Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 03-03-05

USCCB.org/New American Bible ^ | 03-03-05 | New American Bible

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February 3, 2005 Thursday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Psalm: Thursday 8

Reading I Heb 12:18-19, 21-24

Brothers and sisters: You have not approached that which could be touched and a blazing fire and gloomy darkness and storm and a trumpet blast and a voice speaking words such that those who heard begged that no message be further addressed to them. Indeed, so fearful was the spectacle that Moses said, "I am terrified and trembling." No, you have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering, and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and God the judge of all, and the spirits of the just made perfect, and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled Blood that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 48:2-3ab, 3cd-4, 9, 10-11

R (see 10) O God, we ponder your mercy within your temple. Great is the LORD and wholly to be praised in the city of our God. His holy mountain, fairest of heights, is the joy of all the earth. R O God, we ponder your mercy within your temple. Mount Zion, "the recesses of the North," the city of the great King. God is with her castles; renowned is he as a stronghold. R O God, we ponder your mercy within your temple. As we had heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, In the city of our God; God makes it firm forever. R O God, we ponder your mercy within your temple. O God, we ponder your mercy within your temple. As your name, O God, so also your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Of justice your right hand is full. R O God, we ponder your mercy within your temple.

Gospel Mk 6:7-13

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick –no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic. He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them." So they went off and preached repentance. The Twelve drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

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For your reading, faith-sharing, comments and discussion.

[Salvation]

Hi, everyone, I am having network problems with my computer at home. So, I am very sorry that this is so late today. Hopefully, everything will be fixed by tomorrow and I won't be so late.

Salvation

[Salvation]

From: Luke 11:14-23

The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan

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[14] Now Jesus was casting out a demon that was dumb; when the demon
had gone out, the man spoke, and the people marvelled. [15] But some
of them said, "He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons";
[16] while others, to test Him, sought from Him a sign from Heaven.
[17] But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them, "Every kingdom
divided against itself is laid waste, and house falls upon house. [18]
And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom
stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. [19] And if I
cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out?
Therefore they shall be your judges. [20] But if it is by the finger
of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon
you. [21] When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his
goods are in peace; [22] but when one stronger than he assails him and
overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted, and divides
his spoil. [23] He who is not with Me is against Me, and He who does
not gather with Me scatters."

---

Commentary:

14-23. Jesus' enemies remain obstinate despite the evidence of the
miracle. Since they cannot deny that He has done something quite
extraordinary, they attribute it to the power of the devil, rather than
admit that Jesus is the Messiah. Our Lord answers them with a
clinching argument: the fact that He expels demons is proof that He has
brought the Kingdom of God. The Second Vatican Council reminds us of
this truth: "The Lord Jesus inaugurated His Church by preaching the
Good News, that is, the coming of the Kingdom of God, promised over the
ages in the Scriptures [...]. The miracles of Jesus also demonstrate
that the Kingdom has already come on earth: `If it is by the finger of
God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you'
(Luke 11:20; cf. Matthew 12:28). But principally the Kingdom of God is
revealed in the person of Christ Himself, Son of God and Son of Man,
who came `to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many' (Mark
10:45)" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 5).

The strong man well armed is the devil, who has enslaved man; but Jesus
Christ, one stronger than he, has come and conquered him and is
despoiling him. St. Paul will say that Christ "disarmed the
principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing
over them" (Colossians 2:15).

After the victory of Christ, the "stronger one", the words of verse 23
are addressed to mankind at large; even if people do not want to
recognize it, Jesus Christ has conquered and from now on no one can
adopt an attitude of neutrality towards Him: he who is not with Him is
against Him.

18. Christ's argument is very clear. One of the worst evils that can
overtake the Church is disunity among Christians, disunity among
believers. We must make Jesus' prayer our own: "That they may be one;
even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that also may be one in
Us, so that the world may believe that Thou has sent Me" (John 17:21).

---

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

[NYer]

Daily Mass Readings ping!

[Salvation]

Thursday, March 3, 2005
St. Katharine Drexel, Virgin (Commemoration)

First Reading: Psalm: Gospel:

Jeremiah 7:23-28 Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9 Luke 11:14-23 Let us therefore give ourselves to God with a great desire to begin to live thus, and beg Him to destroy in us the life of the world of sin, and to establish His life within us.  -- St John Eludes

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Thanks, NYer! Bless you!

