THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR B)

SAINTS OF THE DAY ~ FEAST DAY: JUNE 30, 2024

Greetings beloved family and Happy Sunday of theThirteenth Week in Ordinary Time!

We thank God for the gift of life and for bringing us safely and successfully to the end of the month of June. May God’s grace and mercy be with us all now and always🙏

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 30, 2024 |

Watch “Holy Mass from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | June 30, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary from Lourdes, France” |June 30, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | June 30, 2024 |

Pray “The Chaplet of Divine Mercy | from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | June 30, 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, Sunday, June 30, 2024
Reading 1, Wisdom 1:13-15,2:23-24
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11, 12, 13
Reading 2, Second Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15
Gospel, Mark 5:21-43

SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS

Bible Readings for today, Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) | USCCB | https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading

Gospel Reading ~ Mark 5:21–43

“Little girl, I say to you, arise!”

“When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea. One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, “My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.” He went off with him, and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him. There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?” But his disciples said to Jesus, “You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” And he looked around to see who had done it. The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.” While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?” Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. So he went in and said to them, “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.” And they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. He took along the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and entered the room where the child was. He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. At that they were utterly astounded. He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat.”

In today’s Gospel reading, two people were featured, a man and a woman, each of whom draw near to the Lord in their need. The man is given a name, Jairus. He was a synagogue official, someone who supervised the running of the local synagogue. He had a certain social status in the community. The woman is not given a name. She once had some financial means but she had spent all of her money on doctors in a failed attempt to be cured of her continuous haemorrhaging of blood. In that culture, her condition would have left her very socially isolated. She could not have joined the community when they gathered in the local synagogue. These two people approached Jesus in very different ways. The synagogue official approached Jesus in a very public way. Falling down at Jesus’ feet, he pleaded with him on behalf of his seriously ill daughter. It was highly unconventional for someone of his social standing to be throwing himself at the feet of someone like Jesus, regarded by most as a travelling prophet and miracle worker. Yet, distraught parents will go to any lengths on behalf of their seriously ill child. The woman’s approach to Jesus was secretive and private. She couldn’t bring herself to speak with Jesus face to face, like Jairus. Rather, she sneaked up behind Jesus not wanting him or anybody else to know she was there, and she touched his cloak. Perhaps she thought, because of her condition, ‘I am too worthless, too unclean, for Jesus to be interested in healing me’. She wanted an impersonal meeting with Jesus, hoping that would cure her. However, Jesus wanted to meet her personally, just as He had met Jairus personally. He wanted to hear her speak to Him, just as He heard Jairus speak to Him. He wanted the woman to know that He was just as interested in her condition as He was in the sickness of Jairus’ daughter. That is why Jesus, when He sensed power had gone out of Him, asked aloud, ‘Who touched me?’ As the disciples reminded Him, all sorts of people were pressing around Him, but Jesus knew that someone had touched Him in a different way, not casually, but with great trusting faith. He wanted to meet her and affirm her faith. He wanted her to know that she mattered to Him; she wasn’t a person of no worth. When she finally came out into public view, she did what Jairus had done; she threw herself at Jesus’ feet and told him the whole truth. Jesus immediately addressed her as ‘My daughter’, showing her that He loved her with the love of God the Father. He then publicly proclaimed her great faith to everyone present.

Jairus too had shown faith in approaching Jesus on behalf of his seriously ill daughter. His faith was now put to the test when, as Jesus was still speaking to the woman, word came through that his daughter had died. When Jesus said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, only have faith’, he could easily have pointed to the faith of the woman to inspire him. Jairus, who had shown faith in Jesus when his daughter was ill, now needed to keep faith in Jesus in the face of his daughter’s death. The faith of the woman had created a space for Jesus to work powerfully to bring her from a twelve year living death to new life. The faith of Jairus now created a space for Jesus to bring Jairus’ twelve year old daughter back from death to life. Just as the Lord was present to Jairus and the woman in their need, he is present to us in our need too. He doesn’t mind how we approach him. Sometimes our approach to him will be very public, like that of Jairus. At other times, our approach will be more like that of the woman; we have secret wounds and we bring them to the Lord as privately as possible. Yet, regardless of our approach, the Lord is always there to receive us; he wants to relate to us in a very personal way, as ‘my daughter’ or ‘my son’. He will always relate to us as Life-Giver, because what he wants for each of us is life to the full. Even when we are faced with the death of a loved one, Jesus assures us that He has power over death and will bring those who turn to Him through death into a new and glorious life, a sharing in his risen life. As St. Paul says in the second reading, Jesus ‘became poor for your sake, to make you rich out of His poverty’. He emptied Himself of his physical life so that we could all come to share in the richness of his risen life.

