Simplex Edition |
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!
The Popish Plot
"Hispanic Heritage Month: Saint Juan Diego, Converter of Mexico"
'Tis the
Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows.
Commentary: Wayback Machine.
Scripture of the Day
Mass Readings—Wednesday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
The First Letter to Timothy, chapter three, verses fourteen, fifteen, & sixteen;
Psalm Psalm One Hundred Eleven (R/. two), verses one & two, three & four, & five & six;
Sequence
Stabat Mater;
The Gospel according to John, chapter nineteen, verses twenty-five, twenty-six, & twenty-seven;
or, the Gospel according to Luke, chapter two, verses thirty-three, thirty-four, & thirty-five.
Commentary: Gospel reflection by Bishop Robert Barron (Word on Fire):Friends, we hear in today’s Gospel that, as he was dying on the cross, Jesus looked to his mother and the disciple whom he loved, and he said to Mary, “Woman, behold, your son,” and then to John, “Behold, your mother.”
We are told that “from that hour the disciple took her into his home.” This text supports an ancient tradition that the Apostle John would have taken Mary with him when he traveled to Ephesus in Asia Minor and that both ended their days in that city. Indeed, on the top of a high hill overlooking the Aegean Sea, just outside of Ephesus, there is a modest dwelling that tradition holds to be the house of Mary.
Immaculate Mary, the Mother of God, assumed body and soul into heaven, is not of merely historical or theoretical interest, nor is she simply a spiritual exemplar. Instead, as “Queen of all the saints” (another of her titles), Mary is an ongoing presence, an actor in the life of the Church.
In entrusting Mary to John, Jesus was, in a real sense, entrusting Mary to all those who would be friends of Jesus down through the ages.
Video reflection by Jem Sullivan, Ph.D. (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops): Daily Reflection.
Video reflection by Doctor Tim Gray (Augustine Institute/Formed.org): Daily Reflection.
The Letter to the Hebrews, chapter five, verses seven, eight, & nine;
Psalm Thirty-one (R/. seventeen), verses two & three(b), three(c/d) & four, five & six, fifteen & sixteen, & twenty;
Sequence
Stabat Mater;
The Gospel according to John, chapter nineteen, verses twenty-five, twenty-six, & twenty-seven;
or, the Gospel according to Luke, chapter two, verses thirty-three, thirty-four, & thirty-five.
Papal Quote o' the Day"Mary not only leads us to the Mystery of the Cross like a teacher; she also participates in that Mystery. She suffers with Jesus & suffers with us. With Jesus she also confronts & defeats the powers of evil."
—Pope Saint John Paul II the Great (1920-2005, r. 1978-2005; feast: 22 October)
Saint Quote o' the Day"[Christ] died in body through a love greater than anyone had known; [Mary] died in spirit through a love unlike any other since His."
—Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church (1090-1153, feast: 20 August)
Mother Teresa Quote o' the Day"You can pray while you work. Work doesn't stop prayer & prayer doesn't stop work. It requires only that small raising of the mind to Him: I love You, God; I trust You; I believe in You; I need You now. Small things like that. These are wonderful ways to pray & wonderful prayers."
—Saint Teresa of Calcutta, M.C. (1910-1997, feast: 5 September)
Archbishop Sheen Quote o' the Day"The more He loved those for whom He was the ransom, the more His anguish would increase, as it is the faults of friends rather than enemies with most disturb hearts!"
—Venerable Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)
Bonus! Archbishop Sheen Quote o' the Day"Something that has particularly characterized our age is what might be called 'de-eucharistization', a decline in the love of the Eucharist. It started when some theologians, completely misunderstanding the Vatican Council, felt that there was no such thing as the presence of Christ in the Sacrament & even cast some doubt on the value of it. So we suffer from what the whole world is suffering. St. Paul calls it a want of feeling. Sociologists tell us that family life & relationships between people have very much degenerated. There is a want of sensitivity & delicacy toward one another. Maybe the grossness of our carnal age has made us put less stress upon those common courtesies & urbanities which make up life. Little affection is shown between husband & wife, between mother & children, or between father & children. I mean a show of affection; there is love in providing for them, but the manifestation of love has gone into decline. And it leads to a decline in the spiritual order. We have become poor lovers of God. We are not sensitive & responsive."
—Venerable Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)
