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

The Healing Hand of God

Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Saint Apollinaris (martyr 1st or 2nd century)

Readings of the Day:
RB: Ch 41 The Times for Community Meals
Mass: Is 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8; Resp Ps (Is 38); Mt 12:1-8

Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord:

'O Lord, remember how faithfully and wholeheartedly I conducted myself in your presence, doing what was pleasing to you.'

Thursday of the Second Week of Lent

Readings of the day: RB 23 Faults Which Deserve Excommunication; RB 24 Different Degrees of Excommunication

Mass: Jr 17:5-10; Resp Ps 1; Lk 16:19-21

I the Lord test the mind and search the heart,

to give all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.

(Jr 17:10)

The following from J. Hubbard gives cause for reflection:

I have come to understand that the state of my heart is not defined by my actions, my striving, or even my accomplishments, but by my willingness to seek the mars and scratches, by acknowledging my brokenness, and by my readiness to surrender to the only One who can make my heart anew. Our loving Father awaits me in these moments, meets me in my vulnerability, and forgives me my trespasses. Lent offers us all a time to reflect, recognize, and repent—to lean in, draw closer, and to make ready our hearts to receive the brilliance and grace which Easter morning brings.

God in His providence offers us the season of Lent each year

as a chance to return to Him with all our hearts and in every aspect of our lives.

(Pope Francis, Twitter, March 1, 2018)

LOVING AND MERCIFUL GOD,

MAY OUR HEARTS OVERFLOW WITH THE INEXPRESSIBLE

DELIGHT OF LOVE!