Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Saints: Saints Louis Martin and Marie Azelie Guerin (19th century); Saint John Jones (-1598)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 34 Distribution of Goods According to Need

Mass: Is 7:1-9; Resp Ps 48; Mt 11:20-24

Great is the Lord and wholly to be praised.

MARY QUEEN OF PEACE,

PRAY FOR US.

Let not your courage fail.

(Is 7:4)

Even though we are no longer in the year dedicated to families, the Year of the Family "Amoris laetitia The Joy of Love," we always pray for families. And we have two great intercessors commemorated today, namely, Saint Louis Martin and Marie Azelie Guerin, the first-ever married couple with children to be canonized in the same ceremony. Remarkably, five of their nine children (four died in infancy) entered religious life, including the Little Flower, that is, Saint Therese of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church. Still, their life was simple and faith filled. One Carmelite source has this to say: "Louis and Zelie did not do anything extraordinary in their lifetimes, but rather lived their faith in a very simple, humble way, teaching by example, knowing what it was like to mourn the loss of loved ones, nurturing the vocation of their children, and putting their faith into action by reaching out to others in need" (Society of the Little Flower).  At their 2015 canonization, Pope Francis preached this: "The holy spouses Louis Martin and Marie-Azelie Guerin practiced Christian service in the family, creating day by day an environment of faith and love which nurtured the vocations of their daughters, among whom was Saint Therese of the Child Jesus." Furthermore, "the radiant witness of these new saints inspires us to persevere in joyful service to our brothers and sisters, trusting in the help of God and the maternal protection of Mary. From heaven may they now watch over us and sustain us by their powerful intercession" (October 18, 2015). May we be inspired. Mary, queen of families, pray for us. Saint Joseph, pillar of families, pray for us.

SAINTS LOUIS MARTIN AND MARIE AZELIE GUERIN,

SAINT JOHN JONES,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: This one was taken early this last Sunday morning. Nice. The joy of all the earth.

© Gertrude Feick 2022

Fourth Sunday of Easter

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

59th World Day of Prayer for Vocations "Called to Build the Human Family"

Mother's Day

In other years: Blessed Catherine of Saint Augustine (1632-1668); Blessed John Sullivan (1861-1933); Blessed Aloysius Rabata (c. 1443-1490); Patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary over the entire Order of Preachers

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Prologue 45-50

Mass: Acts 13:14, 43-52; Resp Ps 100; Rev 7:9, 14b-17; Jn 10:27-30

Know that the Lord is good.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

PRAY FOR US.

Remain faithful to the grace of God.

(Acts 13:43)

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers. Your faithfulness to your vocation inspires me to be faithful to mine. Thank you. Mary, Queen of mothers, pray for us.

It is also the 59th World Day of Prayer for Vocations with the theme "Called to Build the Human Family." With that theme in heart and mind, as well as remembering that we are still in the Year of the Family, here is more wisdom from Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur. Elisabeth composed a treatise for her beloved niece and godchild Marie at the time of Marie's First Communion. Elisabeth wrote to Marie not only about First Communion, but also about her vocation as Christian, woman, wife and mother. Elisabeth, unable to have children of her own, loved her niece dearly. 

To my beloved only niece, my godchild by a precious and sacred bequest, and my adopted daughter, I offer this token of my deep Christian affection ...

In the first place, a Christian is a human being like everyone else. Every individual is a thinking, reasoning being, illumined by the natural light which is the first degree of the divine intelligible, as you will learn later from St. Augustine ... As beings possessed of sense and reason, we live lives that differ in no respect from that of other members of the human race, but there is something beyond, which is not, as too many people suppose, antagonistic to this life. There is a higher life, which sheds its radiance upon our whole individuality, transforming it, giving it motives for action, supernatural like itself, and fashioning our outward life after the likeness of our inward existence, so as to produce a harmonious whole ...

In the society in which you live, you will have an intellectual duty to perform, and this is more important now than ever. You ought to be a woman of real worth, well educated and with your mind open to every argument without. You ought to know how to discover amid incoherent and varying ideas and systems what is true or useful in each ... 

The second duty that you will have to discharge is toward your family; it is certainly not new, but so great and important that I want to speak about it again. With the Church, I believe that the whole structure of moral, national, and social life is based on the family. And I am convinced that everything done for the sake of the family adds to the greatness and strength of nations and society, whereas, they are irretrievably destroyed as soon as the family life, the cornerstone of the structure, is attacked.

You will therefore do your utmost to behold, in every way, respect and regard for family life. Later on, when you have a family of your own, you will make your home a glowing center of influence, and will be yourself the conscience of those who live in the light that you diffuse. To your husband you will be a friend and companion, and your children, a guide and personification of moral strength ...

There is also a duty toward society which every Christian woman has to discharge. And as your education will give you real worth, you ought to exert yourself to the utmost in order to improve the material and moral condition of others, and especially of the masses which, although robbed of their birthright and often led astray, are nevertheless still sound at heart, and are the reserve force of the nation and of the Church ...

(E. Leseur, The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur: The Woman Whose Goodness Changed Her Husband from Atheist to Priest, "Christian Womanhood", pp. 269, 275, 278-279)

May we follow the Good Shepherd Jesus. He knows us, individually and collectively. He calls each one of us by name and bestows on us our vocations. May we listen to His voice and be true to our calling. Jesus, Good Shepherd, have mercy on us.

BLESSED CATHERINE OF SAINT AUGUSTINE,

BLESSED JOHN SULLIVAN,

BLESSED ALOYSIUS RABATA,

MARY, VIRGIN MOST FAITHFUL,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Beauty in simplicity.

© Gertrude Feick 2022

Saint Wenceslaus (907-935); Saint Lawrence Ruiz and Companions (Martyred in Japan, 1633-1637)

Friday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 7:19-23
Mass: Si 3:1-11; Resp Ps 144; Lk 9:18-22

There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every thing under the heavens.

Monday of the Third Week of Easter

Readings of the day: RB 61:6-14

Mass: Ac 6:8-15; Resp Ps 119; Jn 6:22-29

STEPHEN, FILLED WITH GRACE AND POWER,
WAS WORKING GREAT WONDERS AND SIGNS AMONG THE PEOPLE.
THEY COULD NOT UNDERSTAND THE WISDOM
AND THE SPIRIT WITH WHICH HE SPOKE.

Let us ask St Stephen to intercede for us so that all the words we use to communicate with our families, friends, community members, co-workers, and all those we encounter be words of kindness, gentleness, love, and welcome.

Words from Pope Francis are fitting for all these encounters, what he calls ‘the little details of love’ in Gaudete et Exsultate, 145:

The love of friendship unifies all aspects of marital life and helps family members to grow constantly.  This love must be freely and generously expressed in words and acts.  In the family, "three words need to be used.  I want to repeat this! Three words: ‘Please’, ‘Thank you’, ‘Sorry’.  Three essential words!". "In our families when we are not overbearing and ask: ‘May I?’; in our families when we are not selfish and can say: ‘Thank you!’; and in our families when someone realizes that he or she did something wrong and is able to say ‘Sorry!’, our family experiences peace and joy". Let us not be stingy about using these words, but keep repeating them, day after day.  For "certain silences are oppressive, even at times within families, between husbands and wives, between parents and children, among siblings". The right words, spoken at the right time, daily protect and nurture love (Pope Francis, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, 133).

STEPHEN’S FACE WAS LIKE THAT OF AN ANGEL.