GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY : Saturday - June 25, 2022

 

Saturday - June 25, 2022

In order to acquire tranquility in action it is necessary to carefully consider what we are capable of accomplishing and never to undertake more than that. It is self-love, ever more anxious to do much rather than to do well and this self-love that wishes to undertake everything and accomplishes nothing!

~~St. Francis DeSales

June 25, 2022

MEMORIAL OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Lectionary: 376/573

 

Reading I     

                                                                                    Lam 2:2, 10-14, 18-19

 

The Lord has consumed without pity

all the dwellings of Jacob;

He has torn down in his anger

the fortresses of daughter Judah;

He has brought to the ground in dishonor

her king and her princes.

 

On the ground in silence sit

the old men of daughter Zion;

They strew dust on their heads

and gird themselves with sackcloth;

The maidens of Jerusalem

bow their heads to the ground.

 

Worn out from weeping are my eyes,

within me all is in ferment;

My gall is poured out on the ground

because of the downfall of the daughter of my people,

As child and infant faint away

in the open spaces of the town.

 

In vain they ask their mothers,

“Where is the grain?”

As they faint away like the wounded

in the streets of the city,

And breathe their last

in their mothers’ arms.

 

To what can I liken or compare you,

O daughter Jerusalem?

What example can I show you for your comfort,

virgin daughter Zion?

For great as the sea is your downfall;

who can heal you?

 

Your prophets had for you

false and specious visions;

They did not lay bare your guilt,

to avert your fate;

They beheld for you in vision

false and misleading portents.

 

Cry out to the Lord;

moan, O daughter Zion!

Let your tears flow like a torrent

day and night;

Let there be no respite for you,

no repose for your eyes.

 

Rise up, shrill in the night,

at the beginning of every watch;

Pour out your heart like water

in the presence of the Lord;

Lift up your hands to him

for the lives of your little ones

Who faint from hunger

at the corner of every street.

 

Responsorial Psalm                                  74:1b-2, 3-5, 6-7, 20-21

 

R. (19b) Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.

 

Why, O God, have you cast us off forever?

Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?

Remember your flock which you built up of old,

the tribe you redeemed as your inheritance,

Mount Zion, where you took up your abode.

R. Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.

Turn your steps toward the utter ruins;

toward all the damage the enemy has done in the sanctuary.

Your foes roar triumphantly in your shrine;

they have set up their tokens of victory.

They are like men coming up with axes to a clump of trees.

R. Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.

With chisel and hammer they hack at all the paneling of the sanctuary.

They set your sanctuary on fire;

the place where your name abides they have razed and profaned.

R. Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.

Look to your covenant,

for the hiding places in the land and the plains are full of violence.

May the humble not retire in confusion;

may the afflicted and the poor praise your name.

R. Lord, forget not the souls of your poor ones.

 

Alleluia                                              Phil 2:8 Lk 2:19       

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Blessed is the Virgin Mary who kept the word of God

and pondered it in her heart.

R. Alleluia

 

Gospel                                                           Lk 2:41-51

 

Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,

and when he was twelve years old,

they went up according to festival custom.

After they had completed its days, as they were returning,

the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem,

but his parents did not know it.

Thinking that he was in the caravan,

they journeyed for a day

and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances,

but not finding him,

they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.

After three days they found him in the temple,

sitting in the midst of the teachers,

listening to them and asking them questions,

and all who heard him were astounded

at his understanding and his answers.

When his parents saw him,

they were astonished,

and his mother said to him,

“Son, why have you done this to us?

Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”

And he said to them,

“Why were you looking for me?

Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

But they did not understand what he said to them.

He went down with them and came to Nazareth,

and was obedient to them;

and his mother kept all these things in her heart.

 

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

“Behold Your Mother” (John 19:27)

Mary looks on us and loves us as though we were her son, her own children, who bear this glorious quality for two reasons. First, because as mother of the Head she is therefore mother of the members (cf. :19). Second, because our Savior on the cross gave us to his mother as her children. He gave us to her, not simply in her capacity as queen and sovereign, but in that capacity that is of the greatest imaginable advantageousness for us, namely as mother, saying to each one of us what he said to his beloved disciple: “Behold your mother”. And he gave us to her, not simply as servants or slaves – which would have been a great honor for us – but as children.

 

“Behold your son”, he said to her, referring to each one of us in the person of Saint John, as though he were saying to her: “Behold all my members, who I give to you as your children; I am putting them in my place so that you can consider them as myself and love them with the same love with which you love me; as I love them, love them too”. Mother of Jesus, you look on us and love us as your children and as brothers of Jesus, your son, and with the same heart. And you love, and will love us eternally, with the same motherly love with which you love him.

 

And so, my brethren, in all your business, your needs, your anxieties and afflictions, have recourse to the heart of our so charitable mother. It is a heart that is always watching over us and over the slightest of things that concern us. It is a heart so full of kindness, sweetness, mercy and liberality that none of those who invoke it with humility and trust ever returns without being consoled.

 

Today's Prayer

 

Forgive me, Lord, for not paying attention to that brother or sister You placed in my path for guidance from You. Teach me how to be aware of those souls who are thirsty for Your love. 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!”