Saturday within the Octave of Easter

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

Saints: Saint George, Martyr (-c.303); Saint Adalbert of Prague (956-997); Blessed Teresa Maria of the Cross (1846-1910)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 65:11-22 The Prior of the Monastery

Mass: Acts 4:13-21; Resp Ps 118; Mk 16:9-15

Alleluia.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

PRAY FOR US.

We find our friend who was healed on Wednesday still hanging around in today's account from the Acts of the Apostles. We find him standing there, beside Peter and John. He seems to have left the opposition speechless. Never without something to say, though, and perhaps intimidated by the boldness of Peter and John (Acts 4:13), the naysayers decide to warn Peter and John, and command them not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus (Acts 4:18). Yeah, right. I don't expect Peter and John were shaking in their boots. Meanwhile, nearly everybody else was praising God for what had happened. And this is a great line left out of the lectionary, "for the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old" (Act 4:22). I admire the courage of the man who was healed. He stuck with the program. I don't imagine him just standing there; this man was standing tall. In fact, his witness is strong: Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature (Mk 16:15). Alleluia.

Saint George was a man who abandoned one army for another: he gave up the rank of tribune to enlist as a soldier for Christ. Eager to encounter the enemy, he first stripped away his worldly wealth by giving all he had to the poor. Then, free and unencumbered, bearing the shield of faith, he plunged into the thick of the battle, an ardent soldier for Christ.

Clearly what he did serves to teach us a valuable lesson: if we are afraid to strip ourselves of our worldly possessions, then we are unfit to make a strong defense of the faith.

(From a sermon by Saint Peter Damian, bishop, in Office of Readings, April 23)

SAINT GEORGE,

SAINT ADALBERT OF PRAGUE,

BLESSED TERESA MARIA OF THE CROSS,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: I don't think you've seen this particular arrangement before. Even so, it doesn't hurt to see it again. From our garden.

© Gertrude Feick 2022

Monday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

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

National Back to School Month

Saints: Saint Eusebius of Vercelli, Bishop (283-371); Saint Peter Julian Eymard (1811-1868); Saint Peter Faber (1506-1546)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 51 Brothers on a Short Journey

Mass: Nb 11:4b-15; Resp Ps 81; Mt 14:13-21

Sing with joy to God our help.

JESUS, THE MIGHTY GOD,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

Welcome to Monday. There is a slight mist in the air that comes as a welcome and unexpected relief. It is a good day to praise God through word and deed with a few words from Cistercian monk and abbot John of Forde (1140-1244) to keep in mind: "O how lovingly we can expect everything from God when we expect nothing from ourselves! There is nothing I cannot do in Him, knowing as I do there is nothing I can do without Him."

I greatly desire to become a saint, that I may be able to make [others] saints and thus procure the glory of God.

(Saint Peter Julian Eymard)

The universal vocation of creation and human beings is to praise God ... We are representatives of the creation (which cannot speak) in praising God.

(Francis Mahieu, ocso, 1912-2002)

SAINT EUSEBIUS OF VERCELLI, 

SAINT PETER JULIAN EYMARD,

SAINT PETER FABER

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: All you birds of the air, and that includes you little corn bunting, bless the Lord.

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle

Year of Saint Joseph

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

First Saturday of the Month

Other saints: Our Lady of Budslau (Belarus)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 26 Unauthorized Association with the Excommunicated

Mass: Eph 2:19-22; Resp Ps 117; Jn 20:24-29

Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.

YOU ARE MY GOD AND I CONFESS YOU; YOU ARE MY GOD, AND I EXALT YOU; I WILL THANK YOU, FOR YOU BECAME MY SAVIOR.

(Entrance Antiphon, Mass)

It seems a good day to go with Jesus' greeting to the disciples as He stood in their midst, just as He stands in our midst, as He is present with you right now: Peace be with you (Jn 20:26). May we respond like Thomas, "My Lord and my God" (Jn 20:28). I believe help my unbelief. 

The disbelief of Thomas has done more for our faith than the faith of the other disciples. As he touches Christ and is won over to belief, every doubt is cast aside and our faith is strengthened. So the disciple who doubted, then felt Christ's wounds, becomes a witness to the reality of the resurrection.

(From a homily on the Gospels by Saint Gregory the Great, pope, in Office of Readings, July 3)

SAINT THOMAS THE APOSTLE,

OUR LADY OF BUDSLAU,

SAINT JOSEPH,

MARY, QUEEN OF APOSTLES, 

PRAY FOR US. 

Today's photo: More beauty in Windsor, CA.

