'To get good from reading the Lives of the Saints, and other spiritual books, we ought not to read out of curiosity, or skimmingly, but with pauses; and when we feel ourselves warmed, we ought not to pass on, but to stop and follow up the spirit which is stirring in us, and when we feel it no longer then to pursue our reading.'

St. Philip Neri

The Angelus

The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary:
And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of
our death. Amen.

Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy word.

Hail Mary . . .

And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us.

Hail Mary . . .

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray:

Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.

Amen.

"Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Lk 1:28)

"Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb"
(Lk 1:42).

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3685810/posts

Saint of the Day — Blessed Frederic Ozanam

Information: St. Anastasius the Fuller

Feast Day: September 7

CATHOLIC ALMANAC

Friday, September 7

Liturgical Color: Green

On this day in 1644, Bl. Ralph Corby,
S.J., and Bl. John Duckett were
martyred at Tyburn in London, after
being arrested for their missionary
work. They were granted a reprieve to
be used by only one, but both refused
it.

Catholic Culture

Ordinary Time: September 7th

Friday of the Twenty-Second Week of Ordinary Time

MASS READINGS

September 07, 2018 (Readings on USCCB website)

COLLECT PRAYER

God of might, giver of every good gift, put into our hearts the love of your name, so that, by deepening our sense of reverence, and, by your watchful care, keep safe what you have nurtured. 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.

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Old Calendar: St. Regina, virgin & martyr (Hist); St. Cloud (Hist)

According to tradition today is the feast of St. Regina (Reine) who after undergoing many cruel torments, was beheaded for the faith at Aliza, formerly a large town called Alexia, famous for the siege which Caesar laid to it, now a small village in the diocese of Autun in Burgundy. Her martyrdom happened in the persecution of Decius, in 251, or under Maximian Herecleus in 286, as some Martyrologies mention. She is honored in many ancient Martyrologies. Her relics are kept with great devotion in the neighboring abbey of Flavigni, a league distant, whither they were translated in 864, and where they have been rendered famous by miracles and pilgrimages, of which a history is published by two monks of that abbey. — Butler's "Lives of the Saints"

Historically today is the feast of St. Cloud a grandson of King Clovis of the Franks and the youngest son of King Clodomir of Orleans. He and his brothers were raised by their grandmother St. Clotilda, Queen of the Franks. Two of his brothers, Theodoald and Gunther, were slain at the ages of ten and nine by their uncle Clotaire, king of the Franks from 558-561. Clodoald survived by being sent to Provence, France. There he became a hermit and a disciple of St. Severinus. He remained at Nogent, near Paris, which became known as Saint-Cloud.

St. Regina
The life of this saint is shrouded in obscurity; all that we know about her is found in the acts of her martyrdom which are considered rather unreliable in their details. She was born in the 3rd century in Alise, the ancient Alesia where two hundred years earlier Vercingetorix had fought so valiantly against Caesar. Her mother died at her birth, and her father, a prominent pagan citizen, entrusted the child to a Christian nurse who baptized her.

When he learned of this fact, the father flew into a rage and repudiated his own daughter. Regina then went to live with her nurse who possessed little means. The girl helped out by tending sheep, where she communed with God in prayer and meditated on the lives of the saints.

In 251, at the age of fifteen, she attracted the eye of a man called Olybrius, the prefect of Gaul, who determined to have her as his wife. He sent for the girl and discovered that she was of noble race and of the Christian Faith. Chagrined, he attempted to have her deny her faith, but the saintly maiden resolutely refused and also spurned his proposal of marriage. Thereupon, Olybrius had her thrown into prison.

Regina remained incarcerated, chained to the wall, while Olybrius went to ward off the incursions of the barbarians. On his return, he found the saint even more determined to preserve her vow of virginity and to refuse to sacrifice to idols. In a rage, he had recourse to whippings, scorchings, burning pincers, and iron combs - all to no avail as the grace of God sustained the saint. All the while, she continued to praise God and defy Olybrius. In the end, her throat was severed and she went forth to meet her heavenly Bridegroom.

