FEAST OF SAINTS JOACHIM AND ANNE
GRANDPARENTS OF JESUS
Grandparents are a treasure... the wisdom our grandparents have is something we must welcome as an inheritance.
Pope Francis, November 2013
FEAST OF ST JAMES, APOSTLE, July 25, 2017
Anyone who wants to be great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Matthew 20 : 26-28
St James the Greater by Guido Reni (1575-1642)
WE SHOULD LIKE TO SEE A SIGN FROM YOU
Some of the scribes and the Pharisees spoke up. “Master,” they said “we should like to see a sign from you.” Jesus replied, “It is an evil and unfaithful generation that asks for a sign! The only sign it will be given is the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the sea-monster for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.
Matthew 12 : 38-40
The Risen Christ sculpture, Medjugorje
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
Jesus put a parable before the crowds, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everybody was asleep his enemy came, sowed darnel all among the wheat, and made off. When the new wheat sprouted and ripened, the darnel appeared as well. The owner’s servants went to him and said, “Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? If so, where does the darnel come from?” “Some enemy has done this” he answered. And the servants said, “Do you want us to go and weed it out?” But he said, “No, because when you weed out the darnel you might pull up the wheat with it. Let them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn.”
Matthew 13 : 24-30
All that glitters is not gold
FEAST OF ST MARY MAGDALEN July 21, 2017
On my bed at night I sought him whom my heart loves. I sought but I did not find him. So I will rise and go through the City; in the streets and the squares I will seek him whom my heart loves. I sought him but I did not find him. The watchmen came upon me on their rounds in the City: “Have you seen him whom my heart loves?” Scarcely had I passed them than I found him who my heart loves.
Song of Songs 3 : 1-4
THE MAGDALEN READING by Rogier van der Weyden
Some of the blood must then be taken and put on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses.... The blood shall serve to mark the houses that you live in. When I see the blood I will pass over you and you shall escape the destroying plague when I strike the land of Egypt. This day is to be a day of rememberance for you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast in the Lord’s honour.
Exodus 12 : 7, 11-14
Two crosses, painted blue, form a gateway to Apparition Hill.
Jesus exclaimed: “Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.”
Matthew 11 : 28-30
Moses was looking after the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, priest of Midian. He led his flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in the shape of a flame of fire, coming from the middle of a bush. Moses looked; there was the bush blazing but it was not being burnt up. “I must go and look at this strange sight,” Moses said “and see why the bush is not being burnt.” Now the Lord saw him go forward to look, and God called to him from the middle of the bush. “Moses, Moses!” he said. “Here I am” he answered. “Come no nearer” he said. “Take off your shoes, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. I am the God of your father,” he said “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this Moses covered his face, afraid to look at God.
Exodus 3 : 1-6
There was a man of the tribe of Levi who had taken a woman of Levi as his wife. She conceived and gave birth to a son and, seeing what a fine child he was, she kept him hidden for three months. When she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him; coating it with bitumen and pitch, she put the child inside and laid it among the reeds at the river’s edge. His sister stood some distance away to see what would happen to him.
Now Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the bathe in the river, and the girls attending her were walking along by the riverside. Among the reeds she noticed the basket, and she sent her maid to fetch it. She opened it and looked, and saw a baby boy, crying, and she was sorry for him. “This is a child of one of the Hebrews” she said. Then the child’s sister said to the Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and find you a nurse among the Hebrew women to suckle the child for you?” “Yes, go” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her; and the girl went off to find the baby’s own mother. To her the daughter of Pharaoh said, “Take this child away and suckle it for me. I will see you are paid.” So the woman took the child and suckled it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter who treated him like a son; she named him Moses because, she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
Exodus 2 : 1-11
Thus says the Lord: “As the rain and the snow come down from the heavens and do not return without watering the earth, making it yield and giving growth to provide seed for the sower and bread for the eating, so the word that goes from my mouth does not return to me empty, without carrying out my will and succeeding in what it was sent to do.”
Isaiah 55 : 10-11
Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing. Why every hair on your head has been counted. So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.
Matthew 10 : 29-31
I AM SENDING YOU OUT
LIKE SHEEP AMONG WOLVES
Beware of men, they will hand you over to sanhedrins and scourge you in their synagogues.
Matthew 10 : 17
Then Joseph could not control his feelings in front of all his retainers, and he exclaimed, “Let everyone leave me.” No one therefore was present with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers, but he wept so loudly that all the Egyptians heard, and the news reached Pharaoh’s palace. Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father really still alive?”
Isaiah 44 : 22
I have dispelled your faults like a cloud,
your sins like a mist.
Come back to me, for I have redeemed you.
Isaiah 44 : 22
Jesus summoned his disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.
Matthew 10 : 1
FEAST OF ST BENEDICT † July 11, 2017
“Prayer ought to be short and pure, unless it be prolonged by the inspiration of Divine grace.”