Year of Saint Joseph
Saint Angela Merici (1474-1540), Foundress of the Congregation of the Ursulines, the "oldest and most considerable teaching Order in the Roman Catholic Church"
International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 7:10-18
Mass: Heb 10:11-18; Resp Ps 110; Mk 4:1-20
Yours is princely power in the day of your birth, in holy splendor.
IF YOU DO NOT TAKE YOUR STAND ON ME, YOU WILL NOT STAND FIRM.
(Is 7:9)
Today's Gospel brings to mind the passage from the Prophet Isaiah above. Who and what led me to the Prophet's words were Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) in his Introduction to Christianity (Ignatius, 2004). One of the back cover blurbs is a fitting description of the book: "This is solid food that must be eaten slowly, but it is very nourishing and worth the effort." In a section entitled "Faith as Standing Firm and Understanding", J. Ratzinger writes: "Faith is ... defined as taking up a position, as taking a stand trustfully on the ground of the word of God" (p. 69). We must stand on the firm ground of the word of God and trust. May we be ones sown on rich soil, those who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and hundredfold (Mk 4:20). I believe, help my unbelief.
Through prayer a new incarnation of the Word takes place. And we are the 'tabernacles' where the words of God want to be welcomed and preserved , so that they may visit the world ... through prayer, the word of God comes to abide in us and we in it ... the word inspires good intentions and sustains actions.
(Pope Francis, General Audience, January 27, 2021)
Do in life what you would have wanted to do in death.
(Saint Angela Merici)
© Gertrude Feick 2021
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