EIGHTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
SAINTS OF THE DAY ~ FEAST DAY: AUGUST 9, 2024
NOVENA TO OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION: REMINDER – The 2024 Novena for the Assumption of Mary into Heaven begins, Tuesday, August 6 and ends 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 Friday 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 and Holy Rosary on EWTN on YouTube | August 9, 2024 |
Watch “Holy Mass from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | August 9, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary from Lourdes, France” |August 9, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | August 9, 2024 |
Pray “The Chaplet of Divine Mercy | from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | August 9, 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: Friday August 9, 2024
Reading 1, Nahum 2:1, 3; 3:1-3, 6-7
Responsorial Psalm, Deuteronomy 32:35-36, 39, 41
Gospel, Matthew 16:24-28
NOVENA TO OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION: REMINDER – The 2024 Novena for the Assumption of Mary into Heaven begins, Tuesday, August 6 and ends 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 TERESA BENEDICTA OF THE CROSS (SAINT EDITH STEIN), VIRGIN AND MARTYR AND SAINT ROMANUS, MARTYR ~ FEAST DAY – AUGUST 9TH: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, (St. Edith Stein), Virgin and Martyr and Saint Romanus, Martyr. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the sick and dying, especially those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. We also pray for the poor and needy, 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 TERESA BENEDICTA OF THE CROSS (ST. EDITH STEIN), VIRGIN AND MARTYR: St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, also known as St. Edith Stein (1891-1942) was converted from Judaism to Catholicism in the course of her work as a philosopher, and later entered the Carmelite Order. She died in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz in 1942. St. Teresa was born Edith Stein to Jewish parents in Breslau, Poland on October 12, 1891 – a date that coincided with her family’s celebration of Yom Kippur, the Jewish “day of atonement.” Edith Stein was the youngest child of a large Jewish family. Edith’s father died when she was just two years old, and she gave up the practice of her Jewish faith as an adolescent about the age of 14. As a young woman with profound intellectual gifts, Edith gravitated toward the study of philosophy and became a pupil of the renowned professor Edmund Husserl in 1913. Through her studies, the non-religious Edith met several Christians whose intellectual and spiritual lives she admired. After earning her degree with the highest honors from Gottingen University in 1915, she served as a nurse in an Austrian field hospital during World War I. She returned to academic work in 1916, earning her doctorate after writing a highly-regarded thesis on the phenomenon of empathy. She remained interested in the idea of religious commitment, but had not yet made such a commitment herself.
In 1921, while visiting friends, Edith spent an entire night reading the autobiography of the 16th century Carmelite nun St. Teresa of Avila. “When I had finished the book,” she later recalled, “I said to myself: This is the truth.” She was baptized into the Catholic Church on the first day of January, 1922. Edith intended to join the Carmelites immediately after her conversion, but would ultimately have to wait another 11 years before taking this step. Instead, she taught at a Dominican school, and gave numerous public lectures on women’s issues. She spent 1931 writing a study of St. Thomas Aquinas, and took a university teaching position in 1932. In 1933, the rise of Nazism, combined with Edith’s Jewish ethnicity, put an end to her teaching career. After a painful parting with her mother, who did not understand her Christian conversion, she entered a Carmelite convent at Cologne in 1934, taking the name “Teresa Benedicta of the Cross” as a symbol of her acceptance of suffering. “I felt,” she wrote, “that those who understood the Cross of Christ should take upon themselves on everybody’s behalf.” She saw it as her vocation “to intercede with God for everyone,” but she prayed especially for the Jews of Germany whose tragic fate was becoming clear. There she completed a synthesis of Thomist Philosophy and modern thought entitled, Finite and Eternal Being.
Four years later, after living in the Cologne Carmel (1934-1938), because of the ramification of politics in Germany, Teresa was sent to Echt, Holland, Netherlands There she wrote Science of the Cross, the life of St. John of the Cross from a phenomenological perspective. “I ask the Lord to accept my life and my death,” she wrote in 1939, “so that the Lord will be accepted by His people and that His kingdom may come in glory, for the salvation of Germany and the peace of the world.” After completing her final work, the study of St. John of the Cross entitled “The Science of the Cross,” St. Teresa Benedicta was arrested along with her sister Rosa (who had also become a Catholic), and the members of her religious community, on August 7, 1942. The arrests came in retaliation against a protest letter by the Dutch Bishops, decrying the Nazi treatment of Jews. St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross died in the concentration camp at Auschwitz on August 9, 1942. She was killed in the gas chambers of the camp. St. Teresa was beatified in 1987 at the Cologne cathedral by Pope John Paul II and canonized on October 11, 1998, by the same Pontiff and proclaimed her a co-patroness of Europe the next year.
