SAINT QUOTE OF THE DAY : Saturday - March 17, 2018

Saturday - March 17, 2018

”Fasting and almsgiving are ‘the two wings of prayer’ which enable it to gain momentum and more easily reach even to God.”

--St Augustine 

 

March 17, 2018

 

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Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Lectionary: 249

Reading 1JER 11:18-20

I knew their plot because the LORD informed me;
at that time you, O LORD, showed me their doings.

Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter,
had not realized that they were hatching plots against me:
"Let us destroy the tree in its vigor;
let us cut him off from the land of the living,
so that his name will be spoken no more."

But, you, O LORD of hosts, O just Judge,
searcher of mind and heart,
Let me witness the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause!

Responsorial PsalmPS 7:2-3, 9BC-10, 11-12

R. (2a) O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.
O LORD, my God, in you I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers and rescue me,
Lest I become like the lion's prey,
to be torn to pieces, with no one to rescue me.
R. O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.
Do me justice, O LORD, because I am just,
and because of the innocence that is mine.
Let the malice of the wicked come to an end,
but sustain the just,
O searcher of heart and soul, O just God.
R. O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.
A shield before me is God,
who saves the upright of heart;
A just judge is God,
a God who punishes day by day.
R. O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.

Verse Before The GospelSEE LK 8:15

Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart
and yield a harvest through perseverance.

GospelJN 7:40-53

Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said,
"This is truly the Prophet."
Others said, "This is the Christ."
But others said, "The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he?
Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David's family
and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?"
So a division occurred in the crowd because of him.
Some of them even wanted to arrest him,
but no one laid hands on him.

So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees,
who asked them, "Why did you not bring him?"
The guards answered, "Never before has anyone spoken like this man."
So the Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been deceived?
Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?
But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed."
Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, 
"Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him
and finds out what he is doing?"
They answered and said to him,
"You are not from Galilee also, are you?
Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee."

Then each went to his own house.

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Have you suffered the sting of rejection?

Discover the hidden joy in the sacrifice you made

One of the sacrifices we make for Christ is rejection by friends and family and co-workers due to our faith. To be "holy" means to be different from the world. Counter-cultural. Making no compromises in the moral teachings of the Church. Being bold and daring enough, and confident in Christ enough, and in love with God enough to stand firm in what is right and true regardless of the consequences.

This is not easy. No sacrifice is easy or else it is not truly sacrificial. And today's world preaches that sacrifices are a bad thing. We are hearing from every direction, except the Church, that instead of making sacrifices we should cater to ourselves, our desires, and our ideas of what's right and what's wrong. Because of this, making sacrifices today is more distasteful than ever!

It takes a lot of self-discipline to make sacrifices without complaining and grumbling. I, too, struggle with this, so God in his great mercy has been helping me. The Lenten exercise that he gave me is a very restrictive diet. No meat on Fridays? That's easy! How about no meat at all during Lent. And no sweets (except dark chocolate, of course). There's a long list of foods that are on my "no-no" list due to the pursuit of natural healing from rheumatoid arthritis in my hands. If it were not for the pain caused by eating certain foods, I would have little self-discipline (okay, I'll be honest, no lasting self-discipline) for this type of sacrifice. Pain is a powerful teacher.

Someday, this will build in me greater strength for other sacrifices.

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God Bless You.....

Rosary Family

The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”