Casting Stones....

I receive daily emails from Blessed is She, and occasionally I like to share one that truly touched a chord for me. This is one such.  I hope you get as much out of it as I did.

By: Tricia Tembreull (from Blessed is She)

Like the people in today’s Gospel (John 10:31-42), we pick up rocks every time we see the “good works” Jesus does in our lives, yet we cannot recognize that He is God.

We pick up a jagged rock when we neglect to thank God for answered prayers, which we forgot we brought to Him in the first place. We skip stones over the water Christ recently walked on and pulled us out of when we began to drown. We do this when we no longer are in awe in His presence, or we don’t feel what we once felt in prayer. We see, but don’t believe.

Okay, so maybe you haven’t warmed up your arm lately to thrown a stone, but you’ve probably tried to arrest Jesus; and by arrest, I mean you tried to stop, restrain, or limit Him.

We arrest Jesus every time we listen to the voice of the evil one over His voice of truth.

We arrest Jesus every time we gossip or tear someone down versus notice Christ’s presence in them.

We arrest Jesus when we fail to accept help because our stubbornness gives way to pride instead of humility and compassion.

We arrest Jesus when we judge others and feel superior to them rather than see our brothers and sisters as equals made in the image and likeness of God.

Every time we fail to see, recognize, and accept Jesus as God, we are like the people in John’s Gospel. Jesus isn’t performing miracles so He will be seen; He works miracles in our lives so we will see and know Him.

I invite all of us to put down our stones and stop trying to find a way to arrest God. He performs good works, “so we may realize and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father” (John 10:38).

Take some time in quiet prayer today and examine your heart, bringing it to Him.


Tricia Tembreull is a California girl with a boundless passion for life. After two decades of ministering to teens and youth ministers as a trainer, ministry mentor, and speaker in Catholic youth ministry, Tricia now serves as Campus Minister at USC Caruso Catholic Center. She loves adventure and seeks it everywhere she goes. As an avid foodie, she enjoys testing new recipes out on friends and family, gathering them around the table to encounter Christ in one another and be drawn to the satisfying unity we crave in the Eucharist.

Happy Solemnity of St. Jospeh

Happy Solemnity of St. Joseph, everyone. Now, on this special day, let us invoke his special aid and protection.

St. Joseph, patron of the Universal Church, of the dying, of workers and families, pray for us.

Chaplet of St. Joseph

1. St. Joseph, faithful cooperator in our redemption, have pity on poor humanity, still wrapped in so much error and so many evils. You were a docile instrument in the hands of the heavenly Father, in arranging everything for the birth and childhood of Jesus, for the preparation of the Victim, of the Priest, and of the Divine Master of the world. St. most docile to the will of God, obtain for us zeal for vocations and for their formation. For ourselves, we ask you for generous and constant correspondence to the precious gift of God’s call.

~St. Joseph, pray for us.

2. St. Joseph, model of every virtue, obtain for us your interior spirit. In loving and active silence, in the practice of all religious and civil laws, in docility to everything God willed, you arrived at a high degree of sanctity and heavenly glory. Obtain for us an increase of faith, hope and charity, an ample infusion of the cardinal virtues, an abundance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

~St. Joseph, pray for us.

3. St. Joseph, we venerate you as the model of laborers, the friend of the poor, the consoler of the afflicted and those forced to leave their own land, the saint of Divine Providence. On earth you represented the universal goodness and concern of the heavenly Father. You were the carpenter of Nazareth and work- teacher to the Son of God, who became a humble laborer for us. Assist with your prayers all who labor in intellectual, moral and material work. For the nations obtain legislation inspired by the Gospel, the spirit of Christian charity, a way of governing in accord with justice and peace.

~St. Joseph, pray for us.

4. St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus, we bless the Lord for your intimate communication with him during his infancy and youth at Bethlehem, in Egypt, and at Nazareth. You loved him with a father’s love and he loved you with the love of a son. Your faith made you adore in him the incarnate Son of God, while he obeyed you, served you, listened to you. You held pleasant conversations with him, shared work, great sufferings and most tender consolations. Obtain for us the grace never to offend Jesus by sin. Pray for us that we may always receive the sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and Reconciliation fittingly, attain to a great intimacy with and a tender and strong love for Jesus while on earth, and possess him forever in heaven.

~St. Joseph, pray for us.

5. St. Joseph, pure spouse of Mary, we humbly ask you to obtain for us a true devotion to our tender Mother, Teacher, and Queen. By divine will, your mission was associated to Mary’s. With Mary you shared sufferings and joys; with her there was a holy rivalry in virtue, work and merits; union of mind and of heart. St. Joseph, pray for fathers and mothers. Obtain for us the grace to know the Blessed Virgin Mary, to imitate her, to love her, to pray to her always. Draw many souls to her maternal heart.

~St. Joseph, pray for us.

