ELEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

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

Greetings, beloved family and Happy Thursday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time.

On this special feast day, 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 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 🙏 ✝️🕯✝️🕯✝️🕯

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 & the Holy Spirit forever & ever. Amen🙏

Watch “Holy Mass and Holy Rosary on EWTN on YouTube | June 20, 2024 |

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

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

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

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

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

Memorare Chaplet | Prayer in Difficult Times (Powerful Prayer) |

Today’s Bible Readings, Thursday, June 20, 2024
Reading 1, Sirach 48:1-14
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 97:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7
Gospel, Matthew 6:7-15

SAINTS OF THE DAY: MEMORIAL OF JOHN OF MATERA, ABBOT; SAINT SILVERIUS, POPE AND MARTYR; BLESSED JOHN FENWICK AND BLESSED JOHN GAVAN, PRIESTS AND MARTYRS; BLESSED MARGARET EBNER, RELIGIOUS AND BLESSED IRISH CATHOLIC MARTYRS ~ FEAST DAY: JUNE 20TH Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint John of Matera, Abbot; Saint Silverius, Pope and Martyr; Blessed John Fenwick and Blessed John Gavan, Priests and Martyrs and Blessed Irish Catholic Martyrs. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the poor and the needy, for the sick and dying, and for those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. We pray for peace, love and unity in our families and our world. And we continue to pray for the Church, the Clergy, with special intention for all Priests, for persecuted christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world.🙏

SAINT JOHN OF MATERA: St. John of Matera (c 1070-1139), also known as John of Pulsano, Giovanni di Matera, Giovanni Scalcione. A Monk, Abbot, Mystic, renowned Preacher, miracle-worker, gifted with bilocation. St John was born around the year 1070, towards the end of the 11th century at Matera, a town in the Kingdom of Naples, in the region of the Basilicata in Italy, to a noble family. He left everything behind, while still a young man and embraced the monastic life and joined a monastery on the island of Taranto. His single-mindedness in keeping the Rule created problems for the others monks and led John to leave. Seeking a monastery that would fit his makeup, the Saint went to Calabria and then to Sicily. In his guest he returned to the mainland at Ginosa. He rebuilt a church nearby dedicated to St. Peter. However, John was arrested and imprisoned because there was a belief that he had found and kept hidden treasure. He escaped to Capua and joined the community of St. William of Vercelli OSB (1085-1142).

When fire destroyed their dwelling, he journeyed to Bari, where the people were deeply moved by his preaching. A charge of heresy was leveled at the Saint out of jealousy, but he was easily cleared of it. Returning to Ginosa, he was welcomed by his former disciples and preached a successful mission at St. Peter’s Church. Still following his religious impulse, John went to Mount Gargano and at nearby Pulsano built a monastery. Some sixty monks flocked to his community, and he shepherded them as their Abbot. So well did he do so that he became renowned for his wisdom, miracles, and gift of prophecy. He died on June 20, 1139.

PRAYER: Lord, amid the things of this world, let us be wholeheartedly committed to heavenly things in imitation of the example of evangelical perfection You have given us in St. John. Amen🙏

SAINT SILVERIUS, POPE AND MARTYR: St. Silverius was a legitimate son of Pope Hormisdas, born in Frosinone, Lazio, some time before his father who had been married entered the priesthood. Upon the death of St Pope Agapetas I, after a vacancy of forty-seven days, Silverius, then sub-deacon, was chosen Pope and ordained on the 8th of June, 536, despite maneuvers on the part of heretics opposed to the Council of Chalcedon. He ruled the Holy See from 8 June 536 to his deposition in 538, a few months before his death. His rapid rise to prominence from a deacon to the papacy coincided the efforts of  King Theodahad (nephew to Theodoric the Great), who intended to install a pro-Gothic candidate just before the Gothic War. The heretical empress Theodora, resolved to win Silverius over to her interests, wrote to him, ordering that he should either acknowledge as lawful bishop the Eutychian heretic Anthimus, who had been deposed as patriarch of Constantinople, or come in person to Constantinople and reexamine his cause. Without the least hesitation or delay, Silverius returned her a short answer, by which he gave her to understand that he neither could nor would obey her unjust demands, which would be to countermand his predecessor’s decision and betray the cause of the Catholic faith.