Excerpted from the Lives of the Saints by Rev. Thomas J. Donaghy

Patron: Depicted as experiencing the torments of martyrdom; or as receiving spiritual consolation in prison by a vision of a dove on a luminous cross.

Symbols: Against poverty, impoverishment, shepherdesses, torture victims.

Things to Do:

Visit this website to learn more about St. Regina.

St. Cloud
St. Cloud is the first and most illustrious Saint among the princes of the royal family of the first race in France. He was son of Chlodomir, King of Orleans, the eldest son of St. Clotilda, and was born in 522. He was scarce three years old when his father was killed in Burgundy; but his grandmother Clotilda brought up him and his two brothers at Paris, and loved them extremely.

Their ambitious uncles divided the kingdom of Orleans between them, and stabbed with their own hands two of their nephews. Cloud, by a special providence, was saved from the massacre, and, renouncing the world, devoted himself to the service of God in a monastic state. After a time he put himself under the discipline of St. Severinus, a holy recluse who lived near Paris, from whose hands he received the monastic habit.

Wishing to live unknown to the world, he withdrew secretly into Provence, but his hermitage being made public, he returned to Paris, and was received with the greatest joy imaginable. At the earnest request of the people, he was ordained priest by Eusebius, Bishop of Paris, in 551, and served that Church some time in the functions of the sacred ministry.

He afterward retired to St. Cloud, two leagues below Paris, where he built a monastery. Here he assembled many pious men, who fled out of the world for fear of losing their souls in it. St. Cloud was regarded by them as their superior, and he animated them to all virtue both by word and example. He was indefatigable in instructing and exhorting the people of the neighboring country, and piously ended his days about the year 560.

Excerpted from Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]

Patron: against carbuncles; nail makers; Diocese of Saint Cloud, Minnesota

The Word Among Us

Meditation: Luke 5:33-39

22nd Week in Ordinary Time

The new wine will burst the skins. (Luke 5:37)

In ancient Israel, the juice from pressed grapes immediately went into a container to ferment into wine. If the wine was going to be transported a long distance, the container was often a goatskin sewn into a bag, or “wineskin.” The initial gaseous stage of fermenting the grapes caused the wineskin to stretch out. “Old wineskins” had already been stretched once, so if they were used again, the fermentation process would cause them to burst (Luke 5:37).

Jesus told this parable to ask his detractors to try to become more like new wineskins. He told them that the new life he was proclaiming could not be fitted into old ways of thinking and doing. Life in the kingdom of God required people who had the capacity to stretch along with the movements of God.

Not all of Jesus’ hearers accepted these words, but those who did were stretched—and were blessed for it! For example, they had to expand their concept of the Messiah: he was the crucified and risen Son of God, not a temporal king. They had to accept that the Gentiles were their brothers and sisters, not pagans who would make them unclean. Because the first disciples’ pliability helped them to respond to the “fermentation” of the Holy Spirit, the Church continued to grow dramatically.

Like every believer in the time of Christ, you, too, are a wineskin, and the Holy Spirit is stirring in you. The important thing is to be willing to “be stretched” as the Spirit moves you. For example, you might have an innate dislike of a coworker or neighbor, but maybe God is calling you to see that person in a more compassionate light. Or God might want to stretch you by giving you a new gift or by asking you to use a gift long dormant. Maybe caring for a new baby or an elderly or sick relative has stretched you. These kinds of situations push us to rely on God’s Spirit more so that we can expand and not burst.

Is there an area of your life in which you are feeling stretched? Ask for the grace to be “stretchy” so that you can share God’s love and presence just a bit more today.

“Jesus, help me stretch to new capacities to bear your love to people around me.”