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Also, the optional Feast Day of St. Katherine Drexel.

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Saint Katharine Drexel-A Woman Of The 19th And 20th Century

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Catholic Culture

Collect:
Ever-loving God, you called Blessed Katharine Drexel to teach the message of the Gospel and to bring the life of the Eucharist to the African American and Native American peoples. By her prayers and example, enable us to work for justice among the poor and the oppressed and keep us undivided in love in the eucharistic community of your Church. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Recipes:

• » Hopi Corn Stew

Activities:

• » Namedays
• » What is a Nameday?

Prayers:

• » Prayer for the Third Week of Lent
• » Lent Table Blessing 3

March 03, 2005

Optional Memorial of St. Katharine Drexel, virgin (USA)

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Today the dioceses of the United States celebrate the optional memorial of St. Katharine Drexel. Born into a wealthy Philadelphia family, Katharine took an avid interest in the material and spiritual well-being of African and Native Americans. She founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People, and opened mission schools in the West for Native Americans and in the South for African Americans. In 1915 she founded Xavier University in New Orleans. At her death, there were more than 500 sisters teaching in 63 schools.

The Station is at the church of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, physicians. These martyrs were twin brothers originating from Arabia. They practiced medicine in Aegea, Cilicia, but accepted no money from the poor. Their beautiful Christian lives edified the pagans and converted many to the Faith. They were arrested in the persecution of Diocletian, subjected to torture, and finally beheaded.

---

St. Katherine Drexel
Katharine Drexel was born in Philadelphia in 1858. She had an excellent education and traveled widely. As a rich girl, she had a grand debut into society. But when she nursed her stepmother through a three-year terminal illness, she saw that all the Drexel money could not buy safety from pain or death, and her life took a profound turn.

She had always been interested in the plight of the Indians, having been appalled by reading Helen Hunt Jackson's A Century of Dishonor. While on a European tour, she met Pope Leo XIII and asked him to send more missionaries to Wyoming for her friend Bishop James O'Connor. The pope replied, "Why don't you become a missionary?" His answer shocked her into considering new possibilities.

Back home, she visited the Dakotas, met the Sioux leader Red Cloud and began her systematic aid to Native American missions.

She could easily have married. But after much discussion with Bishop O'Connor, she wrote in 1889, "The feast of Saint Joseph brought me the grace to give the remainder of my life to the Indians and the Colored." Newspaper headlines screamed "Gives Up Seven Million!"

After three and a half years of training, she and her first band of nuns (Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored) opened a boarding school in Santa Fe. A string of foundations followed. By 1942 she had a system of African American Catholic schools in thirteen states, plus forty mission centers and twenty-three rural schools. Segregationists harassed her work, even burning a school in Pennsylvania. In all, she established fifty missions for Native Americans in sixteen states.

Two saints met when she was advised by Mother Cabrini about the "politics" of getting her order's rule approved in Rome. Her crowning achievement was the founding of Xavier University in New Orleans, the first university in the United States for African Americans.

At seventy-seven, she suffered a heart attack and was forced to retire. Apparently her life was over. But now came almost twenty years of quiet, intense prayer from a small room overlooking the sanctuary. Small notebooks and slips of paper record her various prayers, ceaseless aspirations and meditation. She died at ninety-six and was canonized in 2000. — Excerpted from Saint of the Day, Leonard Foley, O.F.M.

Things to Do:

• St. Katharine had a great love for the Eucharist, the center and source of her activity. Make a family visit to the Blessed Sacrament today.

• St. Katharine became a spiritual mother of African Americans and Native Americans, fighting for equal rights for these neglected ethnic groups. She was particularly concerned with achieving a quality education for these people. Find out about nearby educational programs for underprivileged inner city children (an excellent parent organization concerned with this is Youth Service International) and look for ways to support them. If you cannot give any of your time, consider making a small donation.

• St. Katharine grew up in a wealthy home but her parents instilled in her the understanding that her wealth belonged to her only on loan so that she could share it with others. She gave generously and with full trust in God. Do you tithe on a regular basis? Do you encourage your children to be generous with their allowance money?

