Wednesday, October 23, 2024

 Dara’s Corner-Weird Al’s birthday 1959

 

·         How to celebrate Oct 23rd

o   Rise and shine, how about starting your day with a delicious Boston Cream Pie breakfast? Whip up a simple recipe at home or grab a slice from a local bakery to kick off your day with a sweet treat.

§  As you savor your dessert, take a moment to appreciate the hard work of paralegals by sending a thank-you message to those you know.

o   Feeling inspired by the dedication of event organizers? Plan a small gathering with friends or family to celebrate their behind-the-scenes efforts. Organize a potluck lunch where each guest brings a dish inspired by a different TV talk show host. Get creative with themed decorations and enjoy the camaraderie as you chat about your favorite shows.

o   In the afternoon, embrace your inner adventurer by embarking on a virtual safari to learn about snow leopards. Watch documentaries or participate in online quizzes to test your knowledge about these majestic creatures. Support wildlife conservation efforts by donating to organizations that protect endangered species like the snow leopard.

o   Wrap up your day with a fun DIY project inspired by crocs. Whether you’re customizing a pair of shoes or creating crocodile-themed crafts, let your imagination run wild. Share your creations on social media with the hashtag #CrocDay to join others in celebrating these reptilian wonders.

o   End your evening on a musical note by curating a playlist of songs that remind you of your favorite iPod memories. Blast the tunes, dance like nobody’s watching, and revel in the nostalgia of classic tracks.

o   There you have it, a day filled with diverse activities honoring the spirit of these unusual holidays. Get ready to enjoy a day brimming with delicious food, gratitude, learning, creativity, and music. Cheers to embracing the unexpected and finding joy in the little things!




OCTOBER 23 Wednesday

ST. JOHN OF CAPISTRANO- Shemini Atzeret

 1 Chronicles, Chapter 28, Verse 20

David said to his son Solomon: “Be strong and steadfast, and go to work; do not FEAR or be dismayed, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or abandon you before you have completed all the work for the service of the house of the LORD.

 

We all long to hear this from our fathers but the ultimate truth is He tells us this every day in the quiet of our hearts. We merely reflect His grace when we pray. When we give Him all our strength, He makes us strong and steadfast; when we give Him our mind, He breaks our fears and gives us a purposeful mind; when we give Him our heart He does not abandon us and when we give Him our soul, He gives us the vision to see the work He has laid before us.

St. John of Capistrano[1]

St. John was born in 1386 at Capistrano in the Italian Province of the Abruzzi. His father was a German knight and died when he was still young. When war broke out between Perugia and Malatesta in 1416, St. John tried to broker a peace. Unfortunately, his opponents ignored the truce and St. John became a prisoner of war. On the death of his wife he entered the order of Friars Minor, was ordained and began to lead a very penitential life. John became a disciple of Saint Bernadine of Siena and a noted preacher.

·         The world at the time was in need of strong men to work for salvation of souls.

·         Thirty percent of the population was killed by the Black Plague, the Church was split in schism and there were several men claiming to be pope.

·         As an Itinerant priest throughout Italy, Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Russia, St. John preached to tens of thousands and established communities of Franciscan renewal.

·         He reportedly healed the sick by making the Sign of the Cross over them. He also wrote extensively, mainly against the heresies of the day.

·         He was successful in reconciling heretics.

After the fall of Constantinople, he preached a crusade against the Muslim Turks. At age 70 he was commissioned by Pope Callistus II to lead it and marched off at the head of 70,000 Christian soldiers. He won the great battle of Belgrade in the summer of 1456. He died in the field a few months later, but his army delivered Europe from the Moslems.

Things to Do

·         St. John struggled with finding his vocation. Younger people can pray to St. John for help in discerning God's will for their lives.

·         Learn more about the times that St. John Capistrano lived, such as the Crusades, the Black Plague, anti-popes.

·         St. John is the patron of jurists. We can turn to him to help discern major decisions. We can also follow his example of strict self-discipline in order to think more clearly.

