Posted on 09/07/2005 8:18:40 AM PDT by Salvation
I just saw my error in the title. Could you please change the date to today's? 09-07-05.
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This really is for today -- 09-07-05.
Thank you!
From: Colossians 3:1-11
Seek the Things That Are Above
From: Luke 6:20-26
The Beatitudes and the Curses
This email seems to go with today's readings.
FACES OF MERCY
Do you know what an L.L.B. is?
When people traveled more often by train than by air, one mother found
herself in need. She was traveling with two children, one of which was
a fussy baby. It seemed that nothing she did would settle the child
down.
However, seated next to her was an older gentleman who offered to take
the infant so she could tend to her other child. He bounced the baby
on his knee, cooed and whispered and finally stood up and paced the
aisle. In a little while the infant fell fast asleep and he sat down
again. The mother was amazed. "You must be an M.D.," she exclaimed.
"No," he smiled. "I'm just an L.L.B."
"An L.L.B?" she asked. "What's that?"
"A Lover of Little Babies!" he said.
In America's aftermath of Hurricane Katrina we are discovering
L.L.B's, as well as Lovers of Older Folks, Lovers of Life's Victims
and even Lovers of Lost Pets. Some of these good-hearted people open
their homes. Some scour the streets of New Orleans for stranded
residents. Some volunteer at shelters around the country, some
organize support in their own communities and some send supplies and
money. Some pray. It is these lovers of humanity that will, in the
end, help devastated lives through the crisis and give us all enough
hope to keep doing what we can.
You've heard it said, "Blessed are the merciful." Mercy takes on
several faces. Sometimes it may look like an L.L.B. But today it looks
like many of you. May you be truly blessed.
Wednesday, September 7, 2005 Feria |
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Faith-sharing bump.
Continued prayers offered for the displaced residents of the flooded areas.
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Homily of the Day
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September 6, 2005
Dear Friends,
First of all, may I ask you to alert your pro-life friends, if you haven't already done so, that I'll be preaching the daily masses on EWTN starting this Sunday, September 11, and continuing every day through Friday, September 16. If someone does not receive EWTN by television or radio, the mass homilies can be heard on the internet. We will post the link at www.priestsforlife.org My newsletter for September-October is below. You will notice extensive quotes from the abortion industry. It is critical that we continue lifting the veil off of the violence of abortion. You and I may be used to hearing these descriptions; but the majority of Americans have never heard them, and most of those who do hear them are repulsed by them, and have enough of a conscience to oppose abortion. As I have always said, abortion destroys itself. All we have to do is expose it. Please spread these descriptions far and wide. And finally, we are getting these descriptions into the minds of churchgoers nationwide by urging pastors to use our bulletin insert, which we are offering free of charge in any quantity the parish wants. The insert can be viewed at www.priestsforlife.org/bulletin/index.htm. If your pastor wants us to send a quantity to him for the bulletin, he can order it at orders@priestsforlife.org (We need to know that the pastor has given permission before we send the requested quantity.) Thank you for all you do for the cause of life. God bless you!
Fr. Frank Pavone Priests for Life
Newsletter Volume 15, Number 5
September-October 2005
**Fr. Frank Pavone Priests for Life**
Father Frank Pavone bump!
Wednesday September 7, 2005 Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Reading (Colossians 3:1-11) Gospel (St. Luke 6:20-26)
In the first reading today, Saint Paul tells us that we have died and that our life is hidden now with Christ in God. This death is the death we have endured already in baptism. It is a spiritual death, and we have entered into the waters of death so that we could rise with Christ. He is just continuing with what we heard yesterday, and we realize, as he says very explicitly today: Therefore, set your eyes on heaven, not on earth; seek what is above, not what is of the earth. Then he lays out for us the things that are of earth, and he tells us that we have to get rid of them. He says, Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed which is idolatry.
For many who perhaps have lived an unfortunate past, that, I assume, is put aside. You are trying to live according to the way of Christ. But if the physical things are gone (the impurity is out of the way), the thing that you have to be so careful of is to not try to replace it with something else. Most often, it is greed and materialism. It is still doing the same thing, trying to fill up something, trying to look for some kind of consolation or pleasure, trying to seek something that is not God. How careful we need to be with that.
