Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter

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

Saints:Saint John of Avila, Priest, Doctor (c.1500-1569); Saint Damian of Molokai (1840-1889); Saint Comgall (510/520-597/602); Saint Antonius of Florence OP (1389-1459)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 1:6-13 The Kinds of Monks

Mass: Acts 11:19-26; Resp Ps 87; Jn 10:22-30 

Glorious things are said of you, O city of God!

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

PRAY FOR US.

Remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart.

(Acts 11:23)

One thing to do today is to listen for the Lord's voice. It is He who says: My sheep hear my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand (Jn 10:27-28). Amen. We go forth united in faith and prayer with one of my favorite lines in the Acts of the Apostles: "It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians" (Acts 11:26). May others know we are Christians by our love. 😊

Sometimes the very desire for action leads to neglect of action. Looking for some wonderful opportunity to give oneself, to devote oneself, one forgets the humble brother close at hand who is waiting for a word of comfort, a saving gesture.

Let us not linger in contemplation of the road ahead; let us follow the narrow path. Let us not look too far or too high, but right in front of ourselves. The good to be done is perhaps right there.

(E. Leseur, The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur, p. 152)

SAINT JOHN OF AVILA,

SAINT DAMIAN OF MOLOKAI,

SAINT COMGALL,

SAINT ANTONIUS OF FLORENCE,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Yesterday afternoon just when I started to think about a photo for today, something appeared from avid hiker, nature lover, and faithful reader Catherine in Corvallis, OR. Enjoy this wild iris. It is certainly glorious. 

© Gertrude Feick 2022

Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter

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

Saints: Saint George Preca (1880-1962) 

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 1:1-5 The Kinds of Monks

Mass: Acts 11:1-8; Resp Ps 42; 43; Jn 10:1-10

Athirst is my soul for the living God.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

PRAY FOR US.

I am the gate.

(Jn 10:9)

Ready or not, welcome to Monday. Go to Jesus today. He is the way to the Father. As the Lord says: Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in a go out and find pasture ... I came so that they may might have life and have it more abundantly (Jn 10:9-10). United in faith and prayer, we go forth.

Christ is alive! ...

Alive, He can be present in your life at every moment, to fill it with light and to take away all sorrow and solitude. Even if all others depart, He will remain, as He promised: "I am with you always to the end of the age" (Mt 28:20). He fills your life with His unseen presence; wherever you go, He will be waiting there for you. Because He did not come only in the past, but He comes to you today and every day, inviting you to set out to ever new horizons.

(Pope Francis, Christus vivit Christ is alive, 1, 125)

Whoever seeks the truth will find God.

(E. Leseur, The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur, p. 154)

SAINT GEORGE PRECA,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: This was another early morning find in Carmichael, CA, a week ago yesterday.

© Gertrude Feick 2022

Fourth Sunday of Easter

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

59th World Day of Prayer for Vocations "Called to Build the Human Family"

Mother's Day

In other years: Blessed Catherine of Saint Augustine (1632-1668); Blessed John Sullivan (1861-1933); Blessed Aloysius Rabata (c. 1443-1490); Patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary over the entire Order of Preachers

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Prologue 45-50

Mass: Acts 13:14, 43-52; Resp Ps 100; Rev 7:9, 14b-17; Jn 10:27-30

Know that the Lord is good.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

PRAY FOR US.

Remain faithful to the grace of God.

(Acts 13:43)

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers. Your faithfulness to your vocation inspires me to be faithful to mine. Thank you. Mary, Queen of mothers, pray for us.

It is also the 59th World Day of Prayer for Vocations with the theme "Called to Build the Human Family." With that theme in heart and mind, as well as remembering that we are still in the Year of the Family, here is more wisdom from Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur. Elisabeth composed a treatise for her beloved niece and godchild Marie at the time of Marie's First Communion. Elisabeth wrote to Marie not only about First Communion, but also about her vocation as Christian, woman, wife and mother. Elisabeth, unable to have children of her own, loved her niece dearly. 

To my beloved only niece, my godchild by a precious and sacred bequest, and my adopted daughter, I offer this token of my deep Christian affection ...

In the first place, a Christian is a human being like everyone else. Every individual is a thinking, reasoning being, illumined by the natural light which is the first degree of the divine intelligible, as you will learn later from St. Augustine ... As beings possessed of sense and reason, we live lives that differ in no respect from that of other members of the human race, but there is something beyond, which is not, as too many people suppose, antagonistic to this life. There is a higher life, which sheds its radiance upon our whole individuality, transforming it, giving it motives for action, supernatural like itself, and fashioning our outward life after the likeness of our inward existence, so as to produce a harmonious whole ...

