Friday of the Tenth week in Ordinary Time

Commentary of the day
Blessed Paul VI, Pope from 1963-1978
Humanae vitae, 8-9 (©Libreria editrice vaticana)

"God created man in his image... male and female he created them" (Gn 1:27)

Married love particularly reveals its true nature and nobility when we realize that it takes its origin from God, who is love... Marriage, then, is far from being the effect of chance or the result of the blind evolution of natural forces. It is in reality the wise and provident institution of God the Creator, whose purpose was to effect in man His loving design. As a consequence, husband and wife, through that mutual gift of themselves alone... develop that union of two persons in which they perfect one another, cooperating with God in the generation and rearing of new lives. The marriage of those who have been baptized is, in addition, invested with the dignity of a sacramental sign of grace, for it represents the union of Christ and His Church (Eph 5:32).

In the light of these facts the characteristic features and exigencies of married love are clearly indicated. This love is above all fully human, a compound of sense and spirit. It is not, then, merely a question of natural instinct or emotional drive. It is also, and above all, an act of the free will, whose trust is such that it is meant not only to survive the joys and sorrows of daily life, but also to grow, so that husband and wife become in a way one heart and one soul, and together attain their human fulfillment.

It is a love which is total—that very special form of personal friendship in which husband and wife generously share everything, allowing no unreasonable exceptions and not thinking solely of their own convenience. Whoever really loves his partner loves not only for what he receives, but loves that partner for the partner's own sake, content to be able to enrich the other with the gift of himself.

Married love is also faithful and exclusive of all other, and this until death. This is how husband and wife understood it on the day on which, fully aware of what they were doing, they freely vowed themselves to one another in marriage... Finally, this love is fecund. It is not confined wholly to the loving interchange of husband and wife; it also contrives to go beyond this to bring new life into being.

The Angelus

The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary:
And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of
our death. Amen.

Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy word.

Hail Mary . . .

And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us.

Hail Mary . . .

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray:

Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.

Amen.

"Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Lk 1:28)

"Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb"
(Lk 1:42).

Saint of the Day — Saint Marguerite d’Youville

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3572058/posts

Information: St. Vitus

Feast Day: June 15

Born: 290, Sicily

Died: 303, Lucania, modern-day Basilicata, Italy

Patron of: actors; comedians; Czechoslovakia; dancers; dogs; epilepsy; Mazara del Vallo, Sicily; Forio, Ischia; oversleeping; Prague, Czech Republic; rheumatic chorea (Saint Vitus Dance); snake bites; storms; Vacha, Germany; Zeven, Lower Saxony

Information: St. Germaine Cousin

Feast Day: June 15

Born: 1579, Pibrac, France

Died: 1601, Pibrac, France

Canonized: 29 June 1867 by Pope Pius IX

Patron of: abandoned people; abuse victims; against poverty; bodily ills; child abuse victims; disabled people; girls from rural areas; handicapped people; illness; impoverishment; loss of parents; peasant girls; physically challenged people; poverty; shepherdesses; sick people; sickness; unattractive people; victims of abuse; victims of child abuse; young country girls

Holy Spirit Interactive Kids: A Saint a Day

St. Germaine of Pibrac

Feast Day: June 15
Born: 1579 :: Died: 1601

Pibrac is the little village in France where Germaine was born and where she spent her whole life. Her father Laurent Cousin was a farm worker and her mother Marie Laroche died when Germaine was just a baby.

She was always a sickly girl and not pretty. In fact, she suffered from scrofula and her right hand was deformed and helpless. Her father ignored her and her stepmother Hortense did not want Germaine around her own healthy children. Hortense and her children treated Germaine very badly. She was only given scraps of food, was forced to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs and had hot water thrown on her if she disobeyed.

So Germaine slept with the sheep in the barn, even in cold weather. She dressed in rags and was laughed at by other children. By the time she was nine she was put to work as a shepherdess and spent all day tending the sheep out in the fields. When she came home at night, her stepmother often screamed at her and beat her.

Yet this poor girl learned to talk with God and to remember that he was with her all the time. She spent much time praying and made herself a rosary with knotted string. She always managed to get to daily Mass leaving her sheep in care of her guardian angel. Not once did a sheep wander away from her shepherd's staff that she planted in the ground.

Germaine often gathered young children around her to teach them simple catechism. She wanted their hearts to be full of God's love. She tried her best to help the poor, too and shared with beggars the little bit of food she was given to eat.

