Posted on 05/07/2014 9:23:29 PM PDT by Salvation
May 8, 2014
Thursday of the Third Week of Easter
Reading 1 Acts 8:26-40
The angel of the Lord spoke to Philip,
“Get up and head south on the road
that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert route.”
So he got up and set out.
Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch,
a court official of the Candace,
that is, the queen of the Ethiopians,
in charge of her entire treasury,
who had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning home.
Seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
The Spirit said to Philip,
“Go and join up with that chariot.”
Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said,
“Do you understand what you are reading?”
He replied,
“How can I, unless someone instructs me?”
So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him.
This was the Scripture passage he was reading:
Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who will tell of his posterity?
For his life is taken from the earth.
Then the eunuch said to Philip in reply,
“I beg you, about whom is the prophet saying this?
About himself, or about someone else?”
Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with this Scripture passage,
he proclaimed Jesus to him.
As they traveled along the road
they came to some water,
and the eunuch said, “Look, there is water.
What is to prevent my being baptized?”
Then he ordered the chariot to stop,
and Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water,
and he baptized him.
When they came out of the water,
the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away,
and the eunuch saw him no more,
but continued on his way rejoicing.
Philip came to Azotus, and went about proclaiming the good news
to all the towns until he reached Caesarea.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 66:8-9, 16-17, 20
R. (1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Bless our God, you peoples,
loudly sound his praise;
He has given life to our souls,
and has not let our feet slip.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare
what he has done for me.
When I appealed to him in words,
praise was on the tip of my tongue.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Blessed be God who refused me not
my prayer or his kindness!
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Gospel Jn 6:44-51
Jesus said to the crowds:
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him on the last day.
It is written in the prophets:
They shall all be taught by God.
Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God;
he has seen the Father.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven
so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my Flesh for the life of the world.”
Blessed Catherine of St. Augustine
Feast Day: May 08
Born: 1632 :: Died: 1668
Catherine de Longpre was born at Saint Saveur near Cherbourg in France. Catherin family was devout Catholics and she was baptized the very day she was born. Her grandparents were very good examples because of their true love and care of the poor.
Catherine watched wide-eyed as her grandmother invited a handicapped beggar into her home. She offered him a bath, clean clothes and a delicious meal. As Catherine and her grandparents sat around the fire that night, they prayed the Our Father out loud. They thanked God for his blessings.
Because there was no hospital in their small French town, the sick were nursed back to health in the home of Catherine's grandparents. Catherine began to realize that sickness and suffering take patience. She was just a little girl but she prayed to ask Jesus to make people suffer less.
When she was still quite young, she joined the convent of Sisters of St. Augustine. The sisters who took care of the sick in hospitals were called Hospitaller Sisters of the Mercy of Jesus. Her older sister took her vows and became a nun the day Catherine entered the convent.
In 1648, Cathereine listened to the missionary priests begging sisters to come to New France or Canada. Catherine's sister was chosen to be one of the first of their order to go as a missionary to Canada. Sister Catherine was just sixteen, but she begged to be chosen too. She pronounced her vows on May 4, 1648. Then she sailed for Canada the next day. It was the day before her sixteenth birthday.
Her parents were very distressed. Her father even presented a petition in the courts to stop her. Because Catherine was very affectionate by nature, she felt an extreme gratitude and tenderness for their concern. But she had made up her mind to live and die in Canada in service to the poor and sick. Years later, her farther had a change of heart and supported her.
Life was hard in Quebec, Canada but Sister Catherine loved the people. The Indians were very grateful for her cheerful ways. She cooked and cared for the sick in the order's poor hospital building. But Sister Catherine learned about fear, too.
The Iroquois Indians were killing people and burning villages. She prayed to St. John Brebeuf, one of the Jesuit priests who had just been killed by the Iroquois in 1649. She asked him to help her be true to her calling. She heard him speaking in her heart, telling her to remain.
Food was not enough and the winters were terribly cold. Some of the sisters could not take the hard life and constant fear of death and they returned to France. Sister Catherine was afraid, too. Sometimes she could hardly pray. And while she smiled at all the dear people she cared for in the sick wards, she grew sad.
But she made a promise never to leave Canada and to remain, performing her works of charity until death. She was just twenty-two years old when she made that vow. Despite the hard pioneer life of the French colony, more people came. The Church grew. God blessed the new land with more missionaries.
