MEMORIAL OF SAINT JOHN NEPOMUCENE, PRIEST AND MARTYR; SAINT PHOTINA, THE SAMARITAN WOMAN, MARTYR AND SAINT CUTHBERT OF LINDISFARNE, BISHOP AND MISSIONARY:

FIFTH WEEK OF LENT

SAINTS OF THE DAY: FEAST DAY ~ MARCH 20, 2024

Greetings beloved family and Happy Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent! May God’s grace and mercy be with us all during this season of our Lenten journey🙏

Watch “Holy Mass and Holy Rosary on EWTN” | March 20, 2024 |

Watch “Holy Mass from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | March 20, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary from Lourdes, France” | March 20, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | March 20, 2024 |

Pray “Chaplet of the Divine Mercy from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | March 20, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary ALL 20 Mysteries VIRTUAL🌹JOYFUL🌹LUMINOUS🌹SORROWFUL🌹GLORIOUS” on YouTube |

Today’s Bible Readings: Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Reading 1, Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95
Responsorial Psalm, Daniel 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56
Gospel, John 8:31-42

40 Days in the Desert. A Lenten journey with our Lord | Day Thirty-One: Greed or Generosity? | Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent | https://mycatholic.life/books/40-days-in-the-desert-a-lenten-journey-with-our-lord/day-thirty-one-greed-or-generosity/

40 Days at the foot of the Cross. A Gaze of Love from the Heart of our Blessed Mother Mary | Day Thirty-One – “Today You Will be With Me in Paradise” | https://mycatholic.life/books/40-days-at-the-foot-of-the-cross/day-thirty-one-today-you-will-be-with-me-in-paradise/

A PRAYER TO WALK HUMBLY THROUGH LENT: Father, In Micah 6:8, You say, “O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Today we choose to walk humbly with You. We choose to live by Your Holy Spirit and to follow Your lead. Help us to hear You clearly, for we do not want to walk by pride or self-sufficiency, we want to walk with You. In Jesus’ name, Amen 🙏

God of goodness and mercy, hear my prayer as I begin this Lenten journey with you. Let me be honest with myself as I look into my heart and soul, noticing the times I turn away from you. Guide me as I humbly seek to repent and return to your love. May humility guide my efforts to be reconciled with you and live forever in your abundant grace. Transform me this Lent, heavenly Father. Give me the strength to commit myself to grow closer to you each day. Amen🙏

LENTEN FAST AND ABSTINENCE (Lenten Fast and Abstinence regulations from the USCCB): Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are obligatory days of fasting and abstinence for Catholics. In addition, Fridays during Lent are obligatory days of abstinence.

For members of the Latin Catholic Church, the norms on fasting are obligatory from age 18 until age 59. When fasting, a person is permitted to eat one full meal, as well as two smaller meals that together are not equal to a full meal. The norms concerning abstinence from meat are binding upon members of the Latin Catholic Church from age 14 onwards

Members of the Eastern Catholic Churches are to observe the particular law of their own sui iuris Church. If possible, the fast on Good Friday is continued until the Easter Vigil (on Holy Saturday night) as the “paschal fast” to honor the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus, and to prepare ourselves to share more fully and to celebrate more readily His Resurrection.

DEVOTION OF THE MONTH OF MARCH: MONTH OF SAINT JOSEPH: “His was the title of father of the Son of God, because he was the Spouse of Mary, ever Virgin. He was our Lord’s father, because Jesus ever yielded to him the obedience of a son. He was our Lord’s father, because to him were entrusted, and by him were faithfully fulfilled, the duties of a father, in protecting Him, giving Him a home, sustaining and rearing Him, and providing Him with a trade” 

THE POPE’S MONTHLY INTENTIONS FOR 2024: FOR THE MONTH OF MARCH – For the new Martyrs: We pray that those who risk their lives for the Gospel in various parts of the world inflame the Church with their courage and missionary enthusiasm.

During this Liturgical season of Lent, we continue to meditate on the mystery of Jesus’ sufferings which culminated in His death on the Cross for the redemption of mankind.