PRAYER: God of our fathers, You led St. Teresa Benedicta, Your Martyr, to acknowledge Your Crucified Son and to intimate Him even in death. Grant, through her intercession, that all people may come to know Christ the Savior and through Him attain Your eternal vision. Amen 🙏
SAINT ROMANUS, MARTYR: St. Romanus was as a soldier in the legion of emperor Valerian in Rome, at the time of the arraignment and interrogation of Saint Lawrence who had been imprisoned for his refusal to surrender the treasury of the Roman Church to the Empire. St. Romanus was marveled at St. Lawrence virtuous courage and heroic patience during his persecution. Seeing the joy and constancy and the absolute silence of that holy martyr during Lawrence’s first torments, St. Romanus could not understand how a creature of flesh and blood could be thus tormented without opening his mouth to complain. St. Romanus was so inspired that he was moved to embrace the Faith, he approached the holy Martyr, St. Lawrence and asked to be received into the Faith and at that very moment. Addressing himself to Saint Lawrence, still on the rack, he asked to become a Christian.
St. Lawrence was untied and imprisoned, and later was able to respond to the pressing request of the soldier, Romanus who brought him in prison the water for his baptism. St. Lawrence gave the necessary instructions to St. Romanus and baptized him in the prison. This brave Roman soldier then publicly proclaimed his conversion to Christianity to his fellow-soldiers, and he was immediately arrested and convicted. St. Romanus was summoned before the tribunal, for everyone soon learned of his conversion. He said fearlessly and joyfully, there as he had said elsewhere, I am a Christian! He was condemned and immediately achieved the crown of martyrdom by being beheaded on August 9, 258, the day before the execution of St. Lawrence. The body of Saint Romanus was buried by a priest in a cavern on the road to Tiburtina outside the walls of Rome, but his remains were translated to Lucca, where they are kept under the high altar of a beautiful church which bears his name.
PRAYER: Almighty and ever-living God, graciously pour out Your Spirit upon us. Let our hearts be filled with that true love which enabled Your holy Martyr Romanus to overcome all bodily torments. Amen 🙏
SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS
Bible Readings for today, Friday, Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB | https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading
Gospel Reading ~ Matthew 16:24-28
“What can one give in exchange for one’s life?”
“Jesus said to His disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay each according to his conduct. Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.”
In our Gospel reading today from the Gospel of St. Matthew, Jesus declares that if anyone wants to become His followers they must be willing to deny themselves and take up their crosses and follow Him. First of all, it was a reminder from the Lord to His disciples and ultimately also to all of us that being a follower of His is not going to be an easy thing, unlike what some or even many of His disciples that time might have thought. Back then, it was commonly thought that the Lord, as the Messiah or Saviour, would have brought about the glorious restoration of the Kingdom of Israel, and many among the Lord’s disciples might have thought of Him as the mighty conquering King Who would liberate Israel, and therefore they would gain good and wonderful lives from being the trusted followers of His. Jesus says, ‘anyone who wants to save His life will lose it; but anyone who loses His life for my sake will find it’. Another way of expressing that is to say, ‘if we seek ourselves only, we will lose ourselves, whereas if we reach beyond ourselves towards God and towards His Son Jesus we will find our true selves’. If we look to ourselves alone and our own needs and preferences, we risk losing ourselves, whereas if we look towards the Lord, which will always mean looking towards others, we will find life in this world and eternal life in the next. Jesus expressed this fundamental paradox of His teaching in another way when He said, ‘give and it will be given to you’. In other words, it is in giving that we receive. Our own experience of life teaches us the truth contained in this paradox. It is when we look beyond ourselves to others, to the Lord present in others, that we experience the Lord’s own joy, the Lord’s own life, which is a foretaste of the joy and life of the kingdom of heaven.
