Tuesday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

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

Readings of the Day

RB: Prologue 45-50

Mass: Col 2:6-15; Resp Ps 145; Lk 6:12-19

Let all your works give you thanks, O Lord.

JESUS DEPARTED TO THE MOUNTAIN TO PRAY, AND HE SPENT THE NIGHT IN PRAYER TO GOD.

(Lk 6:12)

We are blessed with two-fold encouragement today. First, from Saint Paul, who keeps us on the straight and narrow so as not to be deceived: "As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, rooted in Him and built upon Him and established in the faith as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving" (Col. 2:6-7). And then from Saint Benedict, who concludes the Prologue in a rousing way. At the same time, our holy father Benedict keeps us focused.

Therefore we intend to establish a school for the Lord's service. In drawing up its regulations, we hope to set down nothing harsh, nothing burdensome. The good of all concerned, however, may prompt us to a little strictness in order to amend faults, and to safeguard love. Do not be daunted immediately by fear and run away from the road that leads to salvation. It is bound to be narrow at the outset. But 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. Never swerving from his instructions, then, but faithfully observing his teaching in the monastery until death, we shall through patience share in the sufferings of Christ that we may deserve also to share in his kingdom. Amen.

(Rule of Saint Benedict, Prologue 45-50)

SAINT JOSEPH, PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Glorious Oregon hops at Luscher Farms, OR.

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Monday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

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

Readings of the Day

RB:  Prologue 39-44

Mass: Col 1:24-2:3; Resp Ps 62; Lk 6:6-11

From God comes my hope.

WHATEVER YOU DO IN WORD OR DEED, DO EVERTHING IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, GIVING THANKS TO GOD THE FATHER THROUGH HIM.

(Communion Antiphon, Mass)

Welcome to the celebration of Labor Day, when many gather for the last time to enjoy food and fellowship during the summer months. A time when summer is considered over, and even though school has already begun in most places, kind of an unofficial start to a new school year. May it be a day of rest and relaxation. If you do find yourself working, it seems one could turn to today's Gospel and see Jesus reaching out to, or rather the man with the withered out reaching out to Jesus. Jesus' question: Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than evil, to save life rather than to destroy it? (Lk 6:9). All considered, may whatever we find ourselves doing, be done so that in all things God is glorified (1 Pet 4:11/RB 57:9).

Through work man must earn his daily bread and contribute to the continual advance of science and technology and, above all, to elevating unceasingly the cultural and moral level of the society within which he lives in community with those who belong to the same family. And work means any activity by man, whether manual or intellectual, whatever its nature or circumstances; it means any human activity that can and must be recognized as work, in the midst of all the many activities of which man is capable and to which he is predisposed by his very nature, by virtue of humanity itself. Man is made to be in the visible universe an image and likeness of God himself, and he is placed in it in order to subdue the earth. From the beginning therefore he is called to work. Work is one of the characteristics that distinguish man from the rest of creatures, whose activity for sustaining their lives cannot be called work. Only man is capable of work, and only man works, at the same time by work occupying his existence on earth. Thus work bears a particular mark of man and of humanity, the mark of a person operating within a community of persons. And this mark decides its interior characteristics; in a sense it constitutes its very nature. 

(Pope Saint John Paul II, Laborem Exercens on Human Work, September 14, 1981)

Idleness is the enemy of the soul. Therefore, the sisters should have specified periods for manual labor as well as for prayerful reading.

(Rule of Saint Benedict, 48:1)

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: More from Luscher Farms in West Linn, OR.

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

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

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

Readings of the Day

RB: Prologue 33-38

Mass: is 35:4-7a; Resp Ps 146; Jm 2:1-5; Mk 7:31-37

Praise the Lord, my soul!

HE MAKES THE DEAF HEAR AND THE MUTE SPEAK.

(Mk 7:37)

I have been thinking about Mary of Magdala this morning, when she went to Jesus' tomb, on the first day of the week, early in the morning while it was still dark. You know the scene found in John 20:11-18. Mary was distressed, weeping about finding the tomb empty. She feared that others had taken her Lord, and she did not know where they laid him. When she first turned around and saw Jesus, she did not recognize him. It wasn't until Jesus called Mary's name, "Mary!", that she recognized her Lord. Mary heard and Mary listened, then she spoke, "Rabbouni," which means Teacher. Then Mary could announce to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord" (Jn 20:18). 