On this special feast day, as we continue our Lenten journey, with special intention through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, and the Saints, we pray for the sick and dying. We especially pray for our loved ones who have recently died and we continue to remember our beloved, we pray for the repose of their gentle souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, may the Lord receive them into the light of Eternal Kingdom. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon them. May their gentle souls through the mercy of God rest in perfect peace with our Lord Jesus Christ… Amen 🙏 ✝️🕯✝️🕯✝️🕯

During this season of Lent, please let us all continue to pray for peace all over the world, particularly in Africa, the Middle East, for an end to the current war in Israel-Palestine, and the Ukraine-Russia conflicts and for peace in our families and throughout our divided and conflicted World. Amen 🙏

PRAYER FOR THE DEAD: In your hands, O Lord, we humbly entrust our brothers and sisters. In this life, you embraced them with your tender love; deliver them now from every evil, and bid them eternal rest. The old order has passed away: welcome them into paradise, where there will be no sorrow, no weeping or pain, but fullness of peace and joy with your Son and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen🙏

A PRAYER FOR PEACE: Lord Jesus Christ, You are the true King of peace. In You alone is found freedom. Please free our world from conflict. Bring unity to troubled nations. Let Your glorious peace reign in every heart. Dispel all darkness and evil. Protect the dignity of every human life. Replace hatred with Your love. Give wisdom to world leaders. Free them from selfish ambition. Eliminate all violence and war. Glorious Virgin Mary, Saint Michael the Archangel, Every Angel and Saint: Please pray for peace. Pray for unity amongst nations. Pray for unity amongst all people. Pray for the most vulnerable. Pray for those suffering. Pray for the fearful. Pray for those most in need. Pray for us all. Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on us. Jesus, hear our prayers. Jesus, I trust in You! Amen 🙏

Prayers for Peace | https://mycatholic.life/catholic-prayers/prayers-for-peace/

SAINTS OF THE DAY: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint John Nepomucene, Priest and Martyr (Patron Saint of confessors and for a good confession; against calumnies or slander;  against floods; against indiscretions; bridges and bridge builders; for discretion and silence); Saint Photina, the Samaritan woman, Martyr and Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, Bishop and Missionary. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the forgiveness of sins, the conversion of sinners and for all Christians during this season of Lent. 🙏

SAINT JOHN NEPOMUCENE, PRIEST AND MARTYR: St. John Nepomucene (1345-1393) also known as St. John of Nepomuk was a Saint of Bohemia born John Wölflein or Welflin, in Nepomuk, Bohemia, in 1345, Saint John used the name of his native town for his surname instead of his family name. In his early childhood, John Nepomucene was cured of a disease through the prayers of his good parents. In thanksgiving, they consecrated him to the service of God. He studied theology and law at the University of Prague and was eventually ordained a priest. After John was ordained, he was sent to a parish in the city of Prague. He became a great preacher, and thousands of those listened to him changed their way of life. In time, he became vicar general of Archbishop John of Genzenstein at Prague.

In 1393, King Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia, wishing to found a new bishopric for one of his favorites, ordered that at the death of the present abbot of Kladrau Abbey, no new abbot should be elected and that the abbey church should be turned into a cathedral. The archbishop and John thwarted the king’s plan by approving the election of a new abbot immediately on the death of the old one. Upon hearing this, Wenceslaus fell into a violent rage and had the vicar-general and several cathedral officials thrown into prison. John was tortured by having his sides burnt with torches, but even this could not move him. An additional reason for John’s violent death may be because of the tale that is traditionally told about him: Father John was invited to the court of Wenceslaus IV. He settled arguments and did many kind deeds for the needy people of the city. He also became the Queen’s confessor. When the King was cruel to the Queen, Father John taught her to bear her cross patiently. One day,  the King asked the Saint to tell what the Queen had said in confession. When he refused, he was thrown into prison. A second time, Father John was asked to reveal the Queen’s confession. “If you do not tell me,” said the King, “you shall die. But if you obey my command, riches and honors will be yours.” Again Father John vehemently refused to break the seal of the confessional. He was tortured. Finally, on March 20, 1393, the king ordered him to be put in chains and led through the city with a block of wood in his mouth. His martyrdom was complete when he was then thrown from a bridge into the Moldau River at Prague. A strange brightness is said to have appeared above the spot where he drowned; because of this  St. John of Nepomucene is often portrayed in art with seven stars above his head. For this reason, St. John is also called the “Martyr of the Confessional” and is sometimes pictured with his finger to his lips. He was canonized in 1729 by Pope Benedict XIII and is honored as a Patron Saint of Bohemia and of confessors.