In our first reading today from the Book of Wisdom, it was highlighted that God created all things good and perfect, and what we all must realise is that because God Himself is all good and perfect, He did not create evil or sin, or any of the imperfections in this world. He created all things including all of us mankind in the state of perfection, all good and wonderful, truly worthy of God as the Master and Lord of all creation. Especially for us, we have been made and crafted in the very image and likeness of God Himself. All of us were never meant to suffer and to endure all the challenges and trials present before us and our predecessors in this world, as we were all meant to exist in the Presence of God, to enjoy fully His love and grace, experiencing fully His inheritance and everything that He has prepared for us in this world. According to our first reading from the Book of Wisdom, God also did not create death or rejoice in our destruction. Rather, our deaths came about because of our own doing, by our failures and inability to follow the Lord wholeheartedly, in our conscious choice to follow the path of rebellion and disobedience against God, which essentially us rejecting the love of God, His grace and kindness, and hence, when we reject God, the Lord and Master of life, then the life which He has granted to us will depart from us, and we will not have share in Him, and that was how death came to claim us, because when life departs us, then we suffer from death, as the prime consequence of sin, which in turn is the consequence of our disobedience against God. If we wonder why God Who made us all good and perfect had allowed us to disobey Him and to commit such evils, this was because He granted to us the gift of free will, the great gift which He has bestowed on us, because He wants us to love Him by our own free will, and that we truly choose to love Him and not by coercion or force. This is because true love is something that comes voluntarily and freely from the heart, and not something that God can force from us. Thus, He gave us the gift of free will, which is something that His Angels have also been given, as was evident from how Satan, once known as Lucifer, the most brilliant and mightiest of all the Angels that God had created, chose to embrace and give in to his pride and ego, his ambition and desire, rebelling against God and falling from grace, becoming the great enemy of all the faithful. It was him who also successfully tempted our first ancestors to sin, to disobey God just as he himself had done.

In our second reading today, from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in Corinth, the Apostle exhorted all of the faithful people of God to be filled with love just as much as they had been filled with knowledge and other riches of all sorts, imitating and following the good examples of Christ Himself, the Lord and Saviour of all, Who had loved everyone, all of us so greatly, that He was willing to empty Himself of all glory, honour and riches, of all dignity so that by His loving embrace of our sufferings and by bearing upon Himself all of our sins and their consequences, He might open for us the path to salvation and eternal life, showing us all the path to return once again to the loving Presence and grace of God, to regain what we have lost. God had sent unto us all His own beloved Son, so that while our ancestors sinned by engorging upon the forbidden fruits and desiring and craving after knowledge, glory and riches of the world, thus, by His Son’s perfect obedience, and by His willingness to abandon all glory and honour, He has shown us all how we can come out from our state of deprivation and the darkness all around us in this world. Through His Son, God wants us all to find our way back to Him, and to have the chance to be reconciled with Him. He has given us many opportunities, again and again, for us to embrace Him and to accept the generous love and mercy which He has always shown us. He has reached out to us, calling out upon us to follow Him once again into the path of righteousness, abandoning our wickedness and sins.

As we reflect on the words of the Sacred Scriptures this Sunday, all of us are reminded that each and every one of us as God’s most important Creation, as the pinnacle of His works in this Universe and world, as His most beloved ones are truly precious to God, and we should truly be thankful to Him because He has always shown us His grace, kindness and love despite our many transgressions, stubborn attitudes and disobedience against Him. He has always put us first and foremost in His mind, reaching out to us to find us, to be reconciled with us and to help us all out of our predicament. He has always wanted each and every one of us to find our way back to Him, so that what was once lost from us through disobedience and sin, we may regain through our renewed obedience and faith in Him, through His love and ever generous forgiveness for our sins and transgressions. Let us all therefore return to the Lord, our loving God and Father, with renewed love and desire to serve Him and to follow Him all of our lives, rejecting from now on all the allures, temptations and false pleasures that sin and evil have tempted us with, and committing ourselves henceforth to live ever more faithfully in God’s Presence. May God in His infinite grace and mercy, grant us His grace and may the Lord continue to help, guide and strengthen us all in this journey of faith throughout our lives, and may He bless our every good works, efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen 🙏🏾

