Third Sunday of Lent

Year of Saint Joseph

In other years: Saints Perpetua and Felicity, Martyrs (-203)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 30 The Manner of Reproving Boys

Mass: Ex 20:1-17; Resp Ps 19; 1 Cor 1:22-25; Jn 2:13-25 or Ex 17:3-7; Resp Ps 95; Rm 5:1-2, 5-8; Jn 4:5-42

Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.

JOSEPH, PROTECTOR OF HOLY CHURCH,

PRAY FOR US.

Welcome to the Third Sunday of Lent with plenty of readings to reflect upon. Our prayers continue for Pope Francis and the people of Iraq during the Holy Father's Apostolic Visit to Iraq. We also pray for those preparing to enter the Church at Easter who today receive the First Scrutiny. "May they persevere in the faith of the Church and in living a holy life" (Magnificat, Prayer of the Faithful). United with them, may we too be faithful to the Church and respond wholeheartedly to the universal call to holiness.

On another busy Sunday for some, it is good to be reminded of God's command to keep holy the sabbath day (Ex 20:8). Even the Lord God who "in six days made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them" (Ex 20:11) rested on the seventh day. All said though, it is often that whatever we are busy with can be a way to serve the Lord Our God and our neighbor. So whether we are "burdened  with much serving" like Martha (Lk 10:40), or sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to Him like Mary (Lk 10:39), we can keep it in perspective "so that in all things God may be glorified" (1 Pet 4:11/RB 57:9). After all, "the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Rm 5:5). And if you find it difficult to keep things in perspective, never forget that "the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength" (1 Cor 1:25). 😊 Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.

To us, also, your servants,

who, though sinners,

hope in your abundant mercies,

graciously grant some share 

and fellowship with your holy Apostles and Martyrs:

... Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, Anastasia and all your Saints;

admit us, we beseech you,

into their company,

not weighing our merits,

but granting us your pardon,

through Christ our Lord.

[Eucharistic Prayer I, (Roman Canon)]

Today's photo: Camellia at our front entrance. 

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Saturday of the Second Week of LentTod

Year of Saint Joseph

First Saturday of the Month

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 29 Readmission of Those Who Leave the Monastery

Mass: Micah 7:14-15, 18-20; Resp Ps 103; Lk 15:1-3, 11-32

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.

MARY, MOTHER OF GOOD COUNSEL,

JOSEPH, MIRROR OF PATIENCE,

PRAY FOR US.

Welcome to the First Saturday of the Month. Our prayers continue for Pope Francis and the Iraqi people during the Holy Father's Apostolic Visit to Iraq. 

I have neglected to make any comments on our readings these days from the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict. Today is a good day to say something in light of our Gospel where the father welcomes his "lost" (Lk 15:32) son. We are in the midst of Saint Benedict's penal code, or chapters on how not only the Abbot or Abbess, but also the community as a whole approaches and works with members who commit faults in one way or another. One might also say those members who disrupt the life and peace of a community with behaviors such as stubbornness, disobedience, being proud, grumbling (RB 23), or other faults. You may be able to come up with faults that you have experienced at home, in community, or other places where you gather with others. Or maybe even those you have committed yourself, times when you join Saint Paul and say, "for I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want" (Rm 7:19). These chapters are important and may be summarized in many ways. I offer a couple. 

First, each one of us has to be responsible for our behavior, with honesty and humility. If I act out in one way or another, I have to own my behavior and make appropriate amends. Like the son in today's Gospel who goes to his father: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you ...: (Lk 15:21). Christian life with others is not a free for all. Our behaviors, both good and evil, affect others. And second, amidst all this, we hope too that whoever is working with us, for example, mom, dad, religious superior, boss, or teacher exercises "utmost care and concern" (RB 27:1), and offers the needed support, guidance, and consolation "because it is not the healthy who need a physician, but the sick" (Mt 9:12/RB 27:1). During this holy season of Lent, let us be honest with ourselves, God, and one another. Mutual prayers abound. 

And one last thought in the form of a question. Just which son in today's Gospel was "lost"?

