Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 09-05-12, OM, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

USCCB.org/RNAB ^ | 09-05-12 | Revised New American Bible

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Sep 05, Midday Prayer for Wednesday of the 22nd week of Ordinary Time

Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. III:
Ordinary: 659
All from the Psalter: Wednesday, Week II, 903 (Midday)

Liturgy of the Hours Vol. IV:
Ordinary: 623
All from the Psalter: Wednesday, Week II, 867 (Midday)

Midday Prayer for Wednesday using Current Psalmody

God, come to my assistance.
– Lord, make haste to help me.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
– as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Alleluia.

HYMN

Lord of all being, thronèd afar,
Thy glory flames from sun and star;
Center and soul of every sphere,
Yet to each loving heart how near!

Sun of our life, Thy quickening ray,
Sheds on our path the glow of day;
Star of our hope, Thy softened light
Cheers the long watches of the night.

Our midnight is Thy smile withdrawn;
Our noontide is Thy gracious dawn;
Our rainbow arch, Thy mercy’s sign;
All, save the clouds of sin, are Thine.

Lord of all life, below, above,
Whose light is truth, whose warmth is love,
Before Thy ever blazing throne
We ask no luster of our own.

Grant us Thy truth to make us free,
And kindling hearts that burn for Thee,
Till all Thy living altars claim
One holy light, one heavenly flame.

Lord of all being by The Jubilate Singers; Words: Oliver W. Holmes, Sr. Music: Virgil C. Taylor
Lord of all being by The Jubilate Singers is available from Amazon.com

PSALMODY

Ant. 1 I have pondered my ways and turned back to your teaching.

Psalm 119
VIII (Heth)

My part, I have resolved, O Lord,
is to obey your word.
With all my heart I implore your favor;
show the mercy of your promise.

I have pondered over my ways
and returned to your will.
I made haste and did not delay
to obey your commands.

Though the nets of the wicked ensnared me
I remembered your law.
At midnight I will rise and thank you
for your just decrees.

I am a friend of all who revere you,
who obey your precepts.
Lord, your love fills the earth.
Teach me your commands.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
– as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Psalm-prayer

Father, may the fulfillment of your law be our aim in life, so that you yourself may be our inheritance, and we your chosen possession for ever.

Ant. I have pondered my ways and turned back to your teaching.

Ant. 2 I tremble with fear, O Lord; turn to me and hear me.

Psalm 55
Against a friend proved traitor
Jesus was seized with fear and distress (Mark 14:33).

I

O God, listen to my prayer,
do not hide from my pleading,
attend to me and reply;
with my cares, I cannot rest.

I tremble at the shouts of the foe,
at the cries of the wicked;
for they bring down evil upon me.
They assail me with fury.

My heart is stricken within me,
death’s terror is on me,
trembling and fear fall upon me
and horror overwhelms me.

O that I had wings like a dove
to fly away and be at rest.
So I would escape far away
and take refuge in the desert.

I would hasten to find a shelter
from the raging wind,
from the destructive storm,
O Lord, and from their plotting tongues.

For I can see nothing but violence
and strife in the city.
Night and day they patrol
high on the city walls.

It is full of wickedness and evil;
it is full of sin.
Its streets are never free
from tyranny and deceit.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
– as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Ant. I tremble with fear, O Lord; turn to me and hear me.

Ant. 3 I shall cry to God for help, and the Lord will come to save me.

II

If this had been done by an enemy
I could bear his taunts.
If a rival had risen against me,
I could hide from him.

But it is you, my own companion,
my intimate friend!
How close was the friendship between us.
We walked together in harmony
in the house of God.

As for me,I will cry to God
and the Lord will save me.
Evening, morning and at noon
I will cry and lament.

He will deliver my soul in peace
in the attack against me:
for those who fight me are many,
but he hears my voice.

God will hear and will humble them,
the eternal judge:
for they will not amend their ways.
They have no fear of God.

The traitor has turned against his friends;
he has broken his word.
His speech is softer than butter,
but war is in his heart.
His words are smoother than oil,
but they are naked swords.

Entrust your cares to the Lord
and he will support you.
He will never allow
the just man to stumble.

But you, O God, will bring them down
to the pit of death.
Deceitful and bloodthirsty men
shall not live half their days.

O Lord, I will trust in you.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
– as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Psalm-prayer

Lord Jesus, you were rejected by your people, betrayed by the kiss of a friend, and deserted by your disciples. Give us the confidence that you had in the Father, and our salvation will be assured.

Ant. I shall cry to God for help, and the Lord will come to save me.

READING Isaiah 55:8-9

My thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are my ways above your ways
and my thoughts above your thoughts.

Sacred Silence (indicated by a bell) – a moment to reflect and receive in our hearts the full resonance of the voice of the Holy Spirit and to unite our personal prayer more closely with the word of God and public voice of the Church.

God of power and might, who is your equal?
– Faithfulness surrounds you on every side.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

God of mercy,
this midday moment of rest
is your welcome gift.
Bless the work we have begun,
make good its defects
and let us finish it in a way that pleases you.
Grant this through Christ our Lord.
– Amen.

ACCLAMATION (only added when praying in community)

Let us praise the Lord.
– And give him thanks.

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Sep 05, Evening Prayer for Wednesday of the 22nd week of Ordinary Time

Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. III:
Ordinary: 668
All from the Psalter: Wednesday, Week II, 909

Liturgy of the Hours Vol. IV:
Ordinary: 632
All from the Psalter: Wednesday, Week II, 873

Christian Prayer:
Ordinary: 694
All from the Psalter: Wednesday, Week II, 818

Evening Prayer for Wednesday in Ordinary Time

God, come to my assistance.
– Lord, make haste to help me.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
– as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Alleluia.

HYMN

O worship the King, all glorious above,
O gratefully sing His power and His love;
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.

O tell of His might, O sing of His grace,
Whose robe is the light, Whose canopy space,
His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,
And dark is His path on the wings of the storm.

The earth with its store of wonders untold,
Almighty, Thy power hath founded of old;
Established it fast by a changeless decree,
And round it hath cast, like a mantle, the sea.

Thy bountiful care, what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air, it shines in the light;
It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain,
And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.

Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
In Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail;
Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end,
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.

O measureless might! Ineffable love!
While angels delight to hymn Thee above,
Thy humbler creation, though feeble their lays,
With true adoration shall sing to Thy praise.

“O Worship The King” performed by The Choir of St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral; Text: Robert Grant, 1779-1838; Music: Attr. to Johann Michael Haydn, 1737-1806; Tune: LYONS, Meter: 10 10.11 11

PSALMODY

Ant. 1 Eagerly we await the fulfillment of our hope, the glorious coming of our Savior.

Psalm 62
Peace in God
May God, the source of our hope, fill your hearts with peace as you believe in him (Romans 15:13).

In God alone is my soul at rest;
my help comes from him.
He alone is my rock, my stronghold,
my fortress: I stand firm.

How long will you all attack one man
to break him down,
as though he were a tottering wall,
or a tumbling fence?

Their plan is only to destroy:
they take pleasure in lies.
With their mouth they utter blessing
but in their heart they curse.

In God alone be at rest, my soul;
for my hope comes from him.
He alone is my rock, my stronghold,
my fortress: I stand firm.

In God is my safety and glory,
the rock of my strength.
Take refuge in God, all you people.
Trust him at all times.
Pour out your hearts before him
for God is our refuge.

Common folk are only a breath,
great men an illusion.
Placed in the scales, they rise;
they weigh less than a breath.

Do not put your trust in oppression
nor vain hopes on plunder.
Do not set your heart on riches
even when they increase.

For God has said only one thing:
only two do I know:
that to God alone belongs power
and to you, Lord, love;
and that you repay each man
according to his deeds.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
– as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Psalm-prayer

Lord God, you reward each one according to his works. Hear us as we pour out our hearts to you seeking your grace and secure protection. We look to you for our stable hope in a constantly, changing world.

Ant. Eagerly we await the fulfillment of our hope, the glorious coming of our Savior.

Ant. 2 May God turn his radiant face toward us and fill us with his blessings.

Psalm 67
People of all nations will worship the Lord
You must know that God is offering his salvation to all the world (Acts 28:28).