SAINTS OF THE DAY: MEMORIAL OF THE FIRST HOLY MARTYRS OF THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH AND BLESSED GENNARO SARNELLI, PRIEST ~ FEAST DAY: JUNE 30TH Today, we celebrate the Memorial of the First Holy Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church and Blessed Gennaro Sarnelli, Priest. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the First Holy Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church on this feast day, we humbly pray for persecuted Christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world, we also pray for the Church and the Clergy. We continue to pray for the sick and dying, for the poor and needy, for justice, peace and unity in our families and our world.🙏

THE FIRST HOLY MARTYRS OF THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH: Memorial of the First Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church is celebrated in honor of the nameless followers of Christ brutally killed by the mad Emperor Nero as scapegoats for the fire in Rome. A great number of Christians perished at the hands of the Roman Emperor Nero during the terrible persecution that lasted from 64-68 A.D. This was the first of many major persecutions of the newly founded Church at Rome. The holy men and women who first died for the Gospel of Jesus Christ are also called the “Protomartyrs of Rome.” Some were burned as living torches in the Emperor’s gardens; some were crucified; others were fed to wild animals. Many died even before Sts. Peter and Paul, and therefore it is said of them that they are the “Disciples of the Apostles … whom the Holy Roman Church sent to their Lord before the Apostles’ death.” God used the sacrifice of these holy men and women, who suffered like their savior Jesus Christ, to lay the indestructible foundation of His Church. Their bold witness for the Christian faith as they endured a brutal death won many converts and caused the Church to grow and spread throughout the world.

These First Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church were Christians in Rome within a dozen or so years after the death of Jesus, though they were not the converts of the “Apostle of the Gentiles” (see Romans 15:20). St. Paul had not yet visited them at the time he wrote his great letter in A.D. 57-58. There was a large Jewish population in Rome. Probably as a result of controversy between Jews and Jewish Christians, the Emperor Claudius expelled all Jews from Rome in A.D. 49-50. Suetonius the historian says that the expulsion was due to disturbances in the city “caused by the certain Chrestus” [Christ]. Perhaps many came back after Claudius’s death in A.D. 54. St. Paul’s letter was addressed to a church with members from Jewish and gentile backgrounds. In July of A.D. 64, more than half of Rome was destroyed by fire. Rumor blamed the tragedy on Nero, who wanted to enlarge his palace. He shifted the blame by accusing the Christians. The pagan historian Tacitus and St. Clement of Rome tell of a night of horror (August 15, 64 A.D.) when in the imperial parks Christians were put into animal skins and hunted, were brutally attacked, and were made into living torches to light the road for Nero’s chariot. According to the historian Tacitus, a “great multitude” of Christians were put to death because of their “hatred of the human race.” Peter and Paul were probably among the victims. Threatened by an army revolt and condemned to death by the senate, Nero committed suicide in A.D. 68 at the age of thirty-one. From 64 to 314 “Christian” was synonymous with “execution victim.” Today, the site of Nero’s Circus, also the location of St. Peter’s martyrdom, is marked by the Piazza dei Protomartiri Romani (Square of the Roman Protomartyrs) in the Vatican next to St. Peter’s basilica. Wherever the Good News of Jesus was preached, it met the same opposition as Jesus did, and many of those who began to follow him shared his suffering and death. But no human force could stop the power of the Spirit unleashed upon the world. The blood of martyrs has always been, and will always be, the seed of Christians.

PRAYER: God, You consecrated the copious firstfruits of the Roman Church with the blood of Martyrs. Grant that we may be strengthened in virtue by the agony of such a struggle and always rejoice in their victory… Amen🙏

