Greek princess married to a Ruthenian nobleman and it was housed in the royal
palace at Belz in the Ukraine for the next 600 years. Art historians believe it
is a Byzantine icon of the Hodigitria type dating from the 6th - 9th Century. The
image was brought to Poland in 1382 by Ladislaus of Opole who rescued the
painting from Belz while escaping an attack by the Tartars who had damaged the
painting with an arrow. On his way to Silesia, Ladislaus stopped to rest in the
town of Czestochowa near the church on Jasna Góra (Bright Hill). He believed
that it was Our Lady’s desire for her image to remain in Czestochowa, so he
left the image at the church and invited the Pauline monks from Hungary to be
its guardians.
On April 14, 1430, robbers, sometimes
associated with the Hussites of Bohemia, looted the monastery and made three
slashes on the face of Our Lady in an attempt to remove valuable stones,
finally smashing the image into three pieces. In order to repair the icon, the
original paint was removed, and the icon was repainted. Although the icon was
restored, the slashes in Our Lady’s face remain visible today.
The image of Our Lady of Czestochowa
is associated with several miraculous events. One of the most spectacular
occurred in 1655 during the height of the Protestant Revolution. The Swedish
Lutheran army invaded Poland winning victories over the city after city
including Cracow and Warsaw. The Polish King fled the country. When the Swedish
army came to Jasna Góra hoping to plunder the sacred site, the monks refused to
surrender although they were greatly outnumbered. The following account is from
the Polish historian Norman Davies as quoted in Warren Carroll’s series on
Christianity.
“When negotiations brought no result, the Swedes began a violent bombardment of the walls. Then, in order to spread fear among the defenders, they started to hurl blazing firebrands, setting the monastery’s barn alight together with a great quantity of corn. Next, all around the monastery, they set up a camp with wooden palisades and gun emplacements…But their attack had little effect. The walls were banked with earth on the inside, and only the cannon displaced a few bricks. Before long, the defenders opened fire in reply. The aim of their gunners was so accurate that after three hours the Swedes were obliged to pull back with great loss. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of houses adjacent to the monastery, where the enemy had found shelter, set their homes on fire, not counting the cost. The Swedes renewed their attack on the 19th of November, the day of the Transfiguration of the Virgin…the official printed a description of this siege, which records that bullets and missiles fell so thick on the church and tower that they seemed to be in flames. But…the cannon balls bounced off the walls and tiles or flew over the church roof, causing no damage….Muller (the Swedish commander) was most angered by the monks, who would climb to the top of the tower and in full choir pour down pious hymns on his soldiers…Jasna Góra was not saved by men…A thick mist screened the monastery from attack…Muller himself saw a Lady in a shining robe on the walls, priming the cannon and tossing shells back in the direction from which they came…He (General Muller) launched this last attack on Christmas Day, firing off all his guns in one salvo, and sending his entire army to storm the walls…But at that very moment, he suffered a fatal accident. He was eating breakfast in a fairly distant house, and cursing Jasna Góra with blasphemies, when suddenly an iron shot penetrated the wall, knocked down all the plates, bottles and glasses from the table, scattered the guests, and struck him in the arm…At last, in the night before St. Stephen’s Day, the Swedes started to drag the guns from their emplacements, to collect their equipment, and to direct their wagons in the direction of Klobuck…Of course, no heretic will believe that cannon balls were repulsed from the walls of Jasna Góra by supernatural means…but all that I have described is true.”
The victory of Our Lady of Czestochowa
at Jasna Góra turned the tide of the war. In 1656, the Polish King Jan Casimir
proclaimed the Mother of God the “Queen of the Polish Crown” and the shrine at
Jasna Góra, the “Mount of Victory” and the spiritual capital of Poland. In
recognition of the miraculous image, Pope Clement XI donated a crown to be
placed on the image in 1717. Thieves stole the bejeweled crown in 1909. Pope
St. Pius X replaced the 1717 crown with a crown of gold.
Our Lady intervened again in 1920 when
the Russian army was about to invade Warsaw. As they were about to cross the
Vistula River on September 15th, the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, the image of
Our Lady of Czestochowa appeared in the clouds over Warsaw and the Russian Army
retreated. Shortly after this Miracle of the Vistula, in 1925, Pope Pius XI
designated May 3rd as the feast day of Our Lady of Czestochowa.
After the liberation of Poland from
Nazi occupation, 1.5 million people gathered at Jasna Góra in 1945 to
rededicate the nation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Pope John Paul II
visited the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa four times during his pontificate.
Our Lady’s intercession is credited with the liberation of Poland from
Communist rule.
The holy painting enshrined at
Czestochowa has been a lighthouse of hope during centuries of hardship and
defeat. Today, the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa attracts millions of who
love and honor Our Lady’s intercession.