In 1665, Sister Catherine became the novice mistress of her community. She kept up her life of prayer and hospital ministry until her death. Sister Marie Catherine of St. Augustine died on May 8, 1668. She was thirty-six years old. She was declared "blessed" by Pope John Paul II in 1989.
Reflection: Jesus never promised us that our lives would be easy and without pain. But he did promise to be with us always. We pray that we may learn to trust him completely.
Thursday, May 8
Liturgical Color: White
Pope St. Benedict II died on this day in 685
A.D., after serving as pope for less than a
year. Although his reign was short, he was
able to direct the restoration of many churches
in Rome and set up endowments to help the
poor.
Daily Readings for:May 08, 2014
(Readings on USCCB website)
Collect: Almighty ever-living God, let us feel your compassion more readily during these days when, by your gift, we have known it more fully, so that those y9ou have freed from the darkness of error may cling more firmly to the teachings of your truth. 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
o St. Michael's Oatmeal Waffles
ACTIVITIES
o Marian Hymn: Bring Flowers of the Fairest
PRAYERS
o Regina Coeli (Queen of Heaven)
o May Devotion: Blessed Virgin Mary
o Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Litany of Loretto)
o Litany of the Fourteen Holy Helpers
LIBRARY
o Prayer to St. Michael | Pope Leo XIII
o St. Michael: Guardian of the Church | Fr. William Saunders
· Easter: May 8th
· Thursday of the Third Week of Easter
Old Calendar: Apparition of St. Michael the Archangel (Hist); St. Acathius, martyr (Hist)
According to the 1962 Missal of St. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of the apparition of St. Michael. The feast commemorates an apparition of St. Michael on the summit of Monte Gargano, in Italy on the Adriatic coast, and the dedication of the sanctuary built on the site of the apparition. It is also the feast of St. Acathius, a priest at Sebaste, Armenia, during Diocletian's persecution.
Apparition of St. Michael
It is evident from Holy Scripture that God is pleased to make frequent use of the ministry of the heavenly spirits in the dispensations of His providence in this world. The Angels are all pure spirits; by a property of their nature they are immortal, as is every spirit. They have the power of moving or conveying themselves at will from place to place, and such is their activity that it is not easy for us to conceive of it. Among the holy Archangels, Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are particularly distinguished in the Scriptures. Saint Michael, whose name means Who is like unto God?, is the prince of the faithful Angels who opposed Lucifer and his followers in their revolt against God. Since the devil is the sworn enemy of God’s holy Church, Saint Michael is given to it by God as its special protector against the demon’s assaults and stratagems.
Various apparitions of this powerful Angel have proved the protection of Saint Michael over the Church. We may mention his apparition in Rome, where Saint Gregory the Great saw him in the air sheathing his sword, to signal the cessation of a pestilence and the appeasement of God’s wrath. Another apparition to Saint Ausbert, bishop of Avranches in France, led to the construction of Mont-Saint-Michel in the sea, a famous pilgrimage site. May 8th, however, is destined to recall another no less marvelous apparition, occurring near Monte Gargano in the Kingdom of Naples.
In the year 492 a man named Gargan was pasturing his large herds in the countryside. One day a bull fled to the mountain, where it could not be found. When its refuge in a cave was discovered, an arrow was shot into the cave, but the arrow returned to wound the one who had sent it. Faced with this mysterious occurrence, the persons concerned decided to consult the bishop of the region. He ordered three days of fasting and prayers. After three days, the Archangel Michael appeared to the bishop and declared that the cavern where the bull had taken refuge was under his protection, and that God wanted it to be consecrated under his name and in honor of all the Holy Angels.
Accompanied by his clergy and people, the pontiff went to that cavern, which he found already disposed in the form of a church. The divine mysteries were celebrated there, and there arose in this same place a magnificent temple where the divine Power has wrought great miracles. To thank God’s adorable goodness for the protection of the holy Archangel, the effect of His merciful Providence, this feast day was instituted by the Church in his honor.
It is said of this special guardian and protector of the Church that, during the final persecution of Antichrist, he will powerfully defend it: “At that time shall Michael rise up, the great prince who protects the children of thy people.”
— Excerpted from Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894); Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l’année, by Abbé L. Jaud (Mame: Tours, 1950).