O God, be gracious and bless us
and let your face shed its light upon us.
So will your ways be known upon earth
and all nations learn your saving help.

Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.
Let the nations be glad and exult
for you rule the world with justice.

With fairness you rule the peoples,
you guide the nations on earth.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.

The earth has yielded its fruit
for God, our God, has blessed us.
May God still give us his blessing
till the ends of the earth revere him.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
– as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Psalm-prayer

Be gracious and bless us, Lord, and let your face shed its light on us, so that we can make you known with reverence: and bring forth a harvest of justice.

Ant. May God turn his radiant face toward us and fill us with his blessings.

Ant. 3 Through him all things were made; he holds all creation together in himself.

Canticle – Colossians 1:12-20
Christ the first-born of all creation and the first-born from the dead

Let us give thanks to the Father
for having made you worthy
to share the lot of the saints
in light.

He rescued us
from the power of darkness
and brought us
into the kingdom of his beloved Son.
Through him we have redemption,
the forgiveness of our sins.

He is the image of the invisible God,
the first-born of all creatures.
In him everything in heaven and on earth was created,
things visible and invisible.

All were created through him;
all were created for him.
He is before all else that is.
In him everything continues in being.

It is he who is head of the body, the church!
he who is the beginning,
the first-born of the dead,
so that primacy may be his in everything.

It pleased God to make absolute fullness reside in him
and, by means of him, to reconcile everything in his person,
both on earth and in the heavens,
making peace through the blood of his cross.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
– as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Ant. Through him all things were made; he holds all creation together in himself.

READING 1 Peter 5:5b-7

In your relations with one another, clothe yourselves with humility, because God “is stern with the arrogant but to the humble he shows kindness.” Bow humbly under God’s mighty hand, so that in due time he may lift you high. Cast all your cares on him because he cares for you.

Sacred Silence (indicated by a bell) – a moment to reflect and receive in our hearts the full resonance of the voice of the Holy Spirit and to unite our personal prayer more closely with the word of God and public voice of the Church.

RESPONSORY

Keep us, O Lord, as the apple of your eye.
– Keep us, O Lord, as the apple of your eye.

Gather us under the shadow of your wings, and keep us,
– as the apple of your eye.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
– Keep us, O Lord, as the apple of your eye.

CANTICLE OF MARY

Ant. Lord, with the strength of your arm scatter the proud, and lift up the lowly.

Luke 1:46-55
The soul rejoices in the Lord

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.

He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now,
and will be for ever. Amen.

Ant. Lord, with the strength of your arm scatter the proud, and lift up the lowly.

INTERCESSIONS

Beloved brothers and sisters, let us rejoice in our God, for he takes great delight in bestowing benefits on his people. Let us fervently pray:
– Increase your grace and your peace, Lord.

Eternal God, for whom a thousand years are like the passing day,
help us to remember that life is like a flower which blossoms in the morning, but withers in the evening.
– Increase your grace and your peace, Lord.

Give your people manna to satisfy their hunger,
and living water to quench their thirst for all eternity.
– Increase your grace and your peace, Lord.

Let your faithful ones seek and taste the things that are above,
and let them direct their work and their leisure to your glory.
– Increase your grace and your peace, Lord.

Deliver us from all harm, Lord,
and pour out your abundant blessings on our homes.
– Increase your grace and your peace, Lord.

Show the faithful departed the vision of your face,
let them rejoice in the contemplation of your presence.
– Increase your grace and your peace, Lord.

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth,
as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

Concluding Prayer

Lord God,
holy is your name,
and renowned your compassion,
cherished by every generation.
Hear our evening prayer
and let us sing your praise,
and proclaim your greatness for ever.
We ask 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.

DISMISSAL

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life.
– Amen.

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Sep 05, Night Prayer for Wednesday of the 22nd week of Ordinary Time

Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours:
Vol I, Page 1180
Vol II, Page 1638
Vol III, Page 1280
Vol IV, Page 1244

Christian Prayer:
Page 1047

General instruction:
Please pray with us actively, especially by joining with us in saying antiphons and responses, most of which are indicated in this highlight.

Consider an examination of your own conscience before beginning to best make use of our time together in prayer.

Night Prayer for Wednesday

God, come to my assistance.
– Lord, make haste to help me.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
– as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Alleluia.

Examination of conscience:

We are called to have a clear conscience toward God and toward men, in our hearts and in our minds, in our actions and inactions. To do so, it is vital that we examine our conscience daily and to ask for God’s mercy as we fall short and to ask for His strength to do better.

I confess to almighty God,
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have greatly sinned,
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done and in what I have failed to do,
   And, striking your breast, say:
through my own fault, through my fault,
through my most grievous fault;
   Then continue:
therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-virgin,
all the Angels and Saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me to the Lord our God.
   With a priest present, this absolution will be given:
May almighty God have mercy on us,
forgive us our sins,
and bring us to everlasting life.
   The people reply: Amen

HYMN

Maker of this heart of mine
You know me very well
You understand my deepest part
More than I know myself
So when I face the darkness
When I need to find my way
I’ll trust in You
Shepherd of my heart

Keeper of this heart of mine
Your patience has no end
You’ve loved me back into Your arms
Time and time again
So if I start to wander
Like a lamb that’s gone astray
I’ll trust in You
Shepherd of my heart

You’re the beacon of my nights
You’re the sunlight of my days
I can rest within Your arms
I can know Your loving ways
So let the cold winds blow
Let the storms rage all around
I’ll trust in You
Shepherd of my heart

Giver of this life in me
You’re what I’m living for
For all my deepest gratitude
You love me even more
So as I walk through valleys
Listening for the Master’s call
I’ll trust in you
Shepherd of my heart

You’re the beacon of my nights
You’re the sunlight of my days
I can rest within Your arms
I can know Your loving ways
So as I walk through valleys
Listening for my Master’s call
I’ll trust in You
Shepherd of my heart

I’ll trust in You
Shepherd of my heart

“Shepherd of my heart” song performed by Melinda Kirigin-Voss on her album “Yesterday, Today, and Forever”
“Shepherd of my heart” by Melinda Kirigin-Voss is available from Amazon.com

PSALMODY

Ant. 1 Lord God, be my refuge and my strength.

Psalm 31:1-6
Trustful prayer in adversity
Father, into your hands I commend my spirit (Luke 23:46).

In you, O Lord, I take refuge.
Let me never be put to shame.
In your justice, set me free,
hear me and speedily rescue me.

Be a rock of refuge for me,
a mighty stronghold to save me,
for you are my rock, my stronghold.
For your name’s sake, lead me and guide me.

Release me from the snares they have hidden
for you are my refuge, Lord.
Into your hands I commend my spirit.
It is you who will redeem me, Lord.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now,
and will be for ever. Amen.

Ant. Lord God, be my refuge and my strength.

Ant. 2 Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord.

Psalm 130
A cry from the depths
He will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord,
Lord, hear my voice!
O let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleading.

If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt,
Lord, who would survive?
But with you is found forgiveness:
for this we revere you.

My soul is waiting for the Lord,
I count on his word.
My soul is longing for the Lord
more than watchman for daybreak.
Let the watchman count on daybreak
and Israel on the Lord.

Because with the Lord there is mercy
and fullness of redemption,
Israel indeed he will redeem
from all its iniquity.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now,
and will be for ever. Amen.

Ant. Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord.

READING Ephesians 4:26-27

If you are angry, let it be without sin. The sun must not go down on your wrath; do not give the devil a chance to work on you.

RESPONSORY

Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
– Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.

You have redeemed us, Lord God of truth.
– I commend my spirit.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
– Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.

Gospel Canticle

Ant. Protect us, Lord, as we stay awake; watch over us as we sleep, that awake, we may keep watch with Christ, and asleep, rest in his peace.

Luke 2:29-32
Christ is the light of the nations and the glory of Israel

Lord, now you let your servant go in peace;
your word has been fulfilled:

my own eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared in the sight of every people:

a light to reveal you to the nations
and the glory of your people Israel.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now,
and will be for ever. Amen.

Ant. Protect us, Lord, as we stay awake; watch over us as we sleep, that awake, we may keep watch with Christ, and asleep, rest in his peace.