Maybe there are others to join me in joining Mary of Magdala. We too find that our eyes are closed. We find our hearts closed due to fear, grief, bitterness, resentment, disappointments, and so on. So burdened we can't hear or listen either. However, Say to those whose hearts are frightened, says the Lord through the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah, Be strong, fear not! Here is your God ... He comes to save you (Is 35:4). The eyes of the blind will be open, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will speak (Is 35:5-6). Ephphatha!, Jesus says to the deaf man who had a speech impediment, in today's Gospel. That is, Be opened! (Mk 7:34). May we, with the man, have our ears opened and all speech impediments removed (Mk 7:35). 

We need to practice the art of listening, which is more than simply hearing. Listening, in communication, is an openness of heart which makes possible that closeness without which genuine spiritual encounter cannot occur. Listening helps us to find the right gesture and word which shows that we are more than simply bystanders. Only through such respectful and compassionate listening can we enter on the paths of true growth and awaken a yearning for the Christian ideal: the desire to respond fully to God's love and to bring to fruition what he has sown in our lives.

(Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium The Joy of the Gospel, 171)

And we pray with Pope Francis as in today's Angelus Address: May the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was open to the Word which became flesh in her, help us every day to listen to her Son in the Gospel and to our brothers and sisters with a docile heart, with a patient heart, and with an attentive heart. 

MARY KEPT ALL THESE THINGS, REFLECTING ON THEM IN HER HEART.

(Lk 2:19)

SAINT HERBERT,

SAINT MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: As I was writing, this glorious photo came through, from d and J in West Linn, OR, at Luscher Farms, a community garden also in West Linn. 

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Saturday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

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

First Saturday of the Month 

Saturday Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Saints: Saint Cuthbert (?684-687); Saint Mac Nissi (5th century); Blessed Dina Belanger (1897-1923)

Readings of the Day

RB:  Prologue 21-32

Mass: Col 1:21-23; Resp Ps 54; Lk 6:1-5

God himself is my help.

MARY, HOUSE OF GOLD,

PRAY FOR US.

With the words from Saint Paul in our first reading, may we "persevere in the faith, firmly grounded, stable, and not shifting from the hope of the Gospel" (Col 1:23). Well-equipped, we are "clothed then with faith and the performance of good works, [and] set out on this way, with the Gospel for our guide, that we may deserve to see him who has called us to his kingdom" (RB Prol. 21).

Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name give the glory.

By God's grace I am what I am.

He who boasts should make his boast in the Lord.

(Rule of Saint Benedict, Prologue 30-32)

SAINT CUTHBERT,

SAINT MAC NISSI,

BLESSED DINA BELANGER,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: I wanted something white to honor Our Lady and found this in the archives. A repeat performance yet no less beautiful and fitting.

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Friday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

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

Saint: Pope Saint Gregory the Great, Doctor of the Church, "Servant of the servants of God" (540-604)

First Friday of the Month

Readings of the Day

RB: Prologue 14-20 

Mass: Col 1:15-20; Resp Ps 100; Lk 5:33-39

Serve the Lord with gladness.

BLESSED GREGORY, RAISED UPON THE THROWN OF PETER, SOUGHT ALWAYS THE BEAUTY OF THE LORD AND LIVED IN CELEBRATION OF THAT LOVE.

(Entrance Antiphon, Mass)

On this First Friday of the Month we commemorate Pope Saint Gregory the Great. And how great he was! He was certainly a man who listened to the Lord through the words of Saint Benedict: "Seeking his workman in a multitude of people, the Lord calls out to him and lifts his voice again: Is there anyone here who yearns for life and desires to see good days?" (RB Prol. 14). Furthermore, what is known of the life of Saint Benedict comes from one principal source, Pope Saint Gregory the Great, who in the second book of his Dialogues recounts the Life and Miracles of Saint Benedict. Here is more about our saint of the day, from a footnote in a 2012 thesis of mine, The Lived Theology of St. Benedict: Echoes of St. Paul the Apostle in the "Holy Rule":

