Gonna print that out to read on the train home.
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Father,
As Your Son was raised on the cross,
His Mother Mary stood by Him, sharing His
suffering. May she, who is also our spiritual
Mother and Patroness in Heaven, help us to find
renewed strength at the cross of Christ and so to
come to share in His rising to new life, where He
lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one
God, forever and ever. Amen.
O Mother Mary,
as Pilate tried your son,
were you in the courtyard
to hear those hateful voices
tear at your heart -
Kill Him!
Crucify Him!
This was your child
they were focusing all their hate on,
your child,
the child of promise
who you had watched grow,
saw bloom into the gift of God
to an undeserving mankind,
the healer,
the teacher,
the sign to be contradicted.
O Mother Mary,
did you see what they had done to him
as they led him out,
beaten and bloody,
crowned with a mockery of a crown,
almost unrecognisable
from the blood and from the bruising.
This was your child,
the child angels announced,
the child who loved his Father so much
he tarried behind at the temple
and almost broke your heart in fear,
the child who healed the wounded
now wounded in so many ways.
O Mother Mary,
did you at that moment pray,
like your son had, the night before,
"O my God, not my will, but yours?"
Saint Alphonsus Liguori,
Bishop & Doctor of the Church
Memorial
August 1st
"Copiosa apud eum redemptio"
"With Him there is Plentiful Redemption"
History:
Born September 27, 1696.
Ordained a priest on December 21, 1726
Founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorist) in 1732.
Died at Nocera de' Pagani, August 1, 1787.
Canonized in 1839 by Pope Gregory XVI.
Declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius IX in 1871.
Patron of Confessors and Moral Theologians.
Collect:
Father,
you constantly build up your Church
by the lives of your saints.
Give us the grace to follow St. Alphonsus
in his loving concern for the salvation of men,
and so come to share his reward in heaven.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen
First Reading: Romans 8:1-4
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.Gospel Reading: Matthew 5:13-19
"You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
"Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
My Jesus, I believe that Thou art truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love Thee above all things, and I desire to possess Thee within my soul. Since I am unable now to receive Thee sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace Thee as being already there, and unite myself wholly to Thee; never permit me to be separated from Thee.
St. Alphonsus Liguori
I the Lord Am with you Always, Prayers and Mediations for Eucharistic Adoration
Society for Eucharistic Adoration, Ashfield, NSW, Australia - ©2003