Concluding Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ,
you have given your followers
an example of gentleness and humility,
a task that is easy, a burden that is light.
Accept the prayers and work of this day,
and give us the rest that will strengthen us
to render more faithful service to you
who live and reign for ever and ever.
– Amen.

Blessing

May the all-powerful Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful death.
– Amen.

Antiphon or song in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary

[Salvation]

Information: St. Bertin

Feast Day:	September 5
Born:	615, Constance
Died:	709

[Salvation]

Interactive Saints for Kids

St. Lawrence Justinian

Feast Day: September 5
Born: 1381 :: Died: 1455

Lawrence was born in Venice, in Italy. His mother sometimes thought her son's dreams were too big. He always told her that he wanted to become a saint.

When he was nineteen years old, he wished to serve God in a special way and asked his uncle, a holy priest of the community of St. George for advice.

"Do you have the courage to turn down the joys of the world and to live a life of penance?" asked his uncle. Lawrence was quiet for a long time. Then he looked up at a crucifix and said, "You, O Lord, are my hope. In this cross there is comfort and strength."

His mother wanted him to marry, but Lawrence joined the community of St. George as a priest. His first job was to go out among the people of his city and ask for donations to support the St. George community.

Lawrence was not ashamed to beg. He realized that the offerings of money or goods would help God's work. He even went to his own home and asked for charity.

His mother would try to fill up his sack with food, so that he could return to the monastery early without having to go all over town. But Lawrence would only take two loaves of bread from his mother and then go off to the next house. In this way, he learned how to make little sacrifices and grew very dear to God.

One day a friend of his came to try and make Lawrence leave the monastery. Instead, the saint spoke of how short life is and how wise it is to live for heaven. His friend was very impressed and decided to become a religious himself.

Later, Lawrence was made a bishop, even though he was not happy about it. His people soon learned what a kind and holy man their bishop was and crowds came to him for help every day.

When he was dying, he refused to lie on a soft bed. "That shall not be!" he exclaimed humbly. "My Lord was stretched out on a hard and painful tree." St. Lawrence Justinian died in 1455.

[Salvation]

 

Catholic

Almanac:

Wednesday, September 5
Liturgical Color: Green
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta died on this day in 1997. She dedicated her life to helping the poor in India and around the world. She was beatified in 2003, and her cause for canonization continues.

[Salvation]

Catholic Culture

Daily Readings for: September 05, 2012
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: God of might, giver of every good gift, put into our hearts the love of your name, so that, by deepening our sense of reverence, and, by your watchful care, keep safe what you have nurtured. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

RECIPES

• Herbed Oatmeal Pan Bread
• Legume Soup

ACTIVITIES

• Religion in the Home for Elementary School: September
• Religion in the Home for Preschool: September

PRAYERS

• September Devotion: Our Lady of Sorrows

LIBRARY

• A Graced Bewilderment: The Dark Night of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta | Fr. Paul Murray OP
• Charity: the soul of missionary activity | Mother Teresa of Calcutta
• The Holy Eucharist in the Life of Bl. Teresa of Calcutta | Fr. Sebastian Vazhakala M.C.
• The Interior Cross: Mother Teresa and Her Dark Night of the Soul | William A. Borst Ph.D.

Ordinary Time: September 5th

Wednesday of the Twenty-Second Week of Ordinary Time: Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Old Calendar: St. Laurence Justinian, Bishop and Confessor

Today the Missionaries of Charity and their friends will be celebrating the new feast day of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. September 5th is the anniversary of her death, and at present is acknowledged as her feast day.

St. Laurence Justinian was one of the great Italian Saints of the 15th century. A great religious as well as a great bishop, he maintained his austerity as Patriarch of Venice. His mother had planned a glorious career for him, but he preferred a simple and holy life. He joined the canons of St. George of Alga and lived among them in constant prayer and penance until Eugene IV called him to the episcopate. Finally, he became the first Patriarch of Venice when the title was transferred from Grado: at that period the city reached the apex of its power and glory. He combated the excesses of humanism and his austerity made him an example to great and simple alike. He died in 1455. According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is his feast.

---

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
“By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.” Small of stature, rocklike in faith, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was entrusted with the mission of proclaiming God’s thirsting love for humanity, especially for the poorest of the poor. “God still loves the world and He sends you and me to be His love and His compassion to the poor.” She was a soul filled with the light of Christ, on fire with love for Him and burning with one desire: “to quench His thirst for love and for souls.”

This luminous messenger of God’s love was born on 26 August 1910 in Skopje, a city situated at the crossroads of Balkan history. The youngest of the children born to Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu, she was baptised Gonxha Agnes, received her First Communion at the age of five and a half and was confirmed in November 1916. From the day of her First Holy Communion, a love for souls was within her. Her father’s sudden death when Gonxha was about eight years old left the family in financial straits. Drane raised her children firmly and lovingly, greatly influencing her daughter’s character and vocation. Gonxha’s religious formation was further assisted by the vibrant Jesuit parish of the Sacred Heart in which she was much involved.

At the age of eighteen, moved by a desire to become a missionary, Gonxha left her home in September 1928 to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto, in Ireland. There she received the name Sister Mary Teresa after St. Thérèse of Lisieux. In December, she departed for India, arriving in Calcutta on 6 January 1929. After making her First Profession of Vows in May 1931, Sister Teresa was assigned to the Loreto Entally community in Calcutta and taught at St. Mary’s School for girls. On 24 May 1937, Sister Teresa made her Final Profession of Vows, becoming, as she said, the “spouse of Jesus” for “all eternity.” From that time on she was called Mother Teresa. She continued teaching at St. Mary’s and in 1944 became the school’s principal. A person of profound prayer and deep love for her religious sisters and her students, Mother Teresa’s twenty years in Loreto were filled with profound happiness. Noted for her charity, unselfishness and courage, her capacity for hard work and a natural talent for organization, she lived out her consecration to Jesus, in the midst of her companions, with fidelity and joy.

On 10 September 1946 during the train ride from Calcutta to Darjeeling for her annual retreat, Mother Teresa received her “inspiration," her “call within a call.” On that day, in a way she would never explain, Jesus’ thirst for love and for souls took hold of her heart and the desire to satiate His thirst became the driving force of her life. Over the course of the next weeks and months, by means of interior locutions and visions, Jesus revealed to her the desire of His heart for “victims of love” who would “radiate His love on souls.” “Come be My light,” He begged her. “I cannot go alone.” He revealed His pain at the neglect of the poor, His sorrow at their ignorance of Him and His longing for their love. He asked Mother Teresa to establish a religious community, Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to the service of the poorest of the poor. Nearly two years of testing and discernment passed before Mother Teresa received permission to begin. On August 17, 1948, she dressed for the first time in a white, blue-bordered sari and passed through the gates of her beloved Loreto convent to enter the world of the poor.

After a short course with the Medical Mission Sisters in Patna, Mother Teresa returned to Calcutta and found temporary lodging with the Little Sisters of the Poor. On 21 December she went for the first time to the slums. She visited families, washed the sores of some children, cared for an old man lying sick on the road and nursed a woman dying of hunger and TB. She started each day in communion with Jesus in the Eucharist and then went out, rosary in her hand, to find and serve Him in “the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for.” After some months, she was joined, one by one, by her former students.

On 7 October 1950 the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially established in the Archdiocese of Calcutta. By the early 1960s, Mother Teresa began to send her Sisters to other parts of India. The Decree of Praise granted to the Congregation by Pope Paul VI in February 1965 encouraged her to open a house in Venezuela. It was soon followed by foundations in Rome and Tanzania and, eventually, on every continent. Starting in 1980 and continuing through the 1990s, Mother Teresa opened houses in almost all of the communist countries, including the former Soviet Union, Albania and Cuba.

In order to respond better to both the physical and spiritual needs of the poor, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity Brothers in 1963, in 1976 the contemplative branch of the Sisters, in 1979 the Contemplative Brothers, and in 1984 the Missionaries of Charity Fathers. Yet her inspiration was not limited to those with religious vocations. She formed the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa and the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, people of many faiths and nationalities with whom she shared her spirit of prayer, simplicity, sacrifice and her apostolate of humble works of love. This spirit later inspired the Lay Missionaries of Charity. In answer to the requests of many priests, in 1981 Mother Teresa also began the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests as a “little way of holiness” for those who desire to share in her charism and spirit.

