March 3, 2012

Saturday of the First Week in Lent 
Lectionary: 229

Reading 1 Dt 26:16-19

Moses spoke to the people, saying:
"This day the LORD, your God,
commands you to observe these statutes and decrees.
Be careful, then,
to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.
Today you are making this agreement with the LORD:
he is to be your God and you are to walk in his ways
and observe his statutes, commandments and decrees,
and to hearken to his voice.
And today the LORD is making this agreement with you:
you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you;
and provided you keep all his commandments,
he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory
above all other nations he has made,
and you will be a people sacred to the LORD, your God,
as he promised."

Responsorial Psalm Ps 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8

R. (1b) Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Blessed are they whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD.
Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
You have commanded that your precepts
be diligently kept.
Oh, that I might be firm in the ways
of keeping your statutes!
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
I will give you thanks with an upright heart,
when I have learned your just ordinances.
I will keep your statutes;
do not utterly forsake me.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!

Gospel Mt 5:43-48

Jesus said to his disciples:
"You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies,
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers and sisters only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Meditation:  "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you"

Do you know the love that conquers every fear, sin, and selfish desire? God renews his love for us each and every day. His love has the power to free us from every form of evil – selfishness, greed, anger, hatred, jealously and envy. What’s the distinctive feature of Jesus' life and the life of those transformed by his redeeming love? It's grace – treating others, not as they deserve, but as God wishes them to be treated – with loving-kindness and mercy. Jesus is God's grace incarnate. His love is unconditional and is wholly directed towards our good. God is good to all, the just and the unjust. His love embraces saint and sinner alike. That's why Jesus willingly went to the cross for our sake, to free us from the power of sin, ignorance, and prejudice. God's grace sets us free from everything that would keep us from him and his love. How can we possibly love as God loves and overcome evil with good? With God all things are possible. He gives grace in abundance through the gift of the Holy Spirit, who converts our hearts and minds and teaches us how to live according to God’s truth and love.

Was Jesus exaggerating when he said we must be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect? The original meaning of "perfect" in Aramaic is "completeness" or "wholeness" – not lacking in what is essential. God gives us every good gift in Jesus Christ so that we may not lack anything we need to carry out his will and to live as his sons and daughters. He knows our frailty and sinfulness better than we do. And he assures us of his grace and help to follow in his ways. In the cross of Jesus we see the way of perfect love. Do you want to grow in the knowledge, wisdom, and love of God? Ask the Holy Spirit to set your heart on fire with the love of God.

"Give us, Lord, a humble, quiet, peaceable, patient, tender and charitable mind, and in all our thoughts, words and deeds a taste of the Holy Spirit. Give us, Lord, a lively faith, a firm hope, a fervent charity, and love of you. Take from us all lukewarmness in meditation, dullness in prayer.  Give us fervor and delight in thinking of you and your grace, your tender compassion towards me.  The things we pray for, good Lord, give us grace to labor for: through Jesus Christ our Lord. " (Prayer of Thomas More)

( Don Schwager)

‘I say this to you: love your enemies.’
You see through our motivation, Lord. You know that we love those who love us and help those who help us. And, as you say, there’s nothing particularly worthy in that. But how can we live the other way? 

Sometimes I feel I just don’t have it in me to love those other people. I don’t have the strength to keep pouring love into a bottomless pit, hearing no echo, seeing no progress. But, then, you’re not asking me to keep giving something I only have a little of. You’re asking me to be a channel of that inexhaustible spring of your love.

How will people become lovable unless someone loves them? How will your love become real to people who need it unless it comes to them through those, like me, who claim to be your friends?
(Daily Prayer Online)

MINUTE MEDITATIONS

A Heart Rich in Mercy    

If we want to know whether we love like Christ, we must ask ourselves whether our heart is merciful as his was. Without mercy, love is impossible.

— from The Sacred Heart for Lent

March 3
Blessed Innocent of Berzo
(d. 1890)

Born in 1844 near Brescia in northern Italy, Innocent was already a diocesan priest and 30 years of age when he requested admission into the Capuchin Franciscan Order in 1874. He served as assistant novice master and then director of candidates for the order.

Innocent showed a special gift in working with the young men seeking to follow the Franciscan life. He loved his pupils, and they loved him. He preached exterior mortification, especially in controlling the tongue, but he knew that exterior discipline is hypocrisy if not founded on interior mortification. And as a preacher of prudence, Innocent was able to say with St. Francis: "Let everyone pay attention to his own nature. For, while one person can get along with less indulgence, I would not have another, who requires more, try to imitate him; but rather let him take his own nature into account and grant it what it truly needs."
This ascetic friar, only 45 years old, died on March 3, 1890, from influenza while on a preaching tour. He was beatified by Pope John XXIII in 1961. Both miracles from his beatification process were the cure of terminally sick children.

