EIGHTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
SAINTS OF THE DAY ~ FEAST DAY: AUGUST 7, 2024
NOVENA TO OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION: REMINDER – The 2024 Novena for the Assumption of Mary into Heaven begins, Tuesday, August 6 and end on August 15. The novena is a prayer that commemorates the death of Mary and her assumption into Heaven, which is celebrated on August 15. [Novena link below]
Greetings, beloved family and Happy Wednesday of the Eighteenth 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 justice, peace and unity in our families and our divided and conflicted world. 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 from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | August 7, 2024 |
Watch “Holy Mass and Holy Rosary on EWTN on YouTube | August 7, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary from Lourdes, France” |August 7, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | August 7, 2024 |
Pray “The Chaplet of Divine Mercy | from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | August 7, 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: Wednesday, August 7, 2024
Reading 1, Jeremiah 31:1-7
Responsorial Psalm, Jeremiah 31:10, 11-12, 13
Gospel, Matthew 15:21-28
NOVENA TO OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION: REMINDER – The 2024 Novena for the Assumption of Mary into Heaven is scheduled to begins, Tuesday, August 6 and end on August 15. The novena is a prayer that commemorates the death of Mary and her assumption into Heaven, which is celebrated on August 15. Novena link below: https://www.virgosacrata.com/novena-to-our-lady-of-the-assumption.html
SAINTS OF THE DAY: MEMORIAL OF SAINT SIXTUS II, POPE AND MARTYR, AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS AND SAINT CAJETAN, PRIEST ~ FEAST DAY – AUGUST 7TH: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Sixtus II, Pope and Martyr, and Companions, Felicissimus and Agapitus, Martyrs and Saint Cajetan, Priest. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the unemployed and those seeking for jobs and livelihood, may God grant them their heart’s desires and provide for the families and individuals who are enduring economic hardship. May God supply their needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. We pray for the sick and dying, especially those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. We also pray for peace, love and unity in our families and our world. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Clergy, for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for the Church, for persecuted christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world.🙏
SAINT SIXTUS II, POPE AND MARTYR, AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS: Pope Sixtus II (Xystus) who died in 258 A.D. was elected to the Roman See in 257. He was Bishop of Rome from August 31, 257 until his death on August 6, 258. He was a good and peace-loving Pontiff. He helped mend the relationship between Rome and the Eastern and African churches over the problem of the rebaptism of converted heretics, a controversy which threatened schism. St. Sixtus II, being a peaceful man, restored friendly relations and maintained unity. However, he served as Holy Father for only one year due to the persecution of Christians by Roman Emperor Valerian. As a result, Pope St. Sixtus II was suppressed and forbidden to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. He continued to worship in secret in defiance to the unjust law, and while offering Mass in a cemetery chapel he was ambushed and beheaded by Roman soldiers on August 6, 258, at the cemetery of the Praetextatus in virtue of the recent edict of Valerian prescribing death for the leaders of the Christians. During the persecution of Christians by the Emperor Valerian, St. Sixtus was martyred along with Saints Felicissimus, Agapitus, and four other deacons. Saint Lawrence, archdeacon of Sixtus, was also martyred there three days later. Pope Sixtus II was one of the first victims of the persecution under the Emperor Valerian. Pope Sixtus reigned for twelve months. His feast day is August 7th.
PRAYER: Almighty God, you gave St. Sixtus and his companions the grace to lay down their lives for your word and as a witness to Christ. By the power of the Holy Spirit, help us to be quick to believe and unwavering in the profession of our Faith. Amen 🙏
SAINT CAJETAN, PRIEST: St. Cajetan (1480-1547) was born Gaetano dei Conti di Thiene on October 6, 1480. He was the son of an Italian nobleman. Under the care of his pious mother he grew up in the tenderest sentiments of virtue. He became a lawyer, worked for a Pope and became a Priest. Entering the ecclesiastical state, he went to Rome, hoping to lead an obscure life, but Pope Julius II forced upon him the office of protonotary opostolic. Upon the death of this Pope, he resigned and returned to Vicenza, his native city. Both in Rome and Vicenza, the Saint devoted himself as a member of pious confraternities to promoting the glory of God and the salvation of souls. After a while he went to Venice and took up his abode in the hospital of that city. Having returned to Rome, he formed the idea of founding a society in which the members would endeavour to live like the Apostles of Old. Some of his companions were John Peter Caraffa, Pope Paul IV, Paul Consiglieri and Boniface de Colle. This began the Order of Regular Clerics, now known as Theatines. This Order was approved by Pope Clement VII in 1524. As Cofounded of the Theatine order, he became an important figure of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. With the future Pope Paul IV, St. Cajetan founded the first congregation of Clerks Regular, a new form of institute which corresponded with the needs of the time. Trust in God was its principal rule; its members were forbidden to ask for alms and depended entirely on the spontaneous charity of the faithful. Such was Cajetan’s zeal in seeking the salvation of souls that he came to be called “the hunter of souls.”
