Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love"
Saints: Saint Fursa or Fursey (-c.650); Feast of Saint Nino (Philippines); Saint Joseph Vaz (1651-1711)
Readings of the Day
Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 3:1-6 Summoning the Brothers for Counsel
Mass: Is 62:1-5; Resp Ps 96; 1 Cor 12:4-11; Jn 2:1-11
Tremble before Him, all the earth.
THE LORD DELIGHTS IN YOU.
(Is 62:4)
It is a good day to pay attention. Attentione! as the Italians express so nicely. Jesus is working in small ways, with subtlety at times, so we must be on our toes. Notice today. How is God presenting to you, in ways big and small, His marvelous deeds? Look around. Maintain a sense of awe and wonder. Ask Jesus to help you. Be open to receiving the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, fear of the Lord (Is 11:1-2/Catechism of the Catholic Church 1831), so that you bear fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, modesty, gentleness, self-control, chastity (Gal. 22-23/CCC 1832). For, as Saint Paul tells us, "There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit ... but one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them individually to each person as he wishes" (1 Cor 12:4-7, 11). United in faith and prayer, we go forth, there is work to do. Buona domenica!
How beautiful it is to think that the first sign Jesus accomplished was not an extraordinary healing or something prodigious in the temple of Jerusalem, but an action that responded to a simple and concrete need of common people, a domestic gesture. Let us put it this way-a miracle done on tip toes, discreetly, silently. Jesus is ready to help us, to lift us up. And then, if we are attentive to these "signs", we will be conquered by His love and we will become His disciples.
(Pope Francis, Angelus Address, January 16, 2022)
It is a feminine trait to listen, to receive, to watch. Perhaps that is why more women pray than men. Perhaps that is why among contemplatives there are more women than men-it is the 'feminine' which listens and waits. It is feminine trait, also, to see, to observe. The wine has run out. Mary notices, and being a woman she has a practical mind.
(Basil Hume, Searching for God, p. 160, originally given as a Chapter to the monks of Ampleforth, 1971)
SAINT FURSA,
SAINT NINO,
SAINT JOSEPH VAZ,
PRAY FOR US.
Today's photo: From a friend of a faithful reader. The former is working as a volunteer in Yosemite National Park this winter and was kind to share the grandeur of the place.
© Gertrude Feick 2022
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