1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Psalm 37:3-6, 27-28, 39-40

Daily Gospel Commentary

Saint Augustine (354-430)
Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Homilies on the First Epistle of Saint John, I, 2 (©Augustinian heritage institute; SC 75, p. 115)

"While the bridegroom is with them"

“We have seen,” he says, “and we are witnesses.” Where did they see? In a manifestation. What does that mean, "in a manifestation"? In the sun -that is, in this light. But how could he who made the sun be seen in the sun if not for the fact that “he pitched his tent in the sun and, like a bridegroom coming forth from his marriage bed, rejoiced like a giant to run his course” (Ps 19:4-5)? He who made the sun was before the sun, he was before the morning star, before all the stars, before all the angels. He is the true creator, because “everything was made through him, and apart from him nothing was made” (Jn 1,3). Thus he would be seen by the fleshly eyes that see the sun. He pitched his tent itself in the sun-that is, he showed his flesh in the manifestation of this light. And the marriage bed of that bridegroom was the Virgin's womb.

For in that virginal womb two things were joined, a bridegroom and a bride, the bridegroom being the Word and the bride being flesh. For it is written, “And they shall be two in one flesh” (Gn 2:24 Vg), and the Lord says in the gospel, “Therefore they are no longer two but one flesh” (Mt 19:6). Isaiah also notes very well that these two are themselves one, for he speaks in the person of Christ and says, “He set a wreath upon me like a bridegroom, and like a bride he adorned me with an ornament” (Is 61:10). One person appears to be speaking, and he has made himself a bridegroom and has made himself a bride, because they aren't two but one flesh, for “the Word was made flesh and dwelled among us,” (Jn 1:14) The Church is joined to that flesh, and Christ becomes the whole, head and body (Eph 1:22).

Marriage = One Man and One Woman Until Death Do Us Part

Daily Marriage Tip for September 7, 2018:

What’s your shopping personality? – In and out as quickly as possible; shopping as recreation; never met a bargain I didn’t like; a research project? If you have different shopping styles, how do you reconcile your differences?

Regnum Christi

September 7, 2018 – Becoming the New You

Friday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

Luke 5: 33-39

The scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink.” Jesus answered them, “Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.” And he also told them a parable. “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins. And no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.'”

Introductory Prayer: Lord God, I come from dust and to dust I shall return. You, on the other hand, existed before all time, and every creature takes its being from you. You formed me in my mother’s womb with infinite care, you watch over me tenderly. I hope at my dearth you will embrace my soul to carry me home to heaven to be with you forever. Thank you for looking upon me and blessing me with your love. Take mine in return. I humbly offer you all that I am.

Petition: Rejuvenate my spiritual life, Lord.

Judging by the Wrong Standards: Once again, we have Jesus at a meal, this time with Levi (Matthew) and his friends. The scribes and Pharisees have come along to scrutinize Jesus and his followers, as they were wary of his teachings which were not in accord with the legalism and formalism to which they were accustomed. Their statement here about fasting contains an implicit judgment: You and your followers are not following our traditions of fasting; therefore, you cannot be truly holy. They present it not as a question, but as a statement, an accusation. They are not open to looking at things in a new way. We, too, can be guilty of rash judgment, even with other people in the Church who do not do things the way we do. Our reference point has to be not what we are used to, but what the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, teaches and approves, be it ancient traditions or new manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church.

For Everything There Is a Season: Jesus’ answer is simple: there is a time and place for both fasting and feasting. Some people have a special vocation to a life of unusual abnegation, but for most of us, the liturgical year provides us with a natural cycle of rejoicing and penance. At times we rejoice with the “bridegroom” – like Christmas and Easter when we celebrate the coming of Christ and his resurrection. At other times we practice more penance – as in Lent when we focus more on making reparation for the separation from the Lord caused by sin in our lives, or in Advent when we purify our hearts to receive the Lord at Christmas. Ordinary Time has its own feasts and occasions of particular significance one way or the other. The question we must ask ourselves is this: Are we living these liturgical realities, or are we neglecting them? Do the feasts and fasts of the Church affect my life, or are the liturgical seasons at best curiosities that I hardly notice?

