Saints + Scripture: Adventus

Simplex Edition | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

The Popish Plot
"Memento Mori Advent: Death"

'Tis the Thursday of the First Week of Advent: Advent-link & Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Wayback Machine '19.

Scripture of the Day
Mass Readings—Thursday of the First Week of Advent
The Book of Isaiah, chapter twenty-six, verses one thru six;
Psalm One Hundred Eighteen (R/. twenty-six[a]; or, "Alleluia."), verses one, eight, & nine; nineteen, twenty, & twenty-one; & twenty-five, twenty-six, & twenty-seven(a);
The Gospel according to Matthew, chapter seven, verses twenty-one & twenty-four thru twenty-seven.

Commentary: Gospel reflection by Bishop Robert Barron (Word on Fire):

Friends, today’s Gospel challenges us to act on the Good News. On what precisely is the whole of your life built? Your heart or soul is the center of you, the place where you are most authentically and deeply yourself. That is your point of contact with God. There you will find the energy that undergirds and informs all the other areas of your life: physical, psychological, emotional, relational, and spiritual. As such, it is the most important and most elusive dimension of who you are.

If you are rooted in God at the level of your heart and soul, then you will be following the intentions and commands of God, and you can withstand anything. But this does not mean that if we follow God’s commands, the winds and floods will not come.

In Jesus’ parable, both builders—the one who follows the commands of God and the one who doesn’t—experience the rain and the floods that symbolize all the trials and temptations and difficulties at the surface of your life. If at the very center of your life you are linked to God, the storms and floods will come, but they will not destroy you.

Reflect: On what precisely is the whole of your life built?

Video reflection by Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers (U.S. Conf. of Catholic Bishops): Advent Reflection.

Video reflection by Doctor Tim Gray (Augustine Institute/Formed.org): Advent Reflection.

Papal Quote o' the Day

"Our evangelizing zeal must spring from true holiness of life. In addition, as the Second Vatican Council suggests, preaching must in its turn make the preacher grow in holiness, which is nourished by prayer & by love for the Eucharist."
—Pope Saint Paul VI (1897-1978, r. 1963-1978; feast: 29 May)

Mother Teresa Quote o' the Day

"Open your hearts to the love of God. He loves you with tenderness, & He will give you not just to give but to share. And when you are praying, ask for courage so that when you give you can give until hurts, This kind of giving is love in action."
—Saint Teresa of Calcutta, M.C. (1910-1997, feast: 5 September)

Archbishop Sheen Quote o' the Day

"It is a characteristic of any decaying civilization that the great masses of the people are unconscious of the tragedy. Humanity in a crisis is generally insensitive to the gravity of the times in which it lives. Men do not want to believe their own times are wicked, partly because it involves too much self-accusation & principally because they have no standards outside of themselves by which to measure their times."
—Venerable Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)

Saint Quote o' the Day

"Thou alone & Thy Mother are in all things fair; there is no flaw in Thee & no stain in Thy Mother."
—Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Doctor of the Church (306-373, feast: 9 June)