Week of Prayer for Syria: Day 2

Comfort those who suffer because of violence
http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/week-of-prayer-for-syria-day-2

Week of Prayer for Syria: Day 1

Hear the outcry of the Syrian people
http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/week-of-prayer-for-syria-day-1

Brothers and sisters:
On the subject of fraternal charity you have no need for anyone to write you,
for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.
1 Thes 4:9

Police storm homeschool class, take children by force
http://www.wnd.com/2013/08/police-storm-homeschool-class-take-children-by-force/

“Be kind, especially with the infirm. Love them well ... Oh yes! Be kind. It is a great grace God is giving you. In serving the aged, it is He himself whom you are serving.”
+St. Jeanne Jugan

Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist

There is no doubt that blessed John suffered imprisonment and chains as a witness to our Redeemer, whose forerunner he was, and gave his life for him. His persecutor had demanded not that he should deny Christ, but only that he should keep silent about the truth. Nevertheless, he died for Christ. Does Christ not say: “I am the truth”? Therefore, because John shed his blood for the truth, he surely died for Christ. Through his birth, preaching and baptizing, he bore witness to the coming birth, preaching and baptism of Christ, and by his own suffering he showed that Christ also would suffer. Such was the quality and strength of the man who accepted the end of this present life by shedding his blood after the long imprisonment.
+St. Bede the Venerable

Memorial of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

If you should ask me what is the way of God, I would tell you that it is humility. Not that there are no other precepts to give, but if humility does not precede all that we do, our efforts are fruitless. 
+St. Augustine

Humility contains all things because in this virtue is truth; therefore God must also dwell therein, since He is the truth.
+St. Augustine

Where I found truth, there found I my God, who is the truth itself.
+St. Augustine

The humble realize that of themselves they are nothing, and that they stand in extreme need of help and grace of heaven; but the proud are convinced that they are full of grace and virtue. That is why God takes pleasure in showering His gifts on the former and in depriving the latter of His bounty.
+St. Augustine

Pride does its own will; humility does the will of God.
+Saint Augustine
 
Love, and He will draw near; love, and He will dwell within you.
+St. Augustine

He who is filled with love is filled with God Himself.
+St. Augustine

I will not live an instant that I do not live in love. Whoever loves does all things without suffering, or, suffering, loves his suffering.
+St. Augustine

“Saints and friends of Christ, they served our Lord in hunger and in thirst, in cold, in nakedness, in labor and in weariness, in watching, in fasting, prayers and holy meditations, and in frequent persecutions and reproaches. Oh, how many grievous tribulations did the Apostles suffer and the Martyrs and Confessors and Virgins, and all the rest who resolved to follow the steps of Christ!”
Thomas à Kempis

Our Lord and Savior lifted up his voice and said with incomparable majesty: "Let all men know that grace comes after tribulation. Let them know that without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. Let them know that the gifts of grace increase as the struggles increase. Let men take care not to stray and be deceived. This is the only true stairway to paradise, and without the cross they can find no road to climb to heaven."
+St. Rose of Lima

Washington: Catholic Hospitals May be Required to Perform Abortions http://www.lifenews.com/2013/08/22/washington-attorney-general-catholic-hospitals-must-provide-abortions/

Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Salve, Regina!

AD CAELI REGINAM
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XII
ON PROCLAIMING THE QUEENSHIP OF MARY http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_11101954_ad-caeli-reginam_en.html

“Who could be a better Teacher of the love of God than this Queen, this Lady, this Mother, who has the closest bond with the Trinity: Daughter of God the Father, Mother of God the Son, Spouse of God the Holy Spirit? And at the same time she is our Mother!
+St. Josemaría Escrivá

Memorial of Saint Pius X, Pope

"There is good reason to fear lest this great perversity may be as it were a foretaste, and perhaps the beginning of those evils which are reserved for the last days; and that there may be already in the world the "Son of Perdition" of whom the Apostle speaks (II. Thess. ii., 3). Such, in truth, is the audacity and the wrath employed everywhere in persecuting religion, in combating the dogmas of the faith, in brazen effort to uproot and destroy all relations between man and the Divinity! While, on the other hand, and this according to the same apostle is the distinguishing mark of Antichrist, man has with infinite temerity put himself in the place of God, raising himself above all that is called God; in such wise that although he cannot utterly extinguish in himself all knowledge of God, he has contemned God's majesty and, as it were, made of the universe a temple wherein he himself is to be adored. 'He sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God' " (II. Thess. ii., 2).
+Pope St. Pius X, E Supremi