Then he goes on talking about what we need to do. He says that we need to put all of this away: anger, fury, malice, slander, and obscene language out of your mouths, lying, and so on. We have to put on a new self. Again, how often we try to justify ourselves, suggesting that it is okay that we can be angry, suggesting that it is okay that we can be saying things we should not say. We cannot; there is no excuse. Certainly, there may be problems because of a habit that has formed, but even that does not serve as an excuse to say, It was okay for me to do. What we need to be doing is working on these things to get rid of them. Yes, in our weakness we are going to fall, but as long as we are working at trying to overcome these things and not working on simply finding some excuse to justify what it is we are doing.
Now, of course, if we are going to put off the old self and put on the new self, to die to the things that are earthly to live for the things that are heavenly, we know exactly how people are going to react. But then again listen to the words that Our Lord spoke in the Gospel reading today. He said, Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and insult you and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. On the other hand, He says, Woe to you when all speak well of you; their ancestors treated the false prophets in exactly that way. If we are going to live according to the ways of God, we cannot live according to the ways of the world. And if we want to be accepted by the worldly, if we want to fit in, if we want to be thought well of, if we want all the accolades that the world has to offer, then we are not living according to the way of God. If that is the case, again, listen to the words of the Lord: Woe to you when all speak well of you. Woe to you. This is not some little thing that the Lord said, Well, you know, its no big deal. Woe to you. Then, again, if we are going to live the way of Christ and be rejected and insulted with Him, He pronounces us blessed.
This does not mean go out and be obnoxious so that people can hate you. That is not the idea. Just live the life. Live the spiritual life, practice the charity that we are called to practice, go out and live the life of Christ and you will be rejected simply for doing what is right. But then we have to rise above the hatred and the anger and the frustration that people have done that to us. What the Lord is asking of us is not easy, and yet Saint Paul tells us that this is what is necessary because we have already died with Christ and now we are to live with Him, and that this is necessary because of who we are, the very essence of our being as Christian people, to be able to walk with Christ, to walk as He did, to live as He did, to be united with Him. That is what we have to be about, putting aside everything that is not of God and living according to the ways of God and to quit giving ourselves excuses as to why we do not have to do it that way because the Lord makes very clear that is exactly what we have to do and to truly live a holy life with our hearts set not on the things of earth but on the things of heaven where Christ is already seated at the right hand of God.
* This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.
Also, a ping to Coleus about Fr Frank will be on EWTN next week at the Mass giving the homilies from Sunday to Friday...
Lk 6:20-26 | ||
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# | Douay-Rheims | Vulgate |
20 | And he, lifting up his eyes on his disciples, said: Blessed are ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. | et ipse elevatis oculis in discipulos suos dicebat beati pauperes quia vestrum est regnum Dei |
21 | Blessed are ye that hunger now: for you shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for you shall laugh. | beati qui nunc esuritis quia saturabimini beati qui nunc fletis quia ridebitis |
22 | Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. | beati eritis cum vos oderint homines et cum separaverint vos et exprobraverint et eiecerint nomen vestrum tamquam malum propter Filium hominis |
23 | Be glad in that day and rejoice: for behold, your reward is great in heaven, For according to these things did their fathers to the prophets. | gaudete in illa die et exultate ecce enim merces vestra multa in caelo secundum haec enim faciebant prophetis patres eorum |
24 | But woe to you that are rich: for you have your consolation. | verumtamen vae vobis divitibus quia habetis consolationem vestram |
25 | Woe to you that are filled: for you shall hunger. Woe to you that now laugh: for you shall mourn and weep. | vae vobis qui saturati estis quia esurietis vae vobis qui ridetis nunc quia lugebitis et flebitis |
26 | Woe to you when men shall bless you: for according to these things did their fathers to the false prophets. | vae cum bene vobis dixerint omnes homines secundum haec faciebant prophetis patres eorum |
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