Claire’s Corner
· 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.
· Bucket List Trip: Around the World “Perfect Weather”
o Darjeeling, India.
· Spirit Hour: St Lawrence cocktail
· Foodie: Thukpa
On Sundays Pray:
Glorious Queen of Heaven and Earth, Virgin Most Powerful, thou who hast the power to crush the head of the ancient serpent with thy heel, come and exercise this power flowing from the grace of thine Immaculate Conception. Shield us under the mantle of thy purity and love, draw us into the sweet abode of thy heart and annihilate and render impotent the forces bent on destroying us. Come Most Sovereign Mistress of the Holy Angels and Mistress of the Most Holy Rosary, thou who from the very beginning hast received from God the power and the mission to crush the head of Satan. Send forth thy holy legions, we humbly beseech thee, that under thy command and by thy power they may pursue the evil spirits, counter them on every side, resist their bold attacks and drive them far from us, harming no one on the way, binding them to the foot of the Cross to be judged and sentenced by Jesus Christ Thy Son and to be disposed of by Him as He wills.
St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church, come to our aid in this grave battle against the forces of darkness, repel the attacks of the devil and free the members of the Auxilium Christianorum, and those for whom the priests of the Auxilium Christianorum pray, from the strongholds of the enemy.
St. Michael, summon the entire heavenly court to engage their forces in this fierce battle against the powers of hell. Come O Prince of Heaven with thy mighty sword and thrust into hell Satan and all the other evil spirits. O Guardian Angels, guide and protect us. Amen.
God's blessings are indeed signs of His goodness, signs of His infinite Love. Are we indifferent to those signs of His goodness and love? Are we so unaware of His signs that we are disconnected from Him that we can take it or leave it?
· Let Freedom Ring Day 35 Freedom from Childishness
o When observing the condition of our culture, it is clear that it is showing signs of an alarming growth of "Emotional Childishness," which is not unlike a "lack of spiritual maturity." More and more people have, as renowned Psychologist, Dr. Susan Heitler states, "reached chronological adulthood without having mastered the core elements of adult emotional functioning."
o Dr. Heitler points to 10 signs of a childish adult - See how many of these you recognize in the "temper tantrum mob" wreaking havoc in the streets:
§ 1) Emotional escalations,
§ 2) Blaming,
§ 3) Lies,
§ 4) Name-calling,
§ 5) Impulsivity,
§ 6) Need to be the center of attention,
§ 7) Bullying,
§ 8) Budding narcissism ("It's all about me." In the eyes of a narcissist, no one else counts; if they don't get their way, they may result to pouting or bullying in order to do so),
§ 9) Immature defenses (tendency to attack - see "cancel culture" - anyone who expresses a differing viewpoint),
§ 10) No observing ego (inability to see, acknowledge, and learn from their mistakes).
AUGUST 10 Ninth Sunday after
Pentecost
Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr
Luke, Chapter 12, Verse 4-5
4
I tell you, my
friends, do not be AFRAID of those
who kill the body but after that can do no more. 5 I shall show you whom to fear. Be afraid of the one who after killing has the power to cast into
Gehenna; yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one.
It would seem that Christ
is talking about the Devil here or is He talking about our very selves.
Christ may have been
referring to the rabbinic duality of yetzer hara, the so-called
"evil inclination," and the yetzer hatov, the "good
inclination,". Yetzer hara is not a demonic force that pushes a person to
do evil, but rather a drive toward pleasure or property or security, which if
left unlimited, can lead to evil (cf. Genesis Rabbah 9:7). When a person’s will
is properly controlled by the yetzer hatov, the yetzer hara leads too many
socially desirable results, including marriage, business, and community. In
Judaism adults are distinguished from children by the yetzer hatov, which
controls and channels the drives that exist unchecked in the child. Thus,
children may seek pleasure and acquisition, but they are not able to create a
sanctified relationship or exercise the responsibility to engage in business.
