November is the month dedicated to the Poor Souls in Purgatory
Readings from the Rule of Saint Benedict for the Week: Ch 35 Kitchen Servers for the Week - Ch 40 The Proper Amount of Drink
My lips shall glorify you.
THOSE WHO ARE LEAST REMEMBERED,
MY JESUS HAVE MERCY.
SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL,
PRAY FOR US.
Resplendent and unfading is wisdom, and she is readily perceived by those who love her, and found by those who seek her.
(Wisdom 6:12)
Welcome to the Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time as we continue to blaze through the glorious month of November dedicated to the Poor Souls in Purgatory. For all who have died, for the poor souls in Purgatory, for all those who don't have anyone to pray for them, and for all those who pray for us as we continue on our journey of faith and respond to the universal call to holiness. Give praise to God! And how fitting it is this week as we commemorate All the Saints of the Benedictine Family to heed the words of our holy father Benedict in the Prologue to the Holy Rule. After all, it is Jesus who tells us to Stay awake and be ready! For you do not know on what day your Lord will come. It behooves us to be ready. And if it's not Wisdom that you run into, run the other way!
Let us get up then, at long last, for the Scriptures rouse us when they say: It is high time for us to arise from sleep. Let us open our eyes to the Light that comes from God, and our ears to the voice from heaven that every day calls out this charge: If you hear His voice today, do not harden your hearts, And again: You that have ears to hear, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. And what does He say? Come and listen to me, sons; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Run while you have the light of life, that the darkness of death may not overtake you.
(Holy Rule of Saint Benedict, Prologue 8-13)
And for our voices for the week, we give praise as we hear first from my patron saint, commemorated November 16. A voice that turns out to be a nice little mantra for just about all situations, those pleasant and not so pleasant as we are bound to be presented with a little of both. ☺
In all that concerns me, Lord, Your adorable will be done.
(Saint Gertrude the Great of Helfta, 1256-1301)
Teach me the language you speak, O God, and make me understand those little signs, by which you give understanding hearts to know what is your will.
(William of St. Thierry, c. 1085-1148)
You are the tabernacle of God; you the temple of God. As the Apostle says: Holy is the temple of God which you are. A temple, because the Lord will reign forever in you. And yet a tabernacle, because God is on pilgrimage in you, God hungers in you, God thirsts in you.
(Aelred of Rievaulx, 1110-1167)
Humility is not a coward's virtue. Its beatitude is found through an abandonment in faith that touches the heroic.
(Bishop Eric Varden, ocso, Bishop of Trondheim, Norway)
God will either shield you from suffering or will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace, and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations.
(Saint Francis de Sales, 1567-1622)
Everything may be taken from us, but God we shall find everywhere. Courage, Sisters, courage!
(Saint Julie Billiart, 1751-1816, in collaboration with a devout noblewoman, foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame)
We must keep the flame of faith alive in our heart. This flame is lit with the oil of charity and prayer; charity performed through and for the love of God.
(Pope Benedict XVI, 1927-2022)
The greater my unworthiness, the more abundant His mercy.
(Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, 1774-1821)
All for God, and all through Mary.
(Saint Rafael Arnaiz Baron, 1911-1938)
SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER CABRINI,
ALL SAINTS OF THE BENEDICTINE FAMILY,
SAINT MACHAR,
BLESSED MARIA TERESA SCRILLI,
SAINT DYFRIG OR DUBRIC OR DUBRICUS,
SAINT LAURENC O'TOOLE,
THE BEATIFIED MARTYRS OF THE CLIFTON DIOCESE,
THE READING MARTYRS,
SAINT JOSEPH PIGNATELLI,
ALL CARMELITE SAINTS,
SAINT ALBERT THE GREAT,
COMMEMORATION OF ALL CARMELITE SOULS,
SAINT MARGARET OF SCOTLAND,
SAINT GERTRUDE THE GREAT OF HELFTA,
SAINT JOSEPH MOSCASTI,
SAINT EDMUND OF ABINGDON,
OUR LADY OF THE GATE OF DAWN,
SAINT ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY,
SAINT HILDA,
SAINT HUGH OF LINCOLN,
SAINT DIONYSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA,
SAINTS PETER AND PAUL,
SAINT ROSE-PHILIPPINE DUCHESNE,
SAINT ROMAN OF ANTIOCH,
PRAY FOR US.
Today's photo: This one from a little walk my beloved sister and I took a few days ago. Don't forget to look down; don't forget to look up. Lifting up my hands, I will call upon Your name.
© Gertrude Feick 2023
