SIXTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

SAINTS OF THE DAY ~ FEAST DAY: JULY 25, 2024

Greetings, beloved family and Happy Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time!

On this special feast day, with special intention through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, and the Saints, we humbly pray for justice, peace and unity in our families and our divided and conflicted world. We continue to 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 | July 25, 2024 |

Watch “Holy Mass from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | July 25, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary from Lourdes, France” |July 25, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | July 25, 2024 |

Pray “The Chaplet of Divine Mercy | from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | July 25, 2024 |

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

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

NOVENA TO THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS | https://novenaprayer.com/novena-to-the-precious-blood-of-jesus/ (When to begin: Any time – The whole month of July)

Today’s Bible Readings: Thursday, July 25, 2024
Reading 1, Second Corinthians 4:7-15
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6
Gospel, Matthew 20:20-28

SAINTS OF THE DAY: FEAST OF SAINT JAMES, APOSTLE, AND SAINT CHRISTOPHER, MARTYR ~ FEAST DAY – JULY 25TH: Today, we celebrate the Feast of Saint James, Apostle, and Saint Christopher, Martyr. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the safety and well-being of all children, for the sick and dying, especially those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases, arthritis, epilepsy and dental diseases. We pray for those going through difficulties, especially during these challenging times, for the poor and the needy, for peace, love, and unity in our families and our world. And we continue to pray for the Church, the Clergy, for persecuted Christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world.🙏 

SAINT JAMES, APOSTLE: St. James, known as St. James the Greater, in order to distinguish him from the other Apostle St. James, our Lord’s cousin, was St. John’s brother. In Spain, St. James is called El Senor Santiago. He is one of those that Jesus called Boanerges, “son of thunder,” the brother of John the Evangelist and the son of Zebedee, the fisherman from Bethsaida in Galilee, and his Mother, Salome. The two youths James and John were fishing with their father when Jesus came by and invited them to follow Him. They became such dedicated and zealous followers that our Lord styled them Boanerges, or sons of thunder. They were present at the cure of St. Peter’s mother-in-law, the raising of Jairus’s daughter, and the Transfiguration, and were near Christ in His Agony in the garden. Among the twelve Apostles, three were chosen to be the close companions of our Blessed Lord, and of this, James was one. They were present at the cure of St. Peter’s mother-in-law, He, with Peter and John, were admitted to the house of Jairus when his dead child was raised to life (Luke 8:40 ff.); only these three were taken up to the high mountain of Thabor and beheld the face of Jesus shining as the sun, and His garments white as snow (Mark 9:2-7), Transfiguration. These three alone witnessed the fearful agony in Gethsemane. (Luke 22:39-45), were near Christ in His Agony in the garden.

One day, their mother asked Jesus to assure a place of honor for her sons in His future Kingdom. When He asked if they were able to bear the cup of His sufferings, their answer was typical of them: indeed they could! And indeed they did! After the dispersion of the Apostles, St. James preached the Gospel in Spain and then returned to Jerusalem, where he was the first of the Apostles to drink the cup of Christ’s sufferings. By order of Herod Agrippa, he was beheaded at Jerusalem around the feast of Easter in the year 44 AD. St. James’s death is the only biblical record we have of the death of one of the Apostles, and he was the first of that chosen band to give his life for his Master. St. Christopher is the Patron Saint of rheumatoid sufferers; against arthritis; riders; soldiers; Spain; Spanish conquistadors; tanners; pharmacists; veterinarians: pilgrims; Antigua, Guatemala; apothecaries; blacksmiths; Chile; Compostela, Spain; druggists; equestrians; furriers; Galicia, Spain; Guatemala; horsemen; knights; laborers; Medjugorje, Bos⁵4; pilgrims; Pistoia, Italy. St. James is venerated at Santiago de Compostela, a medieval pilgrimage site that is still very popular today.