PRAYER: God, we praise You for the grace You granted to St. John to offer his life in defense of the seal of confession. Grant that, through his prayers, we may use the Sacrament of Penance often and with profit. Amen🙏
 
Almighty and merciful God, who brought your Martyr blessed John Nepomucene to overcome the torments of his passion, grant that we, who celebrate the day of his triumph, may remain invincible under your protection against the snares of the enemy. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen🙏

SAINT PHOTINA, THE SAMARITAN WOMAN, MARTYR: The holy Martyr Photina (1st Century) was the Samaritan GodWoman, with whom our Saviour conversed at Jacob’s Well (John 4:5-42). Her name means “enlightened one”. St Photina was later martyred for Christ, together with her sons and her sisters, during the persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Nero. In both Greek and Roman tradition, she preached and converted many to Christianity, including her family and Nero’s daughter. At that time St Photina was living in Carthage (the modern Tunis), where she fearlessly preached the Gospel together with her younger son Joses. Her older son Victor was in the Roman army. After the war, Victor was appointed military commander of Attalia, where he converted many people to Christianity. When Nero was informed that St Photina and her sons were preaching Christianity, he ordered them to come to Rome to be tried. St Photina arrived in Rome with her five sisters – Anatola, Phota, Photis, Paraskeva and Kyriake. They all awaited martyrdom, as they had been told of it in advance by our Lord Jesus Christ. Nero ordered all of them to be brutally tortured, especially St Photina, but the saints did not feel any pain and remained unharmed. The holy martyrs Victor and Joses were put in prison, and St Photina and her five sisters were sent to the imperial court under the supervision of Nero’s daughter Domnina. Many people visited the saints in prison and were baptized by them.

Hearing all this, Nero ordered the saints to be crucified upside down, beaten and then left to hang for three days. On the fourth day, when the emperor’s servants came to check the martyrs, an angel of God came down from heaven, untied the martyrs, and made them completely well. The servants immediately believed in Christ and were baptized. When Nero found out about this, he ordered the martyrs be severely tortured. When St Photina was urged to make a sacrifice to the idols, the saint spit in the emperor’s face and laughed at him. She was thrown into a well, where she finally gave up her soul to God. The emperor ordered all the other martyrs including her sons Joseph and Victor, her sisters along with several other Christians to be beheaded. She died a martyr’s death and is thought of as equal to the Apostles. They were included in the Roman Martyrology by Cardinal Cesare Baronius owing to the widely held view that the head of Photina was preserved in the church of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls.

PRAYER: By the well of Jacob, O holy one, thou didst find the Water of eternal and blessed life; and having partaken thereof, O wise Photina, thou went forth proclaiming Christ, the Anointed One. Help us to follow your example, and through our lives bring glory to the Lord and believers to the Church….Amen🙏

SAINT CUTHBERT OF LINDISFARNE, BISHOP AND MISSIONARY: St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne (634-687 A.D.) was born in North Northumbria, present-day Scotland to in about 634, in the same year in which Aidan founded the monastery on Lindisfarne. He came from a well-to-do English family and like most boys of that class, he was placed with foster-parents for part of his childhood and taught the arts of war. We know nothing of his foster-father but he was very fond of his foster-mother, Kenswith. According to history, he was brought up as a Christian. He was credited, for instance, with having saved by his prayers, some monks who were being swept out to sea on a raft. There is some evidence that, in his mid-teens, he was involved in at least one battle, which would have been quite normal for a boy of his social background. His life changed when he was about 17 years old. He was looking after some neighbour’s sheep on the hills. Gazing into the night sky he saw a light descend to Earth and then return, escorting, he believed, a human soul to Heaven. The date was August 31st 651AD – the night that Aidan died. Perhaps Cuthbert had already been considering a possible monastic calling but that was his moment of decision. He went to the monastery at Melrose, also founded by Aidan, and asked to be admitted as a Novice. For the next 13 years he was with the Melrose monks. When Melrose was given land to found a new monastery at Ripon, St. Cuthbert went with the founding party and was made guestmaster. In his late 20s he returned to Melrose and found that his former teacher and friend, the prior Boisil, was dying of the plague. St. Cuthbert became prior (second to the Abbot) at Melrose.

