The Transfiguration of the Lord

Year of Saint Joseph

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

National Back to School Month

First Friday of the Month

43rd Anniversary of the Death of Saint Giovanni Baptiste Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, Pope Saint Paul VI

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 54 Letters or Gifts for Monks

Mass: Dn 7:9-10, 13-14; Resp Ps 97; 2 Pet 1:16-19; Mk 9:2-10

The Lord is king, the Most High over all the earth.

HEART OF JESUS, OF INFINITE MAJESTY,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

As is my custom every year on this glorious feast, I pulled out three postcards from my 2000 pilgrimage to the Holy Land. It was during the Jubilee Year and shortly before I entered the monastery. The cards are from Mount Tabor. One is of the Mount, the Mount of the Transfiguration; another from inside the Basilica of the Transfiguration, a picture of the Transfiguration Mosaic by R. Villani; and my favorite is of the stained glass window of the crypt in the Basilica, with peacocks, symbols of immortality. I remember the day of the visit, a beautiful day when I, with a few others, walked up the mountain. At the same time, others were driven up the mountain in cars, cars that were not moving slowly. One thing I remember it that people were hang gliding off the side of the mountain and I wanted to join in. Yes, it was good to be there. And there is another thing I remember. It was so good to be in the Holy Land that I considered staying there to work on a kibbutz. A wise monk in the group suggested that I reconsider. Can you imagine? 😊 Kyrie eleison.

It's the First Friday of the Month and a good day to listen to the voice coming from the cloud: This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him (Mk 9:7). And as Saint Peter writes, "You will do well to be attentive to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts" (2 Pet 1:19).

Since each of us possesses God in his heart and is being transformed into His divine image, we also should cry out with joy: It is good for us to be here-here where all things shine with divine radiance, where there is joy and gladness and exultation; where there is nothing in our hearts but peace, serenity and stillness; where God is seen. For here, in our hearts, Christ takes up His abode together with the Father, saying as He enters; Today salvation has come to this house. With Christ, our hearts receive all the wealth of His eternal blessings, and there where they are stored up for us in Him, we see reflected as in a mirror both the firstfruits and the whole of the world to come.

(From a sermon on the transfiguration of the Lord by Anastasius of Sinai, bishop, in Office of Readings, August 6)

POPE SAINT PAUL VI,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: From the Otto's hike at Wiamea Canyon, Kauai. It was certainly good to be there too. 

© Gertrude Feick 2021