Comment:

Innocent preached mortification—a phrase that usually brings to mind giving up something we enjoy. But his strongest emphasis was on controlling the tongue—giving up careless and hurtful speech. Words that belittle us chip away at our confidence; the sting of harsh words can inflict lasting scars. Racial and ethnic slurs undermine the unity of the human race. Innocent also preached the importance of changing our hearts. Being careful about the words we use helps to soften them.

March 3
St. Katharine Drexel
(1858-1955)

If your father is an international banker and you ride in a private railroad car, you are not likely to be drawn into a life of voluntary poverty. But if your mother opens your home to the poor three days each week and your father spends half an hour each evening in prayer, it is not impossible that you will devote your life to the poor and give away millions of dollars. Katharine Drexel did that.

She was born in Philadelphia in 1858. She had an excellent education and traveled widely. As a rich girl, she had a grand debut into society. But when she nursed her stepmother through a three-year terminal illness, she saw that all the Drexel money could not buy safety from pain or death, and her life took a profound turn.
She had always been interested in the plight of the Indians, having been appalled by what she read in Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor. While on a European tour, she met Pope Leo XIII and asked him to send more missionaries to Wyoming for her friend Bishop James O’Connor. The pope replied, “Why don’t you become a missionary?” His answer shocked her into considering new possibilities.
Back home, Katharine visited the Dakotas, met the Sioux leader Red Cloud and began her systematic aid to Indian missions.
She could easily have married. But after much discussion with Bishop O’Connor, she wrote in 1889, “The feast of St. Joseph brought me the grace to give the remainder of my life to the Indians and the Colored.” Newspaper headlines screamed “Gives Up Seven Million!”
After three and a half years of training, she and her first band of nuns (Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored) opened a boarding school in Santa Fe. A string of foundations followed. By 1942 she had a system of black Catholic schools in 13 states, plus 40 mission centers and 23 rural schools. Segregationists harassed her work, even burning a school in Pennsylvania. In all, she established 50 missions for Indians in 16 states.
Two saints met when Katharine was advised by Mother Cabrini about the “politics” of getting her Order’s Rule approved in Rome. Her crowning achievement was the founding of Xavier University in New Orleans, the first Catholic university in the United States for African Americans.
At 77, she suffered a heart attack and was forced to retire. Apparently her life was over. But now came almost 20 years of quiet, intense prayer from a small room overlooking the sanctuary. Small notebooks and slips of paper record her various prayers, ceaseless aspirations and meditation. She died at 96 and was canonized in 2000.

Comment:

Saints have always said the same thing: Pray, be humble, accept the cross, love and forgive. But it is good to hear these things in the American idiom from one who, for instance, had her ears pierced as a teenager, who resolved to have “no cake, no preserves,” who wore a watch, was interviewed by the press, traveled by train and could concern herself with the proper size of pipe for a new mission. These are obvious reminders that holiness can be lived in today’s culture as well as in that of Jerusalem or Rome.

Quote:

“The patient and humble endurance of the cross—whatever nature it may be—is the highest work we have to do.” “Oh, how far I am at 84 years of age from being an image of Jesus in his sacred life on earth!” (St. Katharine Drexel)

DEVOTION TO THE SEVEN SORROWS OF THE VIRGIN MARY

The Blessed Virgin Mary grants seven graces to the souls who honor her daily by saying seven Hail Mary's and meditating on her tears and dolors.  The devotion was passed on by St. Bridget.    The following are the seven sorrows of Mary with a suggested reading for each sorrow from the Bible and from the visions of Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich.   These readings are only suggested, a person may make up their own mental meditations of the seven sorrows as they pray the seven Hail Marys.

SEVEN SORROWS OF THE VIRGIN MARY:

THE PROPHECY OF SIMEON.

(St. Luke II, 34, 35)

THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT.

(St. Matthew II, 13-14)

THE LOSS OF THE CHILD JESUS IN THE TEMPLE.

(St. Luke II, 43-45)

THE MEETING OF JESUS AND MARY ON THE WAY OF THE CROSS.

THE CRUCIFIXION.

THE TAKING DOWN OF THE BODY OF JESUS FROM THE CROSS.

THE BURIAL OF JESUS.

(John 19: 38-42)

THE SEVEN GRACES GIVEN TO THOSE INDIVIDUALS THAT MEDITATE ON THE SEVEN SORROWS OF THE VIRGIN MARY

(As revealed to Saint Bridget by the Blessed Mother)

I will grant peace to their families.

They will be englightened about the divine mysteries.

I will console them in their pains and I will accompany them in their work.

I will give them as much as they ask for as long as it does not oppose the adorable will of my divine Son or the sanctification of their souls.

I will defend them in their spiritual battles with the infernal enemy and I will protect them at every instant of their lives.

I will visibly help them at the moment of their death, they will see the face of their Mother.

I have obtained(This Grace) from my divine Son, that those who propagate this devotion to my   tears and dolors, will be taken directly from the earthly life to eternal happiness since all their sins will be forgiven and my Son and I will be their eternal consolation and joy.

*****