St. Gregory the Great (ca. 540-604) comes with his own impeccable credentials. Around 575 he converted his home on the Coelian Hill in Rome into a monastery and founded six other monasteries in Sicily. Gregory became a deacon to Pope Pelagius II and was then elected Pope in 590. He left voluminous writings for all the faithful-laity, monks, and clergy-including 580 letters, works on the moral life, the priesthood, homilies, and his Dialogues, the Dialogorum Libri, presented as a dialogue between Gregory and his deacon, Peter. The first three books of the Dialogue contain stories about the lives and miracles of Italian saints. The fourth book contains teaching on the moral life. Book II is "the best and practically only source of information about St. Benedict" (Jordan Aumann, Christian Spirituality in the Catholic Tradition, London, 1985, pp. 74-75).

The following quotations are all attributed to our saint of the day:

Merely to love things above is already to mount on high.

(Pope Saint Gregory the Great) 

Be not anxious about what you have, but about what you are.

(Pope Saint Gregory the Great)

When we are linked by the power of prayer, we, as it were, hold each other's hand as we walk side by side along a slippery path; and thus by the bounteous disposition of charity, it comes about that the harder each one leans on the other, the more firmly we are riveted together in brotherly love.

(Pope Saint Gregory the Great)

POPE SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: From our garden of delights.

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Thursday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

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

Saints: Blessed Andre Grasset (1758-1792); Jesuit Martyrs for the Name of Jesus (18th-20th century)

Readings of the Day

RB: Prologue 8-13

Mass: Col 1:9-14; Resp Ps 98; Lk 5:1-11

The Lord has made known his salvation.

SACRED HEART OF JESUS, SACRED TEMPLE OF GOD,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

Today's reading from Saint Paul's Letter to the Colossians (Col 1:9-14) is a prayer itself. We can pray for one another in the Apostle's words: We do not cease praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, so as to be fully pleasing, in every good work bearing fruit and growing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with every power ... Through our prayer then, we "put out into deep water and lower our nets for a catch" (Lk 5:4).

Prayer is an all-powerful force that, coming through the Heart of Jesus right into the very bosom of God, seizes, attracts, and in some way plunges grace into souls. Suffering and the practice of charity are other and equally powerful forms of prayer.

(The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur, "Resolutions", p. 88)

BLESSED ANDRE GRASSET,

JESUIT MARTYRS FOR THE NAME OF JESUS,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Rise and shine and bring God your glory!

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Wednesday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

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

World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation: "A Home for All? Renewing the Oikos of God"

Saints: Saint Giles, Patron of Edinburgh (c.650-c.710); Saint Teresa Margaret Redi of the Sacred Hear (1747-1770)

Readings of the Day

RB: Prologue 1-7

Mass: Col 1:1-8; Resp Ps 52; Lk 4:38-44

I will thank you always for what you have done.

Welcome to September. One thing I like about the various Letters of Saint Paul is how the Apostle begins with a greeting. Wouldn't it be nice to greet all those we meet in a similar way: Grace to you and peace from God our Father (Col 1:2). And what follows in today's Letter to the Colossians is especially nice: We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you (Col 1:3).

On this first day of September we begin our third reading of the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict for this year. Verses 1-7 of the Prologue are packed. The first word is one many familiar with the Holy Rule know by heart. Listen. So why not listen and take some of Pope Francis's words to heart: "Ask the Lord for the strength to turn off the television and open the Bible, to turn off our cell phone and open the Gospel" (Pope Francis, homily, January 24, 2021).  And then, as Saint Benedict says, "every time you begin a good work, you must pray to Him most earnestly to bring it to perfection" (RB Prol. 4).

She immediately got up and waited on them. 

(Lk 4:39)

SAINT GILES,

SAINT TERESA MARGARET REDI OF THE SACRED HEART,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: This is where I was on September 1, 2010. Kloster Maria Rickenbach, in the village of Niederrickenbach, Switzerland, home of the Benedictine Sisters. I'm looking up from behind the monastery. I have fond of memories of privileged time spent with the Sisters of Maria Rickenbach, the mother house of the Benedictine Sisters of Mt. Angel, OR.

© Gertrude Feick 2021