GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY - Thursday - October 06, 2022

 

Thursday - October 06, 2022

Some people are so foolish that they think they can go through life without the help of the Blessed Mother. Love the Madonna and pray the rosary, for her Rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world today. All graces given by God pass through the Blessed Mother.

~~St. Padre Pio

October 6, 2022

 

Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 464

 

Reading I     

                                                                                    GAL 3:1-5

 

O stupid Galatians!

Who has bewitched you,

before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

I want to learn only this from you:

did you receive the Spirit from works of the law,

or from faith in what you heard?

Are you so stupid?

After beginning with the Spirit,

are you now ending with the flesh?

Did you experience so many things in vain?–

if indeed it was in vain.

Does, then, the one who supplies the Spirit to you

and works mighty deeds among you

do so from works of the law

or from faith in what you heard?

 

Responsorial Psalm                                  LK 1:69-70, 71-72, 73-75

 

R. (68) Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.

 

He has raised up for us a mighty savior,

born of the house of his servant David.

R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.

Through his holy prophets he promised of old

that he would save us from our enemies,

from the hands of all who hate us.

R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.

He promised to show mercy to our fathers

and to remember his holy covenant.

R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.

This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham:

to set us free from the hands of our enemies,

free to worship him without fear,

holy and righteous in his sight

all the days of our life.

R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; He has come to his people.

 

Alleluia                                                                 ACTS 16:14B

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Open our hearts, O Lord,

to listen to the words of your Son.

R. Alleluia

 

Gospel                                                                     LK 11:5-13

 

Jesus said to his disciples:

“Suppose one of you has a friend

to whom he goes at midnight and says,

‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,

for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey

and I have nothing to offer him,’

and he says in reply from within,

‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked

and my children and I are already in bed.

I cannot get up to give you anything.’

I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves

because of their friendship,

he will get up to give him whatever he needs

because of his persistence.

 

“And I tell you, ask and you will receive;

seek and you will find;

knock and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks, receives;

and the one who seeks, finds;

and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

What father  among you would hand his son a snake

when he asks for a fish?

Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?

If you then, who are wicked,

know how to give good gifts to your children,

how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit

to those who ask him?”

 

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

 

Receiving and Spreading True Faith

St. Paul delivers a raised-eyebrow tirade in today’s first reading. The Galatians are piously sitting there, all neatly lined up in their pews, obediently attending Mass, having blessed themselves with holy water at the door and then genuflecting when they passed the Tabernacle on their way to claiming the same seats that they’ve used every week. As Paul preaches the homily, their minds are planning the chores that must get done before going back to work on Monday.

 

Oops. That’s not Galatia. My mind slipped forward a couple of thousands of years.

 

Wouldn’t it be great if Paul came to our churches today to address the pew-warmers who do little more for the parish than arrive at church with their self-satisfied religiousness? Wouldn’t you just love to see him startle them out of their complacency with a loud: “My good people have you gone out of your minds?”

 

Doing everything the “right” way is wrong without true faith, i.e., without a deep, abiding love for God and for everyone else (everyone, yes, even ex-spouses, irritating bosses, and politicians who don’t really care about your religious freedoms). Doing everything the “right” way by obeying Church rules without love is legalism, and to the legalists Paul says: “How could you be so stupid?” Okay, so he has no tact.

 

Today’s Gospel passage tells us how to receive true faith. The parable is not an invitation to ask for all the stuff we want. “Whoever asks, receives” is immediately followed by what we’re guaranteed to receive: the Holy Spirit.

 

If we have God’s Spirit living within us, then we want only that which is holy and good, so of course we’ll only ask for whatever God wants us to receive, and then of course we’ll get it — including true faith (see 1 Cor. 12:9).

 

It’s very easy to practice “the faith” legalistically when we don’t have a lively, active, dependent relationship with the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit is what makes our faith real and turns our obedience of Church laws into acts of love.

 

Why did Jesus use the example of asking for bread? Because Jesus is the Bread of Life and he wants us to be distributors of this bread. We all know people who are hungry for true faith. If we do not let the Holy Spirit transform us into the Eucharistic Bread of Life that we receive at Mass, we cannot go out and share Jesus with others: Our faith is inadequate to satisfy their hunger, and we don’t have enough Jesus in us to lead them to conversion.

 

Legalism gives us nothing more than the satisfaction of knowing that we’ve been obedient. This only feeds us until we fail. True faith gives us the satisfaction of turning our failures into victories, increasing God’s holiness within us. Let us knock again and ask for more of the Holy Spirit’s life in our lives — this door will be opened!

