[Salvation]

Catholic Culture

Daily Readings for: March 22, 2013
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: Pardon the offenses of your peoples, we pray, O Lord, and in your goodness set us free from the bonds of the sins we have committed in our weakness. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

RECIPES

• Irish Soda Bread
• Lenten Soup

ACTIVITIES

• Religion in the Home for Elementary School: March
• Religion in the Home for Preschool: March

PRAYERS

• Prayer for the Fifth Week of Lent
• Lent Table Blessing 1
• Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Lent (2nd Plan)
• Prayer Before a Crucifix

Lent: March 22nd

Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent

The clear will of God is the light and the salvation of all men. No one can desire anything good unless God desires it. Even the best of intentions, even seemingly worthy projects, are no good if they are not God's will at the moment. Distress, suffering, even death, can be accepted as His mysterious will. His creative love is always at work drawing the greatest possible good out of everything. Be the humble servant of God's will and you will be truly wise and always at peace.

—Daily Missal of the Mystical Body

Stational Church

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Meditation: One Is Your Father
One is your Father, who is in heaven; one is your teacher, Christ; you are all brothers!

In these words lies embedded the basic structure of Christian common life. The Christian ideal, life with the Church, is emphasized.

1. First, the Fatherhood of God. God is the head of the family. For the early Christians it was a new and thrilling experience to be able to address God as Abba, Father. Down to the present time this approach to God is peculiarly Christian. There is here no juridical balance between accomplishment and merit, but a predominance of grace and love. Perhaps we have grown too accustomed to this unique privilege to be duly impressed. God is our Father, we His children. To be a child of God is to have high rank through grace; this is our nobility. Lent should deepen this Father-child relationship, should increase our confidence in God's fatherly goodness and care, should deepen our spirit of obedience and childlike reverence.

2. Christ is our teacher and master. We are called Christians, but do we always act so as to deserve the name? Do we give constant attention to maintaining our Christian dignity? Are we humble enough to learn from Christ, as willing pupils? His message comes to us most clearly in the Gospel. A good student would never tire of examining the Gospel and following in his master's footsteps. Christ speaks to us also through His priests, in the Church. Let us hold fast His doctrine, and esteem His commands, especially His principal commandment, love. No longer I, but Christ lives in me!

3. We are all brothers! We are God's great family, bound by a strong, common bond. Community is the word we have rediscovered-community in prayer, in sacrifice, in common action. We must make this truth operative in every group of which we are part, e.g., family, business, factory, parish, state! But what special significance this truth assumes at divine services, at holy Mass! There we are grouped around our teacher, Christ. We are His members, and He leads us to the Father. Yes, in the Sacrifice of the Mass all three are together: Father, teacher, and brothers.

Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch

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The Station, at Rome, is in the church of St. Stephen on Monte Celio. This church of the great proto-martyr was chosen as the place where the faithful were to assemble on the Friday of Passion week.

[Salvation]

The Word Among Us

Meditation: John 10:31-42

5th Week of Lent

Even if you do not believe me, believe the works. (John 10:38)

An old adage tells us that actions speak louder than words. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus bears this out when he tells his detractors that his miracles should be more than enough evidence to convince them that he really is who he says he is.

We all know that Jesus performed some wonderful miracles. We also know that these acts of power were meant to reveal who he was. They were designed not only to relieve people of their suffering but also to back up his claims about who he was. Jesus wasn’t just a nice person or a wise teacher. He was the Son of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity who was sent into the world to redeem all humanity.

Now the Church teaches that when we are baptized, we receive a share in the life of God. The Holy Spirit comes to live in us. And just as Jesus was in the Father and the Father was in him, each of us is now incorporated into Christ—and Christ lives in us! This means that because we are united with the Lord, we too can minister God’s peace, healing and restoration to the people in our lives. We too can “do the works” that Jesus did (John 14:12).

The simple act of asking if you can pray with someone who is hurting can be a big step toward showing them that Jesus is alive and wants to work in their lives. Little steps that share God’s love, like reading a favorite Scripture passage together or inviting someone to join you at Sunday Mass, can begin a process of healing and conversion.

People may not believe you if all they hear are your words. They may not believe you if all they know about you is your reputation as a faithful attendee at Mass. But they will believe you if they experience the love of Christ flowing from your words, your actions, and your attitudes. So never stop believing that Christ is in you. Never stop believing that in him, you can move mountains!

“Come, Holy Spirit, and touch me with the fire of your love. Show me what a tremendous gift you have given me—the invitation to show to the world that you are still working your miracles today.”

Jeremiah 20:10-13; Psalm 18:2-7