During the years of rapid growth the world began to turn its eyes towards Mother Teresa and the work she had started. Numerous awards, beginning with the Indian Padmashri Award in 1962 and notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, honoured her work, while an increasingly interested media began to follow her activities. She received both prizes and attention “for the glory of God and in the name of the poor.”

The whole of Mother Teresa’s life and labour bore witness to the joy of loving, the greatness and dignity of every human person, the value of little things done faithfully and with love, and the surpassing worth of friendship with God. But there was another heroic side of this great woman that was revealed only after her death. Hidden from all eyes, hidden even from those closest to her, was her interior life marked by an experience of a deep, painful and abiding feeling of being separated from God, even rejected by Him, along with an ever-increasing longing for His love. She called her inner experience, “the darkness.” The “painful night” of her soul, which began around the time she started her work for the poor and continued to the end of her life, led Mother Teresa to an ever more profound union with God. Through the darkness she mystically participated in the thirst of Jesus, in His painful and burning longing for love, and she shared in the interior desolation of the poor.

During the last years of her life, despite increasingly severe health problems, Mother Teresa continued to govern her Society and respond to the needs of the poor and the Church. By 1997, Mother Teresa’s Sisters numbered nearly 4,000 members and were established in 610 foundations in 123 countries of the world. In March 1997 she blessed her newly-elected successor as Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity and then made one more trip abroad. After meeting Pope John Paul II for the last time, she returned to Calcutta and spent her final weeks receiving visitors and instructing her Sisters. On 5 September Mother Teresa’s earthly life came to an end. She was given the honour of a state funeral by the Government of India and her body was buried in the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity. Her tomb quickly became a place of pilgrimage and prayer for people of all faiths, rich and poor alike. Mother Teresa left a testament of unshakable faith, invincible hope and extraordinary charity. Her response to Jesus’ plea, “Come be My light,” made her a Missionary of Charity, a “mother to the poor,” a symbol of compassion to the world, and a living witness to the thirsting love of God.

Less than two years after her death, in view of Mother Teresa’s widespread reputation of holiness and the favours being reported, Pope John Paul II permitted the opening of her Cause of Canonization. On 20 December 2002 he approved the decrees of her heroic virtues and miracles.

—Excerpted from the Vatican Website

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St. Lawrence Justinian
Lawrence, an illustrious example of humility, the "ornament and glory of bishops" (according to Pope Eugene IV), was the first patriarch of Venice. A very pious youth, he was favored in his nineteenth year with a vision of the Eternal Wisdom in the guise of a maiden encircled with light. She invited him to seek her with happiness, rather than satiate his baser lusts. He obeyed the invitation. Soon thereafter he became a clerk regular of St. George on the island of Alga, later bishop of Venice.

Some of St. Lawrence's special charisms were the gift of tears, power over devils, prophecy. One Christmas night the Christ-Child appeared to him. When an attempt was made during his last sickness to put him on a more comfortable bed, he refused this pleasure with the words, "My Savior died not on feathers but on the hard wood of the Cross," and requested to be laid on his usual couch. As he felt his last moments approaching, he lifted his eyes to heaven and said, "I am coming, good Jesus, to You," and slept blessedly in the Lord (January 8, 1455). At the time Venice was at the zenith of its influence and wealth. But God made that proud city understand that her greatness resulted more from the sanctity of her poor patriarch Lawrence than from the diplomacy of her doges and the power of her galleys.

—Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch

Symbols: Bishop’s mitre; bishop’s crosier.

[Salvation]

The Word Among Us

Meditation: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9

” I fed you milk, not solid food.” (1 Corinthians 3:2)

“Grow up!” It’s a common school­yard taunt for a reason: nobody wants to be accused of being imma­ture. Just as a twelve-year-old boy doesn’t want to be shorter than his friends, we Christians don’t want to be found lacking in spiritual matu­rity. But it’s just this problem that Paul pointed out to the Corinthians in today’s reading.

Paul saw the Corinthian believ­ers as “still of the flesh” because of the jealousy and rivalry among them. They were beginning to break into factions and divisions, following dif­ferent leaders in the Church. The last thing Paul wanted was to see the people arguing about who was fol­lowing the best pastor!

It seems that while the Corin­thians had experienced God’s love very powerfully, they weren’t trans­lating their experiences into actions. Being filled with God’s mercy should have moved them to be more mer­ciful and open to other people. It should have drawn them together, not split them apart. But it didn’t. They remained stuck in their old ways of thinking and acting.

How can we avoid the Corin­thians’ dilemma and move from milk to solid food? How can we overcome the divisions and judgments that keep us “still of the flesh”? By find­ing practical ways to live according to the love of God that we have expe­rienced. If there is someone in your life who always seems to annoy you, respond in love. Pray for the person every day, asking God to bless him or her. Persist in prayer, and you’ll find your own heart changing—even if the other person never changes at all!

Or, if you often find yourself in conversations that lead to arguments and division, make it a point to be an agent of unity. Look for ways to change the topic. Bring up some­thing positive or encouraging. Speak words of acceptance and patience, words that lift people up instead of drag them down. Just a little shift in the conversation can open the door for the Spirit to work and for love to prevail.

We really can “grow up” into Christ. If we learn to let God’s grace and mercy flow in us, it can have a powerful effect on the way we treat other people.

“Come, Holy Spirit, and bring about unity among all the people who call on your name.”

Psalm 33:12-15, 20-21; Luke 4:38-44

[Salvation]

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
(August 26, 1910 - September 5, 1997)

Beatification - October 19, 2003
Optional Memorial
September 5th

Make us worthy, Lord, to serve those people throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. Give them through our hands, this day, their daily bread, and by our understanding love, give them peace and joy.

- Mother Teresa of Calcutta 

Mother Teresa signed the Affirmation for Catholic Women in January 1986. Here is her signature. All the Missionaries of Charity in the United States signed this statement of fidelity to the Church.

On October 23, 1987, during the Synod on the Laity, a list of 40,000 Affirmation signers (including Mother Teresa's) was presented to the Holy See. CLICK HERE for complete account.

In August 1987, Mother Teresa sent this message to Women for Faith & Family:

    

Biography of Mother Teresa
(from the Vatican Website)

"By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus".

Small of stature, rocklike in faith, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was entrusted with the mission of proclaiming God's thirsting love for humanity, especially for the poorest of the poor. "God still loves the world and He sends you and me to be His love and His compassion to the poor." She was a soul filled with the light of Christ, on fire with love for Him and burning with one desire: "to quench His thirst for love and for souls." 

This luminous messenger of God's love was born on August 26, 1910 in Skopje, a city situated at the crossroads of Balkan history. The youngest of the children born to Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu, she was baptised Gonxha Agnes, received her First Communion at the age of five and a half and was confirmed in November 1916. From the day of her First Holy Communion, a love for souls was within her. Her father's sudden death when Gonxha was about eight years old left in the family in financial straits. Drane raised her children firmly and lovingly, greatly influencing her daughter's character and vocation. Gonxha's religious formation was further assisted by the vibrant Jesuit parish of the Sacred Heart in which she was much involved. 

At the age of eighteen, moved by a desire to become a missionary, Gonxha left her home in September 1928 to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto, in Ireland. There she received the name Sister Mary Teresa after St. Thérèse of Lisieux. In December, she departed for India, arriving in Calcutta on January 6, 1929. After making her First Profession of Vows in May 1931, Sister Teresa was assigned to the Loreto Entally community in Calcutta and taught at St. Mary's School for girls. On May 24, 1937, Sister Teresa made her Final Profession of Vows, becoming, as she said, the "spouse of Jesus" for "all eternity." From that time on she was called Mother Teresa. She continued teaching at St. Mary's and in 1944 became the school's principal. A person of profound prayer and deep love for her religious sisters and her students, Mother Teresa's twenty years in Loreto were filled with profound happiness. Noted for her charity, unselfishness and courage, her capacity for hard work and a natural talent for organization, she lived out her consecration to Jesus, in the midst of her companions, with fidelity and joy.