[Salvation]

American Cathlic's Saint of the Day

March 3, 2005

St. Katharine Drexel

(1858-1955)

If your father is an international banker and you ride in a private railroad car, you are not likely to be drawn into a life of voluntary poverty. But if your mother opens your home to the poor three days each week and your father spends half an hour each evening in prayer, it is not impossible that you will devote your life to the poor and give away millions of dollars. Katharine Drexel did that.

She was born in Philadelphia in 1858. She had an excellent education and traveled widely. As a rich girl, she had a grand debut into society. But when she nursed her stepmother through a three-year terminal illness, she saw that all the Drexel money could not buy safety from pain or death, and her life took a profound turn.

She had always been interested in the plight of the Indians, having been appalled by reading Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor. While on a European tour, she met Pope Leo XIII and asked him to send more missionaries to Wyoming for her friend Bishop James O’Connor. The pope replied, “Why don’t you become a missionary?” His answer shocked her into considering new possibilities.

Back home, she visited the Dakotas, met the Sioux leader Red Cloud and began her systematic aid to Indian missions.

She could easily have married. But after much discussion with Bishop O’Connor, she wrote in 1889, “The feast of St. Joseph brought me the grace to give the remainder of my life to the Indians and the Colored.” Newspaper headlines screamed “Gives Up Seven Million!”

After three and a half years of training, she and her first band of nuns (Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored) opened a boarding school in Santa Fe. A string of foundations followed. By 1942 she had a system of black Catholic schools in 13 states, plus 40 mission centers and 23 rural schools. Segregationists harassed her work, even burning a school in Pennsylvania. In all, she established 50 missions for Indians in 16 states.

Two saints met when she was advised by Mother Cabrini about the “politics” of getting her Order’s Rule approved in Rome. Her crowning achievement was the founding of Xavier University in New Orleans, the first university in the United States for blacks.

At 77, she suffered a heart attack and was forced to retire. Apparently her life was over. But now came almost 20 years of quiet, intense prayer from a small room overlooking the sanctuary. Small notebooks and slips of paper record her various prayers, ceaseless aspirations and meditation. She died at 96 and was canonized in 2000

Comment:

Saints have always said the same thing: Pray, be humble, accept the cross, love and forgive. But it is good to hear these things in the American idiom from one who, for instance, had her ears pierced as a teenager, who resolved to have “no cake, no preserves,” who wore a watch, was interviewed by the press, traveled by train and could concern herself with the proper size of pipe for a new mission. These are obvious reminders that holiness can be lived in today’s culture as well as in that of Jerusalem or Rome.

Quote:

“The patient and humble endurance of the cross—whatever nature it may be—is the highest work we have to do.” “Oh, how far I am at 84 years of age from being an image of Jesus in his sacred life on earth!” (Saint Katharine Drexel)

[Salvation]

I know this is a duplicate for some of you, but I was away from my computer this morning and NYer used an old list.

King of Endless Glory Ping!

Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the King of Endless Glory Ping List.

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Lent 2005, Prayer, Reflection, Action for All

Reflections for Lent: February 6 -- March 27, 2005

The Three Practices of Lent: Praying, Fasting, Almsgiving

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Some wonderful threads to read and bump!

 

Mardi Gras' Catholic Roots [Shrove Tuesday]

The Holy Season of Lent -- Fast and Abstinence

The Holy Season of Lent -- The Stations of the Cross

[Suffering] His Pain Like Mine

Lent and Fasting

Ash Wednesday

All About Lent

Kids and Holiness: Making Lent Meaningful to Children

[Ciexyz]

Prayers offered to St. Jude for a friend who's in a desperate situation.

I purchased a St. Jude medal and a prayer card for my friend to help ease burden.

[Salvation]

Continuing to pray for the Pope!

Prayer Thread - Prayers for the Pope

Prayer Thread -praying for the Pope

Prayer thread for Pope John Paul II

Pray For the POPE

Pray for Pope, don't speculate on successor, Catholics told

[Salvation]

Do you have a name? I could ping the prayer warriors to the thread.

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Homily of the Day

Homily of the Day

Title:	Are You With Me Or Against Me?
Author:	Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.
Date:	Thursday, March 03, 2005

Jer 7:23-28 / Lk 11: 14-23

Where do you stand? It's a pointed question that gets asked a million times every day, in the corporate board room, at the city council, in the White House, at the PTA meeting, and over and over inside our homes. Where do you stand? What are you really about? Are you with me or against me?