THE LORD IS KIND AND FULL OF COMPASSION, SLOW TO ANGER, ABOUNDING IN MERCY. HOW GOOD IS THE LORD TO ALL, COMPASSIONATE TO ALL HIS CREATURES.

(Entrance Antiphon, Mass)

Today's photo: This sent by dear MJM in Gulf Shores, Alabama, is fun for the First Saturday of the Month.

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Friday of the Second Week of Lent

Year of Saint Joseph

First Friday of the Month

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 28 Those Who Refuse to Amend After Frequent Reproofs

Mass: Gn 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a; Resp Ps 105; Mt 21:33-43, 45-46

Remember the marvels the Lord has done.

HEART OF JESUS, FULL OF GOODNESS AND LOVE,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

Welcome to the First Friday of the Month. Our prayers are with Pope Francis and the Iraqi people during the Holy Father's Apostolic Visit to Iraq, March 5-8. One of my favorite customs of popes as they travel for an Apostolic Visit is to send messages of peace and blessing to heads of state of countries the papal plane flies over. On his way to Iraq, Pope Francis sent messages to Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Palestine, Israel, and Jordan! 😊 For reflection then, how might you extend messages of peace and blessing to others today? And considering our readings at Mass, it seems a good day for such a gestures. 

We think of Joseph in the first reading from the Book of Genesis. I am reminded that as a child, one of may favorite books was Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors. I can see Joseph on the cover with a beautiful coat of vibrant colors. Joseph's brothers, so filled with jealousy and envy of their father's love for Joseph, wanted to kill Joseph and throw him into a cistern. Then there is the son of the landowner in the Gospel. He was seized and killed by tenants so filled with jealousy and envy. As we extend a message of peace and blessing to those we encounter today, especially to those with whom we have difficulties, may we remember Saint Benedict's tools for good works: Harbor neither hatred or jealousy of anyone, and do nothing out of envy (RB 4:65-67).

FOR JESUS KNEW THAT IT WAS OUT OF ENVY THAT THEY HANDED HIM OVER.

(Mt 27:18)

THE STONE THAT THE BUILDERS REJECTED HAS BECOME THE CORNERSTONE; BY THE LORD HAS THIS BEEN DONE, AND IT IS WONDERFUL IN OUR EYES.

(Mt 21:42/Ps 118:22-23)

Today's photo: A garden shot taken yesterday afternoon.

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Thursday of the Second Week of Lent

Year of Saint Joseph

Other saints: Saint Casimir (1458-1484)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 27 The Abbot's Concern for the Excommunicated

Mass: Jer 17:5-10; Resp Ps 1; Lk 16:19-31

Blessed the one who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on His law day and night.

JESUS, THE TRUE LIGHT,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

We hear the word of Our Lord God through the Prophet Jeremiah: Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is in the Lord (Jer 17:7). Saint Benedict echoes in a tool for good works: "Place your hope in God alone" (RB 4:41). Oh, the one who hopes in the Lord "is like a tree planted beside waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; In the year of the drought it show no distress, but still bears fruit" (Jer 17:8). May we be about bearing the fruit of our trust and hope in the Lord Our God with those we meet this day. 

To experience Lent in hope entails growing in the realization that, in Jesus Christ, we are witnesses of new times, in which "God is making all things new" (Rev 21:1-6). It means receiving the hope of Christ who gave His life on the cross and was raised by God on the third day, and always being "prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls [us] to account for the hope that is in [us]" (1 Pt 3:10).

(Message of the Holy Father Francis for Lent 2021, 2)

SAINT CASIMIR, DEFENDER OF THE POOR,

SAINT JOSEPH, HOPE OF THE SICK,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: This early morning shot was taken around 5am Monday. 

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent

Year of Saint Joseph

Other saints: Saint Katharine Drexel, Foundress (1858-1955)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 26 Unauthorized Association with the Excommunicated

Mass: Jer 18:18-20; Resp Ps 31; Mt 20;17-28

I am the light of the world, says the Lord; whoever follows me will have the light of life.

HEART OF JESUS, BURNING FURNACE OF CHARITY,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

Jesus is pretty clear about how things should be with us: Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mt 20:26-28). 