In 664AD the Synod of Whitby decided that Northumbria should cease to look to Ireland for its spiritual leadership and turn instead to the continent the Irish monks of Lindisfarne, with others, went back to Iona. The abbot of Melrose subsequently became also abbot of Lindisfarne and Cuthbert its prior. St. Cuthbert seems to have moved to Lindisfarne at about the age of 30 and lived there for the next 10 years. He ran the monastery; he was an active missionary; he was much in demand as a spiritual guide and he developed the gift of spiritual healing. He was an outgoing, cheerful, compassionate person and no doubt became popular. But when he was 40 years old he believed that he was being called to be a hermit and to do the hermit’s job of fighting the spiritual forces of evil in a life of solitude. After a short trial period on the tiny islet adjoining Lindisfarne he moved to the more remote and larger island known as ‘Inner Farne’ and built a hermitage where he lived for 10 years. Of course, people did not leave him alone – they went out in their little boats to consult him or ask for healing. However, on many days of the year the seas around the islands are simply too rough to make the crossing and St. Cuthbert was left in peace. At the age of about 50 he was asked by both Church and King to leave his hermitage and become a bishop. He reluctantly agreed. For two years he was an active, travelling bishop as Aidan had been. He seems to have journeyed extensively. On one occasion he was visiting the Queen in Carlisle (on the other side of the country from Lindisfarne) when he knew by second sight that her husband, the King, had been slain by the Picts doing battle in Scotland. Feeling the approach of death he retired back to the hermitage on the Inner Farne where, in the company of Lindisfarne monks, he died on March 20th 687AD. His body was brought back and buried on Lindisfarne. Miracles were reported at his grave; in fact, so numerous were the reported miracles that St.  Cuthbert was called the “Wonder-worker of England.” Throughout the Middle Ages the shrine of Cuthbert remained one of the most popular places of pilgrimage in northern England
 
PRAYER: Merciful God, who called Cuthbert from following the flock to be a shepherd of your people: Mercifully grant that we also may go without fear to dangerous and remote places, to seek the indifferent and the lost; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen🙏

PRAYER INTENTIONS: We thank God for blessing us all with the gift of His precious son, may we be saved by the name of our Savior Jesus Christ! May the Lord grant us His grace as we continue to serve Him in spirit and in truth and as we begin the Lenten Season. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the sick and dying. We particularly pray for sick children, those who are sick with convulsive disorder, mental illness, strokes, heart diseases, and those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. May God restore them to good health and grant them His Divine healing and intervention. May our Mother Mary comfort them, may the Angels and Saints watch over them and may the Holy Spirit guide them in peace and comfort during this challenging time. We pray for the safety and well-being of us all and our families, for peace, love and unity in our families, our marriages and our divided and conflicted world. Every life is a gift. We pray for God’s deliverance from impossible causes or situations. We pray for the souls in Purgatory and the repose of the gentle souls of all the faithful departed, may the Lord receive them into the light of Eternal Kingdom. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon them. May their gentle souls through the mercy of God rest in peace with our Lord Jesus Christ Amen. For all widows and widowers. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Bishops, the Clergy and all those who preach the Gospel. For vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for the Church, for persecuted Christians, for all the innocent who suffer violence due to political or religious unrest, for the conversion of sinners and Christians all over the world. Amen🙏

SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS:

Bible Readings for today, Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent | USCCB | https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032024.cfm

Gospel Reading ~ John 8:31-42

“If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed”

“Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. A slave does not remain in a household forever, but a son always remains. So if the Son frees you, then you will truly be free. I know that you are descendants of Abraham. But you are trying to kill me, because my word has no room among you. I tell you what I have seen in the Father’s presence; then do what you have heard from the Father.” They answered and said to him, “Our father is Abraham.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works of Abraham. But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God; Abraham did not do this. You are doing the works of your father!” So they said to him, “We were not born of fornication. We have one Father, God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and am here; I did not come on my own, but he sent me.”

