The Season of Creation, an annual ecumenical celebration of prayer and action for our common home, began on September 1 (World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation) and ends on October 4 (the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi). There is still more than a week left for you, your family, your cohort of friends, your school, and your parish to renew your relationship with the Creator and with creation, through celebration, conversion, and commitment together. How? Pray. Read Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si’. Coordinate a cleanup project or other sustainability effort. Use your voice and advocate for climate justice. Best idea yet? Come up with one no one has thought of!
TODAY’S READINGS: Ezra 1:1-6; Luke 8:16-18. “No one who lights a lamp conceals it … rather, he places it on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light.”
#takefiveforfaith
And if you would like to attend our family friendly Feast of St. Francis Tree Festival, where each family can register to receive a small Live Oak tree and a milkweed plant, go to bit.ly/FOSF23. October 8th, 1-3PM at the Diocesan Pastoral Center.
Join the ecumenical prayer vigil on 30 September in St. Peter’s Square, Rome, alongside Pope Francis.
The prayer vigil will be held on the eve of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, with the theme: “For a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission”.
For more info visit: www.together2023.net
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#jesuits #taize #prayer #synod #ecumenical #vigil #together
PRAYER AFTER HOLY COMMUNION
St. Padre Pio
Stay with me, Lord, for it is necessary to have You
present so that I do not forget You.
You know how easily I abandon You.
Stay with me, Lord, because I am weak and I need
Your strength, that I may not fall so often.
Stay with me, Lord, for You are my life and without
You I am without fervor.
Stay with me, Lord, for You are my light and
without You I am in darkness.
Stay with me, Lord, to show me Your will.
Stay with me, Lord, so that I hear Your voice
and follow You.
Stay with me, Lord, for I desire to love You very much
and always be in Your company.
Stay with me, Lord, if You wish me to be
faithful to You.
Stay with me, Lord, as poor as my soul is I want it to be
a place of consolation for You, a nest of Love.
Stay with me, Lord, because at the hour of my death, I
want to remain united to You, if not by Communion, at
least by grace and love.
Stay with me, Lord, for it is You alone I look for,
Your Love, Your Grace, Your Will, Your Heart,
Your Spirit, because I love You and ask no other reward
but to love You more and more.
With a firm love, I will love You with all my heart
while on earth and continue to love You perfectly
during all eternity. Amen
“Live simply: Eat simply: Love one another simply: Do not complicate matters unnecessarily.
How do you live simply?
You remove activities that are not necessary or that pull you avay from duty. Consider your duty. Then move through each day and try to serve only that duty.
Have order in your life and in the life of your family.
There should be rhythm to each day that does not change. Rise at the same time. Retire at the same time in the evening. Pray at the same time. This creates an environment in which you are free to consider God.
Do not think, my friends, that you live in a world where the need for simplicity has disappeared. There should be calm and if there is not calm in your life, change your life and keep changing it until you feel calm.
The act of sitting and reading these words is forcing you to consider heaven’s wishes for you. Pull yourself away from the world even further and spend some time in silence. Ask Jesus to show you which activities should be removed.
Live simply.”
St. Padre Pio
Padre Pio pray fir us🙏
Great thoughts.
“God does not love you because you think and act the right way. He loves you, plain and simple. His love is unconditional; it does not depend on you. You may have mistaken ideas, you may have made a complete mess of things, but the Lord continues to love you. How often do we think that God is good if we are good and punishes us if we are bad. Yet that is not how he is. For all our sins, he continues to love us. His love does not change. It is not fickle; it is faithful.
-Pope Francis
Newly discovered note, found just today,
from St. Teresa of Calcutta to Servant of God Dorothy Day:
“If you go to Jesus first, tell him I love him.
If I go, I will tell him you love him.”
Kevin Ahern, director of the Dorothy Day Center at Manhattan College discovered this note tucked between the pages of a Bible owned by Dorothy Day, in the midst of their project to preserve Dorothy’s room and move some items to the Center.
Via Fr. James Martin
ICONS
By Maidie Weisbarth
This icon of the Good Shepherd was written
(painted) for the St. Francis Chapel with traditional egg
Tempera and gesso on wooden Panel with gold gilding.
The Good Shepherd
The image of our lord as Good Shepherd is first found in the early Church catacombs and is referenced in the old and new Testament: ie. “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd Lays down his life for the Sheep. John 10:11
The letters on Christ’s halo are Greek for
“I am who is”. This is in itself a profound meditation on the nature of Christ!
The letters in the upper corner are Greek abbreviations for Jesus Christ. These letters will always be found in icons of Christ so that Christ is clearly identified.
To write these inscriptions of the icon is the final touch of making the icon and is a prayer acknowledging the Holy Spirit who is being activated by our participation in this sacred art and opening us to his Presence within ourselves.
THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD;
I SHALL NOT WANT.
HE MAKES ME LIE DOWN IN GREEN PASTURES.
HE LEADS ME BESIDE STILL WATERS.
HE RESTORES MY SOUL.
HE LEADS ME IN PATHS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
FOR HIS NAME’S SAKE.
Psalm 23:1-3
Happy Autumn Equinox
May we reflect the beauty of the gift of God’s love in our lives, whatever the season! ☀️🍁🌾🍂🎃🌻
We often think of colors as associated with particular seasons: yellows, reds, and oranges mark autumn, after the green of summer; winter is white and silver and blue, before green and the colors of flowers blooming return in the spring. Throughout those seasons, some of our holidays have culturally-associated colors, too: Christmas is red & green, Easter pastels, St. Patrick’s Day green (& St. Valentine’s pinks and reds). But did you know the liturgical year, the sacred calendar of the church, has associated colors, too?
Lent is purple, then Passion Week red, before Easter bursts on the scene with its white and/or gold. Advent, too, is purple or blue, followed by Christmas that is white/gold. Pentecost is red; Epiphany, Transfiguration, Trinity Sunday, and All Saints’ Day are all white. White (& gold, in some traditions) is the color of festival and feasting. Purples are more somber, for the waiting and fasting seasons.
But this season we are in now? Ordinary time, the longest season of the church calendar? Green. We are in the midst of a months-long recognition of a time that is for greening and growing, for life springing up even when it seems not to match the outer seasons. In our world, greens are going to start changing into their warmer colors of reds and oranges and yellows and golds and browns. And yet, we continue to be in a season that recognizes the life remaining underneath the changes, sustained in the midst even of earth’s transition through the shedding and loss of autumn on its way to the seemingly barren rest of winter. The colors will change with the beginning of Advent, but not till then.
What is green and growing in you, in your community and relationships? Where are shy leaves just beginning to unfurl, or sprouts just emerging from seeds that have been in your ground for whatever length of time? What is flourishing, even if it seems unseasonable?
Via Anam Cara Ministries
The parable of the workers in the vineyard (this Sunday’s Gospel) presents an encouraging, if challenging, image of the generosity of God. We are invited to accept this generosity for ourselves and express it towards others. If this seems too hard for us to comprehend, let us take heart that the ways of the Lord are very different from our own ways.
The words of Scripture reassure us that we need not worry, for the Lord is near to us, ever present. Our God is full of compassion and forgiveness, willing us to seek him out. Let us pray that the whole Christian community will be inspired always to seek the Lord. Together as the body of Christ, we can transform the world with the justice and generosity of God.
