Mary's Little Office

Monday, July 31, 2017

Tonight's Prayer

Our Lady Composing The Magnificat - Sandro Botticelli

My Queen and my Mother, bless me with thy pure and holy hand―
     That I may have a good night's rest, 
     That I may wake betimes in the morning, and have the grace and energy to rise promptly and continue the work thy divine and beloved Son has entrusted to my feeble hands.
Amen.

Sunday, July 30, 2017

Daily Gospel Reflection, Sunday, July 30th

Your daily Gospel reflection...
Sunday, July 30, 2017
17TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, CYCLE A
MATTHEW 13:44-52
Friends, our Gospel for today includes several of Jesus' better-known parables. I'd like to comment on this one: "Again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls..."

What does this tell us? That there is often something interruptive about the Kingdom of God. It is a breakthrough, a radical change, a surprise.

Once we find the pearl, everything else must go. We must "sell" all of our other preoccupations and concerns, all those things and people that we once put in the center of our lives. They must go. There is something uncompromising to what Jesus is getting at.

Mary's Map


Look down, O Mother Mary, From thy bright throne above, Cast down upon thy children One only glance of love; And if a heart so tender With pity flows not o'er, Then turn away, O Mother, And look on us no more.

Saturday, July 29, 2017

Tonight's Prayer

Hail Salvation of the World, Word of the Father, Sacred Host, True Life, Live Flesh, Whole Deity, True Man, Body of our Lord Jesus Christ: Thou, who made hast made me out of the slime of the earth, have mercy on me a sinner, now and in the hour of my death.  Amen.
Notate Bene, London, 1790

Week's End Homily by Bishop Barron

ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD

by Bishop Robert Barron  July 30, 2017
Our second reading for this weekend is taken from the end of the eighth chapter of Paul’s magnificent letter to the Romans. In this great book of the Bible, we learn that in Christ, God has disclosed his providential plan whereby he intends to reconcile all things to himself. I don’t know about you, but those words always give me comfort and peace. 

Mass Readings

Friday, July 28, 2017

Tonight's Prayer


Hail true body, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which truly sufferedst, and wert offered on the cross for mankind, whose side being pierced with a spear, yielded water and blood: O sweet, O good Jesus, Son of the Eternal God, and Son of the Blessed Virgin, have mercy on me a sinner; and vouchsafe, that I may worthily receive thee, at the hour of my death.  Amen.

Notate Bene, London, 1790

Daily Gospel Reflections from Bishop Barron


Your daily Gospel reflection...
Friday, July 28, 2017
16TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR I
MATTHEW 13:18-23
Friends, in today's Gospel Jesus explains the parable of the sower. Let's study each part of his explanation.

The seed sown on the path is "the one who hears the word without understanding it, and the evil one comes and steals away what was sown." This means we might end up blocked from God because we lack education in the ways of the Spirit.

The seed sown on rocky ground is "the one who receives it at once with joy. But he has no root and lasts only for a time." When difficulties and persecutions arrive, he loses confidence.

"The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit." Some people hear the word, but then they are unable to maintain their focus and sense of prioritization.

So from these sad cases we can construe the nature of good soil. When we understand the faith, when we take the time to read theology, to study the Scripture; when we persevere, discipline ourselves, and practice the faith; when we have our priorities straight, then the seed will take root in us. And it will bear fruit thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold.

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

10. & 11. Why Must you Believe Whatever God has Revealed?


St. Peter's Basilica, Rome - 1950

Index


10. Why must you believe whatever God has revealed? 

I must believe whatever God has revealed, because God is the very Truth and can neither deceive nor be deceived.
This, I think, you can easily understand' but a great difficulty will at once occur to you―viz.:

11. How are you to know what God has revealed?
 
I am to know what God has revealed by the testimony, teaching and authority of the Catholic Church.
But why the Catholic Church? Where does the Catholic Church get the authority and the power to teach me? Show me that clearly, and I will at once submit my mind to it, and believe whatever it teaches me. If it is the Church founded by Jesus Christ, I must of course believe all it says. 

This will be proved in lesson 84.


Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Bless Your House

Swiss Evening - December, 1947 

BLESS, O Lord Almighty, this place so that in it may reign health, purity, victory, strength, humility, kindness, sweetness, observance of rule and continued acts of thanksgiving to God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.  May this blessing remain in this place with all who dwell in it and forever.  Amen.


Prayers of an Irish Mother
Brian O'Higgins
38 UP, O'Connell Street, Dublin
1934


My Mothers Rosary

Monday, July 24, 2017

Our Lady of Wengen


Every year while visiting our son, who lives in Geneva, Switzerland, we take a little side trip or two.  Last year we went to Wengen where I took this little video of Our Lady next to a pasture brook.  


Sancta Maria, Ora pro nobis.
(Holy Mary, Pray for us).


Sunday, July 23, 2017

Prayer for Sleep

Barbara Scott (Ice Skater) Switzerland - 1948

The peace of God is a most profound tranquillity and repose, like the silence of untrodden mountain summits clothed with eternal snows;  or like the lowest depths of the ocean, where the fierce storms that rage on the surface are unfelt, and where the turbulent industry of men can never penetrate.  Nothing can equal that peace.

O Loving Jesus, I offer Thee Thy most peaceful repose in the adorable Sacrament of the Altar, and in the hearts of all the just, and I beseech Thee most earnestly that I may rest this night in Thee so that in the morning I may awake with renewed fervour to love and serve Thee.  Amen.

My Queen and my Mother, bless me with thy pure and holy hand―That I may have a good night's rest, That I may wake betimes in the morning, and have the grace and energy to rise promptly and continue the work thy divine and beloved Son has entrusted to my feeble hands.
Amen.

Prayers of an Irish Mother - 19th century


9. What is Faith


Stockyards Fire, Chicago, Illinois


9. What is Faith

Faith is a supernatural gift of God which enables us to believe, without doubting, whatever God has revealed.
Faith means belief: to have faith means to believe, and to believe means to take as true something that is said to you, because you consider that the person who says it knows all about it, and would not deceive you or tell you a lie. It does not mean that you know all about it yourself, or that you quite understand what he says; but you believe him because he knows and he understands.

There are two kinds of faith―human faith and divine faith; faith in man's word and faith in God's word. Now what do I mean by human faith? Supposing you told me that you had seen a great fire in the city to-day; naturally, thinking you to be a truthful, honest man, I should at once believe you, because you had seen the fire and knew all about it (I had not seen it, nor did I understand or know how it had been caused). Then I should have human faith―that is, I should believe on the authority of a man. Of course you could deceive me, and might, indeed, be actually deceiving me for some purpose of your own; so human faith is not absolutely to be depended on. If, instead of believing you at once, I were to say, "Well, of course you may be quite correct in what you say, but I did not see that fire, and I do not believe it," this would pain you very much, and you would naturally consider yourself insulted by having your word doubted. 

Now let us take faith in God's word, or divine faith. This means believing things which God has said, and believing them on His word, because He has said them. God, we know, is the very Truth. He cannot be deceived as we can nor can He Himself deceive; therefore whatever He says must be true. There are, of course, many things that He has said which we cannot understand because they are above our reason; but God knows all about them, and because He cannot deceive us, we at once believe Him. This is divine faith, or having faith in God's word. If I doubt God's word or say that I do not believe Him, this would be a great sin: it would be accusing God of telling me a lie, and would insult Him very much. The Catechism says that faith is a gift of God. It is He who gives us the power and the good will to believe. We receive the gift of faith in baptism. It is a supernatural gift, because it is given to us to believe truths about God and the next world. Human faith is a natural gift, because it is only used for believing what concerns us in this world. The Catechism asks:

10. Why must you believe whatever God has revealed?
(Tomorrow's Lesson. 😇😇)

Saturday, July 22, 2017

Today's Homily by Bishop Robert Barron

WHEAT, SEED, AND LEAVEN

by Bishop Robert Barron  July 23, 2017
The Gospel for this Sunday is taken from the 13th Chapter of the Gospel of Matthew and it features three marvelous parables of Jesus. How rich and inexhaustible in meaning are these three parables! Take some time to read and contemplate these parables in light of your own suffering and faith as we seek together the Kingdom of God.