Things to Do:
- Make
a virtual visit to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa
- Read
A Brief History of the Image of Czestochowa
- Read
Who is 'the Black Madonna' and why is she so important?
- Listen to this sermon on the story of Our Lady Czestochowa
Catechism of the Catholic Church
PART
ONE: THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
SECTION TWO-I. THE CREEDS
CHAPTER TWO
I BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, THE ONLY SON OF GOD
Article 3-"HE WAS CONCEIVED BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT,
AND WAS BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY"
Paragraph 3. THE MYSTERIES OF CHRIST'S LIFE
Day 73
512 Concerning Christ's life
the Creed speaks only about the mysteries of the Incarnation (conception and
birth) and Paschal mystery (passion, crucifixion, death, burial, descent into
hell, resurrection and ascension). It says nothing explicitly about the
mysteries of Jesus' hidden or public life, but the articles of faith concerning
his Incarnation and Passover do shed light on the whole of his earthly life.
"All that Jesus did and taught, from the beginning until the day when he
was taken up to heaven", is to be seen in the light of the mysteries
of Christmas and Easter.
513 According to circumstances
catechesis will make use of all the richness of the mysteries of Jesus. Here it
is enough merely to indicate some elements common to all the mysteries of
Christ's life (I), in order then to sketch the principal mysteries of Jesus'
hidden (II) and public (III) life.
I. CHRIST'S WHOLE LIFE IS
MYSTERY
514 Many things about Jesus of
interest to human curiosity do not figure in the Gospels. Almost nothing is
said about his hidden life at Nazareth, and even a great part of his public
life is not recounted. What is written in the Gospels was set down there
"so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and
that believing you may have life in his name."
515 The Gospels were written by
men who were among the first to have the faith and wanted to share it with
others. Having known in faith who Jesus is, they could see and make others see
the traces of his mystery in all his earthly life. From the swaddling clothes
of his birth to the vinegar of his Passion and the shroud of his Resurrection,
everything in Jesus' life was a sign of his mystery. His deeds, miracles
and words all revealed that "in him the whole fullness of deity dwells
bodily." His humanity appeared as "sacrament", that is, the
sign and instrument, of his divinity and of the salvation he brings: what was
visible in his earthly life leads to the invisible mystery of his divine
sonship and redemptive mission
Characteristics common to
Jesus' mysteries
516 Christ's whole earthly life
- his words and deeds, his silences and sufferings, indeed his manner of being
and speaking - is Revelation of the Father. Jesus can say: "Whoever has
seen me has seen the Father", and the Father can say: "This is my
Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" Because our Lord became man in order
to do his Father's will, even the least characteristics of his mysteries
manifest "God's love. . . among us".
517 Christ's whole life is a
mystery of redemption. Redemption comes to us above all through the blood of
his cross, but this mystery is at work throughout Christ's entire life:
-already in his Incarnation through which by becoming poor he enriches us with
his poverty; - in his hidden life which by his submission atones for our
disobedience; - in his word which purifies its hearers; - in his healings
and exorcisms by which "he took our infirmities and bore our
diseases"; - and in his Resurrection by which he justifies us.
518 Christ's whole life is a
mystery of recapitulation. All Jesus did, said and suffered had for its aim
restoring fallen man to his original vocation:
When Christ became incarnate
and was made man, he recapitulated in himself the long history of mankind and
procured for us a "short cut" to salvation, so that what we had lost
in Adam, that is, being in the image and likeness of God, we might recover in
Christ Jesus. For this reason Christ experienced all the stages of life,
thereby giving communion with God to all men.
Our communion in the mysteries
of Jesus
519 All Christ's riches
"are for every individual and are everybody's property." Christ
did not live his life for himself but for us, from his Incarnation "for us
men and for our salvation" to his death "for our sins" and
Resurrection "for our justification". He is still "our
advocate with the Father", who "always lives to make
intercession" for us. He remains ever "in the presence of God on
our behalf, bringing before him all that he lived and suffered for us."
520 In all of his life Jesus
presents himself as our model. He is "the perfect man", who
invites us to become his disciples and follow him. In humbling himself, he has
given us an example to imitate, through his prayer he draws us to pray, and by
his poverty he calls us to accept freely the privation and persecutions that
may come our way.
521 Christ enables us to live in him all that he himself lived, and he lives it in us. "By his Incarnation, he, the Son of God, has in a certain way united himself with each man." We are called only to become one with him, for he enables us as the members of his Body to share in what he lived for us in his flesh as our model:
We must continue to accomplish in ourselves the stages of Jesus' life and his mysteries and often to beg him to perfect and realize them in us and in his whole Church. . . For it is the plan of the Son of God to make us and the whole Church partake in his mysteries and to extend them to and continue them in us and in his whole Church. This is his plan for fulfilling his mysteries in us.
Daily Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Growth
of Catholic Families and Households
·
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
·
Rosary
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