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Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem The Gospel of John 
 (New Testament) John 2 Jesus Changes Water Into Wine 2 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” 4 “Woman,[a] why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the...

The broad question that the writer of Ecclesiastes seeks to answer is, “Is there any meaning to the time that I spend in this world?” We put on a man’s tombstone that he was born on a certain date and that he died on a certain date. Between these two poles of time we live our lives. The basic question is, “Does my life have meaning?” A common refrain echoed in Ecclesiastes is that there is futility, vanity, and “nothing new under the sun.” If our lives begin under the sun as a cosmic accident, a result of random collisions...

August 16, 2018 Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Ez 12:1-12 The word of the LORD came to me: Son of man, you live in the midst of a rebellious house;they have eyes to see but do not see,and ears to hear but do not hear,for they are a rebellious house.Now, son of man, during the day while they are looking on,prepare your baggage as though for exile, and again while they are looking on,migrate from where you live to another place;perhaps they will see that they are a rebellious house.You shall bring out your...

White Double of the Second Class FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL the Greeks have celebrated the feast of St. Joachim on the day following our Lady’s birthday. The Maronites kept it on the day after the Presentation in November, and the Armenians on the Tuesday after the Octave of the Assumption of the Mother of God. The Latins at first did not keep his feast. Later on it was admitted and celebrated sometimes on the day after the Octave of the Nativity, September 16th, sometimes on the day following the Conception of the Blessed Virgin, December 9th. Thus both East and...

"Love . . . is not jealous" (1 Cor. 13:4). Jealousy thrives in a climate of selfish ambition. Jealousy is an insidious sin that cries out, "I want what you have, and furthermore, I don't want you to have it." It replaces contentment with resentment and spawns a myriad of other sins. The Corinthians, in truth, were jealous of one another's spiritual gifts. First Corinthians 12:31 literally says, "You are earnestly desiring the showy gifts, but I show you a more excellent way." The word translated "earnestly desiring" is translated "jealous" in 1 Corinthians 13:4. It means "to boil" and...

“‘The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!’” (Matthew 6:22-23). Generous giving brings spiritual understanding. When people see, their body is filled with the light that comes in from the world their eyes perceive. But if their eye is dark (blind), there is no light and they perceive nothing. The eye is like a window—if a window...

Franciscan Media Image: Detail | Ceiling of the Assumption of Mary in Santa Maria Immacolata a via Veneto, Rome | photo by LivioandronicoSolemnity of the Assumption of Mary Saint of the Day for August 15  The Story of the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII defined the Assumption of Mary to be a dogma of faith: “We pronounce, declare and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma that the immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul to...

Pope Francis has revised the Catechism of the Catholic Church to read, “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.” This statement has been understood by many, both inside and outside the Church, to teach that capital punishment is intrinsically immoral and thus is always illicit, even in principle. Though no Catholic is obliged to support the use of the death penalty in practice (and not all of the undersigned do support its use), to teach that capital punishment is always and intrinsically evil would contradict Scripture. That the death...

The Ekaterinburg Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church is planning to preserve the territory of Porosenkov Log where the alleged remains of the Royal Martyrs, the “Ekaterinburg remains,” were discovered, regardless of the results of the scientific examinations on the remains, reports Interfax-Religion. The complex of scientific examinations on the remains discovered near Ekaterinburg is drawing to an end. Based on their conclusions thus far, the Russian Investigative Committee has stated that it believes the remains undoubtedly belong to Tsar Nicholas II and his family. The Russian Church has not yet formulated a view on the question of their authenticity....

Former pontiff sped through area ‘faster than a joyrider’Pope Francis is to visit Seán McDermott Street in Dublin’s city centre briefly on Saturday, August 25th. During his 1979 visit to Ireland, Pope John Paul II had planned to stop on the street to visit Matt Talbot’s tomb in Our Lady of Lourdes church. However, the Popemobile was running behind schedule and drove on, much to the disappointment of many local people. Some said afterwards joyriders did not go down Seán McDermott Street as fast. The story still persists, of course, of how people were waiting for Pope John Paul to...