The young adult is not described as someone who has developed a sophisticated
moral sense; in fact, the early adolescent may base moral decisions entirely on
fear of punishment. Yet by age 13, the child’s moral sense has developed
sufficiently to hold the child responsible for his or her actions.[1]
Another Jewish source
states:
ha-Satan, the Adversary, was one of the “severe” agents of God. Another such harsh but necessary force in God’s creation is the Yetzer ha-Ra, which is variously translated as the “Evil Impulse,” the “Evil Desire,” the “Selfish Desire” or just “Desire.” It is that aspect of nature, but especially human nature, which drives us to compete, to fight, to possess, but most of all to desire sexual gratification. Though it is counter-balanced by the Yetzer ha-Tov, the “altruistic desire,” it is nonetheless the source of much of the grief in human life – lust, violence, selfishness, vengeance, and ambition. One would think that humanity would be truly better off if we could destroy this impulse. We see evil in ourselves, it offends us, and we think the right thing to do is to totally purge ourselves of it. Yet we don’t truly understand it, for things we so easily characterize as “evil” actually spring out of the very nexus of holiness. Surreal as it is, this maaseh makes an incredible point – it is the strife of the spirit, the very struggle between our impulses that makes the world work. Without the Yetzer ha-Ra, the world as we know would cease – people [and animals] would no longer be driven to build, to create, to have children. In short, life as we know, including not only evil aspects but most of what we regard as beautiful also, would cease. Without Desire, Life itself would slowly wither away, and that would be a sad thing. So, the goal of the spiritual person is not to destroy the selfish-sexual-evil impulse, but rather to sublimate it to God’s purpose. To be truly what God wants us to be, to achieve our fullest human potential, we need to learn to bend both our impulses to godly ends. We should not cease to lust but should direct that urge toward love. We should turn our impulse toward vengeance into the desire for justice, our ambition for acquiring possessions into the creation of true wealth.[2]
Copilot
Here
is a compelling parallel between Christ’s exhortation in Luke 12 and the Jewish
concept of yetzer hara and yetzer hatov, and we should think to
ask ourselves whether the “one to fear” is external (the Devil) or internal
(our own disordered will).
🔍 Luke 12:4–5: Who is the one to fear?
Most Christian commentaries interpret this passage as referring to God,
not the Devil. Jesus is urging his disciples to fear the One who has authority
over both body and soul—who can cast into Gehenna—not merely those who can harm
the body. This is a call to holy fear, a reverent awe of God’s justice
and sovereignty. But your insight opens a deeper layer: what if this “casting
into Gehenna” is not just divine judgment, but also the natural consequence of
a life ruled by the yetzer hara?
🧠
Rabbinic Duality: Yetzer ha-Ra and Yetzer ha-Tov
You’ve beautifully summarized the rabbinic view:
·
Yetzer ha-Ra is not evil in itself—it’s
the drive for survival, pleasure, ambition.
·
Yetzer ha-Tov is the moral compass that
channels those drives toward holiness.
·
The struggle between them is not a flaw—it’s the
engine of creation. Without yetzer ha-Ra, we wouldn’t build
homes, marry, or create communities.
🔥
The Spiritual Implication
So when Jesus says, “be afraid of the one who can cast into Gehenna,” perhaps
He’s not only warning about divine judgment, but also inviting us to examine
the forces within—those unchecked desires that, if not tempered by grace,
can lead us into spiritual ruin. In this light, Gehenna becomes not just
a place, but a trajectory—the natural end of a life lived without
integration of desire and virtue.
💡
Christian Echoes of Yetzer Theology
Though Christianity doesn’t use the terms yetzer ha-Ra and yetzer
ha-Tov, the concept is echoed in:
·
Romans 7, where Paul speaks of the war
within his members.
·
Galatians 5, contrasting the works of the
flesh with the fruit of the Spirit.
·
Catechism of the Catholic Church, which
teaches that concupiscence is not sin itself, but a tendency that must be
mastered through grace.
🕊️closing
insight:
“We
should not cease to lust but should direct that urge toward love. We should
turn our impulse toward vengeance into the desire for justice…”
That’s
the heart of sanctification—not suppression, but transformation. Christ
doesn’t call us to be less human, but to be fully human, with every
impulse bent toward divine love.
CHAPTER
V
DIES
DIERUM
Sunday:
The Primordial
Feast, Revealing the Meaning of Time
CONCLUSION
85. As she strains towards her goal,
the Church is sustained and enlivened by the Spirit. It is he who awakens
memory and makes present for every generation of believers the event of the
Resurrection. He is the inward gift uniting us to the Risen Lord and to our
brothers and sisters in the intimacy of a single body, reviving our faith,
filling our hearts with charity and renewing our hope. The Spirit is
unfailingly present to every one of the Church's days, appearing unpredictably
and lavishly with the wealth of his gifts. But it is in the Sunday gathering
for the weekly celebration of Easter that the Church listens to the Spirit in a
special way and reaches out with him to Christ in the ardent desire that he
return in glory: "The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come!'" (Rev
22:17). Precisely in consideration of the role of the Spirit, I have wished
that this exhortation aimed at rediscovering the meaning of Sunday should
appear in this year which, in the immediate preparation for the Jubilee, is
dedicated to the Holy Spirit.
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost[4]-The
necessity of being faithful to the end.