One winter day, her stepmother accused her of stealing bread. Hortense chased her with a stick and Germaine immediately opened her apron to return the food. To everyone's surprise what fell from Germaine's apron was not bread but summer flowers.

Now people no longer made fun of Germaine but began to treat her as a holy person. In fact, they loved and admired her. Her parents asked her to return and live with them in the house, but she chose to continue sleeping in the barn.

Then, one morning in 1601, when she was twenty-two, she was found dead on her straw mattress. Her life of great suffering was over. God worked more than four hundred miracles in her name to show that she was a saint.

Reflection: In our sufferings, we can always turn to Jesus and ask him to remain in our heart especially when we receive him in Holy Communion.

"Dear God, please don't let me be too hungry or too thirsty. Help me to please my mother. And help me to please you." - prayer of Saint Germaine

Catholic Culture

Ordinary Time: June 15th

Friday of the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time

MASS READINGS

June 15, 2018 (Readings on USCCB website)

COLLECT PRAYER

O God, from whom all good things come, grant that we, who call on you in our need, may at your prompting discern what is right, and by your guidance do it. 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.

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Old-Fashioned St. Germain and Lemon Bundt Cake

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Old Calendar: Corpus Christi; Saints Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentia, martyrs; St. Germaine Cousin (Hist)

According to the 1962 Missal of St. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of Corpus Christi which traditionally is celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. In the Ordinary Rite the Solemnity is celebrated on the Sunday after Trinity Sunday. Also, today is the feast of Sts. Vitus, Modestus and Crescentia. Very little is known of these saints. St. Vitus was martyred in Lucania in South Italy. He is invoked for the cure of epilepsy (St. Vitus' dance).

Historically today is the feast of St. Germain Cousin who was born in Pibrac, France. She was abused as a child and spent her short life as a shepherdess.

Sts. Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentia
The relics of St. Vitus (also known as St. Guy) were transferred to various places -- an arm is in St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague. According to legendary Acts, the boy Vitus was baptized without the knowledge of his father. Having found out about it, his father had him beaten with rods by the magistrate. While his parent was considering more cruel punishments, Vitus, his teacher Modestus, and his nurse Crescentia fled to Sicily upon the command of an angel. But there, too, they were persecuted because of the faith. When thrown into a cauldron of burning oil, they, like the three youths, sang hymns of praise. And wild beasts would not harm them. It is related that they were then quartered. Vitus is one of the "Fourteen Holy Helpers" (he is invoked against epilepsy and St. Vitus' dance).

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

Patron: Vitus: actors; against animal attacks; against dog bites; against lightning; against oversleeping; against storms; against wild beasts; comedians; Czechoslovakia; dancers; dog bites; dogs; epilepsy; Forio, Italy; lightning; oversleeping; Prague, Czech Republic; rheumatic chorea; Saint Vitus Dance; snake bites; storms.

Symbols: Vitus: Wolf or lion; cockatrice on a book; fire; cock; chained dog; cauldron of boiling oil; palm and cauldron; palm and dog; chalice and dog; sword and dog; sword and rooster;
Often Portrayed as: Boy with a rooster and a cauldron; With Modestus and Crescentia as they refuse to worship idols; being put into an oven; young prince with a palm and sceptre.
Crescentia: Boat piloted by an angel; cauldron of oil; sword.

St. Germaine Cousin
Saint Germaine Cousin was born in 1579 in Pibrac, a small village not far from Toulouse, France. From her earliest years she was a frail, sickly child, and throughout her life was afflicted with scrofula, a tubercular condition affecting particularly the glands of the neck. In addition, her right arm and hand were deformed and partially paralyzed. In spite of her many afflictions, the emaciated child possessed a charming, sweet disposition. Germaine endured not only bodily sufferings, but harsh, cruel treatment from her stepmother, who had a deep aversion for the little girl. The child was almost starved to death and obliged to sleep in the barn on a pile of leaves and twigs under the stairway. At break of day, summer and winter, she would drive the sheep into the fields to graze, then watch them until evening. She had to spin during this time, and if the allotted wool was not spun, she was severely punished.

The village children, not sharing the hostility of the adults toward this forlorn child, loved to listen to her speak about the goodness and love of God while she guarded her flock. The only instruction Germaine ever received was the catechism taught after Sunday Mass in the village church, which she attended with joy. During the long hours of solitude she spent in the fields and in the stable at night, she remained in sweet communion with God, and never complained of her hard life.

