The Popish Plot
"Pope's Prayer Intentions for April 2021"
'Tis the Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter (Latin: Pascha, meaning "Passover"): Pascha-link & Wikipedia-link Paschaltide.
Mass Readings—Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter
The Acts of the Apostles, chapter thirteen, verses thirteen thru twenty-five;
Psalm Eighty-nine (R/. two; or, "Alleluia"), verses two & three, twenty-one & twenty-two, & twenty-five & twenty-seven;
The Gospel according to John, chapter thirteen, verses sixteen thru twenty.
Commentary: Easter Gospel reflection by Bishop Robert Barron (Word on Fire):
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus pointedly calls us to humble behavior. “Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.”Video reflection by Deacon Clarence McDavid (U.S. Conf. of Catholic Bishops): Easter Reflection.
St. Catherine of Siena once heard the Lord say to her, “Remember that I AM and you are not.” And St. Paul said, “What do you possess that you have not received? But if you have received it, why are you boasting?”
To believe in God is to know these truths. To live them out is to live in the attitude of humility. Thomas Aquinas said that humility is truth. It is living out the deepest truth of things: God is God, and we are not.
Now, all of this sounds very clear when it’s stated in this abstract manner, but we know how hard it is to live out! In our fallen world, we forget so readily that we are creatures, that we have been made from nothing. Then our egos begin to inflate: “I am. I want. I expect. I demand.” The ego becomes a massive monkey on our backs, and it has to be fed and pampered constantly.
That’s why today’s Gospel is so important. We are only messengers, not greater than the Master.
Video reflection by Curtis Mitch (St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology): Easter Reflection.
Video reflection by Doctor Tim Gray (Augustine Institute/Formed.org): Easter Reflection.
Scripture Study—Day 91: Severed Spine, Day 11
The Second Book of Kings, chapter four, verses one thru seven.
Commentary: Elisha & the Widow's Jar of Oil (2 Kings, 4:1-7).
Papal Quote o' the Day
"With Catherine of Siena & so many other 'Saints of the Cross' let us hold on tightly to our most sweet & merciful Redeemer, Whom Catherine called Christ-Love. In His pierced Heart is our hope."Mother Teresa Quote o' the Day
—Pope St. John Paul II the Great (1920-2005, r. 1978-2005; feast: 22 October)
"To know the problem of poverty intellectually is not to understand it. It is not by reading, taking a walk through the slums, that we come to understand it. We have to dive into it, live it, & share it."Saint Quote o' the Day
—St. Teresa of Calcutta, M.C. (1910-1997, feast: 5 September)
"True fasting lies in rejecting evil, holding one's tongue, suppressing one's hatred, & banishing one's lust, evil words, lying, & betrayal of vows."Archbishop Sheen Quote o' the Day
—St. Basil (330-379, feast: 2 January)
"We hardly think about reparation any more. We seem to have dropped it in the Church. We have reparation in the human body. When I had my open-heart surgery, I was bleeding to death. I depended upon eighty people who gave me eighty pints of blood. The human body has only eight pints. Volunteers had to supply eighty pints to keep me alive. They were filling up the quota of my life. And just as we have a kidney transplant, even a heart transplant, so we have the transplanting of merits, of prayers, & sacrifices from one member of the Church to the other, to cure those members of their anemic condition. We're living in a decade that needs reparation more than any other decade in the past one hundred years. But we're failing to find it."
—Ven. Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)
No comments:
Post a Comment