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It’s time to kneel down and pray for our nation Posted on 26 June 2015 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf The Supreme Court came down in favor of same-sex marriage today.  The Slip opinions are HERE. Held: The Fourteenth Amendment requires a State to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-State. Pp. 3–28. […] KENNEDY, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which GINSBURG, BREYER, SOTOMAYOR, and KAGAN, JJ., joined. ROBERTS, C. J., filed a dissenting...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Character Studies From The Bible Solomon New International Version (NIV) 14 The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents,[e] 15 not including the revenues from merchants and traders and from all the Arabian kings and the governors of the territories. 16 King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels[f] of gold went into each shield. 17 He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold, with three minas[g] of gold in each shield. The king put them in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon. 18 Then the...

June 26, 2015   Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Gn 17:1, 9-10, 15-22 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said: “I am God the Almighty. Walk in my presence and be blameless.” God also said to Abraham: “On your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you that you must keep: every male among you shall be circumcised.” God further said to Abraham: “As for your wife Sarai, do not call her...

Pray For Our American Heroes and Our Nation If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. John 15:19 (NIV) ----

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Character Studies From The Bible Solomon New International Version (NIV) 10 When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the Lord, she came to test Solomon with hard questions. 2 Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan—with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. 3 Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. 4 When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom...

Pray For Our American Heroes and Our Nation Stand Firm Romans 5:2-5 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

June 25, 2015 Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Gn 16:1-12, 15-16 Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children. She had, however, an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar. Sarai said to Abram: “The LORD has kept me from bearing children. Have intercourse, then, with my maid; perhaps I shall have sons through her.” Abram heeded Sarai’s request. Thus, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, his wife Sarai took her maid, Hagar the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his concubine. He had intercourse with her, and she...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Character Studies From The Bible Solomon New International Version (NIV) 10 At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built these two buildings—the temple of the Lord and the royal palace— 11 King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had supplied him with all the cedar and juniper and gold he wanted. 12 But when Hiram went from Tyre to see the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them. 13 “What kind of towns are these you have given me, my brother?” he asked....

June 24, 2015 4  Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist - Mass during the Day Reading 1 Is 49:1-6 Hear me, O coastlands, listen, O distant peoples. The LORD called me from birth, from my mother’s womb he gave me my name. He made of me a sharp-edged sword and concealed me in the shadow of his arm. He made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me. You are my servant, he said to me, Israel, through whom I show my glory. Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly,...

As a tall, lanky redhead born and raised in Colorado, 34 year-old Brother David Johnson definitely sticks out in Syria, the Middle Eastern country where he serves with the St. James the Persian Carmelite Monastery in Qara.He originally came as a student to study the language, but decided to stay after he fell in love with the country and felt GodÂ’s call to the religious life there.That love for language and for God would one day save Brother JohnsonÂ’s life. At a recent prayer breakfast in Denver, Brother Johnson recalled the story of Easter Monday, three years ago. He was...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Character Studies From The Bible Solomon New International Version (NIV) 9 When Solomon had finished building the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do, 2 the Lord appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3 The Lord said to him: “I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. 4 “As for you,...

And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored Him that liveth for ever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom from generation to generation; And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; And He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, And among the inhabitants of the earth; And none can stay His hand, Or say unto Him: What doest Thou? . . . Now I...

June 23, 2015  Tuesday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Gn 13:2, 5-18 Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold. Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support them if they stayed together; their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. There were quarrels between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and those of Lot’s. (At this time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were occupying the land.) So Abram said to Lot: “Let there be no strife between you and me, or...

Psalm 86:11,12 Teach me Your Way, O Lord, that I May Walk and Live in Your Truth; Direct and Unite my Heart {Solely, Reverently} to Fear and Honor Your Name. I will Confess and Praise You, O Lord my God, with my Whole (United) Heart; And I will Glorify Your Name Forevermore.

Pray for the Living and the Dead – A Meditation on the Seventh Spiritual Work of Mercy Msgr. Charles Pope • June 15, 2015 • What is the value of one prayer? I suspect it is far greater than any of us imagine. Prayer changes things, sometimes in obvious ways, more often in subtle and even paradoxical ways. But prayer is surely important, even when we don’t experience its immediate effects. Perhaps this is why Jesus taught us to pray always and never to lose heart (cf Luke 18:1). St. Paul echoed this with the simple exhortation “Pray without ceasing”...

June 22, 2015 Monday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Gn 12:1-9 The LORD said to Abram: “Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.” Abram went as the LORD directed him, and Lot...

June 21, 2015 Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Jb 38:1, 8-11 The Lord addressed Job out of the storm and said: Who shut within doors the sea, when it burst forth from the womb; when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling bands? When I set limits for it and fastened the bar of its door, and said: Thus far shall you come but no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stilled! Responsorial Psalm Ps 107:23-24, 25-26, 28-29, 30-31 R. (1b) Give thanks to the Lord, his love is everlasting. or: R....

June 20, 2015 Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 2 Cor 12:1-10 Brothers and sisters: I must boast; not that it is profitable, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who, fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows), was caught up to the third heaven. And I know that this man (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows) was caught up into Paradise and heard ineffable...

Pray For Our American Heroes and Our Nation King John signing the Magna Carta, June 15, 1215 – 800 years ago When he [the king] takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than...