PRAYER: Almighty, ever-living God, through the blood of St. James, you consecrated the first fruits of the ministry of Your Apostles. Grant that Your Church may be strengthened by his confession and always enjoy his patronage. Amen 🙏
 
SAINT CHRISTOPHER, MARTYR: St. Christopher suffered martyrdom in Asia Minor about the year 250. He is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. The name “Christopher” means Christ-bearer. As the legend goes, he carries travelers across a turbulent, unpassable river. After he performed this service for some time, a child appeared and asked to be carried across the raging waters, in which Christopher obliged. As he began to cross the river with the child, the child quickly became a heavy burden and revealed himself as Christ. “When Christopher safely reached the other side, he asked the child “Child, thou hast put me in dire peril, and hast weighed so heavily on me that if I had borne the whole weight of the world upon my shoulders it could not have burdened me more heavily.” In which the child replied, “Wonder not, Christopher, for not only hast thou borne the whole world on thy shoulders, but Him who created the world.”—for the Christ Child, bearing in His own arms, the great world had been Christopher’s burden.”

St. Christopher died a Martyr during the reign of Decius in the 3rd century and is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers invoked for emergencies or afflictions. He is considered the patron saint of travelers, motorists, children, bachelors, transportation, traveling, storms, epilepsy, gardeners, athletics, invoked against storms, plagues, holy death, and toothache (although he is not in the official canon of the saints).

PRAYER: Almighty and ever-living God, graciously our out Your Spirit upon us. Let our hearts be filled with that true love, which enabled Your holy Martyr Christopher to overcome all bodily torments. Amen 🙏

SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS:

Bible Readings for today, Feast of Saint James, Apostle | USCCB | https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading

Gospel Reading ~ Matthew 20:20-28

“You will drink my chalice”

“The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something. He said to her, “What do you wish?” She answered him, “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your Kingdom.” Jesus said in reply, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?” They said to him, “We can.” He replied, “My chalice you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” When the ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus summoned them and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus called two sets of brothers who were fishermen, Peter and Andrew and James and John. Today, we celebrate the feast of Saint James, the brother of John and the son of Zebedee. Their father, Zebedee, seems to have had a flourishing fishing business by the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The two brothers St. James and St. John came together with their mother, and at that time, their mother asked the Lord to grant the two of them the places of honour by the left and the right-hand side of the Lord. This action brought about a lot of insecurities and jealousy from the other disciples of the Lord, and it highlighted to us the dangers of temptations of worldly power and glory, and one which we should resist or else we may end up falling into the wrong paths in life, and not the path that the Lord has shown us. Jesus and His disciples are clearly on different wavelengths. The difference between them finds expression in the very different questions they ask of each other. The question the two disciples, James and John, ask Jesus through their mother focuses on glory, honour, status. The question that Jesus asks James and John focuses on the experience of rejection and suffering that He is about to face into, ‘Can you drink the cup that I must drink, or be baptized with the baptism with which I must be baptized?’ Jesus was referring to the cup of suffering and the baptism of fire. The question of James and John showed their interest in self-promotion. The question of Jesus showed that His priority was self-giving. At the heart of being His disciple is self-giving love, becoming the servant of others, and this will often mean taking the way of the cross, as Jesus knew from His own experience. James and John, and all of us, are being called to follow the one who did not come to be served but to serve, whose purpose in life was not to promote Himself but to empty Himself for others. It is only in following this way that we will receive that share in Jesus’ glory that was the focus of James and John’s request. In the end, James drank the cup of suffering that Jesus had to drink. According to the Acts of the Apostles, King Herod Agrippa had James killed with a sword. He was the first member of the twelve to die for his faith in the Lord. According to an ancient tradition his bones were brought from Jerusalem to Compostella in North West Spain, as a result of which Compostela has been a place of pilgrimage for the past thousand years or more. We are called to strive to follow in the Lord’s way and to live by His truth, committing ourselves to this path of self-emptying love of the Lord and of others, a path Saint James eventually traveled to the full.

