Fourth Sunday of Easter

April is the month dedicated to the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Spirit

Good Shepherd Sunday

61st World Day of Prayer for Vocations

Readings for the Rule of Saint Benedict for the Week:  Ch 64 The Election of an Abbot - Ch 69 The Presumption of Defending Another in the Monastery

By the Lord has this been done.

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

HOLY SPIRIT, INSPIRE IN US IN THE PRACTICE OF GOOD,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

VIRGIN MOST POWERFUL,

SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL,

PRAY FOR US.

All of you and all the people of Israel should know that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead; in His name this man stands before you healed. He is the stone which the builders rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given the human race by which we are saved.

(Acts 4:10-12)

Welcome to the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday, and the 61st World Day of Prayer for Vocations. First, then, let's hear from Pope Saint John Paul II, from his 1981 Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, where, in this passage, he refers to the First Letter of Saint John (1 John 4:8) and Gaudium et spes the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (12):

God is love and in Himself He lives a mystery of personal loving communion. Creating the human race in His own image and continually keeping it in being, God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion. Love is therefore the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being (11).

Now I turn to the passage from the Acts of the Apostles above, from the first reading for today's Mass. Among other things, I keep repeating, "there is no other way, or under any other name." We go to the Name of Jesus. The only Name by which we are saved. If we go elsewhere, we are looking to idols. As Pope Francis has said, "Memory alone enables us to discover God's presence in our midst and makes us realize that every attempt to seek salvation apart from God is an idol." Look to last week. Remember. When are three specific times when you were aware that God was in your midst? Lord, Jesus Christ, thank you.

May we, like Saint Peter, be filled with the Holy Spirit (see Acts 4:8) in this month dedicated to the Holy Spirit. Together we pray, Holy Spirit, shed Thy light in our souls. Stop, look, be attentive, and listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd, the guardian of our souls. He knows us; let us follow Him, united in faith and prayer. 

Now the moment we've all being waiting for, namely, our voices for the week (as if we haven't heard from enough already), a shout from here and there over the course of the history of the Church. 

The hands should be at work, the heart with God.

(Saint Mary Joseph Rosello, 1811-1880)

Believing in Christ means loving Him ... So don't waste time wondering how to do what Christ commands; you cannot not do it if you love Christ. Love, and you do it.

(Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Doctor of Grace, 354-430)

The world is more beautiful when we are reconciled with God, with ourselves, and with our brothers.

(Mother Elvira Petrozzi, foundress of the Comunita Cenacolo, 1927-2023)

The greatest kindness one can render to another is leading him to the truth.

(Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Doctor of Grace, 354-430)

If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

(Jesus in John 8:31-32)

Faith is born from the personal encounter with the risen Christ and becomes an impulse of courage and freedom that makes one cry to the world: "Jesus is risen and alive forever."

(Pope Benedict XVI, 1927- 2022)

Do only what you can offer to God.

(Saint John Vianney, 1786-1859)

What prevents you from being a saint?

(Saint Sharbel Makhluf, 1828-1898)

And a nice addition, added by my brother, Thomas Billard, on his birthday. Auguri, fratello.

Let all nations know that Thou art God alone, and that Jesus Christ is Thy Son, and that we are Thy people and the sheep of Thy pasture.

(Saint Clement of Alexandria, 150-215)

POPE SAINTS CAIUS AND SOTER,

SAINT ANSELM OF CANTERBURY, MONK, BISHOP, DOCTOR,

SAINT MAELRUBHA,

SAINT GEORGE, MARTYR,

SAINT ADALBERT OF PRAGUE, BISHOP, MARTYR,

BLESSED MARIA OF THE CROSS,

SAINT MARK THE EVANGELIST,

BLESSED ROBERT ANDERTON AND WILLIAM MARSDEN,

SAINT ASICUS,

SAINT MAUGHOLD,

BLESSED HOSANNA OF KOTOR, OP,

BLESSED MARIA GABRIELLA SAGHEDDU,

SAINT RAFAEL ARNAIZ BARON,

SAINT ZITA OF LUCA,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: It is wonderful in our eyes.

© Gertrude Feick 2024

Wednesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Saint: Blessed Angelus Mazzinghi (c. 1386-1438)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 62 The Priests of the Monastery

Mass: Ezk 34:1-11; Resp Ps 23; Mt 20:1-16

Only goodness and kindness will follow me.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

HEART OF MARY, FASTENED TO THE CROSS WITH JESUS CRUCIFIED,

PRAY FOR US.

Hear the word of the Lord ...

I myself will look after and tend my sheep.

(Ezk 34:7, 11)

As Jesus, the True Shepherd looks after His sheep, it is of His concern who gets this, and who gets that. There is no need for us to harbor envy or jealousy over what others receive from Him. We are grateful, take what is ours, and go (Mt 20:14). The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want ... And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for years to come.

Everyone has his own gift from God, one this and another that.

(1 Cor 7:7)

BLESSED ANGELUS MAZZINGHI,

PRAY FOR US.

