Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

The Month of February Dedicated to the Holy Family

Saint: Saint Mel (d. 488); Saint Richard (8th century); Pope Blessed Pius IX (1792-1878)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 7:59 Humility

Mass: Gn 1:20-2:4a; Resp Ps 8; Mk 7:1-13  

Thus the heavens and the earth and all their array were completed.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL,

PRAY FOR US.

JESUS, MARY, AND JOSEPH, SON, MOTHER, AND HEAD OF HOLY FAMILY,

PRAY FOR US.

Since on the seventh day God was finished with the work He had been doing, He rested on the seventh day from the all the work He had undertaken.

(Gn 2:2)

Take a look around and see. It is no wonder God rested on the seventh day; He must have been tired. 

For the beauty of the earth

For the glory of the skies,

For the love which from our birth

Over and around us lies.

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,

This our hymn of grateful praise.

About the saints we commemorate today, Saint Mel, Saint Richard, and Blessed Pope Pius IX. It is said that Saint Mel or Moel was a Briton who came to Ireland with his uncle, Saint Patrick, with whom he worked until he was ordained. Saint Mel is one of the earliest Irish saints and gave the religious veil to Saint Brigid. Saint Richard was the father of three saints, Saints Willibald, Winnebald, and Walburga. Saint Richard has been called "King of the English". And among other things, Pope Blessed Pius IX convoked the First Vatican Council in 1868.*

SAINT MEL,

SAINT RICHARD,

POPE BLESSED PIUS IX,

SS. WILLEBALD, WINNEBALD, AND WALBURGA,

SAINT PATRICK,

SAINT BRIGID,

PRAY FOR US.

*See Universalis, "About Today," Catholic News Agency "St. Richard," and Vatican News, "Saint of the Day."

Today's photo: Welcome to the Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia, South America. Faithful reader, Catherine, and her husband just returned from a few weeks in Chile. About the National Park and the beauty of the place, Catherine commented, "Can never get enough. Completely over the top - what our Creater has made!!!" God looked at everything He made, and He found it very good.

© Gertrude Feick 2023

Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Saints: Saint Bonaventure, Cardinal-Bishop, Doctor of the Church (1218-1274): Saint Swithun (-862); Saint Osmund of Salisbury (-1099)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 36 The Sick Brothers 

Mass: Is 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8; Resp Ps (Is 38); Mt 12:1-8

Those live whom the Lord protects.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

PRAY FOR US.

For the Son of Man is the Lord of the sabbath.

(Mt 12:8)

Heed the words of the Lord that the Prophet Isaiah delivered to Hezekiah in today's first reading: "Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you shall not recover" (Is 38:1). Hezekiah's response? He turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord (Is 38:2). Heart of Jesus, enriching all who invoke Thee, have mercy on us. Lord, yours is the life of my spirit. You have given me health and life (Hezekiah's song of thanksgiving, see Is 38:9-20). Amen.

We must suspend all operations of the mind and we must transform the peak of our affections, directing them to God alone. This is a sacred mystical experience ...

If you ask how such things can occur, seek the answer in God's grace, not in doctrine; in the longing of the will, not in the understanding; in the sighs of prayer, not in research; seek the bridegroom not the teacher; God and not man; darkness and not daylight; and look not to the light but rather to the raging fire that carries the soul to God with intense fervor and glowing love ...

Let us die, then, and enter into the darkness, silencing our anxieties, our passions and all the fantasies of our imagination ...

My flesh and my heart fail me, but God is the strength of my heart and my heritage for ever. Blessed be the Lord for ever, and let all the people say: Amen. Amen!

(From the Journey of the Mind to God by Saint Bonaventure, in Office of Readings, July 15)

SAINT BONAVENTURE,

SAINT SWITHUN, 

SAINT OSMUND OF SALISBURY,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Crocosmia adorned in brilliant red. 

© Gertrude Feick 2022

Solemnity of Our Holy Father Benedict, Abbot

Saint Benedict (480-547)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 33 Monks and Private Ownership

Mass: Pr 2:1-9; Resp Ps 34 (Taste and See the Goodness of God); Eph 4:1-6 or Col 3:12-17; Lk 22:24-27 or Mt 19:27-29 or Mt 5:1-12a

Listen carefully, my son, to the master's instructions.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

PRAY FOR US.

Let them prefer nothing whatever to Christ,

and may He bring us all together to everlasting life.

(Rule of Saint Benedict, 72:11-12)

Welcome to another Monday and the blessing of not just another Monday. Rejoice in the Lord, let me say it again, rejoice! It is the Solemnity of our holy father Saint Benedict, who Pope Saint Paul VI proclaimed the principal patron saint of Europe in his 1964 apostolic letter Pacis Nuntius. In the letter, Pope Paul VI gave Saint Benedict the illustrious titles of messenger of peace, creator of unity, teacher of civility, and above all the herald of the religion of Christ and the founder of western monasticism. We give glory to God and ask Saint Benedict, Pope Saint Paul VI, and Cardinal Basil Hume to intercede for all members of the Order of Saint Benedict throughout the world, for their spiritual and temporal welfare.

One thing hasn't changed about this Monday. Like others, it is busy. And at only 9:20 a.m. we've put in a fair share of ora, not without some labora. Since "idleness is the enemy of the soul", we "have specified periods for manual labor as well as for prayerful reading" (Rule of Saint Benedict, 48:1). United in faith and prayer and "clothed then with faith and the performance of good works, let us set out on this way, with the Gospel as our guide, that we may deserve to see Him who has called us to His heavenly kingdom" (RB Prologue 21). Moreover, "as we progress in this way of life and in faith, we shall run on the path of God's commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love" (RB Prologue 49).