In the society in which you live, you will have an intellectual duty to perform, and this is more important now than ever. You ought to be a woman of real worth, well educated and with your mind open to every argument without. You ought to know how to discover amid incoherent and varying ideas and systems what is true or useful in each ... 

The second duty that you will have to discharge is toward your family; it is certainly not new, but so great and important that I want to speak about it again. With the Church, I believe that the whole structure of moral, national, and social life is based on the family. And I am convinced that everything done for the sake of the family adds to the greatness and strength of nations and society, whereas, they are irretrievably destroyed as soon as the family life, the cornerstone of the structure, is attacked.

You will therefore do your utmost to behold, in every way, respect and regard for family life. Later on, when you have a family of your own, you will make your home a glowing center of influence, and will be yourself the conscience of those who live in the light that you diffuse. To your husband you will be a friend and companion, and your children, a guide and personification of moral strength ...

There is also a duty toward society which every Christian woman has to discharge. And as your education will give you real worth, you ought to exert yourself to the utmost in order to improve the material and moral condition of others, and especially of the masses which, although robbed of their birthright and often led astray, are nevertheless still sound at heart, and are the reserve force of the nation and of the Church ...

(E. Leseur, The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur: The Woman Whose Goodness Changed Her Husband from Atheist to Priest, "Christian Womanhood", pp. 269, 275, 278-279)

May we follow the Good Shepherd Jesus. He knows us, individually and collectively. He calls each one of us by name and bestows on us our vocations. May we listen to His voice and be true to our calling. Jesus, Good Shepherd, have mercy on us.

BLESSED CATHERINE OF SAINT AUGUSTINE,

BLESSED JOHN SULLIVAN,

BLESSED ALOYSIUS RABATA,

MARY, VIRGIN MOST FAITHFUL,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Beauty in simplicity.

© Gertrude Feick 2022

Saturday of the Third Week of Easter

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

First Saturday of the Month

Saints: Saint John of Beverley (-721); Blessed Albert of Bergamo OP (1214-1279)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Prologue 39-44

Mass: Acts 9:31-42; Resp Ps 116; Jn 6:60-69

My vows to the Lord I will pay in the presence of the people.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

PRAY FOR US.

The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

(Jn 6:63)

Welcome to the First Saturday of the Month, another busy day with the Word made Flesh who dwells among us. Christ is risen. He is truly risen! 

In our account from the Acts of the Apostles, the Church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace. The Church was growing in numbers; many turned to the Lord after witnessing the healing of Aeneas, who was paralyzed and confined to bed for eight years. Many also came to believe after the Lord, through Peter, raised Tabitha (which translated is Dorcas 😊) from the dead. Meanwhile, in the Gospel, after Jesus talks about His Flesh being the true food, and His Blood as the true drink, many of the disciples struggle and murmur. So much so that some returned to their former way of life and no longer walked with Him. Let's not go there. Rather, may we join Simon Peter and exclaim: "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God" (Jn 6:68-69). And may many others come to believe through our witness. What is not possible to us by nature, let us ask the Lord to supply through the help of His grace ... we must run and do now what will profit us forever (RB Prologue 41, 44).

To make Christ, always living and present within us, the model of our life and the friend of every hour, the painful hours and the blessed ones as well. To ask Him to make Himself loved by other souls through us, and to be, following a comparison I love, "the rough vessel that contains a brilliant light and through which this light brightens and warms everything around it."

(E. Leseur, The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur, p. 161)

SAINT JOHN OF BEVERLEY,

BLESSED ALBERT OF BERGAMO,

SERVANT OF GOD ELISABETH LESEUR,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: It is always fitting to honor Our Lady, especially in this month of May. This hot off the press photo was sent from a longtime, hometown friend, now faithful reader. She sends her contribution from Carmel, Indiana. As related, her daughter received this beautiful flower while volunteering during a 2nd grade religious education class this past weekend. My dear friend thought it would look beautiful with the addition of three of her favorite statues of Mary. Mary, singular vessel of devotion, pray for us. Shout out to all those east of Mississippi!

© Gertrude Feick 2022

Friday of the Third Week of Easter

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

First Friday of the Month

Saint: Saint Francois de Laval (1623-1708)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Prologue 33-38 

Mass: Acts 9:1-20; Resp Ps 117; Jn 6:52-59

The fidelity of the Lord endures forever.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

PRAY FOR US.

The crucified is risen from the dead and has redeemed us, alleluia.

(Communion Antiphon, Mass)

Welcome to the First Friday of the Month of May, a glorious month dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary, help of Christians, pray for us. 

We have another action packed and lively account from the Acts of the Apostles today. We begin with Saul breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord. By the end of it all, not without being baptized, then eating and recovering his strength, Saul proclaims Jesus in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God. The marvels of God never cease. The Lord waits for us daily to translate into action, as we should, His holy teachings (RB Prologue 35).