On September 10, 1946 during the train ride from Calcutta to Darjeeling for her annual retreat, Mother Teresa received her "inspiration," her "call within a call." On that day, in a way she would never explain, Jesus' thirst for love and for souls took hold of her heart and the desire to satiate His thirst became the driving force of her life. Over the course of the next weeks and months, by means of interior locutions and visions, Jesus revealed to her the desire of His heart for "victims of love" who would "radiate His love on souls." "Come be My light," He begged her. "I cannot go alone." He revealed His pain at the neglect of the poor, His sorrow at their ignorance of Him and His longing for their love. He asked Mother Teresa to establish a religious community, Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to the service of the poorest of the poor. Nearly two years of testing and discernment passed before Mother Teresa received permission to begin. On August 17, 1948, she dressed for the first time in a white, blue-bordered sari and passed through the gates of her beloved Loreto convent to enter the world of the poor.

After a short course with the Medical Mission Sisters in Patna, Mother Teresa returned to Calcutta and found temporary lodging with the Little Sisters of the Poor. On December 21 she went for the first time to the slums. She visited families, washed the sores of some children, cared for an old man lying sick on the road and nursed a woman dying of hunger and TB. She started each day in communion with Jesus in the Eucharist and then went out, rosary in her hand, to find and serve Him in "the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for." After some months, she was joined, one by one, by her former students. 

On October 7, 1950 the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially established in the Archdiocese of Calcutta. By the early 1960s, Mother Teresa began to send her Sisters to other parts of India. The Decree of Praise granted to the Congregation by Pope Paul VI in February 1965 encouraged her to open a house in Venezuela. It was soon followed by foundations in Rome and Tanzania and, eventually, on every continent. Starting in 1980 and continuing through the 1990s, Mother Teresa opened houses in almost all of the communist countries, including the former Soviet Union, Albania and Cuba.

In order to respond better to both the physical and spiritual needs of the poor, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity Brothers in 1963, in 1976 the contemplative branch of the Sisters, in 1979 the Contemplative Brothers, and in 1984 the Missionaries of Charity Fathers. Yet her inspiration was not limited to those with religious vocations. She formed the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa and the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, people of many faiths and nationalities with whom she shared her spirit of prayer, simplicity, sacrifice and her apostolate of humble works of love. This spirit later inspired the Lay Missionaries of Charity. In answer to the requests of many priests, in 1981 Mother Teresa also began the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests as a "little way of holiness" for those who desire to share in her charism and spirit. 

During the years of rapid growth the world began to turn its eyes towards Mother Teresa and the work she had started. Numerous awards, beginning with the Indian Padmashri Award in 1962 and notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, honored her work, while an increasingly interested media began to follow her activities. She received both prizes and attention "for the glory of God and in the name of the poor."

The whole of Mother Teresa's life and labor bore witness to the joy of loving, the greatness and dignity of every human person, the value of little things done faithfully and with love, and the surpassing worth of friendship with God. But there was another heroic side of this great woman that was revealed only after her death. Hidden from all eyes, hidden even from those closest to her, was her interior life marked by an experience of a deep, painful and abiding feeling of being separated from God, even rejected by Him, along with an ever-increasing longing for His love. She called her inner experience, "the darkness."  The "painful night" of her soul, which began around the time she started her work for the poor and continued to the end of her life, led Mother Teresa to an ever more profound union with God. Through the darkness she mystically participated in the thirst of Jesus, in His painful and burning longing for love, and she shared in the interior desolation of the poor.

During the last years of her life, despite increasingly severe health problems, Mother Teresa continued to govern her Society and respond to the needs of the poor and the Church. By 1997, Mother Teresa's Sisters numbered nearly 4,000 members and were established in 610 foundations in 123 countries of the world. In March 1997 she blessed her newly-elected successor as Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity and then made one more trip abroad. After meeting Pope John Paul II for the last time, she returned to Calcutta and spent her final weeks receiving visitors and instructing her Sisters. On September 5 Mother Teresa's earthly life came to an end. She was given the honor of a state funeral by the Government of India and her body was buried in the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity. Her tomb quickly became a place of pilgrimage and prayer for people of all faiths, rich and poor alike. Mother Teresa left a testament of unshakable faith, invincible hope and extraordinary charity. Her response to Jesus' plea, "Come be My light," made her a Missionary of Charity, a "mother to the poor," a symbol of compassion to the world, and a living witness to the thirsting love of God.

Less than two years after her death, in view of Mother Teresa's widespread reputation of holiness and the favors being reported, Pope John Paul II permitted the opening of her Cause of Canonization. On December 20, 2002 he approved the decrees of her heroic virtues and miracles.

http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20031019_madre-teresa_en.html

---

LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI TO Sr. MARY PREMA, SUPERIOR GENERAL OF THE MISSIONARIES OF CHARITY ON THE 100th ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF BLESSED MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA

To Sister Prema, M.C. Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity

I send cordial greetings to you and to all the Missionaries of Charity as you begin the centenary celebrations of the birth of Blessed Mother Teresa, foundress of your Congregation and an exemplary model of Christian virtue. I am confident that this year will be for the Church and the world an occasion of joyful gratitude to God for the inestimable gift that Mother Teresa was in her lifetime, and continues to be through the affectionate and tireless work of you, her spiritual children.

In you preparation for this year you strove to draw closer to the person of Jesus, whose thirst for souls is sated by your ministry to him in the poorest of the poor. Having responded with trust to the direct call of the Lord, Mother Teresa exemplified before the world the words of Saint John: "Beloved, if God so loves us, we ought also to love one another. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us" (cf. Jn 4:11-12).

May this love continue to inspire you as Missionaries of Charity, to give yourselves generously to Jesus, whom you see and serve in the poor, the sick, the lonely and the abandoned. I encourage you to draw constantly from the spirituality and example of Mother Teresa and, in her footsteps, to take up Christ’s invitation: "Come, be my light". Joining myself spiritually to the centenary celebrations, and with great affection in the Lord, I cordially impart to the Missionaries of Charity, and to all those whom you serve, my paternal Apostolic Blessing.

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

© Copyright 2010 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/letters/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20100826_missionaries-charity_en.html

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Related page: Targeting Mother Teresa — by Colleen Carroll Campbell, Pentecost 2010 Issue

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Excerpt from: LECTURE BY H.E. CARDINAL RATZINGER AT THE BISHOPS' CONFERENCE OF THE REGION OF CAMPANIA IN BENEVENTO (ITALY) ON THE TOPIC: "EUCHARIST, COMMUNION AND SOLIDARITY", Sunday June 2, 2002

For complete text click here (Links to Vatican website)

Martin de Porres, Mother Teresa

The great social saints were in reality always the great Eucharistic saints. I would like to mention just two examples chosen entirely at random.

First of all, the beloved figure of St Martin de Porres, who was born in 1569 in Lima, Peru, the son of an Afro-American mother and a Spanish nobleman. Martin lived from the adoration of the Lord present in the Eucharist, passing entire nights in prayer before the crucified Lord in the tabernacle, while during the day he tirelessly cared for the sick and assisted the socially outcast and despised, with whom he, as a mulatto, identified because of his origins. The encounter with the Lord, who gives himself to us from the cross, makes all of us members of the one body by means of the one bread, which when responded to fully moves us to serve the suffering, to care for the weak and the forgotten.

In our time, we can recall the person of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Wherever she opened the houses of her sisters to the service of the dying and outcast, the first thing she asked for was a place for the tabernacle, because she knew that only beginning from there, would come the strength for such service.

Whoever recognizes the Lord in the tabernacle, recognizes him in the suffering and the needy; they are among those to whom the world's judge will say: "I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me" (Mt 25,35).

Briefly, I would like to recall a second important New Testament text concerning the word "communion" (koinonia). It is found right at the beginning of the first Letter of John (1,3-7), where he speaks of the encounter granted him with the Word made flesh. John says that he is transmitting what he has seen with his own eyes and touched with his own hands. This encounter has given him the gift of koinonia - communion - with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. It has become a true "communion" with the living God. As John expresses it, the communion has opened his eyes and he now lives in the light, that is, in the truth of God, which is expressed in the unique, new commandment, which encompasses everything - the commandment to love. And so the communion with the "Word of life" becomes the just life, becomes love. In this way it also becomes reciprocal communion:  "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we are in communion one with another" (I Jn 1,6).

