'Tis the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Tempus per annum, "time during the year"): Wikipedia-link.
Scripture of the Week
Mass Readings—Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Book of Wisdom, chapter nine, verses thirteen thru eighteen(b);
Psalm Ninety, verses three & four, five & six, twelve & thirteen, & fourteen & seventeen;
The Letter to Philemon, verses nine, ten, & twelve thru seventeen;
The Gospel according to Luke, chapter fourteen, verses twenty-five thru thirty-three.
Commentary: Reflection by Bishop Robert Barron (Word on Fire):
Friends, in our Gospel today the Lord offers one of the greatest, most “slap you in the face” challenges he ever offered. “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother… and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”Video reflection by Father Greg Friedman, O.F.M.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
There is the great spiritual principle that undergirds the entire Gospel: detachment. The heart of the spiritual life is to love God and then to love everything else for the sake of God. But we sinners, as St. Augustine said, fall into the trap of loving the creature and forgetting the Creator. That’s when we get off the rails.
We treat something less than God as God—and trouble ensues. And this is why Jesus tells his fair-weather fans that they have a very stark choice to make. Jesus must be loved first and last, and everything else in their lives has to find its meaning in relation to him.
In typical Semitic fashion, he makes this point through a stark exaggeration: “Unless you hate your mother and father, wife and children, sisters and brothers….” Well yes, hate them in the measure that they have become gods to you. For precisely in that measure are they dangerous.
Video reflection by Father Claude Burns (uCatholic): Weekend Reflection with Father Pontifex.
Audio reflection by Scott Hahn, Ph.D. (St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology): Breaking the Bread.
Mass Journal: Week 41
Reflection by Matthew Kelly, founder of the Dynamic Catholic Institute:
This process of identifying strengths & weaknesses & transforming weaknesses into strengths is classic Catholic spirituality. For two thousand years, the champions of Christianity, the men & women we call saints, have been going into the classroom of silence, taking a humble & honest look at themselves, & assessing their own strengths & weaknesses. Then, armed with this knowledge, they have bravely set forth to transform their weaknesses into strengths, their vices into virtues.†
Otherwise, 8 September would be the festival of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (circa 15 B.C.): Madonna-link ūna, Madonna-link duæ, Wikipedia-link Nativity, & Wikipedia-link Feast.
Commentary: Wayback Machine. Quoth Minute Meditations from the Popes:
Dear Jesus, today we celebrate the feast of the Birth of Your Mother Mary. Help me to imitate her so that my soul will glorify the Lord & my spirit will rejoice in God my Savior.'Twould also be the festival of Saint Disibod, Bishop & Abbot (circa 619-701), founder (& namesake) of the Disibodenberg Monastery (A.K.A. Disenberg): Saint-link & Wikipedia-link; Wikipedia-link Monastery.
'Twould also be the festival of Saint Sergius I, Pope (circa 650-701), eighty-fourth (LXXXIV) Bishop of Rome, foe of the illicit Quinisext Council (692): Saint-link ūnus, Saint-link duo, & Wikipedia-link; Pontiffs-link & Wikipedia-link Pontiff; & Wikipedia-link Quinisext.
'Twould also be the festival of Saint Corbinian, Bishop (circa 670-730): Saint-link & Wikipedia-link.
'Twould also be the festival of Blessed Adam Bargielski, Priest & Martyr (1903-1942), martyred in the reign of the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, one of the One Hundred Eight Blessed Polish Martyrs (A.K.A. the 108 Martyrs of World War II): Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link; Martyrs-link Polska & Wikipedia-link Polska.
Papal Quote o' the Day
"Grace is not part of consciousness, it is the amount of light in our souls, not knowledge nor reason."Saint Quote o' the Day
—Pope Francis (born 1936, reigning since 2013)
"Very well, I will be a saint. I will provide a patron for those who bear my name."
—Bl. Marie of St. Cecilia of Rome (Dina Bélanger, 1897-1929; feast day: 4 September)
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