Monday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

Labor Day

Saints: Saint Herbert (d. 687); Saint Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Prologue 33-38 

Mass: 1 Cor 5:1-8; Ps 5; Lk 6:6-11 

May your favor, O Lord, be upon us.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

AFFLICTED MOTHER,

PRAY FOR US.

Stretch out your hand.

(Lk 6:10)

In today's Gospel, Jesus tells the man with the withered hand to stretch out his hand. There are all sorts of people who stretch out their hands. And we don't have to go too far to find them as Saint Teresa of Calcutta says: "The fruit of prayer is deepening of faith, and the fruit of faith is love; and the fruit of love is service, in whatever form, even in our family. Love begins at home." Wherever we find ourselves honoring out National Holiday, at home, in community, with friends or relatives, or even enjoying some time alone, we remember this: "What a wonderful thought, that God loves me, and that I can love you, and you can love me, as He loves us. What a wonderful gift of God!" (Saint Teresa of Calcutta). He did so and his hand was restored (Lk 6:10).

On this Labor Day then, "let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Cor 5:8)

The true worth and nobility of man lie in his moral qualities, that is, his virtue; that virtue is, moreover, the common inheritance of all people, equally within the reach of high and low, rich and poor; and that virtue, and virtue alone, wherever found, will be followed by the rewards of everlasting happiness.

(Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum Of Revolutionary Change, Encyclical on Capitol and Labor, May 15, 1891, #24)

"If you ever feel distressed during your day, call upon Our Lady, just say this simple prayer: 'Mary, Mother of Jesus, please be a mother to me now." I must admit, this prayer never failed me."

(Saint Teresa of Calcutta)

SAINT TERESA OF CALCUTTA,

SAINT HERBERT,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: And may you give success to the work of our hands.

 

© Gertrude Feick 2022

Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Saints: Saint Antony Mary Zaccaria (1502-1539); Saint Modwen (7th century); Blessed George Nichols, Richard Yaxley, Thomas Belson, Humphrey Pritchard (-1589)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 28 Those Who Refuse to Amend after Frequent Reproofs

Mass: Hosea 8:4-7, 11-13; Resp Ps 115; Mt 9:32-38

Alleluia.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

PRAY FOR US.

Come to me, all who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you, says the Lord.

(Communion Antiphon, Mass)

Welcome to Tuesday. For many this week, it is like a Monday. 😎

Feeling troubled and abandoned like the crowds in today's Gospel (Mt 9:36)? Thankfully, Jesus' heart continues to be moved with pity for any who are, and even for those aren't. Jesus loves you. Go to the Good Shepherd. He will refresh you. Heart of Jesus, full of love, mercy, and compassion, have mercy on us.

SAINT ANTONY MARY ZACCARIA,

SAINT MODWEN,

BLESSED GEORGE NICHOLS, RICHARD YAXLEY, THOMAS BELSON, HUMPHREY PRITCHARD,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: There will be plenty of wheat to harvest in Leesburg, IN.

© Gertrude Feick 2022

Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

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

Saints: Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 48:10-21 The Daily Manual Labor

Mass: 1 Jn 4:7-16; Resp Ps 34 or Ex 40:16-21, 34-38; Resp Ps 84; Jn 11:19-27 or Lk 10:38-42

Glorify the Lord with me.

JESUS ENTERED A VILLAGE WHERE A WOMAN WHOSE NAME WAS MARTHA WELCOMED HIM. SHE HAD A SISTER NAMED MARY WHO SAT BESIDE THE LORD AT HIS FEET LISTENING TO HIM SPEAK.

(Lk 10:38-39)

For some years, a friend of happy memory would give me a stack of 52 cards for my birthday, one for each week of the year. On each of the cards, usually a mixed collection of postcards, greeting cards and holy cards, was written a quotation. The quotations often, but not always, were all taken from the same book. For example, the first year had quotations from Gertrude the Great's The Herald of Divine Love. Another year had random quotations from here and there. Another year was dedicated to Adrienne von Speyer's Three Women and the Lord (Ignatius 1986). I still have all the cards from each year and today will share words from Three Women and the Lord, fitting for today's memorial. First though, a few words about the Holy Rule. We are once again in another one of my favorite chapters, Ch 48 The Daily Manual Labor. It is in the first verse that Saint Benedict says, "Idleness is the enemy of the soul." Martha is pleased with that. Saint Benedict goes on though: "Therefore, the brothers should have specified periods for manual labor as well as for prayerful reading." Mary is pleased too. 😊

As we contemplate the Lord on His journey it is axiomatic that love inspires His steps. It comes from the Father and goes to the Father and all the time He is in the Father. On His way He meets a woman and she too does something out of love; she takes Him into her house. This woman is like the rod of the tree, and her sister is the fruit ...

Here again there are three aspects to love: the Lord on His journey, Martha's activity and in the background, shining through her, the tranquil being of Martha's sister. This contemplative "being" on the part of Mary of Bethany will turn out to be the highest response that human love can make to the Lord. But this love would be impossible unless it drew its life from the Lord Himself; nor could it issue in any expression without the meditation of Martha's activity, which brought her and the Lord together ...

At first love is as it were latent; the Lord, journeying here and there, is its pure, invisible radiance, and Mary is its pure, invisible expectation. Martha's action releases it into visibility, causing its hidden energy to explode. 

(Adrienne von Speyer, Three Women and the Lord, pp. 85, 87) 

SAINTS MARTHA, MARY, AND LAZARUS,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Monastery daphne.

© Gertrude Feick 2021