·         In 1776 in Southern California, Father Junipera Serra founded the Mission of San Juan Capistrano, named for St. John, for mission work to the Indians. The mission is a historical site and has both a Catholic Basilica and the original smaller chapel that are still used for Catholic liturgy. See the Wikipedia page. There is also a tradition of the swallows returning to San Juan every March 19. Find out more about this annual event.

Shemini Atzeret[2]

Shemini Atzeret (Hebrew: שמיני עצרת), means 'The eighth day break' or 'the eighth day of assembly'.   It is celebrated preceding Simchat Torah and in some regions celebrated together with it.  Services for this holiday often include a Geshem, prayer for rain.

Shemini Atzeret Facts

On Shemini Atzeret there used to be a gathering of all men for a hearing of the Torah at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.  Reference to this is made in the Biblical book of Nehemiah (verse 8:18). Shemini Atzeret is observed in Orthodox communities with candle lighting in the evening, Kiddush (sanctification over wine) and two challah breads.  This is representative of all Jewish High Festivals and an evening and morning festive meal.  Two Challah breads are used to commemorate the Sabbath in the wilderness.  During this time Manna (edible substance that God provided for Israelites during time in the desert) fell from Heaven in a double portion on Friday, so that on the Sabbath day, the Israelites, did not need to perform the work of gathering Manna. Often an additional service after the morning service is held in Orthodox Synagogues.  Hallel (Psalms with praise) is recited.  Observant Jews do not work on this day. A popular prayer on Shmini Atzeret is called Yizkor, Remembrance.  It serves to honor dead relatives.  Even one of the happiest Jewish Holidays of the year, dead relatives (parents, siblings, spouses and children) are remembered.  This helps remind that we would not be who we are and where we are without these people.

Shemini Atzeret Top Events and Things to Do

·         Pray for Rain.  Shemini Azeret and Simchat Torah is often accompanied by prayers for the rain.  The holidays are in the autumn, which is a critical period in Israel for harvests.

·         On Shmini Atzeret, it is customary for Orthodox Jews to spend an 'extra day with God' and postpone their return to work and to mundane tasks. 

My prayer is that the Lord our God will rescue the Christians and Jews in the Middle East so they might worship him in holiness and righteousness. Indeed, this prayer is needed in our own country where our government, colleges and the media have shown they hate us as we are a “basket of deplorables”. 

In America, we have until now had no fear of worshiping him in holiness and righteousness. In fact, the model in America since its founding has been one of “Many religions, but one covenant”. We are certainly a blessed people because we have not abandoned the covenant, nor shall we if the vision of George Washington at Valley Forge is true. In it he saw that American would remain true to our creator. 

"Son of the Republic…Three great perils will come upon the Republic. The most fearful is the third, but in this greatest conflict the whole world united shall not prevail against her. Let every child of the Republic learn to live for his God, his land and the Union." 

With these words the vision vanished, and I started from my seat and felt that I had seen a vision wherein had been shown to me the birth, progress, and destiny of the United States.[3] 

Christus Vincit[4] 

How do you see the mysteries of the Lord’s Sacred Passion manifest in the Church today? 

    As Christ’s Mystical Body and His Bride, the Church must pass through the mysteries of her Divine Spouse. The current crisis is without any doubt the moment of the deepest suffering for the Church, of her most intense participation in the Sacred Passion of Christ. The greatest Passion of the Church is not persecution by her enemies from outside, but persecution by her enemies from within ruthless people without faith who have managed to reach high and influential ecclesiastical offices. 

When Christ suffered in Gethsemane, He didn’t receive support from His Apostles, since even the three whom He took with Him into the garden slept while He prayed and suffered the deepest spiritual anguish, His agony. When Christ was arrested and interrogated, the Apostle Peter, whom He constituted the visible rock of His Church, in a cowardly way thrice denied Him. When Christ was crucified, there remained only one faithful Apostle at His side, St. John, together with Our Lady and the other holy women. 

From the circumstances of Christ’s Passion, we can better understand the spiritual and even mystical sense of the suffering of Christ’s Bride, the Church. The current crisis within the Church represents the deepest form of suffering, since the Church is now persecuted, scourged, stripped, and derided not by her enemies but to a large extent by her Shepherds, by many of those who are successors of the Apostles, by many traitors in the clerical ranks who are the new Judases. 