Mass Readings

Reading 1 - Wisdom 12:13-19
Psalm - Psalm 86:5-16
Reading 2 - Romans 8:-26-27
Gospel - Matthew 13:24-43

Thursday, July 20, 2017

8. What must you do to Save your Soul?

Little Girl Lost
Watch the Movie Below 😇😇 


6. What must you do to save your soul?

To save my soul I must worship God by faith, hope and charity; that is I must believe in Him, I must hope in Him and I must love Him with my whole heart.

So you see you have to do three things. You must believe in God―that is, you must believe that there is a God; and you must believe everything that God has said, whether you understand it or not, and whether you like it or not, for God has made known to us some things which are very unpleasant to think about; for instance, the eternity of hell. Then you must hope in God―that means you must trust in His word and promise to save you and to take you to heaven, on condition that you do what He wants you to do here in this life. It is not always easy to do all that God requires of us; for example, we have to keep His commandments and to keep out of sin, and this is sometimes very hard; but God's promise of heaven supports us and helps us to do it. Moreover, He does not leave us to do it all by ourselves. He helps us by His grace to do these hard and difficult things. This He has promised always to do; but we must ask Him for His help and grace, and this is why in the chapter on Hope the Catechism speaks to us about prayer and how we ought to pray. Lastly, we must love Him with our whole hearts, more than all persons or things on this earth; and we must always wish and seek to please Him. People who commit sins love themselves and their pleasures more than God. This is why our Lord has told us to keep His commandments as a proof that we really love Him. The lesson on Charity, or love of God (future lesson) teaches us about the Commandments.


Little Girl Lost


I'm just old enough to remember Wagon Train but I didn't remember the Christian Themes embedded into almost ever episode.  
Here in this genuine ghost sotry, Robin Mercy Rossiter, played by Eileen Bural, is truly a lost soul. The six year-old was a member of the doomed Donner party, a wagon train trapped by blizzards in a mountain pass in 1846. Charlie Wooster helps the little lost soul with his simple explanation our being.

Dying is a natural thing you know. Don't worry about it. It's like sleeping or growing. What's to be afraid of? Who's afraid of getting bigger or going to sleep. Sometimes I think being born is a kind of dying. You know, you die there and live here. When you're through here you go back there. I don't know whether these things are true or not. I'm an old man. Some people say I'm a little cracked in the head. But, Robin, I know one thing. There's a God in Heaven and He's not going to give his children a bad deal. He can't. He's our Father so He's got to love us. Dying is a natural thing you know. Don't worry about it. It's like sleeping or growing. What's to be afraid of? Who's afraid of getting bigger or going to sleep. Sometimes I think being born is a kind of dying. You know, you die there and live here. When you're through here you go back there. I don't know whether these things are true or not. I'm an old man. Some people say I'm a little cracked in the head. But, Robin, I know one thing. There's a God in Heaven and He's not going to give his children a bad deal. He can't. He's our Father so He's got to love us.

6. What do you mean when you say that your Soul is Immortal?


1963 - USA


6. What do you mean when you say that your soul is immortal!

When I say that my soul is immortal, I mean that my soul can never die.

7. Of which must you take most care, of your body or your soul?
I must take most care of my soul; for Christ has said, "What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?" (Matt. xvi. 26).
When we die our bodies are in a short time placed in a coffin and buried deep in the earth; but what has become of the soul? It has appeared before God, and has been judged by Him according to the life it led upon earth. Then, at least, shall we understand why God has made us. It will not matter much to us then what has become of our body, but it will matter to us what becomes of our soul. If I were to say to you, Do you want to save your soul? do you really want to make it safe for the next world? of course you would say "Yes"; but perhaps your difficulty may be that you do not know how to go about it. That is why the Catechism next asks - What must you do to save your soul? (Tomorrow's Lesson. 😇😇)

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

In Whose Image and Likeness did God make you? 3,4 & 5

Image result for source:life farm boy
Kansas Farm Boy, USA - 1947 


In Whose Image and Likeness did God make you!

God made me in His own image and likeness.