The empress, finding that she could expect nothing from him, resolved to have him deposed. Vigilius, archdeacon of the Roman Church, a man of diplomacy, was then at Constantinople. To this ambitious ecclesiastic the empress exposed her wishes, and promised to make him pope and to bestow on him seven hundred pieces of gold, if he would engage himself to condemn the Council of Chalcedon and receive into Communion the three deposed Eutychian patriarchs. Vigilius assented to these conditions, and the empress sent him to Rome, charged with a letter to the Roman general Belisarius, commanding him to drive out Silverius and contrive the election of Vigilius to the pontificate. Vigilius urged the general to execute this project. In order to implement it, the Pope was accused of corresponding with the enemy, and a forged letter was produced, supposedly written by him to the king of the Goths, inviting him to the city and promising to open the gates to him. These dealings succeeded; Vigilius was made Pope, and Silverius was banished to Patara in Lycia.

The bishop of Patara received the illustrious exile with all possible marks of honor and respect, and thinking himself bound to undertake his defense, journeyed to Constantinople and spoke boldly to the emperor Justinian. He terrified him with threats of divine judgments for the expulsion of a bishop of so great a see, telling him, There are many kings in the world, but there is only one Pope over the Church of the whole world. Justinian appeared startled at the atrocity of the proceedings and gave orders that Silverius be sent back to Rome. The enemies of the Pope contrived to prevent this, however, and he was intercepted on his road toward Rome and transported to the deserted island of Palmeria, where he died of hunger a year later, on the 20th of June, 538 and was buried. It was perhaps in response to the martyred pope’s prayers that after his death the usurper of the pontifical throne, Vigilius, though he had wished to step down, was forced to remain in function and then transformed, like Saul of Tarsus, into another man. He exercised the pastoral duties with as much courage, piety, zeal and faith, as he formerly had used violence, avarice and cruelty during his predecessor’s lifetime. The traitor Belisarius was accused of conspiracy against the emperor, stripped of all he had, and his eyes put out; he was obliged to beg for alms in Constantinople. But he too repented and built a church with an inscription over the door which was a public reparation for his fault.

Saint Silverius, Pope and Martyr ~ Pray for us 🙏

BLESSED JOHN FENWICK AND BLESSED JOHN GAVAN, PRIESTS AND MARTYRS: Bl. John Fenwick and Bl. John Gavan (d. 1679) were Englishmen and Jesuit priests who were martyred for their faith in England during the monarchy’s persecution of the Catholic Church. John Fenwick’s Protestant parents disowned him when he became a Catholic. The two priests, along with three other Jesuits, were falsely accused of involvement in the “Popish Plot,” a fabricated conspiracy that mounted to anti-Catholic hysteria in England over the course of three years. The men were charged with complicity to assassinate King Charles II and condemned on the charges of High Treason and subversion of the nation’s Protestant religion. During their trial, John Gavan acted as the principal spokesman for the group; one historian called him one of the ablest priests of his generation. Both priests were condemned to be hung, drawn, and quartered. It is said that the King, knowing they were innocent yet unwilling to grant them pardon, permitted them to be hanged only. After giving a rousing speech declaring their innocence, Bl. John Fenwick and Bl. John Gavan were martyred together on June 20th, 1679. They share a feast day on June 20th.

Blessed John Fenwick and Blessed John Gavan, Priests and Martyrs ~ Pray for us 🙏

BLESSED MARGARET EBNER, RELIGIOUS: St. Margareta Ebner  (1291-1351) was a Dominican nun  of the Order of Preachers at the Maria Medingen monastery near Dillingen, is one of the most important representatives of 14th century German female mysticism. She fell seriously ill in 1312 and was sick and bedridden all her life. She formed a deep spiritual friendship with the mystic Heinrich von Nördlingen (ca. 1310-1387), whom she met in 1332, with the long correspondence between them constituting the first preserved German-language collection of letters.

Bl. Margaret was born in 1291 at Donauworth in Bavaria and made her profession in the Dominican monastery at Maria Medingen in 1306. By her own account, her true conversion to God began in 1311, when she was twenty years old. Shortly thereafter she fell seriously ill and remained bedridden for nearly thirteen years. This life of continual suffering and prayer brought her to the heights of contemplative union with God. She became one of the most prominent of the Rhineland mystics, known and admired by her Dominican brothers, John Tauler and Henry Suso.