During the sack of Rome by the Constable de Bourbon, St Cajetan was treated cruelly. In 1530, he succeeded Caraffa as General of the Order and filled the office for three years. In spite of his numerous occupations the St. Cajetan spent many hours of the day (about 8 hours daily) in prayer and was often favored with extraordinary ecstasies. Worn out by labors, he died in at Naples, on August 7, 1547, and was canonized in 1671 by Pope Clement X. St. Cajetan is the Patron Saint of Job Seekers; Unemployed, Bankers, Workers.
PRAYER: God, who endowed the Priest Saint Cajetan with the grace of imitating the apostolic way of life, grant us, through his example and intercession, to trust in you at all times and to seek unceasingly your Kingdom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever… Amen. May we not rest until the labour is completed. Amen. Saint Cajetan, pray for us.🙏
SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS:
Bible Readings for today, Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB | https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading
Gospel Reading ~ Matthew 15: 21-28
” O woman, great is your faith!”
“At that time Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not say a word in answer to her. His disciples came and asked him, “Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.” He said in reply, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But the woman came and did him homage, saying, “Lord, help me.” He said in reply, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” Then Jesus said to her in reply, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that hour.”
In today’s Gospel reading, our Lord Jesus Christ had an unusual interaction with a pagan Syro-Phoenician woman who had come to seek His help with regards to her very sick daughter. The Syro-Phoenician region was outside the lands where the Israelites lived in, and at that time, that region was also not where the descendants of the Israelites lived in, and therefore the Syro-Phoenician woman in the reckoning of the Jews would be considered as an outsider and a pagan. And for many among the Jews, the Syro-Phoenician like the other Gentiles were considered unworthy and unclean, and it was often taboo for a Jew like the Lord Jesus Himself to mingle and interact with the non-Jews like the Syro-Phoenician woman. Not only that, but the Jews at that time also had a rather exclusive and elitist view of themselves as God’s chosen people, and looking down on others who did not believe in God as they did. The meeting between Jesus and the pagan woman is unusual in that Jesus seems to be much colder towards her than is usually the case in His dealings with people who approach Him for help. He seems to go out of His way to avoid responding to her plea, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’; ‘it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house dogs’, where the ‘children’ are the people of Israel and the ‘house dogs’ are the pagans. The Gospel reading puts before us a pagan woman of tenacious faith. The initial response of Jesus to her desperate cry for help was one of silence. When the woman persisted with her request and Jesus addresses her directly for the first time, He seems to dismiss her request in a rather harsh fashion. Just as the woman was not put off by Jesus’ silence, she is not put off by His seemingly harsh refusal. She takes Jesus’ image of feeding the children rather than the house-dogs, the people of Israel rather than the pagans, and turns it to her own advantage. Eventually Jesus acknowledges her persistent and humble faith and grants her request. The Gospel reading suggests that as far as Jesus was concerned the time had not yet come to bring the Gospel to pagans; it would come later, after His death and resurrection. Yet, this woman succeeded in bringing forward that timetable by her persistent faith in the face of the Lord’s great reluctance. Jesus spoke at one point of a faith that can move mountains. This woman’s faith certainly moved Jesus. This pagan woman encourages all of us to remain faithful, even when the grounds for faithfulness seem to be very weak. She inspires us to keep seeking the Lord, even when the Lord appears to be silent, unresponsive and distant. The Lord’s seeming unresponsiveness can be an opportunity for us to keep giving expression to our faith, just as it was for the pegan woman in today’s Gospel reading.