St. Acathius
At Constantinople, St. Acathius, who, being denounced as a Christian by the tribune Firmus, and cruelly tortured at Perinthus by the judge Bibian, was finally condemned to death at Byzantium by the procunsul Flaccinus. His body was afterwards miraculously brought to the shore of Squillace in Calabria, where it is preserved with honor. — Excerpted from the Martyrology.
Saint Acacius was a priest at Sebaste, Armenia, during Diocletian's persecution. He was arrested and executed under the governor Maximus with seven women and Hirenarchus, who was so impressed with the devotion to their faith he became a Christian and suffered the same fate. — Excerpted from the Catholic Encyclopedia.
Patron: Against headaches and at the time of death's agony.
Symbols: Pictured with a crown of thorns.
John | |||
English: Douay-Rheims | Latin: Vulgata Clementina | Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000) | |
John 6 |
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44. | No man can come to me, except the Father, who hath sent me, draw him; and I will raise him up in the last day. | nemo potest venire ad me, nisi Pater, qui misit me, traxerit eum ; et ego resuscitabo eum in novissimo die. | ουδεις δυναται ελθειν προς με εαν μη ο πατηρ ο πεμψας με ελκυση αυτον και εγω αναστησω αυτον εν τη εσχατη ημερα |
45. | It is written in the prophets: And they shall all be taught of God. Every one that hath heard of the Father, and hath learned, cometh to me. | Est scriptum in prophetis : Et erunt omnes docibiles Dei. Omnis qui audivit a Patre, et didicit, venit ad me. | εστιν γεγραμμενον εν τοις προφηταις και εσονται παντες διδακτοι θεου πας ουν ο ακουων παρα του πατρος και μαθων ερχεται προς με |
46. | Not that any man hath seen the Father; but he who is of God, he hath seen the Father. | Non quia Patrem vidit quisquam, nisi is, qui est a Deo, hic vidit Patrem. | ουχ οτι τον πατερα τις εωρακεν ει μη ο ων παρα του θεου ουτος εωρακεν τον πατερα |
47. | Amen, amen I say unto you: He that believeth in me, hath everlasting life. | Amen, amen dico vobis : qui credit in me, habet vitam æternam. | αμην αμην λεγω υμιν ο πιστευων εις εμε εχει ζωην αιωνιον |
48. | I am the bread of life. | Ego sum panis vitæ. | εγω ειμι ο αρτος της ζωης |
49. | Your fathers did eat manna in the desert, and are dead. | Patres vestri manducaverunt manna in deserto, et mortui sunt. | οι πατερες υμων εφαγον το μαννα εν τη ερημω και απεθανον |
50. | This is the bread which cometh down from heaven; that if any man eat of it, he may not die. | Hic est panis de cælo descendens : ut si quis ex ipso manducaverit, non moriatur. | ουτος εστιν ο αρτος ο εκ του ουρανου καταβαινων ινα τις εξ αυτου φαγη και μη αποθανη |
51. | I am the living bread which came down from heaven. 6:52 If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world. |
Ego sum panis vivus, qui de cælo descendi. 6:52 Si quis manducaverit ex hoc pane, vivet in æternum : et panis quem ego dabo, caro mea est pro mundi vita. |
εγω ειμι ο αρτος ο ζων ο εκ του ουρανου καταβας εαν τις φαγη εκ τουτου του αρτου ζησεται εις τον αιωνα και ο αρτος δε ον εγω δωσω η σαρξ μου εστιν ην εγω δωσω υπερ της του κοσμου ζωης |
3rd Week of Easter
I am the bread of life. (John 6:48)
Have you ever skipped a meal and felt the stress on your brain and body? You may have felt fatigued, moody, or light-headed. Scientists tell us that prolonged fasting is not very wise as it can cause short- and long-term health problems. In fact, nutritionists have published a plethora of books to help us maintain a healthy and balanced diet. Well, in the same way that nutritionists are concerned with our physical health, Jesus is concerned with our spiritual health. That’s why he came to give himself to us as the living bread.
In addition to speaking about the gift of the Eucharist, the image of the bread of life also speaks about God’s revelation to us in Christ. When the Israelites were trekking through the desert toward the Promised Land, God provided manna to feed them. But that manna sustained only their physical bodies, not their spirits. In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that God the Father sent him as a kind of food that surpasses the manna. Jesus, the Messiah, came to feed our spirits and to make a way for us to enter into heaven. He made it possible for us to live with God forever. He promises that all who eat of him—all who embrace his revelation—will be raised up to eternal life!