Often our answer would confuse and amaze even the Oracle of Delphi. What did that platitude mean? Anything? Very often, nothing at all - just a stall and filler. But for those of honest heart, the question persists and demands an answer: What are we really for? Are we with the Lord or not. The 'vanilla' comfortableness of our culture, where to go along is to get alone, is not enough. For this is God asking the question, the one who gave us life and who sustains it day by day.

It's a fair question and we have to choose. After a certain point, treading water is no longer an option. And so our answer comes from the only place that counts, not fine words from the lips but silent words from the innermost heart: I am yours, Lord, and all I have is yours. Speak, Lord, for I am listening.

The moment we speak those words from deep within will be the first moment of true freedom in all our lives. So waste no more time, speak the words from within, and be free.

 

[Salvation]

 

 

A Voice in the Desert

 

Thursday March 3, 2005   Third Week of Lent

Reading (Jeremiah 7:23-28)   Gospel (St. Luke 11:14-23)

 This last line in today’s Gospel is one which is critically important. The Lord says, Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me scatters. Now we would like to be able to say, “Of course, we’re with the Lord!” but that is the real question we need to look at: Are we united with Christ? Are we doing His Will? Unlike these people, we certainly are not going to say, “It is by Beelzebul that he casts out demons,” but at the same time we really need to look within our hearts and ask ourselves, “How closely am I following Him? How obedient have I been? How faithful?”  

These are the things we can look at because we are very good at giving Him lip service but we are not very good always at living the faith that we profess. And it is interesting that along with this the Church gives to us this reading from Jeremiah where the Lord sends Jeremiah out, saying, Tell the people: This is the nation that does not listen to the voice of the Lord, its God, or obey His commandments. That was His message. And that is the point the Church is trying to make for us to help us understand that, yes, thank goodness we believe in the Lord, but are we really living what we profess? Are we really being obedient to what the Lord has commanded us?  

For us, of course, far, far more than the people of Israel, we are without excuse. God condemned them because He had sent them His servants the prophets and they refused to listen to the voice of the prophets. We not only have the prophets, we not only have the apostles, we not only have the saints, but we have the very Mother of God who has appeared on earth how many times to tell us what needs to happen, and above all we have God Himself – Jesus Christ – who has come to us in human form and has told us what it is that we are supposed to do. Yet how many of us do it? How many of us are really following what Our Lord has commanded us? That is the point we have to look at. If the people of Israel were condemned because they did not listen to the prophets, how much more responsible are we who refuse to listen to the very words that come forth from the mouth of the Son of God Himself? And how much more responsible are we who 2,000 years later have heard the voice of His own mother, far greater than any of the prophets who have ever lived? Yet we refuse to obey her voice as well. We are without excuse. If the people of Israel were condemned because of their disobedience to the voice of God, then so will we be.  

We can even look at it in the Church and say, “Is the Church right now really any different?” When Our Lord spoke to Jeremiah, He said, I am sending you to them and you must tell them, but they will not listen to you either. That is precisely the problem we have in our society. It is precisely the problem we have in the Church right now. We do not want to listen to the voice of God. We do not want to be obedient. We do not want to be faithful because money is more important, prestige is more important, appearance is more important, power is more important, selfishness is more important, all these things that we have gotten caught up in instead of serving the Lord. And it is not just within the Church; it is within this society. If we are honest, it affects every last one of us too, maybe not to the degree that it affects some in the world, but none of us can say that we have escaped it entirely.  

That is what we have to be working against. We have to be striving to be obedient, we have to be striving to be more faithful, we have to be striving to listen to the voice of the Lord and to be able to carry it out. Otherwise, what we are going to find ourselves doing is working against the Lord. We are giving Him lots of lip service, but our works actually testify against us. The Lord, then, will look at us and say, Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me scatters.

 *  This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.

[TotusTuus]

Haven't I seen these before? Seems like a month ago;)

February 3, 2005 Thursday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Oops! One of those days, huh?

Link to today's readings below. (I'm way too lazy to post them;)

March 3, 2005, Thursday of the Third Week of Lent

[Salvation]

Thank you -- You're the first one to catch this.

You can tell I was using a different computer, eh?