Here I cannot fail to quote the following words of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, which he wrote in 1948 and which are strikingly relevant and significant for the current situation: “[Satan] will set up a Counter-church, which will be the ape of the Church. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content.... The False Prophet will have a religion without a cross. A religion without a world to come. A religion to destroy religions. There will be a counterfeit Church. Christ’s Church will be one, and the False Prophet will create the other. The false Church will be worldly, ecumenical, and global. It will be a loose federation of churches and religions, forming some type of global association, a world parliament of Churches. It will be emptied of all divine content; it will be the mystical body of the Antichrist. The Mystical Body on earth today will have its Judas Iscariot, and he will be the False Prophet. Satan will recruit him from our bishops.” 

This is a fearsome thought, that Satan will corrupt the hierarchy of the Church in order to establish a false Church. 

How should the faithful respond?

     When Christ suffered in Gethsemane, He was strengthened by an angel. This is a deep mystery: God in His human nature wanted to be consoled and strengthened by a creature. In this enormous spiritual crisis, we are witnessing inside the Church, Christ is being consoled and strengthened by the souls who remain faithful to the purity of the Catholic faith, by souls who live a chaste Christian life, by souls who are committed to a life of intense prayer, by souls who do not run away from the suffering Christ, from the suffering Mother Church. The consolation and strength which Christ received from the angel in Gethsemane already contained the acts of expiation and reparation of all the faithful souls throughout the history of the Church. 

So many souls are suffering in our day, especially over the past fifty years, because of the tremendous crisis of the Church. The most precious are hidden sufferings of the little ones, of the persons who were put out to the periphery of Church by the liberal, worldly, and unbelieving ecclesiastical establishment. Their sufferings are precious, since they are consoling and strengthening Christ who is mystically suffering in our current crisis within the Church. We also know the famous expression of Blaise Pascal in his Pensées: “Jesus will be in agony even to the end of the world. We must not sleep during that time” (n. 533). The current crisis of the Church, which is a mystical suffering of Christ in and for His Church, should call us to avoid spiritual sleep and be watchful, so that we may not be deceived by the spirit of the world which has so penetrated the Church. When the Church was passing through the great tempest of spiritual crisis in the sixteenth century—a crisis caused mainly by the infidelity, spiritual laziness, and scandalous lifestyle of the clergy—St. Peter Canisius, the second apostle of Germany, formulated this shocking phrase: “Peter sleeps, but Judas is awake.” 

We can fully apply this statement to the current crisis in the Church. The highest ecclesiastical authorities were to a great extent sleeping during the past five decades, by not preventing the promotion of unworthy persons to influential ecclesiastical positions. Unbelieving and oftentimes morally corrupt bishops and cardinals were the new Judases, who were very much awake and ready to betray Christ in various ways. Memorable are the words of St. Vincent de Paul, who said that priests who live like the vast majority are the greatest enemies of the Church, and that the depravity of the clerical state is the principal cause of the ruin of the Church. 

These words are fully applicable to the current situation of the crisis within the Church. Cardinal Robert Sarah, in his recent book Le soir approche et déjà le jour baisse [The Day is Now Far Spent], speaks about the shattering reality and mystery of Judas in the ranks of the clergy. The first chapter of his book is entitled, “Alas, Judas Iscariot,” where we read the following words: “The mystery of betrayal oozes from the walls of the Church.... We experience the mystery of iniquity, the mystery of betrayal, the mystery of Judas.... The evil of an efficacious activism has infiltrated everywhere.... We seek to imitate the organization of large companies. We forget that only prayer is the blood that can irrigate the heart of the Church.... The one who does not pray anymore has already betrayed. Already he is ready for all the compromises with the world. He is walking on the path of Judas.” 