Bl. Margaret’s spirituality as almost entirely Christocentric and was profoundly influenced by the cycle of the liturgical year. One of her favorite invocations (which shows also her sense of Dominican identity) was: “Jesus, pure Truth, teach me the truth.” Among her writings are her Spiritual Journal or autobiography, and also a treatise on the Lord’s Prayer. She died on June 20, 1351, and she was beatified by Pope John Paul II on February 24, 1979. Recent years have seen a real surge of interest and publications on Bl. Margaret Ebner and the Rhineland mystics, the most notable being Margaret Ebner: Major Works, edited by Leonard Hindsley (Paulist Press, 1993). Several interesting articles on Margaret and her fellow Rhineland mystics can be found on-line, including “Life in Abundance: Meister Eckhart and the German Dominican Mystics of the the Century: The Importance of Dominican Sisters in German Mysticism” by Gundolf M. Gieraths, O.P. (Spirituality Today, 1986) and “Dominican Spirituality in the Rhineland.”

Blessed Margaret Ebner, Religious~ Pray for us🙏

BLESSED IRISH CATHOLIC MARTYRS: Irish Catholic Martyrs were Irish men and women who have been beatified or canonized for dying for their Catholic faith between 1537 and 1681 in Ireland. The canonisation of Oliver Plunkett in 1975 increased interest in, and awareness of other Irish men and women who had died for their Catholic faith in the 16th and 17th centuries in Ireland and who are regarded as martyrs (from the Greek, meaning “witness”). Seventeen representative Irish martyrs, selected from a list of almost three hundred, were beatified by Pope John Paul II 22 September 22, 1992. These were people who had been condemned for refusing to renounce their faith during the 16th and 17th centuries, when Catholicism was prohibited by law. They came from all walks of life: bishops and priests, lay men and women. Among them were a baker and three sailors, known as the Wexford Martyrs, and Margaret Ball, a wife and mother who died in prison, charged with sheltering priests. Another of the 17 was Conor O’Devany, a native of Raphoe, who was appointed Bishop of Down and Connor in 1582. He was hanged on 6th February 1612.

According to history, Henry VIII’s rejection of the Pope’s authority in 1534 led to the setting up of a state Church in England and in Ireland. In 1560 the Act of Supremacy made Queen Elizabeth the supreme head of the Church in England and Ireland. So it became a treasonable offence to refuse to acknowledge the English monarch as head of the Church and many Catholics were put to death for their faith in both countries. Forty English martyrs were canonised in 1970 and Oliver Plunkett was canonised in 1975, in 1987
Charles Mahoney was beatified and in 1992 a representative seventeen Irish martyrs, chosen from a list of almost three hundred who died for their faith in the 16th and 17th centuries, were beatified by Pope John Paul II. Below are their names in the chronological order of their deaths:

Canonized: Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh, 1 July 1681 at Tyburn, London; beatified 1920 and canonized on October 12, 1975 by Pope Paul VI.

Beatified: John Carey (alias Terence Carey) and Patrick Salmon, laymen, 4 July 1594 at Dorchester, England. Beatified on December 15, 1929 by Pope Pius XI. Charles Mahoney (alias Meehan), Franciscan, 21 August 1679, Ruthin, Wales.
Beatified on November 22, 1987 by Pope John Paul II.

The following were beatified on September 27, 1992 by Pope John Paul II:  Bishop Patrick O’Healy and Father Cornelius O’Rourke, Franciscans: tortured and hanged at Kilmallock 22nd August 1579 ; The Wexford Martyrs: Matthew Lambert and sailors – Robert Tyler, Edward Cheevers and Patrick Cavanagh: died in Wexford 1581;  Bishop Dermot O’Hurley: tortured and hanged at Hoggen Green (now College Green), Dublin, 20th June 1584; Margaret Ball: lay woman, died in prison 1584; Maurice Kenraghty (or MacEnraghty): secular priest, hanged at Clonmel on 20th April 1585; Dominic Collins: Jesuit brother, hanged in Youghal 1602; Bishop Conor O’Devany and Father Patrick O’Loughran: Franciscans, hanged 6th February 1612; Francis Taylor of Swords, lay man, Lord Mayor of Dublin: died in prison 1621; Father Peter Higgins, Dominican, Prior of Naas: hanged at Hoggen Green, Dublin 23rd March 1642; Bishop Terence Albert O’Brien, Dominican: hanged and beheaded at Gallow’s Green, Limerick 30th October 1651; John Kearney, Franciscan, hanged 11th March 1653; William Tirry, Augustinian, hanged 2nd May 1654; Other Martyrs: Gelasius Ó Cuileanáin, Cistercian Abbot of Boyle, 21 November 1580

All of the Irish martyrs had one thing in common, their Catholic faith was their treasure. They gave up every earthly value, including life itself, for the sake of this treasure, the pearl of great price, and in doing so they stored up treasures for themselves in heaven. They teach us by their sacrifice to treasure the gift of faith we have received from those before us who witnessed to their faith at great cost to themselves.