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus speaks of Himself as the source of true freedom. He says, ‘if you make my word your home… you will learn the truth and the truth will make you free’, and again, ‘if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed’. Some people see religion, and Christianity in particular, as a threat to freedom, as undermining of human freedom. Yet Jesus declares in the Gospel reading today that if we make His word our home we will be free, even in these times when so much of our freedom is curtailed. If we allow our lives to be shaped by the word of Jesus we will experience what Paul in his letter to the Romans calls ‘the glorious freedom of the children of God’. If we allow the Lord’s word to shape our lives we will begin to love one another as the Lord has loved us and, then, we will be truly free with the freedom of the Holy Spirit. In the teaching of Jesus and in the New Testament as a whole, the free person is the loving person, the person who is free to love as Jesus loved. Paul declares in his second letter to the Corinthians, ‘where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom’, and the fruit of the Spirit is love. Jesus was the freest person who ever lived, even when His freedom was taken from Him in the hour of His passion and death, because He was the most loving person, the fullest revelation of God’s love. He calls us to share in His freedom through the power of the Holy Spirit.

In our first reading today from the Book of Daniel is the story of three young men of Israel, Azariah, Mishael and Hananiah, known as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who remained faithful to the God of Israel, even though threatened with the loss of their lives unless they abandoned their faith. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were preserved alive by God, after they had been thrown into the fiery furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar. The three men walked about freely in the fiery furnace, completely unharmed by the fire, in the company of a fourth man who looked ‘like a son of the gods’ and the king and everyone present witnessed the great miracle, and saw the Angel of God that God sent to safeguard them as the mysterious fourth man present in the fire with them. The Lord protected the three of them for their faith in Him and to show Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon the futility of his hubris, pride and ego. In the end, God rescued His faithful ones and those who pride themselves in their own power and glory were ashamed and put down. This story emerged from a time at the beginning of the second century before Christ when Jews were being persecuted for refusing to worship the gods of Greece. It was intended to inspire and give courage to the author’s contemporaries. Here were young men who had the freedom to remain faithful to God and the ways of God, in spite of the enormous pressure on them to do otherwise. Even while they were imprisoned in the fiery furnace, they remained free, free to live according to God’s will as revealed in God’s laws or God’s word. This is the kind of freedom that Jesus refers to in today’s Gospel reading. As God’s Word in human form, the freedom to live according to God’s will is now the freedom to live by Jesus’ word. As Jesus says in the Gospel reading, ‘if you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples, you will learn the truth and the truth will make you free’.

As we reflect on the words of the Sacred Scriptures today, we are all called to follow the Lord and to remember His providence and love, the compassion which He has shown to each and every one of us that we will be willing to open ourselves to Him, opening our hearts and minds so that we may listen to the words that our Lord and Father speak to us in the depth of our hearts and minds. Let us all therefore seek the Lord with renewed faith and desire to love Him from now on. Let us humble ourselves before Him and not be like those who kept their prideful ways, like the king of Babylon or the people at the time of the Lord Jesus, who refused to believe in God and His truth, and even persecuted the faithful. Instead, we should be inspired by the faith of Azariah, Mishael and Hananiah, known as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and remain firmly strong in our faith and dedication to God from now and always. May God in His infinite grace and mercy, grant us the grace during this season of Lent and always to remain faithful and may He bless us all and be with us all, through our journey of faith in life. Amen🙏

Let us pray:

God of all Truth, Your Word is liberating, transforming and fills us with hope. May I turn my mind to You and to Your holy Word so that I may know the Truth as You speak it and allow that transforming Truth to set me free. Jesus, I trust in You ~ Amen 🙏

Save Us, Savior of the World. Our Blessed Mother Mary and Saint John Nepomucene; Saint Photina, the Samaritan woman, and Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne ~ Pray for us🙏

Thanking God for the gift of this day and praying for us all during this season of Lent, let us be renewed by prayer, fasting, and giving to the poor. We pray for justice, peace, love and unity in our families and our world. May God keep us all safe and well during these challenging times and may this season of Lent bring us all true salvation in Christ as we remain united in peace, love and faith. Have a blessed, safe, fruitful and grace-filled Fifth Week of Lent ~ Amen🙏

Blessings and Love always, Philomena 💖