In our first reading today from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, God would restore His people, the Israelites once again, to be His blessed and beloved people, restored and empowered, saved and liberated from their troubles just as He had done for them many times previously. These words of the Lord which He spoke to His people, the remnants of the Israelites living in the kingdom of Judah, would indeed come true in the upcoming decades. And these came after the Lord has spoken of all the misfortunes, destructions and hardships that they all would have to encounter in their path, as they had disobeyed Him and disregarded His Law, His commandments and precepts, and thus, they would have to endure the consequences of their actions. This showed us all that God truly loves each and every one of His people, but He does not condone their actions. As a loving Creator and Father to His people, as their Lord, Master and King, God has always cared for them all as He has constantly shown throughout history and as recorded in the Old Testament, but at the same time, as a just and holy God, as mentioned, He does not condone their sinfulness, wicked actions and deeds that are contrary to the way and the teachings which He had passed on to them. He does not want any one of them to be swayed into the wicked path in life, into the path of darkness from which there could be no escape or hope. That was why God chastised His people, punishing them and correcting them but with the ultimate intent of leading them all towards Himself and restoring them to the state of grace together with Him. God does not desire our destruction, as it was us who have willingly chosen to reject His salvation and grace. God remembers the Covenant which He had made and established with His people, and through Jeremiah, He wanted to remind them with all of that, that while He abhorred their sins and wickedness, but He still wanted them all to return to Him and to repent from their many sins and evils before it was too late for them. That is why, it is also a very important reminder for all of us that we should not take God’s love, compassion and mercy for granted. God has always been very patient with us, but at the same time, we must realise that if we continue to resist Him and refuse His love and kindness, it may come to pass that it ends up too late for us to accept God’s favour, love and mercy, and when it is too late for us, it is by all those sins and wickedness that we shall be judged by, and we shall be condemned by all those wicked and evil attitudes which we have carried out in our lives.
As we reflect on the words of the Sacred Scriptures today, we are all reminded of the love of God which He generously ever poured down upon us, showing us His mercy, love and compassion, just as we have often been reminded of. At the same time, we are also reminded to seek the Lord and His mercy, His forgiveness and love, just as how the Syro-Phoenician woman had done in our Gospel reading today, that our sincere and strong desire to seek the Lord, to find His love, mercy and compassion shall liberate us from the bondage of our wickedness and sins, and deliver us into a renewed life blessed and strengthen by God and His grace. God has always loved and been kind to us, and He has also always been full of mercy and forgiveness for us, but we have to be cooperative with Him, allowing Him to come to us, to transform our lives for the better. Therefore, let us all remind ourselves that we all should have strong and genuine faith in the Lord, devoting our time and effort to follow Him wholeheartedly. Let us all continue to follow in the good examples and in the footsteps of our holy predecessors, particularly like that of the Saints we celebrate today, Pope St. Sixtus II and St. Cajetan. Let us all continue to walk in the path which the Lord has shown us, and continue to show our love for God and for our fellow brethren, in all and every one of our actions, words and deeds in life, now and always. May God in His infinite grace and mercy, grant us the grace and empower us to have sufficient faith and trust in the Lord to enable Him work through us always, now and forevermore. Amen🙏
DEVOTION OF THE MONTH OF AUGUST:
MONTH OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY: August is the Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary! The Church dedicates the month of August to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is a dogma of the Catholic faith that Mary is the Immaculate Conception; that is, in preparation for the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity in her womb, she was conceived without the corruption of sin through the foreseen and infinite merits of her Son, Jesus Christ. Over the centuries, as saints and theologians reflected on how Mary pondered and treasured the sacred events from the life of Christ in her holy heart, as attested in Scripture, her pure heart was recognized as something to be imitated. Devotion to Our Lady’s purity of heart began to flower—so much so that in the 17th century, St. John Eudes promoted it alongside the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The devotion rose to a new level after the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, when Mary revealed an image of her Immaculate Heart to Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco.
THE POPE’S MONTHLY INTENTIONS FOR 2024: FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST – FOR POLITICAL LEADERS: We pray that political leaders be at the service of their own people, working for integral human development and for the common good, especially caring for the poor and those who have lost their jobs.
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, Nigeria, 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. We pray for all mothers, wives, those going through challenges in their marriages, Victims of verbal and spousal abuse, we pray for peace, love and unity in our families and our 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 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 Saving Lord, You are truly the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of God. You and You alone deserve all honor, glory and praise. As I come to know You as You are, please fill me with a deep trust and unwavering faith in You. May I persevere through all things and never cease to put all my hope in You. 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 Sixtus II & Companions and Saint Cajetan ~ 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 month of August and week🙏
Blessings and Love always, Philomena💖