 

Today's Prayer

 

My Lord: May my relationship with You be so intense that I do not hesitate to entrust to You all my everyday worries and longings. 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!”

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY - Wednesday - October 05, 2022

 

Wednesday - October 05, 2022

“Never be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much. You can never love her more than Jesus did.”

--Saint Maximilian Kolbe

October 5, 2022

 

Wednesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 463

 

Reading I     

                                                                                    Gal 2:1-2, 7-14

 

Brothers and sisters:

After fourteen years I again went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas,

taking Titus along also.

I went up in accord with a revelation,

and I presented to them the Gospel that I preach to the Gentiles–

but privately to those of repute–

so that I might not be running, or have run, in vain.

On the contrary,

when they saw that I had been entrusted with the Gospel to the uncircumcised,

just as Peter to the circumcised,

for the one who worked in Peter for an apostolate to the circumcised

worked also in me for the Gentiles,

and when they recognized the grace bestowed upon me,

James and Cephas and John,

who were reputed to be pillars,

gave me and Barnabas their right hands in partnership,

that we should go to the Gentiles

and they to the circumcised.

Only, we were to be mindful of the poor,

which is the very thing I was eager to do.

 

And when Cephas came to Antioch,

I opposed him to his face because he clearly was wrong.

For, until some people came from James,

he used to eat with the Gentiles;

but when they came, he began to draw back and separated himself,

because he was afraid of the circumcised.

And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him,

with the result that even Barnabas

was carried away by their hypocrisy.

But when I saw that they were not on the right road

in line with the truth of the Gospel,

I said to Cephas in front of all,

"If you, though a Jew,

are living like a Gentile and not like a Jew,

how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?"

 

Responsorial Psalm                                  Ps 117:1bc, 2

 

R. Go out to all the world, and tell the Good News.

 

Praise the LORD, all you nations,

glorify him, all you peoples!

R. Go out to all the world, and tell the Good News.

 

For steadfast is his kindness toward us,

and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.

R. Go out to all the world, and tell the Good News.

 

Alleluia                                                              Rom 8:15bc

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

You have received a spirit of adoption as sons

through which we cry: Abba! Father!

R. Alleluia

 

Gospel                                                                     Lk 11:1-4

 

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,

one of his disciples said to him,

"Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."

He said to them, "When you pray, say:

 

Father, hallowed be your name,

your Kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread

and forgive us our sins

for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,

and do not subject us to the final test."

 

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

 

Growing as the Body of Christ

In today’s first reading, we get an inside view of the tension in the early Church that helped it mature. We see that Paul respected the authority of Peter (Cephas or Kephas in Greek), James and John, and they acknowledged Paul’s vocation to the Gentiles. But Peter erred in his use of authority and Paul spoke to him about it – respectfully but boldly in front of everyone who might have been led astray by his error, so that all would hear the truth and grow from it. Peter humbly recognized the truth of Paul’s criticism and was willing to change.

 

Today, this should still be an example — a procedural guideline — for all of us in the Church.

 

Peter’s sin had been hypocrisy caused by worrying about human disapproval. When he had visited the Gentile Christians, he had eaten their food (God had prepared him for this in a vision that told him it was okay to eat non-Kosher food; see Acts 10:9ff). But to avoid the disapproval of Jews, Peter caused confusion among the Gentiles by acting as if it was still wrong to eat their food. Making matters worse, his hypocrisy spread to others because of the example he set, especially since he was the leader (the first pope) of the Church.

 

He should have stopped worrying about his image and let his behavior teach by example that it is right to trust and cooperate with God’s plan even when if it meets with disapproval.

 

God was in the process of maturing the early Church. Peter’s hypocrisy worked against this. Paul had both the humility to recognize that God was instituting a change and the courage to speak up for it.

 

How do we handle Church leaders who work against God’s plans? Do we have both the passion and the compassion that Paul had to courageously call attention to the problem, with the same level of respect for their authority? True respect is based on love, not fear, and an understanding that God is calling us to work together in accomplishing the work of his kingdom.

 

If we see a Church leader sinning and we do nothing to stop it, we are hypocrites and we contribute to the scandal. Do we respect the sinner enough to speak to him or her about it? And if that doesn’t work, do we have enough respect for the rest of the Body of Christ to take the matter to higher authorities?

 

Peter’s hypocrisy came from fear; he overcame it through his respect for Paul. Do we have the humility of Peter to listen to and obey what the Lord is telling us through others?

 

The Church is still maturing. Until we’re perfectly imitating Christ, we will continue to need more growth. Purification is not fun, and no one likes to deal with the consequences of speaking up about the need for purification, but we are each responsible for doing everything we can, in mutual respect and love for one another, with bold passion, to strengthen the Church’s holiness.

