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[gloriajean]

With our blessings come responsibilities. Much is required of those to whom
much has been given. Lord, may I use my blessings to be a blessing to
others.

S C R I P T U R E F O R T H E D A Y

"I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me,
hear my words. Wondrously show your steadfast love, O savior of those who
seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand. Guard me as the
apple of the eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings." ~Psalm 17:6-8

M E D I T A T I O N F O R T H E D A Y

Our need can be God's opportunity. First we can recognize our need. Often
this means helplessness before some weakness or sickness and an admission of
our need for help. Next can come faith in the power of God's spirit,
available to us to meet that need. Before any need is met, our faith can
find expression. That expression of faith is all God needs to manifest
God's power in our lives. Faith can be the key that unlocks the storehouse
of God's resources.

P R A Y E R F O R T H E D A Y

I pray that I may first admit my needs. I pray that then I may have faith
that God will meet those needs, in the way which is best for me.

Peace of Jesus to you! Hope you all had a very blessed Sunday today. We
did, it was a quiet and relaxing day. Mass this morning we had a baptism, a
45th Wedding Anniversary celebration, and during his good Homily, a man got
sick, I mean he looked he was dying, and people who were in Medicine came to
his aid, got a wheelchair and helped him on there and he went to the
hospital. Father Matt knew the man since he was a young kid, he came from
Fr. Matt's home town and moved to our parish. So this was really hard on
Fr. Matt seeing this from the pulpit and after the man left and the people
back in church again - he tried to continue his homily but he said now he
lost all train of thought so he ended it with a very good ending anyway.
The homily was about asking and receiving and waiting upon the Lord - and
sometimes He says No because what you are asking is not what is good for
you. It was a very good homily, and it reminded us what all we went thru
this summer - a lot of waiting upon the Lord. Fr. Matt apologized for
being a little shook up there, but he did compose himself well. I emailed
him afterwards to let him know we are proud of him, he did well. Remember
he is very young, yet. Today was a very beautiful day - and not hot out,
but just right. We could eat in the patio and spend some time out there.
We have a couch there too, and Linus likes to take a nap there as well.


Your daily reading from
St. Faustina's diary

August 14

Union with the merciful Christ. With my heart I encompass the whole world,
especially countries which are uncivilized or where there is persecution. I
am praying for mercy upon them. (742)

Jesus, my spirit yearns for You, and I desire very much to be united with
You, but Your works hold me back. The number of souls that I am to bring to
You is not yet complete. I desire toil and suffering; let everything You
have planned before the ages be fulfilled in me, O my Creator and Lord! It
is only Your word that I understand; it alone gives me strength. Your
Spirit, O Lord, is the Spirit of Peace; and nothing troubles my depths
because You dwell there, O Lord.

I know that I am under Your special gaze, O Lord. I do not examine with fear
Your plans regarding me; my task is to accept everything from Your hand. I
do not fear anything, although the storm is raging, and frightful bolts
strike all around me, and I then feel quite alone. Yet, my heart senses You,
and my trust grows, and I see all Your omnipotence which upholds me. With
You, Jesus, I go through life, amid storms and rainbows, with a cry of joy,
singing the song of Your mercy. I will not stop singing my song of love
until the choir of Angels picks it up. There is no power that can stop me in
my flight toward God. I see that even the superiors do not always understand
the road along which God is leading me, and I am not surprised at this.
(761)

The words of Our Lord Jesus Christ are in boldface. The words of Our Lady
are in italics.

Angels Sent for Us

Thank you, God, for your messengers that you send to us.
Thank you for your angels that show us
your mercy, power and judgement.
Help me to remember that you are with me in many ways.
Make it part of my mission today, dear Lord,
to seek the angels that you have sent just for me.

from Catholic Mom 24/7: Daily Meditations for Busy Mothers

The Feast of the Assumption : August 15th
The Feast of the Assumption is an important day in the Catholic religion. It
is the principal feast of the Blessed Virgin, the mother of Jesus Christ.
This feast commemorates two events - the departure of Mary from this life
and the assumption of her body into heaven.

The Church's official doctrine of the Assumption says that at the end of her
life on earth Mary was assumed, body and soul, into heaven.

Some mistakenly believe Mary "ascended" into heaven, which is incorrect. It
was Jesus Christ who ascended into heaven, by his own power. But Mary was
assumed or taken up into heaven by God.

Pope Pius Xll, in 1950, defined that Mary "after the completion of her
earthly life...was assumed body and soul into the glory of Heaven." Her body
wasn't allowed to corrupt nor was it allowed to remain in a tomb. Though
there are claims by some cities about possessing her temporary tomb.

In the early Christian centuries relics of saints and those who gave their
lives for the faith were jealously guarded and highly prized. Many cities
claim the mortal remains of saints, both famous and little-known. But there
are no records of Mary's bodily remains being venerated anywhere.

The holiday is celebrated annually on the 15th of August.

SLOW ME DOWN, LORD

Slow me down, Lord.
Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind.
Steady my hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reach of time.
Give me, amidst the confusion of my day,
the calmness of everlasting hills.
Break the tensions of my nerves with the soothing music
of the singing streams that live in my memory.
Help me know the magical restoring power of sleep.
Teach me the art of taking minute vacations of slowing down,
to look at a flower,
to chat with an old friend or make a new one,
to pat a stray dog,
to watch a spider build a web,
to smile at a child, or to read from a good book.
Remind me each day that the race is not always to the swift,
that there is more to life than increasing its speed.
Let me look upward at the towering oak and know that it
grew great and strong because it grew slowly and well. Amen.