The text shows the same logic of communio that we already found in Paul:  communion with Jesus becomes communion with God himself, communion with the light and with love; it becomes in this way an upright life, and all of this unites us with one another in the truth. Only when we regard communion in this depth and breadth do we have something to say to the world.

[Salvation]

Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II, and Father Damian
Catholic Caucus: California Gov Candidate Jerry Brown using Mother Teresa to get elected
Cathedral honouring Mother Teresa dedicated in Kosovo

Mother Teresa - ignored and hated
With this stamp, the U.S. Postal Service recognizes Mother Teresa (Did you get yours yet?)
Russia To Honor Most Famous Nun of All Times
Something Beautiful for God: The Gift of [Blessed] Mother Teresa
"Mother Teresa, a miracle for the world"
Catholic dissenters back Empire State Building’s refusal to honor Mother Teresa (Catholic Caucus)
Pro-Abortion ‘Catholic’ Groups Oppose Mother Teresa Honor
Pro-Abortion Activists Oppose Mother Teresa [Ecumenical]
[CATHOLIC/ORTHODOX CAUCUS]Missionary of Charity: Mother Teresa taught me to never complain
[CATHOLIC CAUCUS] Protest rally organized at Empire State Building on birthday of Bl. Mother Teresa

Peace Bridge on Niagara River to honor Mother Teresa’s birthday in lights
The day Mother Teresa told me, "Your poverty is greater than ours"
The lives (and faces) of Mother Teresa and Helen Thomas: the good, the mad, and the ugly
USS Intrepid honors (Mother) Teresa
NY service day to fete famed nun, not lit building
Empire State Building: No Lights for Mother Teresa
NY's Empire State Building Says 'No' To Catholic Group's Request For Mother Teresa Lighting
Effort to have Empire State Building honor Mother Teresa mobilizes 40,000
No Empire State Lights for Mother Teresa
NY's Empire State Bldg says 'no' to Mother Teresa

NY's Empire State Bldg says 'no' to Mother Teresa
Screw Mother Teresa - We Celebrate Communism
Catholic League petitioning Empire State Building to honor Mother Teresa
EMPIRE STATE BUILDING vs. MOTHER TERESA
Empire State Building Snubs Mother Teresa
“Any controversy has since faded” (Postmaster General to dedicate Mother Teresa stamp)
Stamp for Pro-Life Heroine Mother Teresa Hits September
Confirmed! [Mother Teresa stamp to be release]
Who Hates Mother Teresa?
Mother Teresa is still inspiring…hate

Atheist Group Protests Mother Teresa's Commemorative U.S. Postal Stamp
Atheist Group Blasts Postal Service for Mother Teresa Stamp
Atheists attack Mother Teresa (Say she's not worthy of memorial stamp)
2010 Stamps Unveiled: USPS Recognizes Mother Teresa
US Postal Service Honors Mother Teresa With Stamp
The Philosophy of Mao and Mother Teresa?/a>
Martin Luther King III Visits Mother Teresa's Tomb
Mother Teresa's Relic Heads For Europe
Mother Teresa's Successor Adds Voice to Vatican Call for Moratorium on Abortion
Indian priest says his cure was miracle through Mother Teresa

The ‘Atheism’ of Mother Teresa [Dark Night of her Soul?]
Who Hates Mother Teresa?
US Postal Service Honors Mother Teresa With Stamp
Indian priest says his cure was miracle through Mother Teresa
The ‘Atheism’ of Mother Teresa [Dark Night of her Soul?]
Jesuit Philosopher Recounts Time with Mother Teresa [Fr. John Kavanaugh, S.J.]
Faith Crisis? Not the Mother Teresa He Knew
Vatican mapping miracles by Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa's Reaction to Pres. Clinton's Access to Abortion Clinics Act Recalled by Fr. Pavone
Mother Teresa of Calcutta on abortion

There are no ... in the streets of Calcutta
Christian Leaders Weigh in on Mother Teresa's 'Crisis of Faith'
A Suffering Servant: The Letters of Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa's Letters Show Heroic Spiritual Struggle
Mother Teresa 'simply loved life'
Mother Teresa's canonisation not at risk
Mother Teresa Did Not Feel Christ's Presence for Last Half of Her Life, Letters Reveal
Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith
Quotes >From Mother Teresa of Calcutta on the Most Blessed Sacrament(catholic Caucus)
Joy and Hope by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

9/5/97 Mother Teresa (Gonxhe Bojaxhiu) (b.1910),dies of heart failure in Calcutta
Mother Teresa on Abortion
Priestly Celibacy by Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Beatification of Mother Teresa of Calcutta - October 19, 2003
The gift of Priestly celibacy as a sign of the charity of Christ, by Mother Teresa of Calcutta
The Beatification of Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa not to be exhumed
What Made Mother Teresa So Special, Part I
Mother Teresa's Saintly Spirit Remembered, in a Truly Balkan Way
Mother Teresa's Beatification to Be a Worldwide Television Event

WHATEVER YOU DID UNTO ONE OF THE LEAST, YOU DID UNTO ME, M. Teresa, Senate & House Prayer Breakfast
Mother Teresa's Beatification and Related Events
Mother Teresa's "Secret"
Slur on Mother Teresa in paper stuns Church
Why Mother Teresa Should Not Be a Saint
Pope credits Mother Teresa with miracle
Mother Teresa's Mystical Experiences[her letters to Archbishop Perier]
Miracle Approved; Beatification Set for Mother Teresa
[WARNING: I think this is a fabrication] Prophecy attributed to Mother Teresa?
Mother Teresa's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech

[Salvation]

 

Marriage = One Man and One Woman

Til' Death Do Us Part

Daily Marriage Tip for September 5, 2012:

You can be right, or you can be married. Marriage often involves learning (or being told) when you are wrong. You can humbly accept this information when it is true or choose to pick a fight. Fight for your marriage. It’s better than proving you’re right.

[Salvation]

Vultus Christi

All things work together unto good

By

Father Mark

 on September 5, 2012 7:57 AM |

Navigating the Avenues of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction

One does not found a monastery without obtaining ecclesiastical authorization. Monasteries come to birth, and develop, and thrive within the Body of Christ, that is the Catholic Church. At the time of Mectilde de Bar, the avenues of ecclesiastical jurisdiction were exceedingly complex. Given that Mectilde and her little community were living in the territory of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris, she needed, first of all, to secure the permission of the abbot of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the natural son of Henri IV, who was the Duke of Verneuil, the bishop of Metz.

The Request Refused

The Abbot-Duke was utterly opposed to the foundation of new monasteries. Paris, he argued, was already cluttered with too many cloisters vying for economic support. He had promised the Queen Regent, Anne of Austria, that he would forbid the foundation of new monasteries in his territory. Already, for lack of resources, six ancient communities under his authority had ceased to exist. In vain did the Countess of Châteauvieux beg the Queen to make an exception; the Queen remained inflexible.

A Vow in Time of Crisis

Divine Providence was at work, all the same. "We know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints" (Romans 8:28) France was in complete turmoil. Forces in rebellion against the crown were gaining ground. The court was obliged to flee to Compiègne. The Queen Regent learned, to her dismay, that the rebellion had spread from Paris and Bordeaux to Orléans and Angers. In desperation she turned to the Abbé Picoté, a priest of Saint-Sulpice, and beseeched him to make whatever vow he thought necessary to obtain from God the return of peace, order, and stability to France.

The Queen's Vow: Adoration and Reparation

The good priest, knowing absolutely nothing of Mother Mectilde's proposed foundation, vowed that if tranquillity were restored to France, the Queen would found a house of religious vowed to adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament in reparation for the outrages committed the Sacred Body of Christ. The Abbé Picoté, in all likelihood, had heard that the consecrated Host was, more than once, trampled under foot by soldiers, and even fed to their horses. Miraculously, no sooner was the vow made in the name of the Queen, than the whole situation changed. On 21 October 1652, Louis XIV entered Paris in triumph. The revolt was over; peace returned.