Call upon God for
help and assistance against all temptations of your enemies, both visible and
invisible, and say with the priest, in the Introit of the Mass, “Behold, God is
my helper, and the Lord is the protector of my soul; turn back the evils upon my
enemies, and cut them off in Thy truth, O Lord, my protector. Save me, O God,
by Thy name, and deliver me in Thy strength” (Ps. liii.).
Prayer. Let the ears of Thy mercy, O Lord, be open to the prayers of Thy
suppliants, and that Thou mayest grant what Thy petitioners desire, make them
ask those things which are pleasing to Thee.
EPISTLE, i. Cor. x.
6-13.
Brethren: We
should not covet evil things, as they also coveted. Neither become ye
idolaters, as some of them: as it is written: The people sat down to eat and
drink and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them
committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand.
Neither let us tempt Christ: as some of them tempted and perished by the
serpents. Neither do you murmur as some of them murmured and were destroyed by
the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them in figure: and they are
written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore
he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall. Let no
temptation take hold on you, but such as is human: and God is faithful, Who
will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will make
also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it.
Certainly, if we desire evil and unlawful things, or of our own free will dwell upon them with pleasure.
What is it to tempt God?
It is presumptuously to expect signs of God
s omnipotence, benignity, providence, and justice. Such a sin it would be,
1,
to desire that matters of faith should be made known and confirmed by new
miracles.
2,
to expose ourselves unnecessarily to danger of body or soul, expecting God to
deliver us.
3,
to reject the ordinary and natural means of deliverance in sickness or other
peril, trusting in God s immediate assistance.
GOSPEL. Luke xix. 41-47.
At that time, when Jesus drew near Jerusalem, seeing the city, He wept over it, saying: If thou also hadst known, and that in this thy day, the things that are to thy peace, but now they are hidden from thy eyes. For the days shall come upon thee: and thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round: and straiten thee on every side: and beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children who are in thee, and they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone: because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation. And entering into the temple, He began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought, saying to them: It is written: My house is the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves. And He was teaching daily in the temple.
Why did the Savior weep over the city of Jerusalem?
Because it had not known and profited by its time of visitation and through impenitence was hastening to destruction.
What was the
time of its visitation?
The period in which God sent to the Jews one prophet after another, whom they derided and calumniated, stoned and put to death (Matt, xxiii. 34). But especially was it the time of the ministry of Christ, who so often proclaimed His life-giving doctrine; pointed out and demonstrated, by the greatest miracles, that He was the Messias and the Savior of the world, and yet was despised by this hardened and impenitent city, and even put to death on the cross.
Does God hide
from the wicked the truths of salvation?
No; but sinners so blind themselves by their sins that the divine inspirations fail to move them to penance.
What do we
learn by Jesus casting out of the temple those who sold and bought?
We learn how severely He will punish those who in church forget where they are; forget that Jesus Christ is present in the tabernacle; who laugh, talk, amuse themselves, cherish sinful thoughts, and give scandal by their improper dress and unbecoming behavior.
Prayer: O Jesus, who didst weep over the city of Jerusalem because it knew not the time of its visitation, I beseech Thee enlighten my heart, that I may know and profit by the season of grace; and grant that I may always behave with reverence in Thy church, and never turn it into a resort for evil thoughts and desires or for worldly cares.
LESSONS UPON DEATH-BED
REPENTANCE
Can the sinner
rely upon being converted at the end of his life?
No for this would be to sin against the mercy of God, which is much the same as the sin against the Holy Ghost. Says St. Augustine, “usually punishes such sinners by allowing them at the last to forget themselves, who in the days of their health and strength have allowed themselves to forget Him. “God Himself also says: They have turned their back to Me and not their face, and in the time of their affliction they will say, Arise and deliver us. Where are thy gods whom thou hast made thee? Let them arise and deliver thee in the time of thy affliction” (Jer. ii. 27, 28). It is true we have a consoling example of conversion at the moment of death in the penitent thief, but, as St. Augustine further says, while this one example is given so that no sinner may despair, it is the only one, so that no sinner may defer repentance through presumption.
What may we
hope for those who are converted at the close of life?
Everything that is good, if they be really converted; but this is a most rare thing. (Of the hundreds of thousands whose lives have been wicked,” writes St. Jerome, “hardly one will be converted at the hour of death and obtain forgiveness of his sins.” And St. Vincent Ferrer says it would be a greater miracle for a person who has lived wickedly to die well than for one who is dead to be restored to life. And no wonder; for repentance at the hour of death is generally but an extorted repentance. It is not so much that the sinner forsakes his sins as that his sins forsake him; and the resolution of amendment is one which he would hardly make, were he not driven to it by the agonies of death.
