Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time

August is the month dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament 

Readings for the Rule of Saint Benedict for the Week: Ch 67 Brothers Sent on a Journey - Ch 73 This Rule Only a Beginning of Perfection

Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

SACRED HOST, IN WHICH THE SOUL IS FILLED WITH GRACE,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

MARY, WHO ALWAYS COMES TO OUR AID,

SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL,

PRAY FOR US. 

Live in love, as Christ loved us.

(Ephesians 5:2a)

Welcome to the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time, in the last week of the month of August dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament. It is also the week when we conclude the second of three "read throughs" of the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict for the year. So, with Christ's help, may we keep this little rule that has been written for beginners (see Rule of Saint Benedict, 73:8), so that in all things may God be glorified (RB 57:9).

Here we are with the conclusion of the Bread of Life discourse. Jesus tells us today that there are some among us to do not believe (Jn 6:64), even though we know in our hearts that His words are spirit and life, that He is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. As hard as the Lord's sayings are, we keep on believing. We accept the Lord's authority; we accept His teaching. This is faith. We will never fully explain what the Lord tells us; however, we accept it because He tells us: He speaks with authority (see Luke 4:32). Jesus has the words of eternal life (Jn 6:69).  Saint Paul, in his Letter to the Romans writes: "Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17). It just won't do to longer accompany Jesus, to leave His side (see Jn 6:66-67). Something Cardinal Basil Hume said in 1997 might be helpful: "Our faith in the Eucharist depends entirely on what the Lord has told us. Our five senses are utterly useless. No help at all. But I believe this is His Body; I believe that this is His Blood simply on His word. I am absolutely blind but He has spoken these words, and because my faith in Him, because God became man, and He has spoken this word, He has told me about this reality, then I accept it." This is my Body, says the Lord, this is my Blood. There is no better place to go. I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst (John 6:35). Never. I believe, help my unbelief. 

Now for our voices this week. May we be about building a civilization of love, spreading Eucharistic love to all those we meet. For as Pope Francis wrote in his message to Madagascar's National Eucharistic Congress (August 23-26): "Once we have encountered Christ in adoration, once we have touched and received Him in the Eucharistic celebration, it is no longer possible to keep Him to ourselves." We are on a mission, dear faithful readers, so let us go about it in whatever corner of the world we find ourselves in.

We are called to be physicians of that civilization about which we dream, the civilization of love.

(Pope Saint Paul VI, 1963- 1978, General Audience, December 31, 1975)

Peace can write the finest pages of history, inscribing them not only with the magnificence of power and glory but also with the greater magnificence of human virtue, people's goodness, collective prosperity and true civilization: the civilization of love.

Pope Saint Paul VI, 1963- 1978, Peace Day Message, January 1977)

Act in a way that the sad sight of human injustice may not trouble your soul ... One day you will see the unfailing triumph of God's justice arise.

(Saint Pius of Pietrelcina "Padre Pio", 1887-1968)

The reason to love God is God Himself. The measure is to love Him beyond measure.

(Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, 1090-1113)

Only those who never fight are never wounded.

(Saint John Chrysostom, 347-407)

The way to become a saint, Dominic, is to be always cheerful, do your duties to the best of your ability, and give your classmates a good example. Keep in the mind that the Lord is always with you and wants your happiness.

(Saint John Bosco to Dominic Savio, d. 1857, who joined the Oratory school of John Bosco)

If you correspond to the designs of God, He will make a saint of you. Be generous, and remember that we ought to walk in the footsteps of Jesus crucified.

(Saint Paul of the Cross, 1694-1775)

SAINT LOUIS IX, KING OF FRANCE,

SAINT JEANNE ELIZABETH DES BICHIER DES ANGES,

SAINT JOSEPH OF CALASANZ,

SAINT MARY OF JESUS CRUCIFIED BAOUARDY,

BLESSED DOMINIC BARBERI,

SAINT DAVID LEWIS,

OUR LADY OF CZESTOCHOWA,

SAINT CAESARIUS OF ARLES,

BLESSED JACQUES RETOURET,

SAINT TERESA OF JESUS' REVERBERATION,

SAINT MONICA,

SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO, BISHOP, DOCTOR,

SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST,

SAINT BEATRICE OF NAZARETH,

SAINT MARGARET CLITHEROW,

SAINT ANNE LINE,

SAINT MARGARET WARD,

BLESSED GHEBRE MICHAEL,

SAINT FIACRE,

SAINT EDMUND ARROWSMITH,

SAINT JEANNE JUGAN,

SAINT AIDA N,

SAINT WARREN AND AMADEUS, CISTERTIAN ABBOTS,

SAINT RAYMOND NONNATUS,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: I will bless the Lord at all times.

© Gertrude Feick 2024

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

July is the month dedicated to the Precious Blood of the Lord

Sea Sunday: We remember and pray for seafarers and their families, in gratitude for their lives and work - Our Lady, Star of the Sea, pray for us.