Self-denial is not greatly in vogue or common in our present world. You are more likely to hear talk of self-fulfilment. In calling for self-denial Jesus is not trying to extinguish all joy or fulfilment in life. The self we are to deny is what we might call the false self, a way of life that is self-centred and self-absorbed, in which everything revolves around myself. This is the self that wants to be at the centre of everything and is constantly seeking its own satisfaction and gratification. Jesus declares that if we are to follow Him, we must lose this false self. The loss of this false self will be painful; denying our self in this sense will entail a way of the cross. Yet, Jesus declares that this saying ‘no’ to our false self is the way to true life, to discovering our true self, ‘if anyone loses his life for my sake, he will find it’. Our true self, our best self, is the self that is open to the Lord’s love, that allows itself to be constantly transformed by that love and so, as a result, becomes a loving person, a self that puts the interests of others before one’s own. This is life in the true and full sense that Jesus promises to all who follow Him and allow themselves to be led by Him. The call to renounce ourselves may sound very negative to modern ears. Yet, the Lord’s call is a call to fullness of life. Our self-denial is in the service of that fullness of life which He desires for us all.
In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Nahum, we heard of the Lord’s words proclaiming the downfall and destruction of Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire, which at the time of the prophet Nahum’s ministry, was still a great and powerful Empire, which had conquered the northern half of the once united kingdom of Israel, and brought many of its people into exile, those who were among God’s people. In their great triumph and hubris, they often blasphemed against God, and thought that their power would last forever. But as the Lord spoke it clearly through the prophet Nahum, that the days of Assyria and its glory were numbered, and true enough, not long after these words were spoken by the prophet Nahum, Assyria was defeated and destroyed, and Nineveh, its glorious capital was razed. It is an important reminder for us that all the glory and power of this world are ultimately illusory and passing in nature, and none of them will last forever, no matter what. If we seek worldly glory, pleasures, fame and satisfaction, we will likely end up disappointed, to see that whatever our desires are for this world, we will never be fully satisfied and we will never be truly happy. Each and every one of us are called to reorientate our lives and regain our true focus, that we no longer spend so much time and attention on worldly matters, and instead we should seek what is more important in life, that is nothing else than the Lord Himself, and how our lives are called to be sanctified and holy, to glorify the Lord by our every actions, words and deeds. Each and every one of us should be ever more focused and centred on the Lord.
As we reflect on the words of the Sacred Scripture today, we are all reminded of the impermanence of worldly things, of all the worldly glory, fame and greatness, of all the things in this world that will not last forever. The Lord alone is the One Who will give us lasting peace, joy and happiness, the true treasure of our lives. If we seek the glory and power of this world, then sooner than later we will realise that there is nothing in this world that can truly give us true happiness and satisfaction, one that is lasting and permanent. If we seek something of this world, we will realise that it can only satisfy us to a certain extent, and as we may often realise, that we cannot be truly and fully satisfied by what we seek in this world. As we reflect on the lives of the Saints and Holy men and women, particularly the life and martyrdom of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, also known as St. Edith Stein, who we celebrate today, that we may often have to suffer through the challenges and trials in this world, but we must also remember that all the things in this world are ultimately impermanent, and all things, including our sufferings and trials will pass. It is the Lord alone Who is always ever constant and will be there for us to the very end, and He will lead us all into the ultimate triumph and glory with Him. We must keep up our hope and faith in the Lord, and do our very best so that we will continue to persevere through whatever challenges and trials we may encounter. May the Lord continue to guide us and strengthen us in our journey of faith and life, and help us to persevere through whatever we may face going forward in our respective lives. May God in His infinite grace and mercy, grant us His grace and be with us all. May He empower each one of us to be ever more committed and faithful disciples of His, in all things, and may He continue to strengthen us with the resolve to live our lives ever with the commitment as good and devout Christians, now and always. 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:
Most glorious God, Your will is perfect and is the one and only source of fulfillment in life. Please purify my soul of all desires pertaining only to this world. May my one and only desire in life be the fulfillment of Your holy will so that all I have will only be used for Your glory. 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 Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, (St. Edith Stein) and Saint Romanus ~ 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 relaxing weekend 🙏
Blessings and Love always, Philomena💖