Every morning she was at Mass, and afterwards went to kneel before Our Lady’s shrine. To reach the church she had to cross what was ordinarily a small stream; but after a heavy rain it would become a raging torrent. Several times at those moments, the villagers were amazed to see the rushing waters separate when Germaine approached, and then to watch her cross on dry land. When she left her sheep to go to church, she would place her staff upright in the ground, and the sheep never went far from it. One day the stepmother was seen pursuing Germaine as she drove the sheep down the road. She was accusing the girl of having stolen some bread and concealing it in her apron. When Germaine unfolded her apron, fragrant flowers, foreign to that region, fell to the ground.

Germaine died one night in the year 1601, at the age of twenty-one, and was buried as was the custom in those days, in the village church. Forty-three years later, when a relative was to be buried near her and the stones were removed, the grave-digger found to his amazement, the body of a beautiful young girl in a state of perfect preservation. His pick had struck her nose, and the wound was bleeding. Some of the older residents identified the girl as Germaine Cousin. Miracle after miracle occurred, and in 1867 the neglected little waif of Pibrac was inscribed in the list of Saints by Pope Pius IX. Annually thousands of pilgrims visit the church of Pibrac, where the relics of Saint Germaine are enshrined.

Excerpted from Heavenly Friends: a Saint for each Day, by Rosalie Marie Levy

Patron: Victims of; abuse and child abuse, of abandoned people, people with disabilities, against poverty, illness and loss of parents. She is also the patron of girls from rural areas.

Symbols:With a shepherd's crook or with a distaff; with a watchdog, or a sheep; or with flowers in her apron.

Things to Do:Read more about the life of St. Germaine Cousin here.

The Word Among Us

Meditation: Matthew 5:27-32

10th Week in Ordinary Time

Everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery. (Matthew 5:28)

Just a glance—sometimes that’s all it takes to lead us into sin. Whether it’s lust or greed or anger, we know how our disordered desires can affect us. It can be discouraging to see how easily sinful or unclean thoughts can spring into our minds and then lead us to sin.

Yes, one glance can lead you down the road of temptation. But just as your eyes can get you into trouble, they can also help get you out of it. But how?

Let’s say you are admiring your neighbor’s new car, and you start to feel dissatisfied with your own car. The temptation to succumb to greed begins to stir within you. When you recognize it, turn your eyes away from both cars and toward the poor. Consider people who don’t have enough food for the day, let alone a safe means of transportation. Maybe conjure the image of that homeless man you see on the corner as you drive to work—in your comfortable car. Try to be grateful for the blessings you have instead of focusing on what you think you are lacking.

Here’s another example: you might see an attractive movie star, and suddenly your spouse seems less interesting. That’s when you can shift your gaze and look at your spouse. Look closely; remember all the times he or she has sacrificed for you. Staying up late with a sick baby. Working extra hours so that you can afford a vacation. Making your favorite meal for your birthday. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see your spouse as God does. Ask him for the grace to love your spouse as deeply and purely as he does.

No matter what situation you are in, turn your eyes to Jesus. Take a few moments to pause and gaze at a crucifix. Let it show you God’s loving desires for you. He will bring you back if you have begun to stray. Look at how much Jesus did to show you his love and faithfulness, and let him show you that love and faithfulness again!

“Jesus, I give you everything that competes for my attention. When I struggle, help me to lift my eyes to your cross.”

1 Kings 19:9, 11-16
Psalm 27:7-9, 13-14

Marriage = One Man and One Woman Until Death Do Us Part

Daily Marriage Tip for June 15, 2018:

Marriage Challenge: If you have children, it can be a challenge to negotiate child care responsibilities and still have the energy to be good, devoted spouses. Consider ways you can make time to devote to your spouse alone.

Regnum Christi

June 15, 2018 – A Clean Heart

Friday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Father Matthew Kaderabek, LC

Matthew 5:27-32

Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna. “It was also said, Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce. But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

Introductory Prayer: Lord Jesus, today I will contemplate your love in action. You continually go out of your way to make your presence felt in my life, and I am very grateful. Thank you, Lord, for another day; it is another opportunity to deepen my love and friendship with you.

Petition: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me (Psalm 51:10).

1. Guard Your Eyes: Concerning purity of heart, Jesus takes this demand for purity a step further than the Old Testament. He teaches that to even look at a woman with lust in your heart, seeing her as merely an object to satisfy your lustful desires, is seriously sinful. Jesus does not say that it is sinful to simply recognize a woman as beautiful, or by extension, a woman recognizing a man as handsome. It is when we see the other as an object and have impure thoughts about them that we give in to sin. In other words, the temptation itself is not a sin; it is when we accept that temptation into our heart and give it a home by willfully playing with it in our mind that we step over the line. Lord Jesus, it’s so easy to grant myself concessions in this area, but with your aid I will be firm in my resolve to guard my senses, remembering an adage from the computer age: “Garbage in, garbage out!”

