Here is Day 1 of the Novena to the Mother of God for the Nation.
Today we reflect on the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God. Queen conceived without original sin, pray for us. |
Pray the Novena to the Mother of Godfor the Nation | October 27 – November 4 |
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DAY 1The Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God
– Song of Songs 4:7 |
Prayer
Despise not our prayers in our necessities, But ever deliver us from all dangers, O glorious and blessed Virgin. |
Reflection
When the Virgin Mary was conceived in the womb of her mother, God created her immortal soul and filled her with His divine life. In the Immaculate Conception, God uniquely redeemed Mary by preserving her from Original Sin through the foreseen merits of Christ, the Savior.
From the first moment of her life, Mary was wholly beautiful, full of grace (Luke 1:28), without any trace of self-centeredness, any inclination to sin, and with unparalleled freedom to love God and all other people. In her conception, God armed Mary to destroy the kingdom of Satan (Genesis 3:15). The charity of Christ filled Mary from the first moment of her existence – in the safety of her mother’s womb.
Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception in these words: We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.
The good news of the Immaculate Conception is that there is more love in Mary’s sinless soul that there is evil in the world. In her Immaculate Conception, God empowered Mary to say yes freely to His plan of salvation in Christ and to help us, her sons and daughters, to say yes too. |
Prayer
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· Mental health experts recommend everyone just take the day off to chill out and watch the old cartoon version of “The Hobbit”.
· How to celebrate Oct 27th
o Start your day by running a virtual marathon in the comfort of your own neighborhood. Challenge yourself and feel the endorphins kick in as you complete the miles.
o Keep the Navy Day spirit going by reaching out to a former or current naval member. Show your appreciation through a heartfelt message or a simple gesture of gratitude.
o Next, celebrate National Mentoring Day by being an encouraging mentor to someone in your life. Offer guidance, support, and wisdom to help them navigate through challenges.
o Embrace the playful energy of Cranky Co-Workers Day by organizing a virtual game night with your colleagues. Bond over friendly competition and lighten the mood.
o As evening approaches, unwind with a cold beer in honor of National American Beer Day. Pair it with some Parmigiano Reggiano cheese to elevate the experience.
o Finally, end your day by cozying up with a black cat and a good book, celebrating National Black Cat Day. Embrace the calming presence of your feline companion and relax into the night.
OCTOBER 27 Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost
2 Chronicles, Chapter 19, Verse 9
Via the Gospel, the Lord Jesus gives a
penetrating analysis of the state of the sinner and some very sobering advice
to us would-be saints on maintaining an undivided heart.
Delusion,
Dissipation, Death[1]
We look
first to the description of a sinner. Jesus said to his disciples, “A rich man
had a steward …” Notice that he is referred to as a steward
rather than an owner. God is the owner of everything; we are but stewards. A
steward must deal with the goods of another according to the will of the other.
Before God, we own nothing. Part of the essence of sin is behaving as though we
were the owner. “… who
was reported to him for squandering his property.” We,
too, can waste the gifts we have received or use them for sinful ends. For example, in greed, we
hoard the gifts that he gave us for the purpose of helping others. In gossip,
lying and cursing, we misuse the gift of speech; in laziness, we misuse the
gift of time; in all sin, we abuse and squander the gift of our freedom. This
is dissipation, the squandering of God’s goods. “He summoned him and said, ‘What is this I hear about you? Prepare a
full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.’”
Someday our stewardship will end, and we will all be called to account.
Principles
of Saints-to-Be
After analyzing the sinner, the Lord
has some principle for those of us who want to be saints: intensity,
investment, increase and indivisibility. The text says that the steward called
in his master’s debtors one by one and cut their debt to the master in various
proportions. And, strangely, the master commended that dishonest steward for
acting shrewdly! In earning money and holding down a job, many display great
discipline: getting up early to go to work and going the extra mile to please
the boss. They will expend effort to please the boss, to please man, but not to
please God. The spiritually minded ought to show the same intensity,
organization, dedication and craftiness that the world show in their pursuits.
Jesus says, “I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so
that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” The Lord
tells of how the dishonest steward made use of the money at his disposal to
make friends who would help him in the next stage of his life.
How about us?
Are we willing to use our money and
resources to bless and make friends with others (especially the poor, who can
bless us in the next stage of our life)?