BLESSED GENNARO SARNELLI, PRIEST: Bl. Gennaro Sarnelli (1702 – 1744) was the son of the Baron of Ciorani, was born in Naples on September 12, 1702. At the age of 14 following the beatification of Francis Regis, he decided to become a Jesuit. Having been dissuaded by his father because of his youth he began the study of jurisprudence and took his Doctorate in ecclesiastical and civil law in 1722 at the age of 20. He distinguished himself at the Bar and was enrolled in the Congregation of the Knights of the Legal and Medical Professions directed by the Pious Workers at St. Nicholas of Toledo. Among the rules of this Association, there was the obligation of visiting the sick in the Hospital of the Incurables. It was here he heard the call of the Lord to become a priest. In September 1728 he became a seminarist and was incardinated by Cardinal Pignatelli as a cleric in the parish of St. Anne di Palazzo. On June 4, 1729, in order to study in more peaceful conditions, he became a boarder in the College of the Holy Family known as the Chinese College, founded by Matthew Ripa. On April 8 of the following year, he left the Chinese College and on June 5 began his novitiate in the Congregation of the Apostolic Missions. On May 28, 1731, he concluded his novitiate and on July 8 of the following year, he was raised to the Priesthood. During these years in addition to his visits to the hospital, he devoted himself to helping young children forced to work and teaching them the catechism. He also visited the old people in the Hospice of St. Gennaro and those condemned to the galleys who were ill in the hospital at the docks. These were also the years when he developed a friendship with St. Alphonsus de Liguori and his apostolate. Together they devoted themselves to teaching the catechism to laypeople by organizing the Evening Chapels.

Following his ordination, he was assigned by Cardinal Pignatelli as Director of Religious Instruction in the parish of Sts. Francis and Matthew in the Spanish quarter. Having become aware of the rampant corruption of young girls he decided to direct all his energy against prostitution. In the same period (1733) he tenaciously defended St. Alphonsus against unjust criticism after he had founded the missionary Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer in Scala (SA) on November 9, 1732. In June of the same year having gone to Scala to help his friend during the mission at Ravello, he decided to become a Redemptorist while at the same time continuing to be a member of the Apostolic Missions. From his entrance into the Congregation in April 1736, he committed himself unsparingly to parish missions and to writing in defense of “young girls in danger”. He also wrote on the spiritual life and worked so hard that he was almost at death’s door. With the consent of St. Alphonsus, he returned to Naples for treatment and there renewed his apostolate for the rescue of prostitutes. As well as taking part in the Redemptorist apostolate and that of the Apostolic Missions he promoted meditation in common among the laity by publishing “Il mondo santificato”. He also campaigned against blasphemy in another book. In 1741 he planned and took part with St. Alphonsus in the great missions preached in the hamlets outside Naples in preparation for the canonical visitation of Cardinal Spinelli. Despite the permanently insecure state of his health he continued to preach until the end of April 1744 when by now extremely ill he returned to Naples where he died on June 30 at the age of 42. His body lies at rest in Ciorani, the first Redemptorist Church. Bl. Gennaro Maria Sarnelli has left us 30 works which treat of meditation, mystical theology, spiritual direction, law, pedagogy, moral and pastoral themes. By his social action in favour of women, he is considered one of the authors who treated this subject most fully in Europe of the first half of the eighteenth century. Holy Father Pope John Paul II beatified him on May 12, 1996, in St. Peter’s Square.

PRAYER IN HONOR OF BLESSED GENNARO SARNELLI: Holy Redeemer, we place ourselves in your presence confident that you are a loving and merciful God. You walk with us by day and by night as we strive to proclaim your gospel with compassion to people who are poor and abandoned. As we reach out to those most in need, we look to Blessed Gennaro Sarnelli as a model and help. His ardent desire was to bring people on the fringes of society and Church to a deeper knowledge and love of you. We pray that his zeal will inspire and motivate us to share your redemption with those who are marginalized. We especially remember people who make decisions that lead to destructive and addictive behaviours. May our choices be those of Blessed Sarnelli, who continually lived the gospel in spite of adversity and opposition.  We ask his help, that our commitment may not shrink for lack of support or favour, for as we become one with those who are outcast, we become one with you. 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 compassionate Lord, You responded to the faith of this loving father, Jairus, with mercy and compassion. You encouraged Him to trust and were attentive to every detail. Please give me a similar faith so that I will never despair in life but always keep my hope in You. Jesus, I trust in You ~ Amen🙏

Save Us, Savior of the World. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us. Our Most Blessed Mother Mary, The First Holy Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church and Blessed Gennaro Sarnelli, Priest ~ Pray for us🙏

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you. Immaculate Heart of Mary, Pray for us. Amen🙏

Thanking God for the gift of this special  feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and we continue to pray 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 grace-filled Sunday and week🙏

Blessings and Love always, Philomena 💖