The Royal Yes

In the meantime, the Abbé Picoté learned of Mother Mectilde's project. Struck by the affinity between the vow he had made in the name of the Queen and the foundation that Mother Mectilde desired to undertake, he spoke of it to the Queen on 8 December 1652 while the latter was in retreat at the Benedictine abbey of Val-de-Grâce. The graces of the retreat must have been in operation because he found the Queen well disposed. In execution of her vow, the Queen ordered the Duke of Verneuil to authorize the foundation in his territory of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The Duke-Abbot immediately entrusted the whole affair to his Vicar General, Dom Roussel, a Benedictine of the Congregation of Saint-Maur, and the prior of Saint Germain-des-Prés.

To be continued.

[Salvation]

Regnum Christi

 

Risen People Called to Serve

| SPIRITUAL LIFE | SPIRITUALITY

Wednesday of Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

 

Luke 4:38-44

After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon. Simon´s mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever, and they interceded with him about her. He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and waited on them. At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him. He laid his hands on each of them and cured them. And demons also came out from many, shouting, "You are the Son of God." But he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ. At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place. The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him, they tried to prevent him from leaving them. But he said to them, "To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God, because for this purpose I have been sent." And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

Introductory Prayer: Lord, thank you for coming into my house. I am honored that you wish to stop by even when I don’t call for you. I am extremely grateful for the personal attention that you give me, especially when I am ill and in need of your grace.

Petition: Lord, cure me of my spiritual ailments so I may serve you in others.

1. Christ Raises Us Up: There is a certain matter-of-factness about the cure in this Gospel passage: no special words of Jesus, no words of thanks, no reaction of the people. It is as if Jesus simply and routinely entered a home and helped a very sick woman up and out of bed. Not your typical miracle that draws a lot of attention. While we hope for that long-awaited miracle in our lives, we might be overlooking one of these very ordinary cures that Christ often offers us. In the spiritual realm, it may be a good confession, receiving him in the Eucharist, spiritual guidance, or a regular examination of conscience. In the physical realm, it may be just taking good care of my health by eating or sleeping properly. We don’t need to demand a special cure. Rather we must be encouraged that Christ has directed his gaze towards us.

2. He Helps Us to Our Feet: Notice how quickly everything happens in today’s Gospel. Christ helps Simon’s mother-in-law to her feet immediately. She cooperates without skepticism or words of protest. She believes in Christ. His grace is effective. The cure is complete and instantaneous. He allows us to stand up on our own and resume our duties.

3. He Cures Us So That We Might Serve: We are very good about pleading to Christ for cures, yet frequently hassled when he sends us the “bill” — namely that of serving others. Simon’s mother-in-law immediately begins to serve Christ, who has put her back on her feet. She immediately forgets about herself –– her problems, how she feels, how much time her sickness has set her back –– and instead focuses on the needs of others. Jesus raises up Christians from the death of sin and calls upon them to serve. Christians are risen people whose vocation is to serve.

Conversation with Christ: Dear Lord, everybody is looking for you. You have put me back on my feet and have asked me to imitate your life of service. Help me to be generous with the life you have restored in me so that I, too, might put the interests of your Kingdom above my personal plans.

Resolution: I will earnestly ask Christ to cure me of my most dominant defect, taking one concrete step in acquiring its opposing virtue.

[annalex]

Luke
	English: Douay-Rheims	Latin: Vulgata Clementina	Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000)
	Luke 4
38.	And Jesus rising up out of the synagogue, went into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever, and they besought him for her.	Surgens autem Jesus de synagoga, introivit in domum Simonis. Socrus autem Simonis tenebatur magnis febribus : et rogaverunt illum pro ea.	αναστας δε εκ της συναγωγης εισηλθεν εις την οικιαν σιμωνος πενθερα δε του σιμωνος ην συνεχομενη πυρετω μεγαλω και ηρωτησαν αυτον περι αυτης
39.	And standing over her, he commanded the fever, and it left her. And immediately rising, she ministered to them.	Et stans super illam imperavit febri : et dimisit illam. Et continuo surgens, ministrabat illis.	και επιστας επανω αυτης επετιμησεν τω πυρετω και αφηκεν αυτην παραχρημα δε αναστασα διηκονει αυτοις
40.	And when the sun was down, all they that had any sick with divers diseases, brought them to him. But he laying his hands on every one of them, healed them.	Cum autem sol occidisset, omnes qui habebant infirmos variis languoribus, ducebant illos ad eum. At ille singulis manus imponens, curabat eos.	δυνοντος δε του ηλιου παντες οσοι ειχον ασθενουντας νοσοις ποικιλαις ηγαγον αυτους προς αυτον ο δε ενι εκαστω αυτων τας χειρας επιθεις εθεραπευσεν αυτους
41.	And devils went out from many, crying out and saying: Thou art the Son of God. And rebuking them he suffered them not to speak, for they knew that he was Christ.	Exibant autem dæmonia a multis clamantia, et dicentia : Quia tu es Filius Dei : et increpans non sinebat ea loqui : quia sciebant ipsum esse Christum.	εξηρχετο δε και δαιμονια απο πολλων κραζοντα και λεγοντα οτι συ ει ο χριστος ο υιος του θεου και επιτιμων ουκ εια αυτα λαλειν οτι ηδεισαν τον χριστον αυτον ειναι
42.	And when it was day, going out he went into a desert place, and the multitudes sought him, and came unto him: and they stayed him that he should not depart from them.	Facta autem die egressus ibat in desertum locum, et turbæ requirebant eum, et venerunt usque ad ipsum : et detinebant illum ne discederet ab eis.	γενομενης δε ημερας εξελθων επορευθη εις ερημον τοπον και οι οχλοι επεζητουν αυτον και ηλθον εως αυτου και κατειχον αυτον του μη πορευεσθαι απ αυτων
43.	To whom he said: To other cities also I must preach the kingdom of God: for therefore am I sent.	Quibus ille ait : Quia et aliis civitatibus oportet me evangelizare regnum Dei : quia ideo missus sum.	ο δε ειπεν προς αυτους οτι και ταις ετεραις πολεσιν ευαγγελισασθαι με δει την βασιλειαν του θεου οτι εις τουτο απεσταλμαι
44.	And he was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.	Et erat prædicans in synagogis Galilææ.	και ην κηρυσσων εν ταις συναγωγαις της γαλιλαιας

[annalex]

38. And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever: and they besought him for her.
39. And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever: and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered to them.

AMBROSE; Luke having first introduced a man delivered from an evil spirit, goes on to relate the healing of a woman. For our Lord had come to heal each sex, and he ought first to be healed who was first created. Hence it is said, And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house.

CHRYS. For He honored His disciples by dwelling among them, and so making them the more zealous.

CYRIL; Now, see how Christ abides in the house of a poor man, suffering poverty of His own will for our sakes, that we might learn to visit the poor, and despise not the destitute and needy. It follows: And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever: and they besought him for her.

THEOPHYL; At one time at the request of others, at another of his own accord, our Savior cures the sick, showing that He is far aloof from the passions of sinners, and ever grants the prayer of the faithful, and what they in themselves little understand He either makes intelligible, or forgives their not understanding it. As, Who understands his errors? Lord, cleanse me from my secret faults.

CHRYS. Because Matthew is silent on the point of asking Him, he does not differ from Luke, or it matters not, for one Gospel had brevity in view, the other accurate research. It follows: And he stood over her, &c.

ORIGEN; Here Luke speaks figuratively, as of a command given to a sensible being, saying, that the fever was commanded, and neglected not the work of Him who commanded it. Hence it follows: And she arose, and ministered to them.

CHRYS. For since the disease was curable, He shows His power by the manner of the cure, doing what ere could never do. For after the allaying of the fever, the patient needs much time ere he be restored to his former health, but at this time all took place at once.

AMBROSE; But if we weigh these things with deeper thoughts, we shall consider the health of the mind as well as the body; that the mind which was assailed by the wiles of the devil may be released first. Eve was not a hungered before the serpent beguiled her, and therefore against the author of evil himself ought the medicine of salvation first to operate. Perhaps also in that woman as in a type our flesh languished under the various fevers of crimes, nor should I say that the fever of love was less than that of bodily heat.