On the day of your judgment, will the
poor and needy be able to speak up on your behalf?
The Lord says
that the person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in
great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also
dishonest in great ones.
The small matter is money.
You want more?
Then use well
what you’ve already received. Jesus says, “No servant can serve two masters.
... You cannot serve God and mammon.” Most people obey money and affluence;
they worship a high standard of living before they obey God. They meet their
worldly obligations first and then give God what is left over. But we are
called to have an undivided heart. You cannot obey the world (money) and think
you’re also going to obey God.
ON KEEPING THE LORD'S DAY HOLY[2]
CHAPTER
I
DIES
DOMINI
The
Celebration of the Creator's Work
"In
the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Gn
1:1)
10. Coming as it does from the hand of God, the cosmos bears the imprint of his goodness. It is a beautiful world, rightly moving us to admiration and delight, but also calling for cultivation and development. At the "completion" of God's work, the world is ready for human activity. "On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done" (Gn 2:2). With this anthropomorphic image of God's "work", the Bible not only gives us a glimpse of the mysterious relationship between the Creator and the created world, but also casts light upon the task of human beings in relation to the cosmos. The "work" of God is in some ways an exemple for man, called not only to inhabit the cosmos, but also to "build" it and thus become God's "co-worker". As I wrote in my Encyclical Laborem Exercens, the first chapters of Genesis constitute in a sense the first "gospel of work". This is a truth which the Second Vatican Council also stressed: "Created in God's image, man was commissioned to subdue the earth and all it contains, to rule the world in justice and holiness, and, recognizing God as the creator of all things, to refer himself and the totality of things to God so that with everything subject to God, the divine name would be glorified in all the earth".
The
exhilarating advance of science, technology and culture in their various forms
— an ever more rapid and today even overwhelming development — is the
historical consequence of the mission by which God entrusts to man and woman
the task and responsibility of filling the earth and subduing it by means of
their work, in the observance of God's Law.
Twenty-Third
Sunday after Pentecost[3]
The
focus of this Sunday is a reminder of the Book of Life and the resurrection of
the body.
THE Introit of the Mass consoles us, and encourages
us to confidence in God, who is so kind to us, and will not suffer us to be
always in tribulation. “The Lord saith, I think thoughts of peace, and not of
affliction. You shall call upon Me, and I will hear you, and I will bring back
your captivity from all places. Lord, thou hast blest Thy land, Thou hast
turned away the captivity of Jacob.”
Prayer.
Absolve, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the sins of Thy people, that we may
be delivered by Thy goodness from the bonds of sin which, by our frailty, we
have committed.
EPISTLE. Phil. iii.
17-21; iv. 1-3.
Be followers of me, brethren, and observe them who
walk so as you have our model. For many walk, of whom I have told you often
(and now tell you weeping) that they are enemies of the cross of Christ; whose
end is destruction: whose God is their belly: and whose glory is in their
shame: who mind earthly things. But our conversation is in heaven: from whence
also we look for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who will reform the body of
our lowness, made like to the body of His glory, according to the operation
whereby also He is able to subdue all things unto Himself. Therefore, my dearly
beloved brethren, and most desired, my joy and my crown: so, stand fast in the
Lord, my dearly beloved. I beg of Evodia, and I beseech Syntyche to be of one
mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also, my sincere companion, help those
women that have labored with me in the Gospel, with Clement and the rest of my
fellow- laborers, whose names are in the Book of Life.
Explanation.
In these words, the Apostle gives warning against
the false teachers of his day, who, although outwardly receiving and preaching
Christianity, in heart hated the strict requirements of Christian morals, and
lived according to their sensual lusts. He therefore cautions the faithful not
to take them for patterns, for they are only hastening to eternal perdition,
but rather to be followers of him, and of those who imitate his life. These
warnings and admonitions apply also to us. For are there not among us enemies
of the cross of Christ, who are called Christians, but who will have nothing to
do with self-denial, mortification, chastity, and such like virtues? who indeed
despise them, and count those who practice them fools? Let us not be led astray
by them. For what will be the end of them? Everlasting destruction. For he who
does not crucify his flesh does not belong to Christ (Gal. v. 24); whoever does
not bear about his body the dying of Christ, in his body the life of Christ,
will never be made manifest (n. Cor. iv. 10). Whoever does not already walk in
heaven, that is, direct his thoughts and desires to heavenly goods, will not
find admission there after death.
