God's call for our hospitality looks different in this time of safe distancing, but the call did not vanish entirely. It merely manifests in new ways. Instead of a family dinner, perhaps communion is a socially distant picnic with a struggling neighbor. Maybe a phone call with a relative or friend builds belonging.
How have you built belonging? 💞 How has someone made you feel like you belong?
Now here is what I am trying to say: All of you together are the one body of Christ, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it.
1 Corinthians 12:27
Thursday • February 25, 2021
LENTEN WEEKDAY
Has prayer moved you?
It is tempting to think about prayer in a transactional way: I ask, therefore God gives. Today’s gospel may even appear to encourage this form of thought: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find.” But Catholic teaching urges us to see God’s response to prayer broadly. Pope Francis explains: “Prayer always transforms reality: if things around us do not change, at least our hearts are changed. Jesus promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to every man and woman who prays.” If you have a prayer that seems unanswered, consider how your heart was moved by the mere act of praying.
Today's readings: Esther C:12, 14-16, 23-25; Matthew 7:7-12. “For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds.”
📷Sacred Heart Women’s Retreat pre-pandemic ♥️ #takefiveforfaith
Gospel• Matthew 7:7-12
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Which one of you would hand his son a stone
when he asked for a loaf of bread,
or a snake when he asked for a fish?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your heavenly Father give good things
to those who ask him.
“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.
This is the law and the prophets.”
📷 #tbt with our first 707 Youth Ministry banner 2016- Yep, that’s where the name came from, todays reading Matthew 7:7 to encourage our youth as they Ask, Seek, Knock after Jesus.
#dailyingodsword #youthministry
An Ecumenical Christian Prayer
O God, Trinity of love,
from the profound communion of your divine life,
pour out upon us a torrent of fraternal love.
Grant us the love reflected in the actions of Jesus,
in his family of Nazareth,
and in the early Christian community.
Grant that we Christians may live the Gospel,
discovering Christ in each human being,
recognizing him crucified
in the sufferings of the abandoned
and forgotten of our world,
and risen in each brother or sister
who makes a new start.
Come, Holy Spirit, show us your beauty,
reflected in all the peoples of the earth,
so that we may discover anew
that all are important and all are necessary,
different faces of the one humanity
that God so loves. Amen.
Given in Assisi, at the tomb of Saint Francis, on 3 October, Vigil of the Feast of the Saint, in the year 2020, the eighth of my Pontificate.
+Franciscus
This concludes our series on Pope Francis’ Encyclical FRATELLI TUTTI
On Fraternity and Social Friendship
Wednesday • February 24, 2021
LENTEN WEEKDAY
A good day to make amends
We are one week into this Lenten season, so perhaps it is time to have a conversation with our Lord. Imagine you are walking with Jesus, side by side, and he asks you, “Is there any person you think of who you have hurt or judged, or any action that comes to mind that you know was wrong? Anything you repent?” You take a moment, and standing next to him, you feel his love for you. Regret and sorrow arise as you admit the mistakes that come to mind. You ask for the grace to make amends in whatever way possible. Find a way today to make something right.
Today's readings: Jonah 3:1-10; Luke 11:29-32. “At the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.”
#takefiveforfaith
A Prayer to the Creator
Lord, Father of our human family,
you created all human beings equal in dignity:
pour forth into our hearts a fraternal spirit
and inspire in us a dream of renewed encounter,
dialogue, justice and peace.
Move us to create healthier societies
and a more dignified world,
a world without hunger, poverty, violence and war.
May our hearts be open
to all the peoples and nations of the earth.
May we recognize the goodness and beauty
that you have sown in each of us,
and thus forge bonds of unity, common projects,
and shared dreams. Amen.
Concluding Prayer (1 of 2) of Pope Francis Encyclical FRATELLI TUTTI
On Fraternity and Social Friendship
Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19
A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
#dailyingodsword
286. In these pages of reflection on universal fraternity, I felt inspired particularly by Saint Francis of Assisi, but also by others of our brothers and sisters who are not Catholics: Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu, Mahatma Gandhi and many more. Yet I would like to conclude by mentioning another person of deep faith who, drawing upon his intense experience of God, made a journey of transformation towards feeling a brother to all. I am speaking of Blessed Charles de Foucauld.
287. Blessed Charles directed his ideal of total surrender to God towards an identification with the poor, abandoned in the depths of the African desert. In that setting, he expressed his desire to feel himself a brother to every human being,[286] and asked a friend to “pray to God that I truly be the brother of all”.[287] He wanted to be, in the end, “the universal brother”.[288] Yet only by identifying with the least did he come at last to be the brother of all. May God inspire that dream in each one of us. Amen.
Excerpt: FRATELLI TUTTI
Pope Francis Encyclical
On Fraternity and Social Friendship
*Part of a sequential daily series to read and reflect on this new encyclical.
📷Blessed Charles De Foucauld, Little Brothers of Jesus
Gospel • Matthew 6:7-15
Jesus said to his disciples:
“In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“This is how you are to pray:
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
“If you forgive men their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”
📷SH parishioners praying the Our Father at mass, pre-pandemic