I meet God in the morning
And go with him through the day,
Then in the stillness of the night
Before sleep comes I pray
That God will just take over
All the problems I couldn't solve
And in the peacefulness of sleep
My cares will all dissolve,
So when I open up my eyes
To greet another day
I'll find myself renewed in strength
And there'll open up a way
To meet what seemed impossible
For me to do alone
And once again I'll be assured
I am never on my own.
-Helen Steiner Rice

Homily of the Day


August 14, 2011


There are No Foreigners in the Reign of God
by Rev. Joseph A. Pellegrino, Diocese of St. Petersburg, FL
Is 56: 1, 6-7 / Rom 11:13-15, 29-32 / Mt 15:21-28

The readings for this Sunday are among the most difficult passages in the
Bible. St. Paul seems to be talking in circles when he says to the Romans:
“If the rejection of the Jews has meant reconciliation for the world, what
would their acceptance mean, nothing less than life from the dead.” In the
Gospel, Jesus appears to be cold, even callous to the woman crying out for
help. First he refuses to help her saying, ‘My mission is only to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel.” Then, he appears to insult her by saying, “it
is not right to take the food of the sons and daughters and feed it to the
dogs.” We need to spend some time trying to understand these readings so we
can profit from the Church’s message to us today.

First of all, let’s look at the reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the
Romans. Can you imagine the terrible opposition St. Paul had to face when he
tried to convince the pagans to become Christian? Here he was, a Jew,
telling gentiles or non-Jews, that salvation has come through Jesus, also a
Jew. Many of Paul’s own people, the Jewish people in the area, said that
Paul was insane. Still, the Gentiles followed Christ. That’s why Paul says,
“If so many of the gentiles listened to me, a former pharisee, and follow
Jesus despite the opposition of the Jews, imagine what would happen if the
Jews were to accept Jesus. The whole world would be Christian.” Then,
building on this concept, Paul reasons (in my paraphrase of his words):
Well, you gentiles ignored what your consciences told you was right when you
embraced pagan atrocities like orgies, etc. By going against your
consciences, you were sinning; you were being disobedient to God. But your
very disobedience became an occasion for you to receive God’s mercy. Now the
Jews, who are the chosen people of the Lord, have also disobeyed God’s will,
by rejecting the Christ. Still, their disobedience can result in God’s mercy
being extended to them if they call out to God in faith. Jews and Gentiles
have sinned, but God’s mercy is greater than their sins.

And God’s mercy and love is available to all. That is what is at the heart
of the gospel passage. The Canaanite woman who seeks help at first receives
the response she should expect from a Jew: “It is not right to take the food
of the sons and daughters and throw it to the dogs.” This follows the Jewish
custom of speaking about the gentiles as dogs. Jesus purposely spoke in a
way that the Jews would expect a Jew to speak. Then he turns the tables on
them. Because this woman has great faith and persists in pleading for her
child, he heals her daughter.

In Christ all divisions and differences between people are irrelevant. You
might remember Paul’s passage in Galatians: “There is neither Jew nor Greek,
slave nor free, male nor female. All are one in Christ.” God’s mercy is
extended to all who call upon him in faith.

As obvious as this seems, there have been people throughout the world and
throughout history who do not recognize the equality of all people before
the Lord. We have just concluded a century that was dominated by the events
leading to and resulting from the worst war mankind has ever suffered.
Nazism claimed that certain people were far more blessed by God than others.
For them anyone who was not part of the Aryan race was an inferior human
being. Taken to its extreme, the Nazis had no difficulties in killing
gypsies, Jews, and others they claimed were a burden to God’s plan for
mankind.

Outside of Christianity, the world has been suffering from radical Islam.
These people think that they are serving God by murdering innocent people,
including children. It is shocking that these radicals behave like cowards
yet think that they are courageous fighters.

Here in America there have also been people who have decided that they were
more blessed by the Lord than others, as though God put them in charge of
establishing a pecking order for him. There was a time when Americans
believed, and some still believe, that wealth demonstrates a special
relationship to the Lord. The implication was that those without wealth are
a lesser part of His creation. There was a time when Americans believed, and
some still believe, that their race or their ethnic background was more
blessed by the Lord than others. Sadly our country is still suffering from
militaristic white supremacist groups that have the gall to claim God’s
blessing upon what is in fact their rejection of Christianity. How dare they
sing “Onward Christian Soldiers” and speak about the Lord Jesus while they
make plans to attack African-Americans, Jewish-Americans, Asian-Americans
and anybody else that does not share their ethnic background?

Jesus Christ will not exclude anyone from God’s love and mercy. But those
who think they have a right to focus their infantile insecurities into
hatred of others have themselves excluded Christ from their own lives.

The tables have been turned. The former enemy of God’s plan, the Canaanite,
has now received the blessing of God. The tables have been turned. Those who
had refused to acknowledge the existence of the one God, the pagans, have
now become the most fervent believers. The tables have been turned. Those
from foreign continents whose ancestors never heard of Jesus have become
true Christians. And those of us whose ancestors were called to follow the
Lord many generations ago have been invited to share the bread of the Lord,
the compassion of Christ, with all who call out to Him in mercy and love.

Good night everyone - Sweet Dreams - God bless you all!