The New You: Then, Jesus offers all those present a challenge in the form of the parable. Both images – the cloth and the wineskins – emphasize the idea that in order to embrace his message we need to think “outside the box”. We easily get settled into a routine, becoming complacent and tepid in our faith. It’s even worse if we have habits of sin. To follow Christ and his “Good News” truly, we need to leave behind what St. Paul called the “old self” to be new creatures in Christ (Colossians 3:9-10). For the Pharisees, that would have meant leaving behind their strict formalism and judgmental attitude. For Levi and his friends it meant abandoning their worldliness and sinful lifestyle. Making a break with our old self is difficult – the “old wine” is what we’re used to – but we have to take the step of recognizing in what our old self consists and deciding to leave that behind to embrace Christ’s message, which is always challenging, ever new.

Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, help me to focus more on following you than on judging others. Show me who I am, and whom you want me to be. Grant me the grace to live the life of the Church – feasts and fasts – with enthusiasm, so you can transform me into a new creature.

Resolution: I will make it a point to live today, Friday, as a memorial of the death of Our Lord by offering a small sacrifice as a penance for my sins, and I will live this coming Sunday with real joy as the celebration of his resurrection.

Homily of the Day

September 7, 2018

St. Paul in the first reading tells us that we are all called to be stewards and servants of God, with the Lord alone to pass judgment on us.

In our various groups much is expected of us and we try our best not to disappoint our companions because we do not want to fail them. In the same light, as stewards of God, we are called to serve Him with all our hearts and all our strength. We have a duty to keep the Lord’s trust in us as his stewards. In the end, only the Lord can see through our hearts and discern our intentions.

In the Gospel reading, Jesus shows us the true meaning of fasting. Every day the Lord provides us with everything we need – food, clothing, education, shelter, etc. We are reminded that all these come from God. But above all these blessings, the true gift that God gives us is Himself.

So if we must fast from something in order to be with Him who is the Bridegroom, we should, by all means, do so. In life, what is important is God’s presence: so everything we have and are should be offered to the Lord.

One Bread, One Body

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All Issues > Volume 34, Issue 5

<< Friday, September 7, 2018 >>

1 Corinthians 4:1-5
View Readings

Psalm 37:3-6, 27-28, 39-40

Luke 5:33-39
Similar Reflections

THE WAY TO JESUS

"New wine should be poured into fresh skins." —Luke 5:38

Everything has changed with the coming of Jesus Christ into this world. All prior ways of relating to God cannot even begin to compare with the new way of relating to God introduced by Jesus.

Those who related to God before Jesus sometimes placed more importance on the religious practices than on the relationship with God. We must never mistake the path for the goal, which is Jesus Christ. We are to "keep our eyes fixed on Jesus," the Goal (Heb 12:2).

Even while walking the path to Jesus in this earthly life, the Lord has given us help. Jesus told us: "I am the Way" (Jn 14:6). So Jesus is both the Way, that is, the Path, and the Goal. Thus, when we perform Christian service, disciplines, and devotions, such as fasting, we must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus rather than successfully checking off another box on our checklist.

It is a constant goal of the devil to get us to take our eyes off Jesus and introduce pride and selfishness into our worship, devotions, and service. When you grow tired in your Christian walk, come to Jesus constantly for refreshment (see Mt 11:28) rather than to the world for relief.

Prayer: Jesus, when I get tired for You, may I never get tired of You.

Promise: "Take delight in the Lord, and He will grant you your heart's requests." —Ps 37:4

Praise: Joanna, a pro-life legislator, fasted and prayed prior to her decision to run for public office.

Ordinary Time: September 7th

Friday of the Twenty-Second Week of Ordinary Time

MASS READINGS

COLLECT PRAYER

Recipes (1)

Activities (3)

Prayers (3)

Library (0)

Meditation: Luke 5:33-39

September 7, 2018 – Becoming the New You

Friday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

Luke 5: 33-39

One Bread, One Body

THE WAY TO JESUS

Love is a smile!