6. St. Joseph, protector of the dying, we supplicate you for all the dying, and beg your assistance in the hour of our own death. You merited a happy passing by a holy life, and in your last hours you had the ineffable consolation of being assisted by Jesus and Mary. Deliver us from sudden death; obtain for us the grace to imitate you in life, to detach our heart from everything worldly and daily gather treasures for the moment of our death. Obtain for us the grace to receive the sacraments of the sick well, and with Mary, inspire us with sentiments of faith, hope, love and sorrow for sins, so that we may breathe forth our soul in peace.

~St. Joseph, pray for us.

7. St. Joseph, protector of the universal Church, look kindly upon the Pope, the episcopate, the clergy, the religious and laity. Pray for the sanctification of all. The Church is the fruit of the blood of Jesus, your foster Son. We entrust to you our supplications for the extension, liberty and exaltation of the Church. Defend her from errors, from evil and from the powers of hell, as you once saved the threatened life of Jesus from the hands of Herod. May the desire of Jesus come true: “That there be one fold under one shepherd.”

~St. Joseph, pray for us.

God Chips Away...

 “When we live a life of holiness, we allow God to chip away at our imperfections, until the work of art He created begins to shine through.”

                                             ~Remember Your Death-Memento Mori  (p.55)

Seek, Ask, Knock...

“Lord, please give me exactly what I need today. All of that and nothing else.”

~Karen Schultz (Blessed is She)

The focus of today’s Gospel (Matthew 7: 7-12) is on seeking, asking and knocking. Our Lord tells us that if we seek we will find. If we knock, it will be opened to us, and if we ask, we will receive.  So why does it often seem like that is not the case? I seek and I don’t find, I ask and I don’t receive, I knock but it is not opened to me?  Maybe it’s because I don’t ask properly, or I ask for the wrong things.  Maybe I don’t even know what I should be looking or asking for?  I’m sure that many times it’s because I want God to give me whatever I want the way I want it, when I want it, but He, He has other plans for me, and they are a thousand times better than any plans I might have for myself.  I know this. He has said as much.  So why is it so hard for me to remember? What am I afraid of?  Why is it so hard to trust?

I think it’s because I’m afraid of what I might have to give up.  I want what I want and cling to a lesser good and passing satisfaction, rather than allow Him to give me what my heart truly desires.  All this dawned on me during my daily meditation and the reflection I received from Blessed is She writer Karen Schultz.  I’ve made her final quote my thought to carry with me throughout today and all of Lent (and beyond).  I’m quite certain I will forget and try to hold on to my will, but it is my intention to return to it always.  I may not truly know what I want or need, but God does. I will do my best to trust in Him.

“Lord, please give me exactly what I need today. All of that and nothing else.”

Compassion...

Compassion presupposes habitual kindly thoughts.

Commit to the Lord

Psalm 37: 5-9  NSRV

5 Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in him, and he will act.
6 He will make your vindication shine like the light,
    and the justice of your cause like the noonday.

7 Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him;
    do not fret over those who prosper in their way,
    over those who carry out evil devices.

8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath.
    Do not fret—it leads only to evil.
9 For the wicked shall be cut off,
    but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.

January 13, 2020 With Blessed Father Alberione

MONDAY JANUARY 13, 2020

ORDINARY WEEKDAY

ST HILARY, BISHOP, DOCTOR

1 Sm 1: 1-8

Psalms 116: 12-19

Mk 1: 14-20

For negative poverty everything is enough for us; positive poverty never says enough for the works of God. Let the use of the means in the congregation be diligent; let the sheet of paper also be taken care of; if we used diligence we would have much more diffusion; let the accounts and the works be good, God is served! (VCG, p. 202)

PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR DECEASED: Sr Bernardetta Ferraris FSP (2002)—Br Vincent Alemcheril SSP (2016)—Sr M Paola Casadei PD (2017)

January 12, 2020 With Blessed Father James Alberione

SUNDAY JANUARY 12, 2020

BAPTISM OF THE LORD-FEAST

Isaiah 42: 1-4, 6-7

Psalms 29: 1-4, 9-10

Acts 10: 34-38

Matthew 3: 13-17

The religious is distinguished by a complete reproduction of the life of Jesus Christ in Himself. He will have a purer, more heartfelt, more practical faith; he will imitate Jesus Christ not only in what He commands, but he will still follow Him in the evangelical counsels (dalla Introduzione a Gesú Maestro, Via, Veritá e Vita, pp. 17-18)

PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR DECEASED: Novice Antonietta Arduino FSP (1981)—Fr Agide Pasotti IP (1995)—Sr M Teresa Castro PD (2011)—Sr Adele Cordero PD (2016)—Fr Antonio Recanatini IJP (2016)—Sr M Veronica Kloster FSP (2017)—Sr Virginia Mazzucato PD (2018)—Sr M AlbaScellato (2019)—Dr Frieda Quintos, Kapoor (2007)

In the Image and Likeness of God...

"We are created to the Image and likeness of God: triune, with intelligence, will and sentiment."
 ~Daily Meditations: The Great Truths (Blessed James Alberione.

Strive to submit the entire will to the Heavenly Father, as the Divine Master did.  Love God above ALL!!!

RESOLUTION:

"I want to live today in great love in order to imitate the life of the Blessed Trinity." 
       ~Daily Meditations: The Great Truths (Blessed James Alberione.