 

Today's Prayer

 

Lord Jesus, help me to surrender completely to my Father all the areas of my life. May Your Holy Spirit dwell in me as You desire. 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!”

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY - Tuesday - October 04, 2022

 

Tuesday - October 04, 2022

"Those who say the Rosary daily and wear the Brown Scapular and who do a little more, will go straight to Heaven."         

~~St. Alphonsus Ligouri

October 4, 2022 

MEMORIAL OF SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Lectionary: 462

 

Reading I     

                                                                                    GAL 1:13-24

 

Brothers and sisters:

You heard of my former way of life in Judaism,

how I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure

and tried to destroy it,

and progressed in Judaism

beyond many of my contemporaries among my race,

since I was even more a zealot for my ancestral traditions.

But when he, who from my mother’s womb had set me apart

and called me through his grace,

was pleased to reveal his Son to me,

so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles,

I did not immediately consult flesh and blood,

nor did I go up to Jerusalem

to those who were Apostles before me;

rather, I went into Arabia and then returned to Damascus.

 

Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to confer with Cephas

and remained with him for fifteen days.

But I did not see any other of the Apostles,

only James the brother of the Lord.

(As to what I am writing to you, behold,

before God, I am not lying.)

Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

And I was unknown personally to the churches of Judea

that are in Christ;

they only kept hearing that “the one who once was persecuting us

is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”

So they glorified God because of me.

 

Responsorial Psalm                                  PS 139:1B-3, 13-14AB, 14C-15

 

R. (24b) Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.

 

O LORD, you have probed me and you know me;

you know when I sit and when I stand;

you understand my thoughts from afar.

My journeys and my rest you scrutinize,

with all my ways you are familiar.

R. Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.

 

Truly you have formed my inmost being;

you knit me in my mother’s womb.

I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made;

wonderful are your works.

R. Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.

 

My soul also you knew full well;

nor was my frame unknown to you

When I was made in secret,

when I was fashioned in the depths of the earth.

R. Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.

 

Alleluia                                                                     LK 11:28

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Blessed are those who hear the word of God

and observe it.

R. Alleluia

 

Gospel                                                                     LK 10:38-42

 

Jesus entered a village

where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.

She had a sister named Mary

who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.

Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said,

“Lord, do you not care

that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?

Tell her to help me.”

The Lord said to her in reply,

“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.

There is need of only one thing.

Mary has chosen the better part

and it will not be taken from her.”

 

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

 

What’s Your Story?

How comfortable are you telling stories about your faith growth? If anyone asks you why you’re a Christian and how did it happen, would you have a conversion story to share? Yes, undoubtedly. No matter whether you were raised Catholic or in some other Christian denomination or you discovered the Christian faith more recently, you have a story that could help others.

 

Actually, you have a number of conversion stories. Any time your life changed as a result of discovering something new spiritually – taking you closer to God and deeper into the life of the Christian community – you experienced conversion. Any time a problem brought you closer to Jesus and his sufferings on the cross, you experienced conversion.

 

Any time you repented from a sin, you experienced a conversion that could help others if you talk about it, like St. Paul did in today’s first reading. Any time you put aside the busyness of life to sit quietly and learn from Jesus, you experienced conversion, like Martha did in the Gospel reading.

 

There are people in your life right now who are ready to be like Mary in this Gospel, but they don’t know how. They want to sit at the feet of the Jesus who lives in you; they want to hear him from your voice. God has placed you in their lives to be Jesus in the flesh for them. They want to hear your stories of love and faith. They want to be loved by the Jesus in you.

 

Trust that the Holy Spirit will inspire them through your story. Some will ponder what you said and respond to the Spirit’s guidance rather quickly. Others will change their lives only after hearing many other faith stories, because right now they don’t want to accept the truth completely. That’s okay! God appreciates you for sharing the truth with them in your own way, with your own faith-building story.

 

Here’s how to become more comfortable sharing your story: First choose any conversion experience and get very familiar with it. Answer these questions: (1) What was my life like before this happened and why did I want something to change? (2) What helped me to find God? (3) How did my life improve as a result of this conversion?

 

Next, tell it to people who understand, for example in a prayer group or faith-sharing community at church or a Christian friend. Then you’ll know that you really do have the ability to share it. This confidence will empower you to tell it to someone who needs to hear it for their own growth.

 

Never underestimate the power of your story! You can make a difference in other people’s lives just by being a blabbermouth about God’s love!

 

Today's Prayer

 

Lord Jesus, give me the grace of discerning Your path every day in my life. Thank you for talking to me through the simplest things! 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!”