Memorial of Saint Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church

We discover truth in ourselves when we pass judgment on ourselves.
We find it in our neighbour when we suffer in sympathy with others.
We search out its own nature by contemplation in purity of heart.
Before we inquire into the nature of truth, Truth itself must first teach us to seek it in our neighbour.
Then we shall understand why, before we find it in our neighbour, we must seek it in ourselves.
The sequence of beatitudes given in the Sermon on the Mount places the merciful before the pure in heart.
The merciful are those who are quick to see truth in their neighbour.
They reach out to others in compassion and identify with them in love, responding to the joys and sorrows in the lives of others as if they were their own.
They make themselves weak with the weak, and burn with indignation when others are led astray.
They are always ready to share the joys of those who rejoice and the sorrows of those who mourn.
Men whose inner vision has thus been cleansed by the exercise of charity toward their neighbour can delight in the contemplation of truth in itself.
But can people find the truth in their neighbour if…they either scoff at their tears or disparage their joys, being insensitive to all feelings but their own?
There is a popular saying which well suits them: A healthy person cannot feel the pains of sickness, nor can one who is well-fed feel the pangs of hunger.
The more familiar we are with sickness or hunger, the greater will be our compassion for others who are sick or hungry.
Just as pure truth can only be seen by the pure in heart, so the sufferings of our fellow men and women are more truly felt by hearts that know suffering themselves.
However, we cannot sympathize with the wretchedness of others until we first recognize our own.
Then we shall understand the feelings of others by what we personally feel, and know how to come to their help.
Such was the example shown by our Saviour, who desired to suffer himself in order that he might learn to feel compassion, and to be afflicted in order that he might learn how to show mercy.
Scripture says of him that he learned the meaning of obedience through what he suffered. In the same way he learned the meaning of mercy.
Not that the Lord whose mercy is from age to age was ignorant of mercy’s meaning until then.
He knew its nature from all eternity, but he learned it by personal experience during his days on earth.

+St. Bernard of Clairvaux

The Christian life is a continuation and completion of the life of Christ in us. We should be so many Christs here on earth, continuing His life and His works, laboring and suffering in a holy and divine manner in the spirit of Jesus.
+St. John Eudes

Saved from abortion, Chilean twin brothers are now priests
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/saved-from-abortion-chilean-twin-brothers-are-now-priests/

Be merciful to all who are suffering violence, keeping always in your heart the example of the Lord who said, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice."
+St. Stephen of Hungary


Not Just Gosnell, Infanticide at Abortion Clinics More Common Than We Think http://www.lifenews.com/2013/08/15/not-just-gosnell-infanticide-at-abortion-clinics-more-common-than-we-think/

Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 

 

 

I hold that Mary is now with Christ and in Christ.

She is in Christ, because "in Him we live and move and have our being."

She is with Christ, because she has been assumed into glory."

+St. Augustine of Hippo

 

Obamacare Funds Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz, D.C. Exchange Sends $375K http://www.lifenews.com/2013/08/14/obamacare-funds-planned-parenthood-abortion-biz-d-c-exchange-sends-375k/

Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr

"For Jesus Christ I am prepared to suffer still more."
+St. Maximilian Kolbe

Pope to consecrate world to Mary's Immaculate Heart
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-to-consecrate-world-to-marys-immaculate-heart/

National Day of Remembrance Will Honor Aborted Babies Found in Dumpsters
http://www.lifenews.com/2013/08/12/national-day-of-remembrance-will-honor-aborted-babies-found-in-dumpsters/

About the National Day of Remembrance, September 14
http://www.abortionmemorials.com/

Abortion Drug RU 486 Has Killed Two Million Unborn Children in the U.S. http://www.lifenews.com/2013/08/12/abortion-drug-ru-486-has-killed-two-million-unborn-children-in-the-u-s/

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me."
Mt 16:24

Ave Crux, spes unica!

“The more lofty the degree of loving union to which God destines the soul, so much more profound and persistent must be its purification.”
+St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

The Long Road to Rio: Two Franciscans’ Journey to World Youth Day
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/the-long-road-to-rio-two-franciscans-journey-to-world-youth-day/

Family Sues Because Nursing Home Won’t Starve Mother to Death http://www.lifenews.com/2013/08/08/family-sues-because-nursing-home-wont-starve-mother-to-death/

Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord

 

Then from the cloud came a voice that said,
“This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”
Lk 9:35

 

This marvel of the transfiguration contains another lesson for the apostles, to strengthen them and lead them into the fullness of knowledge. Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets, appeared with the Lord in conversation with him. This was in order to fulfill exactly, through the presence of these five men, the text which says: Before two or three witnesses every word is ratified. What word could be more firmly established, more securely based, than the word which is proclaimed by the trumpets of both old and new testaments, sounding in harmony, and by the utterances of ancient prophecy and the teaching of the Gospel, in full agreement with each other?

 

The writings of the two testaments support each other. The radiance of the transfiguration reveals clearly and unmistakably the one who had been promised by signs foretelling him under the veils of mystery. As Saint John says: The law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. In him the promise made through the shadows of prophecy stands revealed, along with the full meaning of the precepts of the law. He is the one who teaches the truth of the prophecy through his presence, and makes obedience to the commandments possible through grace.

 

In the preaching of the holy Gospel all should receive a strengthening of their faith. No one should be ashamed of the cross of Christ, through which the world has been redeemed.

+Pope Saint Leo the Great