In other years: The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel; Saint Helier (-555)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict for the Week: Ch 37 The Elderly and Children - Ch 43 Tardiness at the Work of God or at Table

Mass: Is 55:10-11; Resp Ps 65; Rm 8:18-23; Mt 13:1-23

Greatly have you enriched it.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

MARY, STAR OF THE SEA,

MARY, QUEEN OF ANGELS,

SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL,

PRAY FOR US.

BLOOD OF CHRIST, PEACE AND TENDERNESS OF HEARTS,

SAVE US.

Just as from the heavens the rain and snow came down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful ... so shall my word be that goes from my mouth.

(Isaiah 55:10-11). 

Welcome to the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time in the month of July dedicated to the Precious Blood of the Lord. With today's invocation from the Litany of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus, I remember Sister Mary Blanche Smith, OSB, of happy memory, who, as I was went to her for a blessing before I flew somewhere, always told me to pray that the Blood of Christ wash over the people below as the plane flew over them. We could all certainly benefit from the Blood of Christ, peace and tenderness of hearts, washing over us. This week, let us spend some time tending to the soil of our hearts to receive God's heart of peace and tenderness. May we receive the word of God with open minds and the willingness to listen with ears that ought to hear (see Mt 13:9), no matter what as we groan within ourselves and wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies (see Rm 8:23). Listen carefully, my child, to the master's instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart (Rule of Saint Benedict, Prologue 1).

With a late addition to today's wordy words, I add something that came to me as the priest proclaimed the Gospel at this morning's Mass. In Matthew 13:10, we hear that the disciples approached Jesus and asked, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" With that I recalled something my Irish Dominican professor in Rome said, that is, "Jesus is a walking parable." Add that one to your reflections this week. It is nice for sure. Jesus is a walking parable. And it is in Him that we live, and move, and have our being. 

This week's voices are all from Cardinal Basil Hume (1923-1999), during the centenary of his birth. Fitting too as next year we commemorate the 25th anniversary of his death. May the dear Cardinal intercede for us. Give God the praise! United in faith and prayer, we are pilgrims on the journey of life.

Life is a pilgrimage. We are on a march and sooner or later we shall reach our destination. That destination we call heaven.

This pilgrim way [is] not at all easy ... it can be pretty rough and uphill business as I try to make my way along it.

The pilgrim wanders through life, often limping, sometimes bewildered, at times quite lost; and the pilgrim is searching, often quite unconsciously, for something or someone to make sense of life, and certainly to make sense of death.

(To Be a Pilgrim: A Spiritual Notebook/The Mystery of the Cross/To Be a Pilgrim)

We talk of knowing about God, whereas the point is to know God. We want to know God, that is why there is prayer in our lives. It is only in the experience of praying that we become aware not only that we seek God, but that God is always seeking us.

(To Be a Pilgrim: A Spiritual Notebook)

Always think of God as your lover. Therefore He wants to be with you, just as a lover wants to be with the beloved. He wants your attention, as every lover wants the attention of the beloved. He wants to listen to you, as every lover wants to hear the voice of the beloved. If you turn to me and ask, "Are you in love with God?" I would pause, hesitate and say, "I am not certain. But on one thing I am certain-that He is in love with me."

(The Mystery of Love)

To see Christ in everyone you meet, and especially in the poor, the sick and the handicapped. Behave towards others as you expect them to behave towards you.

(To Be a Pilgrim)

Everything in the Christian life, and therefore in the monastic life, is ordered to charity, and charity is concerned with loving other people.

(Unpublished conference to the monks at Ampleforth Abbey, 1967)

Whatever our problems or uncertainties, however dark the future may seem, we can always go forward bravely into the unknown. Jesus Christ experienced this darkness Himself, but through it He encountered light; He rose from the dead. That is the main reason why we should be joyful and at peace.

(The Mystery of the Cross)

From something the Cardinal told the priests of his archdiocese, good for all of us to take to heart as we go and bear good fruit that yields a hundred or sixty of thirtyfold (see Mt 13:8).

I think there is a great need to find a way of speaking about God which touches the lives and hearts of people, because there is a search going on. We have so many riches in our tradition from our collective experience; we have simply got to find a way to communicate.

(Light in the Lord: Reflections on the Priesthood)

OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL,

SAINT HELIER,

POPE SAINT LEO IV,

SAINT KENELM,

BLESSED JOHN SUGAR AND ROBERT GRISSOLD,

BLESSED INACIO DE AZEVEDO,

BLESSED THERESE OF SAINT AUGUSTINE AND COMPANIONS,

SAINT CAMILLUS DE LELLIS,

SAINT BRUNO OF SEGNI,

SAINT AEMILIANUS, MARTYR OF MESIA, BISHOP,

SAINT JOHN PLESSINGTON,

SAINT APOLLINARIS,

SAINT ELIJAH, FATHER OF THE CARMELITES,

SAINT LAURENCE OF BRINDISI,

SAINT MARY MAGDALENE,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Blessing its yield.

© Gertrude Feick 2023