2. If It Puts Your Soul in Danger, It’s Got to Go: Christ’s call to holy purity, like every other virtue, is eminently positive. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). Purity is a consequence of the love that prompts us to commit to Christ our soul and body, our faculties and senses. Jesus uses the images of “right eye” and “right hand” to refer to that which we value most. He is telling us that if that which we value most in life has become a stumbling block in our relationship with the Lord, then, simply put, it’s got to go. It is far better to lose a possession or a position or to break off a relationship than to risk the eternal salvation of our soul. We must be prepared to fight for righteousness with all of our strength, being ready to eliminate whatever could clearly lead us to offend the Lord.

3. And the Two Shall Become One: Jesus re-established the principle of the absolute indissolubility of marriage, a principle that has been unhesitatingly taught by the Church from the very beginning. Pope Pius XI reminded us in Casti Connubii (December 31, 1930) about the immutable and inviolable truth that “matrimony was not instituted or re-established by men, but by God… Consequently, those laws can in no way be subject to human wills or to any contrary pact made even by the contracting parties. This is the teaching of Sacred Scripture; it is the constant and universal Tradition of the Church.” Marriage endures until death though the love may last forever. What God has joined together, let nothing separate. Am I living my marriage as a covenant? Do I treat my spouse with respect and affection? Do I dedicate my heart, time and energy to cultivating our love, so it will endure and flourish?

Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, I want to live with purity, and I know that this requires a strong will and a constant effort in this world that encourages instant gratification of the senses. Give me the strength in particular to guard my eyes and control my imagination. Help me to be exquisitely faithful to my spouse.

Resolution: I will promote the virtue of purity in my personal life and set a good example for others by incorporating into my lifestyle the time-tested ascetical methods that the Church has proposed to us down through the ages: frequent confession and Communion; devotion to Our Lady; a spirit of prayer and mortification; guarding of the senses; flight from occasions of sin; and striving to avoid idleness by always being engaged in doing useful things.

Homily of the Day

June 15, 2018

In the first reading we see the Lord appearing to the prophet Elijah not in a violent windstorm or earthquake or fire but in “the murmur of a gentle breeze.” God does not come in violence but we must be ready and hope to find him in peace and quiet. We should be ready to listen to his quiet and gentle approaches.

Elijah, like so many of God’s prophets, was not listened to but was instead persecuted: “No one is left but myself, yet they still seek my life to take it away.” Those who preach God’s Good News must be ready to be similarly rejected and persecuted: “Fortunate are you, when people insult you and persecute you and speak all kinds of evil against you because you are my followers.” (Mt 5: 11)

Like Elijah may we have God’s love and the courage to continue to be followers of Christ and messengers of the Good News despite rejection and persecution. In the Gospel reading Jesus declares the indissolubility of Christian marriage.

The following of Christ is not easy: but if we love the Lord, nothing is difficult to give; with God’s grace, nothing is impossible.

One Bread, One Body

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1 Kings 19:9, 11-16
View Readings

Psalm 27:7-9, 13-14

Matthew 5:27-32
Similar Reflections

"THE SOUND OF SILENCE"

"There was a tiny whispering sound." �1 Kings 19:12

God communicates in myriad ways. On occasion, the Lord roars (Am 1:2; 3:8) and thunders (Ps 29:3, 7-9). However, a major characteristic of God's communication with mankind is His whisperings and His silence. The Lord often whispers, as He did to the prophet Elijah. He is gentle (Mt 11:29). "He will not contend or cry out, nor will His voice be heard in the streets" (Mt 12:19). God is regularly found in silence. Often the Lord seemingly "hides," for example, in the tabernacle or in the Eucharist.

Therefore, we must "seek the Lord while He may be found" (Is 55:6). He doesn't hide so that we won't be able to find Him. He does not remain silent so that we won't be able to hear Him. God whispers so that we can learn His will (see Is 30:20-21). He comes to those who are still and silent enough to wait for Him (see Ps 46:11; Is 30:15).

Can you still and quiet your soul in order to hear His whispers and silence? (Ps 131:2)

Prayer: Father, may I want to hear You so badly that I will turn off everything else.

Promise: "I have been most zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts." —1 Kgs 19:14

Praise: Mark spends time in Eucharistic adoration each day.

Video -- When One Heart Stops Another Breaks