Our saint of the day, Saint Katharine Drexel, was certainly someone who took Jesus' words to heart. Read about her if you can. Just a few tidbits from Butler's, Katharine "Kate" Drexel, was born November 26, 1858, into an affluent family in Philadelphia, the second of three girls. Raised in the faith by her father Francis and her step-mother Emma (her own mother Hannah died only five weeks after Katharine's birth), "the entire family attended Mass and practised one half-hour of mental prayer every day." Her parents distributed their vast amounts of money to the needy and Emma even "ran a dispensary from the house for the sick, while Francis contributed to his own charities." Katharine followed suit and to make a lively story short, Mother Katharine founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in 1891 and in 1915 opened a teacher's college in Louisiana, now Xavier University of New Orleans, "one of the first schools in the U.S.A. to admit people of colour." "By the time her active missionary life was brought to an end, Mother Katharine had herself established 145 Catholic missions and twelve schools for Indians and fifty for African Americans, but she had brought a whole generation of Catholic Americans to an awareness of the needs of the minorities. She was to die within the very decade marked by the campaign for civil rights led by Martin Luther King, Jr. It may be said that Katharine Drexel, while not uninterested in the civil rights aspect of the life of the minorities, had her sights fixed elsewhere. What she wanted passionately to bring to them was the life of grace and the food of the Eucharist" (Butler's Lives of the Saints, March volume, pp. 20-22). Amen.

Saint Katharine Drexel, the second American (the first was another powerhouse, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, "Mother Seton", canonized in 1975 by Pope Saint Paul VI) and first one born a US citizen, was canonized by Pope Saint John Paul II on October 1, 2000.

SAINT KATHARINE DREXEL,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US. 

Today's photo: Thanks to my bro, James Andrew, this awesome shot from Ft. Myers Beach, FL, came through just as I was pondering what photo to use for today's post. And it happens to fit with today's Gospel versicle. God is praised.

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent

Year of Saint Joseph

Other saints: Saint Chad (-672)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 25 Serious Faults

Mass: Is 1:10, 16-20; Resp Ps 50; Mt 23:1-12

To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

JESUS, MEEK AND HUMBLE OF HEART,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

Welcome to a few scattered musings to ponder. At the end of today's Gospel, Jesus tells us this: Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Mt 23:12). Our Lord's words led me to two of my favorite places. First, to Saint Benedict and the Holy Rule. In the Prologue, Saint Benedict quotes Saint Paul and exhorts us: "He who boasts should make his boast in the Lord" (2 Cor 10:17/RB Prologue 32). Second, to Part Four of our Catechism where we read about Christian Prayer. Among other gems we find this in paragraph 2559: "'Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or requesting good things from God.' But when we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or 'out of the depths' of a humble and contrite heart? He who humbles himself will be exalted; humility is the foundation of prayer. Only when we humbly acknowledge that 'we do not know how to pray as we ought,' are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. 'Man is a beggar before God."

Prayer offered in holiness from a faithful heart rises like incense from a holy altar.

(From a commentary on the psalms by Saint Augustine, Office of Readings, Tuesday, Second Week of Lent)

SAINT JOSEPH,

SAINT CHAD,

PRAY FOR US.

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Monday of the Second Week of Lent

Year of Saint Joseph

Other saints: Saint David (520-589)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 23 Excommunication for Faults/Ch 24 Degrees of Excommunication

Mass: Dn 9:4b-10; Resp Ps 79; Lk 6:36-38

Help us, O God our Savior, because of the glory of your name.

HEART OF JESUS, PATIENT AND MOST MERCIFUL,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

Welcome to glorious March. 

We join together in praise and thanksgiving: Yours, O Lord, our God are compassion and forgiveness! (Dn 9:9). Let's follow suit and be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (Lk 6:36), for, as Jesus says, the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you (Lk 6:38). 

Stop judging.

Stop condemning.

Forgive.

Give.

(Lk 6:37-38)

SAINT JOSEPH,

SAINT DAVID,

PRAY FOR US.

© Gertrude Feick 2021