NB. I am sorry that I was a bit mixed up with the daily readings from the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict, getting ahead of myself with yesterday's quotation from the chapter on community rank. Things should be in order now. By the grace of God go I.😕

Today's photo: It so happens that I was gifted with a visit to Saint Bernard Catholic Parish in Eureka, CA. Not only will the visitor find hospitable people and a beautiful church, the visitor will also find the grounds loaded with magnificent flowers. In preparation for Saturday's commemoration to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, we begin today with a few things that can be found on the parish grounds. He guides me in right paths.

© Gertrude Feick 2022

Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter

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

Saints: Saint George Preca (1880-1962) 

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 1:1-5 The Kinds of Monks

Mass: Acts 11:1-8; Resp Ps 42; 43; Jn 10:1-10

Athirst is my soul for the living God.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

PRAY FOR US.

I am the gate.

(Jn 10:9)

Ready or not, welcome to Monday. Go to Jesus today. He is the way to the Father. As the Lord says: Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in a go out and find pasture ... I came so that they may might have life and have it more abundantly (Jn 10:9-10). United in faith and prayer, we go forth.

Christ is alive! ...

Alive, He can be present in your life at every moment, to fill it with light and to take away all sorrow and solitude. Even if all others depart, He will remain, as He promised: "I am with you always to the end of the age" (Mt 28:20). He fills your life with His unseen presence; wherever you go, He will be waiting there for you. Because He did not come only in the past, but He comes to you today and every day, inviting you to set out to ever new horizons.

(Pope Francis, Christus vivit Christ is alive, 1, 125)

Whoever seeks the truth will find God.

(E. Leseur, The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur, p. 154)

SAINT GEORGE PRECA,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: This was another early morning find in Carmichael, CA, a week ago yesterday.

© 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

Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent

Year of Saint Joseph

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

Saint: Saint Ambrose of Milan, Bishop, Doctor (340?-397)

Pearl Harbor Day, 80th Anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor (1941)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 55:1-14 Clothing and Footwear

Mass: Is 40:1-11; Resp Ps 96; Mt 18:12-14

Sing to the Lord, bless His name.

HEART OF JESUS, DESIRE OF THE EVERLASTING HILLS,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

What sticks with me this morning, after several hours to reflect upon both readings for today, first from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, and secondly in the Gospel passage, is that I am certainly grateful that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, searches endlessly for the one who goes astray. Even when there ninety-nine who stay with Him, Our Lord goes after the one who goes astray. So whether you are astray with tiredness, ill health, worries, grief, fear or anxiety, the Good Shepherd wants to gather you in His arms, carry you in His bosom, and lead you with care (Is 40:11). Jesus loves you. He rejoices over you. Rejoice with Him.

On the newsy news front, the Holy Father Pope Francis has returned to Rome after his 35th Apostolic Journey. We continue to pray for his health and well-being, and for the people of Cyprus and Greece. On this 80th Anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, we remember too all those who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor, and for all those who served our country in World War II. Thank you. If you've never been to Pearl Harbor, it's worth a visit.

Mercy is a good thing, for it makes men perfect, in that it imitates the perfect Father. Nothing graces the Christian so much as mercy.

(Saint Ambrose of Milan)

No one heals himself by wounding another.

(Saint Ambrose of Milan)

SAINT AMBROSE OF MILAN,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: If this cookie was in front of me right now, I assure you that it would not last long. Yum. This gem is only one of about ten dozen holiday cookies baked by dear d and co. The recipe is a family tradition passed along for three generations now. The crew was busy for about five hours, the time needed to roll out, cut, decorate, and bake the lot of them. Bless the work of our hands; bless the work of hands. BTW, if you need a lol, here's one. The "berry" photo posted yesterday was not at all what I described. You see, there was a little confusion about those "berries" which are more likely some form of holly, and the "berry" you see in today's photo, seen here in the bottom right of the photo and much more likely to be the Haribo kind. This one adorns the top of a Christmas cookie tree. It seems it's time to get our berries in order. As I said, lol. 😊

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Readings of the day: RB 65 The Prioress of the Monastery

Mass: Ac 4:8-12; Resp Ps 118; 1 Jn 3:1-2; Jn 10:11-18

St John, The Beloved Disciple

SEE WHAT LOVE THE FATHER HAS BESTOWED ON US

THAT WE MAY BE CALLED CHILDREN OF GOD.

Yes, God is magnificent in Love, in Mercy toward his children, he is only waiting for the gift of our heart to invade it, to fill it to overflowing with himself: 

Complete happiness…that we may in turn give it away to others.

              (C. Lebreton, in a note he found, Born from the Gaze of God, p. 36)

BELOVED, WE ARE GOD’S CHILDREN NOW; WHAT WE SHALL BE HAS NOT YET BEEN REVEALED. WE DO KNOW THAT WHEN IT IS REVEALED WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM, FOR WE SHALL SEE HIM AS HE IS.

Jesus, the Good Shepherd,

invade our hearts with LOVE, MERCY and JOY.

God calls each one of us, and each call is a gift that should fill us with joy.

(Pope Francis, Twitter, April 22, 2018)