MASS READINGS & SAINT QUOTE OF THE DAY : Saturday - November 13, 2021

Saturday - November 13, 2021

Help yourself during this troubled period by reading holy books. This reading provides excellent food for the soul and conduces to great progress along the path of perfection. By no means is it inferior to what we obtain through prayer and holy meditation. In prayer and meditation it is ourselves who speak to the Lord, while in holy reading it is God who speaks to us. Before beginning to read, raise your mind to the Lord and implore Him to guide your mind Himself, to speak to your heart and move your will.

¬¬Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

November 13, 2021

Memorial of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin
Lectionary: 496

 

Reading 1                                                     Wis 18:14-16; 19:6-9

When peaceful stillness compassed everything

and the night in its swift course was half spent,

Your all-powerful word, from heaven’s royal throne

bounded, a fierce warrior, into the doomed land,

bearing the sharp sword of your inexorable decree.

And as he alighted, he filled every place with death;

he still reached to heaven, while he stood upon the earth.

 

For all creation, in its several kinds, was being made over anew,

serving its natural laws,

that your children might be preserved unharmed.

The cloud overshadowed their camp;

and out of what had before been water, dry land was seen emerging:

Out of the Red Sea an unimpeded road,

and a grassy plain out of the mighty flood.

Over this crossed the whole nation sheltered by your hand,

after they beheld stupendous wonders.

For they ranged about like horses,

and bounded about like lambs,

praising you, O Lord! their deliverer.

 

Responsorial Psalm                                              105:2-3, 36-37, 42-43

 

R.    (5a) Remember the marvels the Lord has done!

 

Sing to him, sing his praise,

    proclaim all his wondrous deeds.

Glory in his holy name;

    rejoice, O hearts that seek the LORD!

R.    Remember the marvels the Lord has done!

Then he struck every firstborn throughout their land,

    the first fruits of all their manhood.

And he led them forth laden with silver and gold,

    with not a weakling among their tribes.

R.    Remember the marvels the Lord has done!

For he remembered his holy word

    to his servant Abraham.

And he led forth his people with joy;

    with shouts of joy, his chosen ones.

R.    Remember the marvels the Lord has done!

 

Alleluia                                                                      2 Thes 2:14

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
God has called us through the Gospel,

to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

Gospel                                                                       Lk 18:1-8

Jesus told his disciples a parable

about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.

He said, “There was a judge in a certain town

who neither feared God nor respected any human being.

And a widow in that town used to come to him and say,

‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’

For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought,

‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being,

because this widow keeps bothering me

I shall deliver a just decision for her

lest she finally come and strike me.’”

The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says.

Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones

who call out to him day and night?

Will he be slow to answer them?

I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily.

But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

 

*****************

 

The Catechism's Prophecy About Today's Persecutions

We are now living through a Great Awakening as more and more people realize that we must fight evil and choose holiness.

 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) has an interesting prophecy about this:

 

"Before Christ's second coming, the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the 'mystery of iniquity' in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth." (para. 675)

 

I'm pointing this out, not because I believe Christ's second coming is imminent but because, these days, we're experiencing persecution in all kinds of ways. We're now living in a time when we must stand firmly on the side of Christ and reject apostasy. As a result, if we're faithful to the true teachings of the Church and in scripture, nearly all of us have family members who are rejecting us because of it.

 

We are joining Jesus on the Cross.

 

CCC paragraph #677 says: "The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection." In other words, by going to the Cross with Christ, we will enter into an outstanding Resurrection.

 

CCC #677 continues with a prophecy that might pertain to our times, which is very exciting, but even if it doesn't, it nonetheless describes what happens every time the Church is infiltrated by evil and then purged and renewed:

 

"The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven."

 

We've been witnessing the unleashing of demonic strategies that sneaked up on us so gradually that, at first, most good Catholics saw no reason for alarm, let alone repentance. Then, when it became alarming, we felt powerless to stop it. Many of us closed our eyes to it while we said our prayers quietly. Now it's become so blatant that it's obvious that we're in a war against evil.

 

We, the Church, are undergoing painful purification through persecution. However, the most destructive persecution is not the burning of churches and the killing of Christians; it's a quiet cancer spreading through the body.

 

The world hates us for pointing the way to salvation. So, the enemies of God have been attempting to make us compromise with the spirit of the world. Where this has succeeded, our greatest weapon -- the truth of the Gospel -- has been pulled from our hands, and the vitality of the Church has been weakened. Vatican Council II made it easier for the Church to change the world, but we let the world change the Church. We're blending in no matter how immoral the world is getting. And those of us who refuse to fall into this trap are increasing persecuted because our persecutors do not want to be challenged by our holiness.

 

Why has God allowed this cancer to rot the Church from within? Because no other trial will bring about as much renewal of the Church as this. It raises up a faithful remnant -- the true believers who refuse to compromise with the world, the God-fearing ones who act and talk very differently than the world.

 

In fact, as we willingly go to the Cross by growing in holiness, we follow our Lord to Resurrection. We are renewed purer, humbler, stronger in faith, more enlightened, fully alive in the Holy Spirit -- a much healthier Church.

 

Fear not! Persecution always leads to a great multiplication of conversions.

 

Today's Prayer

 

Holy Father, May Your Spirit guide me always and may I understand correctly whatever You allow to happen on my path. Amen.

 

God Bless You.....

The Rosary Family

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