Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love"

Month of May Dedicated to Our Lady and a “Marathon” of Prayer to End the Pandemic

Saints of the Day: Saint Bede the Venerable )673-735); Pope Saint Gregory VII (1020-1085); Saint Mary Magdalen of Pazzi (1566-1607)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 6 Restraint of Speech 

Mass: Sirach 35:1-12; Resp Ps 50; Mk 10:28-31

Hear, my people, and I will speak.

Here is some wisdom from the Book of Sirach: To refrain from evil pleases the Lord, and to avoid injustice is an atonement (Sir 35:3). We can look to Saint Benedict for ways to do this from yet another one of my favorite chapters, today on restraint of speech. Our holy father Benedict urges us to "follow the Prophet's counsel: I said, I have resolved to keep watch over my ways that I may never sin with my tongue. I have put a guard over my mouth. I was silent and was humbled, and I refrained even from good words (Ps 38[39]:2-3)." Saint Benedict goes on to say, "because it is written: In a flood of words you will not avoid sin (Prov 10:19); and elsewhere, The tongue holds the key to life and death (Prov 18:21)" (RB 6:1, 4-5). 

All the ways of this world are as fickle and unstable as a sudden storm at the sea.

(Saint Bede the Venerable)

Come, Holy Spirit ...

Come! As you descended upon Mary that the Word might become flesh, work in us through grace as you worked in her through nature and grace.

Come! Food of every chaste thought, fountain of all mercy, sum of all purity.

Come! Consume in us whatever prevents us from being consumed by you.

(From the writings On Revelations and On Trials by Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, virgin, in Office of Readings, May 25)

SAINT BEDE THE VENERABLE,

POPE SAINT GREGORY VII,

SAINT MARY MAGDALEN OF PAZZI,

SAINT JOSEPH,

MARY, MOTHER OF MERCY,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Since we are back in Ordinary Time, which as a beloved chaplain used to say, is anything but ordinary, here is an anything but ordinary dog. Meet Rainey, a Tibetan terrior who dear Tamara has been busy raising. Here's some of the anything but ordinary. Rainey is not a terrier at all. Tibetan terriers are hairy dogs that guarded the monasteries of Tibet and were imported here by a woman who thought they looked like terriers. Rainey is a lot of work, I'm told, but she's a lovely little dog. Indeed she is. Woof!

© Gertrude Feick 2021