THEOPHYL; For if we say that a man released from the devil represents morally the mind cleansed from unclean thoughts, consequently a woman vexed by fever, but cured at our Lord's command, represents the flesh controlled by the rules of continence in the fury of its own lust.

CYRIL; Let us therefore receive Jesus. For when He has visited us, we carry Him in our heart and mind; He will then extinguish the flames of our unlicensed pleasures, and will make us whole, so that we minister to Him, that is, do things well-pleasing to Him.

40. Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.
41. And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, You are Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.

THEOPHYL. We must observe the zeal of the multitude, who after the sun had set bring their sick to Him, not deterred by the lateness of the day; as it is said, Now when the sun was setting, they brought their sick.

ORIGEN; It was ordered about sun-set, that is, when the day was gone, that they should bring them out, either because during the day they were employed about other things, or because they thought that it was not lawful to heal on the sabbath. But He healed them, as it follows, But he laid his hands upon every one of them.

CYRIL; But although as God He was able to drive away diseases by His word, He nevertheless touches them, showing that His flesh was powerful to apply remedies, since it was the flesh of God; for as fire, when applied to a brazen vessel, imprints on it the effect of its own heat, so the omnipotent Word of God, when He united to Himself in real assumption a living virgin temple, endued with understanding, implanted in it a participation of His own power. May He also touch us, nay rather may we touch Him, that He may deliver us from the infirmities of our souls as well as the assaults of the evil spirit and pride! For it follows, And devils also came out.

THEOPHYL; The devils confess the Son of God, and as it is afterwards said, they knew him to be Christ; for when the devil saw Him distressed by fasting, he perceived Him to be truly man, but when he prevailed not in his trial he doubted whether or not He were the Son of God, but now by the power of Christ's miracles he either perceived or suspected Him to be the Son of God. He did not then persuade the Jews to crucify Him because he thought Him not to be Christ or the Son of God, but because he did not foresee that by this death he himself would be condemned. Of this mystery hidden from the world the Apostle says, that none of the princes of this world knew, for if they had known they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory.

CHRYS. But in what follows, And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak, mark the humility of Christ, who would not let the unclean spirits make Him manifest. For it was not fit that they should usurp the glory of the Apostolical office, nor did it become the mysteries of Christ to be made public by impure tongues.

THEOPHYL. Because, "praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner." Or, because He did not wish to inflame the envy of the Jews by being praised of all.

THEOPHYL; But the Apostles themselves are commanded to be silent concerning Him, lest by proclaiming His divine Majesty, the dispensation of His Passion should be delayed.

42. And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came to him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them.
43. And he said to them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent.
44. And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.

CHRYS. When he had bestowed sufficient favor upon the people by miracles, it was necessary for Him to depart. For miracles are always thought greater when the worker is gone, since they themselves are then the more heeded, and have in their turn a voice; as it is said, But when it was as day, he departed, and went.

GREEK EX. He went also into the desert, as Mark says, and prayed; not that he needed prayer, but as an example to us of good works.

CHRYS. The Pharisees indeed, seeing how that the miracles themselves published His fame, were offended at His power. But the people hearing His words, assented and followed; as it is said, And the multitudes sought him, not indeed any of the chief priests, or scribes, but all those who had not been blackened with the dark stain of malice, and preserved their consciences unhurt.

GREEK EX. Now when Mark says that the Apostles came to him, saying, All seek you, but Luke, that the people came, there is no difference between them, for the people came to Him following in the footsteps of the Apostles. But the Lord rejoiced in being held back, yet bid them let Him go, that others also might partake of His teaching, as the time of His presence would not last long; as it follows, And he said to them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also, &c. Mark says, to this I came, showing the loftiness of His divine nature, and His voluntary emptying Himself of it. But Luke says, to this am I sent, showing His incarnation, and calling also the decree of the Father, a sending Him forth; and one simply says, To preach, the other added, the kingdom of God, which is Christ Himself.

CHRYS. Observe also, that He might, by abiding in the same place, have drawn all men over to Himself. He did not however do so, giving us an example to go about and seek those who are perishing, as the shepherd his lost sheep, and as the physician the sick. For by recovering one soul, we may be able to blot out a thousand sins. Hence also it follows, And he was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee. He frequently indeed went to the synagogues, to show them that He was no deceiver. For if He were constantly to dwell in the desolate places, they would spread abroad that He was concealing Himself.

THEOPHYL; But if the sun-setting mystically expresses the death of our Lord, the returning day denotes His resurrection, (the light of which being made manifest, He is sought for by the multitudes of believers, and being found in the desert of the Gentiles He is held back by them, lest He should depart;) especially as this took place on the first day of the week, on which day the Resurrection was celebrated.

Catena Aurea Luke 4

[annalex]

The Healing of St. Peter's Mother in Law

[Salvation]

Undistracted Love Unites

• Homily of the Day
• September 5th, 2012
• Food For Thought

Wednesday, September 5, 2012 by Food for Thought

FirstReading: 1 Cor 3:1-9
Psalm: Ps 33:12-13, 14-15, 20-21
Gospel: Lk 4:38-44

Quarrels and jealousy abounded among the Christians of Corinth.  Quarrels and jealousy within Christian groups were, and still are, marks of spiritual immaturity.

Paul and Apollos, who both preached the Jesus’ good news, unknowingly were at the center of one of these quarrels. Paul laid the foundation of the local church and when he departed, Apollos took up the task of building on the foundation Paul had laid. For whatever reason, factions formed, one looking to Paul as its leader, the other to Apollos.

Today, Paul reprimands the Corinthians.

In the competition generated by this foolish loyalty, the message of Christ was lost. Christ preached love. Love lay smothered under the misguided allegiance each group offered to its hero. Paul is quite strong on this point: messengers are not of any importance. They are not to be distractions drawing attention away from the message or from God.

There’s something similar going on in the Gospel. Jesus refuses to allow the evil spirits to distract people from his message. Popular belief in Galilee held that the Messiah was to be a political
liberator. Jesus did not want false expectations to cloud the spiritual nature of his message. As Fr. Krempa puts it, Jesus’ task was to establish within individuals a deep, personal faith in and commitment to the kingdom of God. Once faith and commitment have been established, it is, as Krempa says, to be authenticated by the way it would be lived out in society. But he adds, “Jesus sternly refused to reverse this priority.”

In our day too the thoroughness of our Christian living will be proportionate to the depth of our faith and the firmness of our commitment.

[Salvation]

One Bread, One Body

One Bread, One Body

 

<< Wednesday, September 5, 2012 >>

1 Corinthians 3:1-9
View Readings

Psalm 33:12-15, 20-21

Luke 4:38-44

WHAT'S YOUR ORDER?

Jesus "did not allow them to speak." —Luke 4:41

 

Timing is so critical to God's order. The demons in today's Gospel speak the truth, that Jesus is the Son of God, but at the wrong time. Jesus consequently rebukes the demons and does not allow them to speak (Lk 4:41; see also Acts 16:17-18). On another occasion, Jesus healed a leper and commanded him not to speak about the healing (Mk 1:44). The leper ignored Jesus' warning and, as a result, Jesus' plans were hindered (Mk 1:45). Words spoken at the wrong time are destructive. Even if the words are truthful, the lack of order indicates destructive rather than constructive purposes. In fact, speaking out of order derives from pride and foolishness (Sir 20:6).

The Corinthians were also out of order. A few years after their conversion, they were still quarreling and envious (1 Cor 3:3), when they should have been stepping out into ministry and "teaching others" (Heb 5:12ff). Their quarreling words were out of order. Such words are more understandable in a new convert, but inappropriate when spoken years after conversion.

The Lord is a God of order (1 Cor 14:33). He sends the Holy Spirit to teach us what to say, how to say it (Jn 12:49), and when to say it (see Mt 10:19). Seek the gift of prophecy (1 Cor 14:1), which is saying what God wants said at the time He wants it said. There is "a time to speak" (Eccl 3:7). "Like golden apples in silver settings are words spoken at the proper time" (Prv 25:11).

 

Prayer: Jesus, bring me into a new dimension of Your order.

Promise: "Each will receive his wages in proportion to his toil." —1 Cor 3:8

Praise: Jack, a public school teacher, quietly witnesses for Christ and prays for his students.

[Salvation]