However, even in midst of so many clerical Judases inside the Church today, we have to maintain always a supernatural vision of the victory of Christ, who will triumph through the suffering of His Bride, who will triumph through the suffering of the pure and little ones in all ranks of the members of the Church: children, youth, families, religious, priests, bishops, and cardinals. When they remain faithful to Christ, when they keep unblemished the Catholic faith, when they live in chastity and humility, they are the pure and little ones in the Church. 

The following words of St. Paul, which aptly apply to individual souls, apply in much the same way to the Church, and to the Church of our days in particular: “If we suffer with him, we shall also be glorified with him” (Rom 8:17). St. Alexander of Alexandria, the immediate predecessor of St. Athanasius, left us the following precious statement on the invincibility of the Church: “The only one catholic and apostolic Church will remain always indestructible, even if the entire world wages war against her. Because her Lord strengthened her, saying: ‘Take heart! I have overcome the world’ (Jn 16:33).” 

On the obelisk in St. Peter’s Square are inscribed the words Christus vincit, and the tip of that obelisk contains a relic of the true Cross. The Roman Church, the Apostolic See of St. Peter, is crowned, so to speak, with these luminous words Christus vincit, and with the power of the Holy Cross of Christ. Even if during the present crisis and spiritual obfuscation one might have the impression that the enemies of Christ and His Cross have to a certain extent occupied the Holy See, Christ will defeat them. Christus vincit!

Catechism of the Catholic Church

PART ONE: THE PROFESSION OF FAITH

SECTION TWO-I. THE CREEDS

CHAPTER THREE-I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT

ARTICLE 9-"I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH"

Paragraph 6. MARY - MOTHER OF CHRIST, MOTHER OF THE CHURCH

                   Day 132

963 Since the Virgin Mary's role in the mystery of Christ and the Spirit has been treated, it is fitting now to consider her place in the mystery of the Church. "The Virgin Mary . . . is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of God and of the redeemer.... She is 'clearly the mother of the members of Christ' ... since she has by her charity joined in bringing about the birth of believers in the Church, who are members of its head." "Mary, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church."

I. MARY'S MOTHERHOOD WITH REGARD TO THE CHURCH

Wholly united with her Son . . .

964 Mary's role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. "This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ's virginal conception up to his death"; it is made manifest above all at the hour of his Passion:

Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother's heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her: to be given, by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross, as a mother to his disciple, with these words: "Woman, behold your son."

965 After her Son's Ascension, Mary "aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers." In her association with the apostles and several women, "we also see Mary by her prayers imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in the Annunciation."

. . . also in her Assumption

966 "Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death." The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son's Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians:

In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death.

. . . she is our Mother in the order of grace

967 By her complete adherence to the Father's will, to his Son's redemptive work, and to every prompting of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church's model of faith and charity. Thus she is a "preeminent and . . . wholly unique member of the Church"; indeed, she is the "exemplary realization" (typus) of the Church.

968 Her role in relation to the Church and to all humanity goes still further. "In a wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the Savior's work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace."

969 "This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfilment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation .... Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix."

970 "Mary's function as mother of men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin's salutary influence on men . . . flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its power from it." "No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer; but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways both by his ministers and the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source."

Every Wednesday is Dedicated to St. Joseph


The Italian culture has always had a close association with St. Joseph perhaps you could make Wednesdays centered around Jesus’s Papa. Plan an Italian dinner of pizza or spaghetti after attending Mass as most parishes have a Wednesday evening Mass. You could even do carry out to help restaurants. If you are adventurous you could do the Universal Man Plan: St. Joseph style. Make the evening a family night perhaps it could be a game night. Whatever you do make the day special.

·         Do the St. Joseph Universal Man Plan.

·         Do Day 15 of the Consecration to St. Joseph.

Daily Devotions

·         Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them in fasting: Today's Fast: Increase in the Religious and Consecrated Life.

·         Religion in the Home for Preschool: October

·         Litany of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus

·         Offering to the sacred heart of Jesus

·         Drops of Christ’s Blood

·         Universal Man Plan

·         Rosary



[1]http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2017-10-23

[2] http://www.wincalendar.com/Shmini-Atzeret

[4]Schneider, Bishop Athanasius. Christus Vincit: Christ’s Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age






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