The Massachusetts-based Satanic Temple is bringing its Baphomet statue to the Arkansas Capitol on Thursday for a “Rally for the First Amendment.”The purpose of the rally is to protest the state favoring Christianity over other religions by displaying the Ten Commandments monument but rejecting the Satanic Temple’s Baphomet statue. The Ten Commandments monument was approved in a 2015 act sponsored by state Sen. Jason Rapert, who privately raised funds to pay for it. The Satanic Temple’s spokesman, Lucien Greaves, said in a press release, saying, “Freedom of Religion means that the government must not be allowed to endorse one religion...

But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:For there is no respect of persons with God Romans 2:8-11Romans is the teaching about Righteousness. It answers the question, how can sinners be made ‘right with God’? And in the flow of the discussion about Righteousness, Paul succinctly describes the righteous man...

SYDNEY, NSW — A Missouri nun who was caught trying to smuggle cocaine through the heels of her shoes at an Australian airport said her online boyfriend tricked her into doing it. Denise Woodrum, 51, was arrested last year after customs officers at Sydney Airport found two pounds of drugs in the high heels of the shoes she had packed, according to Newsweek. It was Hendrik Cornelius, a man Woodrum met online, who duped her into transporting the drugs, said Rebecca Neil, Woodrum’s attorney. "She went on this trip thinking she was bringing artifacts for him," her attorney said. Woodrum...

“At the first glance as you entered Clairvaux ... you could see that it was a temple of God; and the still, silent valley, in the modest simplicity of its buildings, spoke of the sincere humility of Christ’s poor. Moreover, in this valley full of men, where no one was permitted to be idle, where one and all were occupied with their allotted tasks, a silence as deep as that of night prevailed. The sounds of labor, or the chanting of the brethren in the choral service, were the only exceptions …. As I watch them singing without fatigue from...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem The Gospel of John 
 (New Testament) John 1 Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael 43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip. 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said...

Important Reminder: God is more Powerful than Satan Msgr. Charles Pope • August 14, 2018 • In the work of deliverance ministry, one of the first obstacles to overcome in the afflicted soul is an exaggerated notion of the power of Satan and his demons. Often the troubled person is experiencing a time of crisis. Overwhelmed, he is often scared and sees only darkness. The power of the evil one seems very real, while the power of the angels, of grace, and of God Himself is discounted or all but forgotten.There are some important truths that need to be...

Proverb 15 (NKJV) A Soft Answer Turns Away Wrath 01 A soft answer turns away wrath, 00 But a harsh word stirs up anger. 02 The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, 00 But the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness. 03 The eyes of the LORD are in every place, 00 Keeping watch on the evil and the good. 04 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, 00 But perverseness in it breaks the spirit. 05 A fool despises his father's instruction, 00 But he who receives correction is prudent. 06 In the house of the...

When Paul declared the mysterious and breathtaking promise that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8: 28), he was musing in teleology. He was dealing with the realm of the remote rather than the proximate. This suggests that the proximate must be judged in light of the remote. Our problem is this: We do not yet possess the full light of the remote. We are still looking in a dark mirror. We are not utterly devoid of light, though. We have enough light to know...

Please join Freepers throughout the world to pray for PRESIDENT TRUMP and VICE-PRESIDENT PENCE and for AMERICA: All Levels of Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, Health Care Systems, the News, Media and Social Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 5:14) Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. MORALITY MAY KEEP YOU OUT OF JAIL, BUT THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST WILL KEEP YOU OUT OF HELL.

August 15, 2018 Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Mass during the Day Reading 1 Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab God's temple in heaven was opened,and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple. A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun,with the moon under her feet,and on her head a crown of twelve stars.She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth.Then another sign appeared in the sky;it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns,and on its...