Little duties, little efforts, the better for being seen by no one, except by Him in whose eyes nothing is little.

(E. Leseur, The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur, p. 157)

SAINT FRANCOIS DE LAVAL,

SERVANT OF GOD ELISABETH LESEUR,

BLESSED PIER GIORGIO FRASSITI,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Glorify Him all you peoples!

© Gertrude Feick 2022

Thursday of the Third Week of Easter

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

Saints: Saint Asaph (6th century); Blessed Edmund Rice (1762-1844); Saint Richard Reynolds (-1535); Saint Angelus (1185-c.1220)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Prologue 21-32

Mass: Acts 8:26-40; Resp Ps 66; Jn 6:44-51

Bless our God, you peoples.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

PRAY FOR US.

I am the bread of life.

(Jn 6:48)

As reminded by a brother, May 3 was the anniversary of the death of Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur (1866-1914), a French laywoman whose cause for canonization is currently underway. Put simply, Elisabeth was remarkable, for among other things, her faith, her devotion to her husband, for her acceptance of others, and for her life given over to service of others, all while undergoing her own ill health and suffering. I first read Salt and Light: The Spiritual Journey of Elisabeth and Felix Leseur and was led, then, to her diary, The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur: The Woman Whose Goodness Changed Her Husband from Atheist to Priest. I have quoted from both before, most recently from the latter just yesterday. Inspired once again by Elisabeth's witness to the faith, I turn to her diary once again. There is one section, Daily Thoughts (1899-1906), that the reader can open and be astounded by this woman. Were my daily thoughts so deep. For some days you will see, as perhaps you did yesterday, just what I am talking about. It seems too, that I often find wisdom related to our readings of the day. By God's grace I am what I am (RB Prologue 31/1 Cor 15:10).

The Eucharist truly acts within us to transform us, almost without our knowing it-as bread and wine, human nourishment, strengthens all our body and blood without our being aware of it. By His contact and the grace He leaves in us, Christ gives us moral health and creates for us another soul. It is not in vain that we lean for a moment upon His heart and confide to Him our burden of suffering, weakness, and anguish.

(E. Leseur, The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur: The Woman Whose Goodness Changed Her Husband from Atheist to Priest, p. 176)

How can we not try to give when we have received so much? How can we not love when infinite Love has renewed and transformed our life?

(ibid. p. 158)

SAINT ASAPH,

BLESSED EDMUND RICE,

SAINT RICHARD REYNOLDS,

SAINT ANGELUS,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Beauty abounds here, there, and everywhere. 

© Gertrude Feick 2022

Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter

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

Saint: The English Martyrs (16th-17th century); Blessed Marie-Leonie Paradis (1840-1912); Saint Conleth (-519); The Beatified Martyrs of England and Wales (16th-17th century); Saint Jose Maria Rubio, Apostle of Madrid, Father of the Poor (1864-1929); Blessed Angel Prat Hostench and Companions (d.1936); Blessed Emily Bicchieri OP (1238-1314)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Prologue 14-20

Mass: Acts 8:1b-8; Resp Ps 66; Jn 6:35-40

Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

PRAY FOR US.

Let peace be your quest and aim.

(Rule of Saint Benedict, Prologue 17/Ps 33)

Today's account from the Acts of the Apostles begins with persecution and lamentations while Saul is trying to destroy the Church. Others who managed to scatter, persevered, preached the word, and proclaimed Christ. Crowds paid attention to Philip and watched the good being done. Unclean spirits came out of possessed people; the paralyzed and crippled were cured. And today's account ends: "There was great joy in that city" (Acts 8:8). Whew. United in faith and prayer, we must keep going, no matter what. 

Let us love. Let our souls and our lives be a perpetual song of love for God first of all and for all human beings who suffer, love, and mourn.

Let profound joy live in us, Let us be like the lark, enemy of the night, who always announces the dawn and awakens in each creature the love of light and life. Let us awaken souls.

(Elisabeth Leseur, The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur: The Woman Whose Goodness Changed Her Husband from Atheist to Priest, p. 150)

The first duty now for every soul of good will is perpetual preaching, by word and by example, of the divine law of Charity.

Every Christian should be the voice crying in the desert: "Let us love!" Perhaps some heavenly breeze will carry these words farther than we suspect.

(ibid. p. 156)

THE ENGLISH MARTYRS,

BLESSED MARIE-LEONIE PARADIS,

SAINT CONLETH,

THE BEATIFIED MARTRYS OF ENGLAND AND WALES,

SAINT JOSE MARIA RUBIO,

BLESSED ANGEL PRAT HOSTENCH AND COMPANIONS,

BLESSED EMILY BICCHIERI OP,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: With blossoms a bit out of my reach, this one required a long arm stretch. 😊

© Gertrude Feick 2022