Ejaculation.
O my God would that I might say, with St. Paul, the world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal. vi. 14).
GOSPEL. Matt, ix. 18-26[4]
At that time, as Jesus was speaking to the multitudes, behold a certain ruler came up, and adored Him, saying: Lord, my daughter is even now dead; but come, lay Thy hand upon her, and she shall live. And Jesus rising up, followed him with His disciples. And behold a woman who was troubled with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind Him, and touched the hem of His garment. For she said within herself: If I shall touch only His garment I shall be healed. But Jesus turning and seeing her, said: Be of good heart, daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour. And when Jesus was come into the house of the ruler and saw the minstrels and the multitude making a rout, he said: Give place, for the girl is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed Him to scorn. And when the multitude was put forth, He went in, and took her by the hand. And the maid arose. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that country.
Explanation
The ruler and the woman here mentioned teach us that in diseases of body or of mind we should have recourse to Jesus with faith and confidence; and even when the malady continues, and seems to be incurable, we should not suffer our courage to sink.
ON MOCKERY AND RIDICULE
When Jesus entered the house of Jairus, and said, the
girl is not dead, but sleepeth, the multitude laughed Him to scorn, because
they understood neither the meaning of His words nor what He was about to do.
Similar treatment sensual-minded men of the world often give to those servants
of God who, by word and example, preach the contempt of honors, riches,
pleasures, and the love of poverty, humility, and mortification. Permit not
yourself to be led astray by those who ridicule your zeal for virtue; pay no heed
to them, according to the example of Jesus, and trust in Him Who was Himself
derided for your sake. Say to yourself: I know, O dearest Jesus, that the
servant is not greater than his master. When Thou wast so often mocked, why
should it appear strange to me to be jeered at and called senseless for
endeavoring to practice devotion and virtue? I would not fare differently from
Thee, my Lord and my God.
Today
prior to 1962 we
would have celebrated the last Sunday in October as Christ the King.
“Blessed is the king who comes in
the name of our God.” (Luke 19:38)
Behold our King comes to us from the
Tabernacle…Our priests bring us our King via communion. Has COVID made: The
Body of Christ,” unavailable or worse irrelevant?
Jesus Christ King[5]
There was joy and celebration by the people as Jesus entered into Jerusalem, on Palm Sunday; we learn from the gospel that much later things had taken a terrible turn for the worst. Jesus was arrested and sentenced to death. What? Where were we? We heard shouting: “Crucify him” “We have no king, but Caesar.” Did we join in the shouting and jeering? “If you are the king of Jews, come down from the cross. Save yourself.”
Where do we stand? There was a
different voice that day from one of the criminals crucified with Jesus. He
rebuked the other criminal who asked Jesus to save them. With these words:
“Have you no fear of God? We have been condemned justly. This man has done
nothing wrong.” Then he turned to Jesus and said: “Remember me when you come
into your kingdom” Jesus replies: “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
I ask again. Where do we stand as all
these events unfold? How do we hope we would have the courage to be, to align
ourselves in difficult or challenging circumstances? There is much to ponder,
to think about.
Catechism of the Catholic
Church
Day 136
How do the dead rise?
997 What is "rising"?
In death, the separation of the soul from the body, the human body decays and
the soul goes to meet God, while awaiting its reunion with its glorified body.
God, in his almighty power, will definitively grant incorruptible life to our
bodies by reuniting them with our souls, through the power of Jesus'
Resurrection.
998 Who will rise? All the dead
will rise, "those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and
those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment."
999 How? Christ is raised with
his own body: "See my hands and my feet, that it is I
myself"; but he did not return to an earthly life. So, in him,
"all of them will rise again with their own bodies which they now
bear," but Christ "will change our lowly body to be like his glorious
body," into a "spiritual body":
But someone
will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they
come?" You foolish man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
and what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel ....What is
sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.... the dead will be raised
imperishable.... For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and
this mortal nature must put on immortality.
1000 This "how" exceeds
our imagination and understanding; it is accessible only to faith. Yet our
participation in the Eucharist already gives us a foretaste of Christ's
transfiguration of our bodies:
Just as bread
that comes from the earth, after God's blessing has been invoked upon it, is no
longer ordinary bread, but Eucharist, formed of two things, the one earthly and
the other heavenly: so too our bodies, which partake of the Eucharist, are no
longer corruptible, but possess the hope of resurrection.