What is there
to expect from such repentance? When, therefore, ought we to do penance?
While we are in possession of our reason and strength; for, as St. Augustine says, the repentance of the sick is a sickly repentance. In time of sickness, as experience teaches, the pains of disease, the hope of recovery, the fear of death, the torments of conscience, the temptations of the devil, and the care of all depending on him, so continually distract a man that he can hardly collect his thoughts at all, much less bestow them upon a work of a true repentance. If to many it is so difficult to do penance while they are yet in health and hindered by nothing from raising their thoughts to God, how much more difficult will it be when the body has already become weak! We have heard a number of persons who had been sick admit after their recovery that they had no knowledge of what happened to them during their illness, and even had no recollection of having received the holy sacraments. Accordingly, Isaias admonishes us: “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near (Isaias Iv. 6). And Christ says: You shall seek Me and shall not find Me, and you shall die in your sin” (John vii. 34; viii. 21). If, therefore, you have committed mortal sin, delay not to return to God, by perfect contrition and a good confession. Put it not off from one day to another; for repentance thereby becomes more and more difficult; for, as St. Gregory says, one unrepented sin by its own weight impels a man to still further sins, and all the while makes him the weaker, and his adversary, the devil, the stronger; so that at last he cannot be converted without the extraordinary grace of God.
But how can the presumptuous sinner expect such grace?
God will laugh in his
destruction, in like manner as he has despised His instruction, counsel, and
reproof (Prov. i. 26-28). “Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good.”
(Gal. vi. 10), for who knows whether we may not be suddenly prevented, by severe
sickness, from working out our salvation!
St. Lawrence[1] is the patron of
cooks-today, have a BBQ in honor of his death for the faith.
This young
deacon and heroic martyr are numbered among those saints who were most highly
venerated by the ancient Roman Church. Even though we have no genuine account
of St. Lawrence's martyrdom, we do possess considerable evidence from most
ancient times regarding the particulars of his passion. Legendary Acts tell
how Lawrence was a disciple of Pope Sixtus II (257-258), who dearly loved him
because of his special talents, but principally because of his innocence; in
spite of his youth, the Pope numbered him among the seven deacons of Rome and
raised him to the position of archdeacon. As such, Lawrence had the immediate
care of the altar and was at the side of the saintly Pope whenever he offered
the holy Sacrifice; to him also was confided the administration of the goods of
the Church and the responsibility of caring for the poor. During the
persecution of Emperor Valerian (253-260), Sixtus II and his four deacons were
martyred. Lawrence was dispersing items in the house of a certain Narcissus, a
blind man named Crescentius asked for healing help by the imposition of hands.
The holy deacon made the Sign of the Cross over him and the man began to see.
From his relations with Pope Sixtus, it was known that he acted as the steward
over the Church's property. He was arrested and while in prison Lawrence cured
the blind Lucillus and several other blind persons. Ordered by the authorities
to surrender the treasures of the Church, Lawrence asked for two days’ time
during which to gather them. The request was granted, and he brought together
the poor and the sick that he had supported. These he led to the judge.
"Here are the treasures of the Church!" Lawrence was tortured,
scourged, and scorched with glowing plates, in other words, Barbequed
alive. In the midst of excruciating pain, he prayed: "Lord Jesus
Christ, God from God, have mercy on Your servant!" And he besought the
grace of faith for the bystanders. At a certain point the soldier Romanus
exclaimed: "I see before you an incomparably beautiful youth. Hasten and
baptize me." He had observed how an angel dried the wounds of Lawrence
with a linen cloth during his passion. Again, during the night, he was dragged
before the judge and threatened with immediate death. But he replied: "My
God I honor and Him alone I serve. Therefore, I do not fear your
torments; this night shall become as brightest day and as light without any
darkness." When placed upon the glowing gridiron, he jested with his
executioners and the cruel tyrant. "Now you may turn me over, my
body is roasted enough on this side." Shortly after this had been
done, he cried again: "At last I am finished; you may now take from me and
eat." Then turning to God in prayer: "I thank You, O Lord, that I am
permitted to enter Your portals." To comfort him during his torments God
said to him: "My servant, do not be afraid. I am with
you." He was put to death upon the Viminal Hill and buried on the
Tiburtinian Way.
Bible
in a Year Day 53 The Twelve
Tribes of Israel
Fr. Mike
talks about the twelve tribes of Israel and explains why the book of Numbers
introduces them based on the number of decedents they each had. Today we read
Numbers 2, Deuteronomy 2, and Psalm 85.
Daily Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of
St. Joseph by joining them in fasting: Restoring the
Constitution
·
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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