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

Year of Saint Joseph

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

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 18:12-19

Mass: Is 49:1-6; Resp Ps 139; Acts 13:22-26; Lk 1:57-66, 80

Wonderful are your works.

JESUS, LAMB OF GOD,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

Today we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist, the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths (Lk 3:4). We too prepare the way of the Lord. First, let us repent of our sins, then let us leap with joy as did John the Baptist in the womb of his mother (Lk 1:44). One way to leap is to pray with Psalms 148, 149, and 150 as we do at Vigils. Praise the Lord from the heavens; give praise in the heights ... Let everything that has breath give praise to the Lord! We give praise to the God who is, praise to the God who was, praise to the God who is to come, for ages unending Amen. 

Heaven is filled with converted sinners of all kinds and there is room for more.

(Saint Joseph Cafasso, 1811-1860)

Did a Magdalene, a Paul, a Constantine, an Augustine become mountains of ice after their conversion? Quite the contrary. We should never have had these prodigies of conversion and marvelous holiness if they had not changed the flames of human passion into volcanoes of immense love of God.

(Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, 1850-1917)

When John was preaching the Lord's coming he was asked: Who are you? And he replied: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. The voice is John, but the Lord in the beginning was the Word. John was a voice that lasted only for a time; Christ, the Word in the beginning, is eternal.

(From a sermon by Saint Augustine, bishop, in Office of Readings, June 24)

SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: An Otto family camping trip at the Metolius River in central Oregon. Here the sunrise from the top of Black Butte, see Mount Washington in the distance. 

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Tuesday of the Third Week of Eastertide

Year of Saint Joseph

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

Other saints: Saints Marcellinus, Vincent, Dominus (-374); Saint Bueno (-640); Saint Agnes of Montepulciano OP (1268-1317)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 64:1-6 The Election of an Abbot

Mass: Acts 7:51-8:1a; Resp Ps 31; Jn 6:30-35

Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your kindness.

JESUS, EXAMPLE OF VIRTUES,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

First, today's entrance antiphon from Mass:

SING PRAISE TO OUR GOD, ALL YOU WHO FEAR GOD, BOTH SMALL AND GREAT, FOR SALVATION AND STRENGTH HAVE COME, AND THE POWER OF HIS CHRIST.

ALLELUIA.

Second, something Saint Augustine preached: 

Sing to the Lord a new song. Look, you tell me, I am singing. Yes, indeed; you are singing clearly, I can hear you. But make sure that your life does not contradict your words. Sing with your voices, your hearts, your lips and your lives ... 

You have heard the words: Sing to the Lord a new song, and you wish to know what praises to sing. The answer is: His praise is in the assembly of the saints; it is in the singers themselves. If you desire to praise Him, then live what you express. Live good lives, and you yourselves will be His praise.

(From a sermon by Saint Augustine, bishop, in Office of Readings, Tuesday, Third Week of Easter)

SAINTS MARCELLINUS, VINCENT, DOMINUS,

SAINT BUENO,

SAINT AGNES OF MONTEPULCIANO,

SAINT STEPHEN,

SAINT AUGUSTINE,

SAINT MONICA,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Catherine in Corvallis with shooting stars!

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Wednesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 24 Degrees of Excommunication
Mass: Ep 6:1-9; Resp Ps 145; Lk 13:22-30

Our Lady of the Redwoods

Please rejoice with and pray for us as we celebrate the 56th Anniversary of the Foundation of Redwoods Abbey.

We praise God with two of our founding sisters, Sr Godelieve and Sr Veronique. Our dear sisters, along with their companions from Our Lady of Nazareth Abbey, Brecht, Belgium, took to heart the words of the Prophet Isaiah, proclaimed this morning at Morning Prayer.

Your ears will heed the command from behind you: This is the road follow it.

(Is 30:20)

Pope Saint John Paul II (1920-2005)

Monday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 18 :1-6 The Order for Reciting the Psalms
Mass: Ep 2:1-10; Resp Ps 100; Lk 12:13-21

We are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.

Who do I worship?

Saturday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha (d. 1680, canonized 2012)

Readings of the DayRB Ch 33:12-18 
Mass: Is 6:1-8; Resp Ps 93; Mt 10:24-33

Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.

My Mouth Will Declare Your Praise!

Friday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Saint Henry (d. 1024)

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 35:1-11 Weekly Servers in the Kitchen and at Table
Mass: Ho 14:2-10; Resp Ps 51; Mt 10:16-23

All you beasts, wild and tame, bless the Lord; praise and exult him above all forever.

(Da 3:81)