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, 

giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

(Col. 3:17)

OUR HOLY FATHER SAINT BENEDICT,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Used with permission of the Benedictine Sisters of Mt. Angel, OR. Icon through the hand of Brother Claude, OSB. And attend to them with the ear of your hearts.

© Gertrude Feick 2022

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

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

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 54 Letters or Gifts for Monks

Mass: Dn 3:14-20, 91-92, 95; Resp Ps (Dn 3); Jn 8:31-42

Blessed are you in the firmament of heaven.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

PRAY FOR US.

My deliverer from angry nations, you set me above my assailants; you saved me from the violent man, O Lord.

(Entrance Antiphon, Mass)

We have others, along with Susanna from Monday, put to the test in another one of my favorite readings that comes to us at today's Mass, namely, the account of Shedrach, Meschach, and Abednego, who were cast into the white-hot furnace because they would not serve the god, or the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And it happens that I have in front of me a favorite picture postcard from the Catacombs of Priscilla in Rome. It's of a fresco of the three young men in the furnace "unfettered and unhurt, walking in the fire" (Dn 3:92). I turn to the many verses left out from today's reading from time to time and today is a good day to join the young men in the furnace, who "walked about in the flames, singing to God and blessing the Lord (Dn 3:24). It was Azariah (Abednego), who "stood up and prayed aloud" ( Dn 3:25), Blessed are you and praiseworthy, O Lord, the God of our fathers, and glorious forever is your name ... (Dn 3:26-45). When the furnace, then, continued to be stoked by the king's men, the angel of the Lord (also in my picture postcard) went down into the furnace and drove out the fiery flames (Dn 3:49). Then all three young men "with one voice sang, glorifying and blessing God" (Dn 3:51): Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever ... Everything growing from the earth, bless the Lord; praise and exalt Him above all forever ... (Dn 3:52-90). No matter how hot the flames become today, may they be tamed with our praise of the Lord. One never knows what may happen. Hearts may turn from hearts of stone, to natural hearts of flesh (Ezk 36:26), including our own.

Yet is was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured ...

Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth ...

(Is 53:4,7)

Today's photo: It's been since last spring that I've had a look at something like this in Eureka. Let the earth bless the Lord, praise and exalt Him above all forever. 

© Gertrude Feick 2022

Thanksgiving Day; Saint Cecilia (early Christian martyr)

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 43:13-19
Mass: 
For Thanksgiving Day: Si 50:22-24; 1 Co 1:3-9; Lk 17:11-19
For Ferial Day: Rev 5:1-10; Resp Ps 149; Lk 19:41-44

And now, bless the God of all, who has done wondrous things on earth.

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.

Saturday of the Second Week of Easter

Readings of the day: RB 60 The Admission of Priests into the Monastery

Mass: Ac 6:1-7; Resp Ps 33; Jn 6:16-21

It had already grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come.

The sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing.

Our lives are like this sometimes: we experience dark periods of self-doubt, loneliness, betrayal, disappointment; we have troubles, anxieties, worries, and are afraid. The winds of daily life are blowing—we feel ungrounded, frustrated, and wonder where God is. Nevertheless, a line from Albert Camus’sThe Stranger comes to mind: ‘Mother used to say that however miserable one is, there’s always something to be thankful for.’ Our eyes and ears are opened to see and hear: It is I. Do not be afraid. Jesus walks toward us, behind us, before us, and with us. The Lord is with me; I am not afraid (Ps 118:6). Thank you, Jesus. 

Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you;

and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you.

Evangelii Gaudium, 164

Saint Andrew Düng-Lac and Companions (117 martyrs of Vietnam, died from 1740 to 1883)

Readings of the day: RB 45

Mass: 1 Maccabees 4:36-37, 52-59; Resp. Psalm (1 Chr 29); Luke 19:45-48

ALL THE PEOPLE HUNG UPON HIS WORDS.

Luke 19:48

In the wake of our country’s celebration of Thanksgiving Day, I share Franklin D. Roosevelt’s (XXXII President of the United States: 1933-1945) Day Proclamation, November 1, 1944. I was especially struck by the 4^th paragraph where FDR recommends a nationwide reading of the Holy Scriptures. Thanks be to God. Thank you, President Roosevelt. RIP.

FDR reads his D-Day Prayer

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

In this year of liberation, which has seen so many millions freed from tyrannical rule, it is fitting that we give thanks with special fervor to our Heavenly Father for the mercies we have received individually and as a nation and for the blessings He has restored, through the victories of our arms and those of our allies, to His children in other lands.

For the preservation of our way of life from the threat of destruction; for the unity of spirit which has kept our Nation strong; for our abiding faith in freedom; and for the promise of an enduring peace, we should lift up our hearts in thanksgiving.

For the harvest that has sustained us and, in its fullness, brought succor to other peoples; for the bounty of our soil, which has produced the sinews of war for the protection of our liberties; and for a multitude of private blessings, known only in our hearts, we should give united thanks to God.

To the end that we may bear more earnest witness to our gratitude to Almighty God, I suggest a nationwide reading of the Holy Scriptures during the period from Thanksgiving Day to Christmas. Let every man of every creed go to his own version of the Scriptures for a renewed and strengthening contact with those eternal truths and majestic principles which have inspired such measure of true greatness as this nation has achieved.

Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, in consonance with the joint resolution of the Congress approved December 26, 1941, do hereby proclaim Thursday the twenty-third day of November 1944 a day of national thanksgiving; and I call upon the people of the United States to observe it by bending every effort to hasten the day of final victory and by offering to God our devout gratitude for His goodness to us and to our fellow men.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this first day of November in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-four and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-ninth.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

(Citation: Franklin D. Roosevelt: “Proclamation 2629—Thanksgiving Day, 1944,” November 1, 1944. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=72460.)