1001 When? Definitively "at
the last day," "at the end of the world." Indeed, the
resurrection of the dead is closely associated with Christ's Parousia:
For the Lord
himself will descend from heaven, with a cry of command, with the archangel's
call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. and the dead in Christ will
rise first.
Risen with Christ
1002 Christ will raise us up "on the last day"; but it is also true that, in a certain way, we have already risen with Christ. For, by virtue of the Holy Spirit, Christian life is already now on earth a participation in the death and Resurrection of Christ:
And you were
buried with him in Baptism, in which you were also raised with him through
faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead .... If then you have
been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is,
seated at the right hand of God.
1003 United with Christ by
Baptism, believers already truly participate in the heavenly life of the risen
Christ, but this life remains "hidden with Christ in God." The
Father has already "raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Nourished with his body in the
Eucharist, we already belong to the Body of Christ. When we rise on the last
day we "also will appear with him in glory."
1004 In expectation of that day,
the believer's body and soul already participate in the dignity of belonging to
Christ. This dignity entails the demand that he should treat with respect his
own body, but also the body of every other person, especially the suffering:
The body [is
meant] for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. and God raised the Lord and
will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are
members of Christ? .... You are not your own; .... So glorify God in your body.
Enthusiasm-Teddy Roosevelt. We need to be
enthusiastic about all things that God wills for us. John McCain in his book
“Character is Destiny” points out that to have a creative mind we must be
enthusiastic. John’s example of a man filled with enthusiasm is that of
President Theodore Roosevelt.
McCain says of President Roosevelt:
He led one of the most eventful lives in American history and did it all with the delight and eagerness of a six-year-old boy. Yet he was not afraid of work: library shelves would eventually groan under the weight of his forty books, many of them with multiple volumes. Besides being a writer and politician, he was also a warrior during the Spanish American war and led a charge up San Juan Hill.
Roosevelt was sickly as a boy. He was small, terribly nearsighted, and plagued by asthma that left him chronically breathless. His father, who was the greatest influence on his life, and whom he loved more than any other, took him for carriage rides in the evenings so that the cool night air might restore regular breathing to his gasping child. Despite the crowded duties of the respected and civic-minded reformer, the older Roosevelt never deprived his son of loving attention. He calmed his fears, and encouraged him to defy his physical handicap, build his willpower, and strengthen his body. The dutiful son complied, and pushed himself with exercise, sports, and sheer bloody-minded determination to begin his lifelong crusade to become a vigorous, exuberant outdoorsman. He swam and fished and hunted and rowed and hiked and rode on horseback whenever he could. His mind was as eager as was the body he willed to health.
Theodore as a young “Harvard” man had a romantic temperament, but he was a scrupulously moral young man. He did not smoke or drink and would never offend God and womankind by pressing unseemly affections on a young lady. And he could not abide, under any circumstances, indolence. He always thought “My duty is clear—to study well and live like a brave Christian gentleman.” He spent a few weeks before the start of his junior year living in Maine’s north woods with a rugged outdoorsman, lumberjack, and hunting guide, Bill Sewall, who became his lifelong friend. He was still a skinny kid, with thick spectacles. His constitution looked fragile to those who didn’t know him, but he impressed the older man immediately, carrying as much in his pack on their hunting trip as Sewall, sharing the chores, keeping the pace in their canoe, hiking for endless distances through all kinds of weather, swimming in freezing water, and falling exhausted into sleep beneath the stars.
Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909)[6]
Teddy Roosevelt was a determined guy, and when it came to dinnertime, he made sure that his favorite comfort foods were a priority. Pigs in blankets, turtle soup and fried chicken smothered in white gravy kept him running—that and plenty of coffee, sweetened with as many as seven lumps of sugar!
Daily Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Today's Fast: Reparations
for offenses and blasphemies against God and the Blessed Virgin Mary
·
Today in honor of the
Holy Trinity do the Divine Office giving your day to God. To honor God REST: no
shopping after 6 pm Saturday till Monday. Don’t forget the internet.
·
Religion
in the Home for Preschool: October
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
[4]Goffines Devout Instructions, 1896
[5]https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/category/homilies/page/6/
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