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September 2, 2014Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 1 Cor 2:10b-16 Brothers and sisters:The Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.Among men, who knows what pertains to the manexcept his spirit that is within?Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God.We have not received the spirit of the worldbut the Spirit who is from God,so that we may understand the things freely given us by God.And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom,but with words taught by the Spirit,describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms....

As a priest I have frequently seen the beauty and effectiveness of the sacrament of reconciliation, or, if you prefer, confession. So convinced am I of its efficacy, indeed its necessity for saving souls that I frequently speak about it as a regular topic of catechesis when I travel throughout the diocese. While it is perhaps possible to say, in the most legalistic and narrowly scripted fashion that confession may not be absolutely, categorically, definitively, and unequivocally “necessary” for salvation, I would, again, still maintain we need it, it is good for us, it was given to us by Jesus...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Animals In The Bible Sheep New International Version (NIV) But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, .(1 Samuel 17) He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. (Matthew 25:33) "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? (Luke 15:4) …6This figure of...

September 1, 2014Monday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 1 Cor 2:1-5 When I came to you, brothers and sisters,proclaiming the mystery of God,I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.For I resolved to know nothing while I was with youexcept Jesus Christ, and him crucified.I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling,and my message and my proclamationwere not with persuasive words of wisdom,but with a demonstration of spirit and power,so that your faith might rest not on human wisdombut on the power of God. Responsorial Psalm Ps 119:97,...

EPISTLE II Cor. 3:4-9 Brethren: And such confidence we have, through Christ, towards God. Not that we are sufficient to think any thing of ourselves, as of ourselves: but our sufficiency is from God. Who also hath made us fit ministers of the new testament, not in the letter but in the spirit. For the letter killeth: but the spirit quickeneth. Now if the ministration of death, engraven with letters upon stones, was glorious (so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, for the glory of his countenance), which is made void: How shall...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Animals In The Bible Scorpion New International Version (NIV) 6 Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How would you advise me to answer these people?” he asked.. 7 They replied, “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.”. 8 But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. 9 He asked them, “What is your advice?...

August 31, 2014Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Jer 20:7-9 You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped;you were too strong for me, and you triumphed.All the day I am an object of laughter;everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I must cry out,violence and outrage is my message;the word of the LORD has brought mederision and reproach all the day. I say to myself, I will not mention him,I will speak in his name no more.But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart,imprisoned in my bones;I grow weary holding it in, I...

Weep for slaughtered Christians, not for dialogue with Islam By Phil Lawler | Aug 29, 2014 Faced with the savage violence of the Islamic State (ISIS), Christians can be tempted toward two unhelpful emotional reactions. On one extreme is the thirst for vengeance. If Muslims extremists kill innocent Christians, intemperate voices suggest that we should kill innocent Muslims. Then we, too, would be terrorists. I trust that rational readers recognize the problem here.But at the other extreme is another irrational urge: the desire to overlook the violence, an inclination toward the mawkish hope that we might “just all be friends.”...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Animals In The Bible Rooster New International Version (NIV) 69 Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said. 70 But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. 71 Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.” 72 He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!” 73 After a little while, those standing...

August 30, 2014Saturday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 1 Cor 1:26-31 Consider your own calling, brothers and sisters.Not many of you were wise by human standards,not many were powerful,not many were of noble birth.Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise,and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong,and God chose the lowly and despised of the world,those who count for nothing,to reduce to nothing those who are something,so that no human being might boast before God.It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus,who...

For much of the twentieth century, Catholics around the world prayed after every Low Mass for the conversion of Russia.Called the Leonine Prayers, originally they were conceived as a protection of the sovereignty of the Papal States, which were then under attack. This intention ended with the Lateran Treaty of 1929 but the prayers continued from that time for the conversion of Russia that had become an atheistic state bent on destroying religion.The prayers included 3 Ave Marias, a Salve Regina, a versicle and response, a prayer for the conversion of sinners and the “exaltation of Holy Mother Church,”...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Animals In The Bible Ram New International Version (NIV) 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went...

August 29, 2014Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist    Reading 1 1 Cor 1:17-25 Brothers and sisters:Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the Gospel,and not with the wisdom of human eloquence,so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.For it is written:I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,and the learning of the learned I will set aside. Where is the wise one?Where is...

Pray For Our American Heroes and Our Nation Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Psalm 90:1 (NIV) ----

Pray For Our American Heroes and Our Nation John 14:6 Stand Firm New International Version (NIV) It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me. Who will condemn me?They will all wear out like a garment; the moths will eat them up.(Isaiah 50:9) For the moth will eat them up like a garment; the worm will devour them like wool. But my righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations.”(Isaiah51:8) “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal(Matthew6:19)

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Animals In The Bible Quail New International Version (NIV) 6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?” 8 Moses also said, “You will know that it was the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the...

August 28, 2014Memorial of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church    Reading 1 1 Cor 1:1-9 Paul, called to be an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,and Sosthenes our brother,to the Church of God that is in Corinth,to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy,with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.Grace to you and peace from God our Fatherand the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always on your accountfor the grace of God bestowed...

Prayers are urgently needed for my friend's foster son Sebastian. He is a very fragile child with multiple disabilities. He has had a couple of succesful surgeries to correct some of his problems but unfortunately, after coming home from hospital, he has had severe complications. They will be testing him today to see how responsive he is. The doctors are not sure why he is having so many problems and don't know what else they can do. Please also pray for comfort for his family . Thank you so much for your prayers.