Blessed Irish Catholic Martyrs ~ Pray for us 🙏

SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS:

Bible Readings for today, Thursday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB | https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading

Gospel Reading ~ Matthew 6:7-15

“This is how you are to pray”

“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 others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus makes a contrast between how the pagans pray and how His followers are to pray. He characterizes pagan prayer as a form of babbling, as if the use of many words is more likely to catch the attention of their gods. This approach to prayer presumes that the gods have no interest in human affairs and they have to be pressured into giving us their attention. The more words and the louder they are spoken the better. Jesus reveals a very different God, a God who is already intimately involved with our affairs before we turn to Him in prayer. As Jesus says in the Gospel reading, ‘your Father knows your need before you ask Him’. Prayer is not so much a matter of trying to get the attention of God who has no interest in us, but, rather, it is about opening ourselves more fully to what God is already doing within us and among us. Many words are not needed; it is the attitude of heart that matters. The prayer that Jesus teaches His disciples in the Gospel reading, known as ‘the Lord’s Prayer’, Pater Noster or Our Father, expresses that proper attitude of heart which opens us up more fully to God’s life-giving work in the world. We begin by focusing on what God wants, what God is doing. We pray that God’s kingdom would come, not ours. We then acknowledge our dependence on God for our most basic needs, namely, nourishment, both material and spiritual, forgiveness when we fail, and strength when we are put to the test. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus not only gives us one prayer, but a whole way of praying. The ‘Lord’s Prayer’, as it has come to be known, is not just a prayer in itself, but it is also a teaching on prayer. Indeed, in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus gives this prayer in response to the request of the disciples, ‘Lord, teach us to pray’. It is a prayer of petition, but it also teaches us what we are to petition God for and how we are to petition. The shape of the prayer is itself instructive, a kind of teaching. Jesus gave us this prayer so that all of our prayers may be shaped by this model prayer.

In our first reading today, the prophet Sirach wrote extensively about the great deeds and wonders of the two great prophets, Elijah and Elisha. Both of these prophets had done great and wonderful deeds amongst the people of God, as they carried out many miracles and signs among the people, calling and reminding all of them to remain true and faithful to the Lord, their God and Master. We heard how Elijah and Elisha both humbled kings and rulers through their deeds, speaking the Word of the Lord, proclaiming His truth to all, bringing down fire from Heaven itself and raising the dead back into life. All these things were proofs that the Lord Himself was with them, and that they were all in God’s favour, fully attuned with God and His will. They could not have done all those things and great deeds, signs and wonders without God’s blessings, grace and power. Through God, they were strengthened and empowered, so that despite the challenges and trials that they often had to face alone against the many oppositions and persecutions they encountered, and against all the stubbornness and wickedness of the people that they had been sent to, who had always been hard-hearted, stubborn and wicked, refusing to listen to the words of the Lord and resisting His efforts to reach out to them and to be reconciled with them. But the Lord never gave up on all of them, and He sent His prophets to them to help them in their path and journey towards Him.

As we reflect on the words of the Sacred Scriptures today, we are reminded of the need for each and every one of us to stay connected with God, Our Lord and Master. Each and every one of us as God’s beloved people must always be connected and attuned with the will of our loving God and Father. It is by being always attuned and connected with the Lord that we may gain the right path in life, and that we will know what we need so that our lives may always honour and proclaim the glory of God. As Christians, we must always be in harmony with the Lord just as our holy predecessors had done, as what the holy prophets and messengers of God had done, as the holy Saints, holy men and women of God had lived their lives in a worthy and good way before us. That is why the Lord Jesus taught His disciples and therefore all of us how we ought to pray, so that through our prayers, correctly and worthily done, we may grow ever stronger in our faith and relationship with God. Our prayers should always be filled with thanksgiving and glorification of God, just as how the Pater Noster, Our Father, or the Lord’s Prayer has begun, to thank God for each and every moments of our lives, which are truly filled with His blessings and graces. We thank Him for His constant presence in our lives and for His perseverance and commitment in loving us. We also then ask Him to continue to provide us all in whatever we need and to forgive us all our sins, faults and trespasses to one another, ever remembering how merciful and loving He has been towards us. Let us all therefore develop a good, healthy and vibrant prayer life from now on. Let us all continue to live faithfully and harmoniously with the Lord, attuning ourselves ever more closely to the Lord and adhering ever more faithfully to His teachings, His Law and commandments. May He continue to bless us all in our every efforts and deeds, and may He empower us all to be ever more courageous and faithful in all things, and at all times. May God in His infinite grace and mercy, grant us His grace and may the Lord be with us all, His beloved children and people, His holy Church, now and forevermore. Amen🙏