In our first reading today from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in the city and region of Corinth, the Apostle spoke of the challenges and hardships that the faithful and holy people of God would be facing amidst their lives and journeys of faith, their works and missions. Essentially St. Paul was also speaking of his own experiences, and what the other Apostles like that of St. James had also faced amidst their own ministries, works and missions, and what we ourselves as Christians may have also experienced throughout our own lives, and what we may yet encounter in our own paths. But at the same time, St. Paul also reminded us all that we have this most precious treasure in us, that is the gift of salvation through Christ, as God Himself has come to dwell in our midst. This is an important reminder that amidst all the challenges that we may be facing in our respective lives, we must not lose faith in God, and we ought to continue to persevere in faith, in all the things that we say and do, in our every efforts to commit ourselves to the Lord. All of us must always keep our focus firmly aimed at the Lord, and not to allow ourselves to be swayed by the many temptations present around us, or by the persuasions to give in to despair and thus abandon the Lord, our God, because we seek to save ourselves and to avoid the sufferings and persecutions. That is why as Christians we should always strive to be inspired by the examples of the Saints, the holy men and women of God, especially that of St. James the Apostle, whose memory and inspiration we remember and venerate today. According to our first reading today, in the words of St. Paul, the Lord know that we are like earthenware jars holding the precious treasure of the Gospel. Like such jars, we are prone to breaking. Yet, as St. Paul reminds us in that reading that the overwhelming power to live our baptism to the full comes from God and not from us. The Lord’s power is always at work in our weakness, in the words of St. Paul, ‘He who raised the Lord Jesus to life will raise us with Jesus in our turn’.

As we reflect on the words of the Sacred Scriptures today, each and every one of us have been called and God has bestowed each one of us with variety of gifts and blessings, opportunities and chances for us all to reach out and to do His will. What matters is for us to respond to God’s call and our commitment to walk faithfully in His path. Are we willing to drink the cup that Christ and His servants had drunk, the cup of suffering? And if we suffer with Christ, we too shall be glorified with Him in triumph. Let the examples of St. James the Apostles, who we celebrate today and all the other great holy men and women of God inspire us to do more for the greater glory of God, in fulfilling our Christian calling and our obligation to live our lives most worthily for the Lord. May the Lord continue to strengthen and guide each one of us, and may the intercession of St. James, His Apostle continue to help us in our journey and empower us all should we face many challenges and trials throughout our journey of faith and life. May God in His infinite grace and mercy, grant us His grace and be with us always and may He strengthen us always in faith and may He bless our every works and good deeds, efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen🙏

DEVOTION OF THE MONTH OF JULY:

THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS: The month of July is dedicated to the Precious Blood. The feast of the Precious Blood of our Lord was instituted in 1849 by Pius IX, but the devotion is as old as Christianity. The early Fathers say that the Church was born from the pierced side of Christ, and that the sacraments were brought forth through His Blood.

“The Precious Blood which we worship is the Blood which the Savior shed for us on Calvary and reassumed at His glorious Resurrection; it is the Blood which courses through the veins of His risen, glorified, living body at the right hand of God the Father in heaven; it is the Blood made present on our altars by the words of Consecration; it is the Blood which merited sanctifying grace for us and through it washes and beautifies our soul and inaugurates the beginning of eternal life in it.”

PRECIOUS BLOOD PRAYER: Almighty, and everlasting God, who hast appointed Thine only-begotten Son to be the Redeemer of the world, and hast been pleased to be reconciled unto us by His Blood, grant us, we beseech Thee, so to venerate with solemn worship the price of our salvation, that the power thereof may here on earth keep us from all things hurtful, and the fruit of the same may gladden us for ever hereafter in heaven. Through the same Christ our Lord.
Amen 🙏🏾

THE POPE’S MONTHLY INTENTIONS FOR 2024: FOR THE MONTH OF JULY – FOR THE PASTORAL CARE OF THE SICK: We pray that the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick confer to those who receive it and their loved ones the power of the Lord and become ever more a visible sign of compassion and hope for all.

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 been in vain. Now, Lord, come to our aid! 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 glorious King, You invite all people to share in Your glorious Kingdom to come. May I enter that Kingdom with all the saints and fully share in its glory. I choose that path that leads to that Kingdom and willingly offer my life in sacrifice to You and for others. Jesus, I trust in You ~ Amen🙏

Save Us, Savior of the World. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and Most Precious Blood of Jesus have mercy on us. Our Most Blessed Mother Mary, Saint James and Saint Christopher ~ Pray for us🙏

Thanking God for the gift of this day 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, grace-filled, and fruitful week 🙏

Blessings and Love always, Philomena💖