Wednesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

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

Saints: Saint Lawrence of Brindisi (1559-1619)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 42 Silence after Compline

Mass: Ex 16:1-5; Resp Ps 78; Mt 13:1-9

The Lord gave them bread from heaven.

MARY, VIRGIN MOST RENOWNED,

PRAY FOR US.

Whoever has ears ought to hear (Mt 13:9), Jesus tells us in today's Gospel. And a great time to listen and hear is during silence. It is no secret that Saint Benedict calls us to "diligently cultivate silence at all times, but especially at night (RB 42:1), most especially after Compline, the last common prayer of the day, when "no one will be permitted to speak further" (RB 42:8). In fact, the last word on our lips each and every day should be "Mary", sung in the Salve Regina at the end of Compline: O clemens: O pia: O dulcis Virgo Maria; O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. Ask Mary to help you listen to the words of her Son. Speak, Lord, your servant is listening. 

The word of God is a light to the mind and a fire to the will. It enables man to know God and to love Him. And for the interior man who lives by the Spirit of God through grace, it is bread and water, but a bread sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, a water better than wine and milk. For the soul it is a spiritual treasure of merits yielding and abundance of gold and precious stones. Against the hardness of a heart that persists in wrongdoing, it acts as a hammer. Against the world, the flesh and the devil it serves as a sword that destroys all sin.

(From a sermon by Saint Lawrence of Brindisi, priest, in Office of Readings, July 21)

SAINT LAWRENCE OF BRINDISI,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Back to Maddy and her backpack trip, Marmot Pass, Buckhorn Wilderness, WA.

© Gertrude Feick 2021