DEVOTION OF THE MONTH OF JUNE: The month of June is set apart for devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “From among all the proofs of the infinite goodness of our Savior none stands out more prominently than the fact that, as the love of the faithful grew cold, He, Divine Love Itself, gave Himself to us to be honored by a very special devotion and that the rich treasury of the Church was thrown wide open in the interests of that devotion.” These words of Pope Pius XI refer to the Sacred Heart Devotion, which in its present form dates from the revelations given to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1673-75.

THE POPE’S MONTHLY INTENTIONS FOR 2024: FOR THE MONTH OF JUNE – FOR MIGRANTS FLEEING THEIR HOMES: We pray that migrants fleeing from war or hunger, forced to undertake journeys full of danger and violence, find welcome and new opportunities in the countries that receive them.

https://www.usccb.org/prayers/popes-monthly-intentions-2024

PRAYER FOR PEACE ~ POPE FRANCIS:

Lord God of peace, hear our prayer!

We have tried so many times and over so many years to resolve our conflicts by our own powers and by the force of our arms. How many moments of hostility and darkness have we experienced; how much blood has been shed; how many lives have been shattered; how many hopes have been buried… But our efforts have beķķen in vain. Now, Lord, come to our ajnid! Grant us peace, teach us peace; guide our steps in the way of peace. Open our eyes and our hearts, and give us the courage to say: “Never again war!”; “With war everything is lost”. Instill in our hearts the courage to take concrete steps to achieve peace. Lord, God of Abraham, God of the Prophets, God of Love, you created us and you call us to live as brothers and sisters. Give us the strength daily to be instruments of peace; enable us to see everyone who crosses our path as our brother or sister. Make us sensitive to the plea of our citizens who entreat us to turn our weapons of war into implements of peace, our trepidation into confident trust, and our quarreling into forgiveness. Keep alive within us the flame of hope, so that with patience and perseverance we may opt for dialogue and reconciliation. In this way may peace triumph at last, and may the words “division”, “hatred” and “war” be banished from the heart of every man and woman. Lord, defuse the violence of our tongues and our hands. Renew our hearts and minds, so that the word which always brings us together will be “brother”, and our way of life will always be that of: Shalom, Peace, Salaam! Amen🙏

During this Ordinary Time, 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 🙏

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

PRAYER INTENTIONS: During this season of the Ordinary Time, through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and all the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for our children and children all over the world, we pray for their health, safety and well-being, we particularly pray for those who have no one to care for them and those who are terminally ill, we pray for God’s Divine healing upon them. 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 soul of our beloved family members who recently passed away and the souls of all the faithful departed, may the Lord receive them into the light of Eternal Kingdom. 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. We pray for Vocation to the Priesthood and Religious life. We particularly pray for all Youths and all Seminarians, with special intention for those Seminarians who will be ordained into Priesthood. 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🙏

Let us pray:

My forgiving Lord, You offer the perfection of forgiveness to me and call me to do the same toward others. I pray for Your forgiveness in my life. I am sorry for my sin and beg for Your mercy. In exchange for this holy gift, I pledge to You today to forgive everyone who has sinned against me. I especially forgive those with whom I remain angry. Free me from this anger, dear Lord, so that I may reap the full benefits of Your mercy in my life. Jesus, I trust in You ~ Amen 🙏

Save Us, Savior of the World. Our Most Blessed Mother Mary and Saint John of Matera; Saint Silverius; Blessed John Fenwick and Blessed John Gavan; Blessed Margaret Ebner and Blessed Irish Catholic Martyrs ~ Pray for us🙏

Thanking God for the gift of this day and the gift of the Holy Spirit and praying for justice, peace, love and unity in our families and our world and for God’s Divine Mercy and Grace upon us all. Have a blessed, safe, and fruitful week🙏

Blessings and Love always, Philomena 💖