The good news is that in the Eucharist, Jesus gives us this food of eternal life here and now. We don’t have to wait until we die to “live forever” (John 6:51). We can begin to experience the grace of heaven by surrendering our lives to the Lord and letting him fill us daily with his grace, strength, and wisdom. Every time we eat his Body and drink his Blood, we can celebrate our redemption and receive even more revelation of his goodness. Every time we ponder his words in the Scriptures and the teachings of the Church, we can experience him filling our hunger and satisfying our thirst.
Today, join Peter in his great proclamation of faith and surrender: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69).
“Lord, you are truly the Messiah, the bread from heaven. Fill me and renew me.”
Acts 8:26-40; Psalm 66:8-9, 16-17, 20
Daily Marriage Tip for May 8, 2014:
Playfulness brings joy to a marriage, but some of us are very serious people. If youre not the naturally playful type you may have to fake it. Even if you stumble you can laugh together at your awkward attempts.
Bread for Eternity | ||
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Thursday of the Third Week of Easter
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Jesus said to the crowds: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world." Introductory Prayer: Lord, I believe that you are present here and now as I turn to you in prayer. I trust and have confidence in your desire to give me every grace I need to receive today. Thank you for your love, thank you for your immense generosity toward me. I give you my life and my love in return. Petition: Lord Jesus, help me value more the gift of yourself in the Eucharist. 1. A Gift from the Loving Father: The Father is the one who sent him and who will draw souls to him. “No one can come to me unless the Father draw him.” So, those individuals who heard Christ’s words and were drawn to him that day were doing so because of a gift of faith from the Father. If we today have faith in Christ, it also is a gift from the Father, who wants to draw us to his Son. If we have doubts or weakness in faith, we should ask the Father to draw us nearer to his Son and to help us believe with our whole heart and mind. 2. The Word Was Made Flesh: Christ’s birth took place in the town of Bethlehem, which in Hebrew (bêth-lehem) means "house of bread." He was also laid in a manger, where food for animals would normally be placed. Before becoming bread which would be our food, Christ first became man. Merely giving us some specially blessed bread would not be nearly as significant as giving himself. That is how God always loves: by giving himself completely and without reserve. 3. His Flesh Was Made Bread: The Gospel accounts of Christ multiplying the loaves report he did so out of compassion for the crowd: "I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way" (Matthew 15:32). This same compassion moves him to give himself as our bread in the Eucharist. He does not want us to die for lack of spiritual nourishment. Christ—in the greatest gesture of humility—became man like us, the same in every way except sin. But in an even greater gesture of humility, he descended further still to become our spiritual food. Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, how can I not trust in you? You have already become human just like me. Then you descend to an even humbler state of service to become food for my soul. Help me to receive you in the Eucharist with gratitude, fully aware of your loving presence. Resolution: I will start preparing my heart today to attend Mass this Sunday and receive Christ lovingly in Communion. |
May 7, 2014
Jesus uses bread to help us understand the importance of the gospel today. We need to eat and we need to drink. Food and water are vital to our existence. They equate to life itself. And yet our mortal bodies need to eat and drink every day. Why were we created with this limitation? Would it not be more simple to create man as a being without a stomach, without the need to eat or drink? We would have more time to do other things than to eat three meals a day. We would not be hungry nor thirsty ever. And yet we need to eat and drink on a daily basis. We cannot eat or drink loading up for an entire month and then stop entirely eating and drinking for the next month. We were created to eat and drink on a daily basis. This is so that we may learn to lean on God on a daily basis also. That is why the prayer of the Our Father says: “Give us this day our daily bread” and not monthly bread. Christ proposes a new kind of bread that we will not hunger anymore. He proposes us the real food of Christ which is to do the will of God. And the will of God is for us to go to Heaven. Christ makes it his advocacy and determined mission to bring us all to Heaven. If we have the spirit of Christ, we will be full of the Holy Spirit which helps us to focus on the heavenly things and be at peace with whatever happens here on earth. We were created for Heaven. And Christ promised that all who share in this food will be raised up on the last day.
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