We are composed of body and soul; and there are with us two kinds of life: the life of the body and the life of the soul. The image of God is in the soul, no in the body. God has not a body as we have, He is a spirit; He has made our souls spirits like to Himself. This is what the Catechism means when it asks:

4. Is this likeness to God in your body or in your soul?
This likeness to God is chiefly in my soul.

We are then asked: 

5. How is your soul like to God?
My soul is like to God because it is a spirit, and is immortal. 
     A spirit is something that we cannot see, but which really lives and exists like God Himself or the Angels. We know for certain that each one has a soul living in him, but we cannot see it. If you have ever seen a person die, you knew that the soul had left and gone out of the body; but you could not see it go, because it was a spirit. God is the great Spirit, and we are, as it were, spirits of a lower order or kind; but because we are spirits we are like to God. Again, the Catechism says my soul is immortal. Now God is immortal―that is, He cannot die; and He has made my soul immortal like Himself. My soul can never die now; it must live as long as God lives, either with Him in heaven or apart from Him in hell. That is the reason why heaven and hell are eternal.

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

So - Why did God Make You?

SO - WHY DID GOD MAKE YOU?
 

God made me to know Him, love Him and serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in the next.

Here we are face to face with the greatest problem of our existence―viz., why we are here. God never does anything, even the most minute thing, without having some end in view; and surely when He created man, the noblest work of His hands, He must have had some very special object in creating Him. The Catechism tells us that He made man for Himself.

First, to know Him. Now we can, and do, know a great deal about God, even though we have never seen Him: (1) From the Old Testament, where God revealed Himself to the patriarchs and prophets; (2) from the New Testament, where God has made known to us much about Himself and the next world through Jesus Christ, His only Son.

Secondly, we are made to love God. The more we know about Him the more we see His infinite beauty and goodness, and thus we are induced to love Him; for even in this world we love what is beautiful and good.

Lastly, we are made to serve God. The way we show our love for God is by serving Him, by doing His will. He Himself has said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John xiv. 15). The reward of all this―viz., of trying to know all we can about God, of loving and serving Him―is to be the possession of heaven, that happy place to which everyone is anxious to go, God has promised this, so we cannot doubt it.

So you understand now why you were made, why you are here: not to make a great name for yourself, not to get rich, not to enjoy yourself as you like, but simply to serve the God who made you. You are one of His creatures; you depend entirely upon Him for everything. As your Creator, God has His rights over you, and the greatest of these rights is that you should know and love and serve Him.


The Catechism Simply Explained 
B. Herder Book Company , 1899

Monday, July 17, 2017

The Catechism Simply Explained - Chapter 1


Country School, Boyd Michigan, USA - 1951


Who Made You?

There is no doubt about this, for the ninety-ninth Psalm of holy David says, "He made us and not we ourselves." Some people do, indeed deny the existence of God; but to do this is to act against reason, for they thereby make their own existence a greater mystery than that which they deny.

The Catechism Simply Explained,
B. Herder Book Company, 1899

Sunday, July 16, 2017

33. Impure Thoughts


Are impure thoughts and desires always sins? 
Impure thoughts and desires are always sins, unless they displease us and we try to banish them. 

What should one do when tempted by an impure thought or desire?
One should banish the impure temptation at once, implore God's assistance, and continue to fight with courage against the tempter. (James 1: 12)

Advanced Catechism of Catholic Faith, 1922

Saturday, July 15, 2017

The Fecundity of Your Heart

THE FECUNDITY OF YOUR HEART

ORDINARY time -WEEK 15

by Bishop Robert Barron   July 16, 2017

Sacrament of Baptism, Poughkeepsie, NY - 1953
God sows his Word into each of our hearts liberally. He does not solely give his grace to those he knows will bear fruit. He sows the Word in everyone, but it doesn't flourish for each person due to circumstances (secularism, anxiety, the allurement of the world). Strive to counter that by letting the Word open you to the implications of his Lordship. God is always giving himself to you, listen and act.

Mass Readings

Reading 1 - Isaiah 55:10-11
Psalm - Psalm 65:10-15
Reading 2 - Romans 8:-18-23
Gospel - Matthew 13:1-23