EIGHTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
SAINTS OF THE DAY ~ FEAST DAY: AUGUST 10, 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 Saturday 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 10, 2024 |
Watch “Holy Mass from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | August 10, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary from Lourdes, France” |August 10, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | August 10, 2024 |
Pray “The Chaplet of Divine Mercy | from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | August 10, 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: Saturday, August 10, 2024
Reading 1, Second Corinthians 9:6-10
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 112:1-2, 5-6, 7-8, 9
Gospel, John 12:24-26
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: FEAST OF SAINT LAWRENCE, DEACON AND MARTYR ~ FEAST DAY- AUGUST 10TH:Today, we celebrate the Feast of Saint Lawrence, Deacon, and Martyr. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and Saint Lawrence on this feast day, we humbly pray for our children and children all over the world, we particularly pray for schoolchildren and students who are beginning a new school year, we pray for their safety and well-being, for wisdom and understanding. We also pray for all teachers and other workers. May God keep them all safe and well. We pray for all Deacons and Seminarians, 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. We also pray for the sick and dying, especially those who are suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. And we continue to pray for the poor and needy, for peace, love, and unity in our families and our world.🙏
SAINT LAWRENCE, DEACON, AND MARTYR: St. Lawrence, also known as St. Lawrence of Rome (d. 258 A.D.) was likely a Spaniard by birth who lived in Rome while Christianity was outlawed under pain of death. He was born on December 13, 225 AD, and died on August 10, 258 AD at the age of 32. In 257, when St. Sixtus became Pope, and he ordained St. Lawrence deacon, though still young, was appointed by Pope St. Sixtus II was archdeacon and chief over the seven deacons of Rome and held the sacred duty of tending to the Church’s wealth and distributing alms to the poor. After Pope St. Sixtus II was martyred by beheading, along with the six other deacons, in the persecution of the Christians that the Roman Emperor Valerian ordered in 258, St. Lawrence was left as the highest-ranking clergy in Rome. He was the last of the seven deacons of Rome to die for his faith in Christ. This great saint literally gave up everything, including his very life, so as to say “Yes” to God. As a deacon in the Cathedral Church in Rome, he was entrusted with the task of distributing alms to the indigent people in need. In August of the year 258, the Emperor issued an edict stating that all clergy were to be put to death. After the pope was killed, they came for St. Lawrence and, before killing him, asked him to turn over all the riches of the Church. He asked for three days to gather those treasures, and during those three days, he distributed all he could to the poor.
Then, on the third day, on August 10th he presented himself before the prefect and brought with him not the material wealth of the Church but the true wealth. He brought the poor, crippled, blind and suffering and declared that the Church was truly rich and that the people with him were the Church’s true treasures. The prefect, in anger, sentenced Lawrence to death by fire, to which Lawrence freely submitted. St. Lawrence was ordered to be burned alive on a gridiron. He was bound to the metal grate and slowly roasted to death over hot coals. During his torture St. Lawrence famously mocked his torturers by saying, “I am done on this side, turn me over.” St. Lawrence rejoiced in his gruesome martyrdom and to his last breath the holy deacon prayed for the conversion of the city of Rome, that the faith of Christ might thence spread throughout the world. Several senators, who had witnessed his execution, were converted to Christianity and gave decent burial to his body. From that time idolatry began to decline in Rome. His martyrdom occurred on August 10th in the year 258.
Before his death St. Lawrence remarked: “At last I am finished; you may now take from me and eat!” He then turned to God in prayer saying: “I thank You, O Lord; that I am permitted to enter Your portals.”
“Just as Christ laid down his life for us, so we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.’ My brethren, Lawrence understood this and, understanding, he acted on it. In his life he loved Christ; in his death he followed in his footsteps.”
– St. Augustine, in a sermon on the feast of Saint Lawrence
St. Lawrence is venerated as one of the patrons of Rome, along with Sts. Peter and Paul. He’s the Patron Saint of Deacons; Seminarians; schoolchildren; students; the poor; cooks; firefighters; workers; librarians; archives; archivists; armories; armourers; brewers; butchers; Ceylon; comedians; comediennes; comics; confectioners; cutlers; fire; glaziers; laundry workers; libraries; lumbago; paupers; restauranteurs; Rome; Sri Lanka; stained glass workers; tanners; vine growers; vintners; wine makers and the poor. His feast day is August 10th.
Saint Lawrence’s Quote: “Sheltered under the name of Jesus Christ, I do not fear these pains, for they do not last long.”
PRAYER: O God, giver of that ardor of love for you by which Saint Lawrence was outstandingly faithful in service and glorious in martyrdom, grant that we may love what he loved and put into practice what he taught. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever… Amen🙏
SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS:
Bible Readings for today, Feast of Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr | USCCB https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading
Gospel Reading ~ John 12:24-26
“The Father will honor whoever serves me”
“Jesus said to His disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.”
In today’s Gospel reading, the Lord Jesus speaks to His disciples using a simple parable of comparing a grain of wheat that ought to fall to the ground and ‘die’ first so that it might bear plenty of fruits as the seed in the wheat would then germinate and grow into a new wheat plant that would bear many new wheat crops, and hence, be truly fruitful. Jesus is addressing us as His potential followers and servants, and He is declaring that we need to die to ourselves if we are to become fully alive with the life of God. We have to die to ourselves in the sense of dying to our self-centred selves, that tendency in us to live for ourselves alone. Jesus refers to Himself as the wheat grain which falls to the ground and dies and in dying yields a rich harvest. The rich harvest that came from His death and resurrection was the community of believers, the church. Jesus’ self-giving love, even though it led Him to death on a cross, was life-giving for Himself and for all humanity. He did not try to preserve His life at all costs; He was prepared to empty Himself out of love for others, and in doing so, He gained life for Himself and others. Jesus goes on to state that this pattern of life through death applies equally to His followers. If we love our lives above all else, if our primary goal in life is to preserve and protect ourselves, then we risk losing ourselves. We fail to become our true selves, the self that is the image of the Lord. If, like Jesus, we are willing to lose ourselves, to give of ourselves, in the service of the Lord and his people, then we will become alive with the life of God and our presence will be life giving for others.
In our first reading today, Saint Paul declares, ‘God loves a cheerful giver’ and then states that if we become cheerful givers, there is no limit to the blessings which God can send us. It is not enough to be a giver, St. Paul says, but we need to be cheerful givers. A cheerful giver is someone who gives willingly, gladly. This is the way Jesus gave. He gave with the joyful freedom of the Holy Spirit. Saint Paul in today’s reading, assures us that when we give in this way, there is no limit to the blessings which God can send us. Giving cheerfully and willingly opens us up to receive God’s blessings. In giving in this way, in the Spirit of the Lord, we discover that we end up receiving far more than we gave. This is reflected in the image Jesus uses in the Gospel reading of the grain that dies, but in dying yields a rich harvest. There is a certain dying to ourselves when we give cheerfully. We are not looking for anything for ourselves, such as sympathy or appreciation. When we die to ourselves in this ways, our life yields a rich harvest, both for ourselves and for others. When there is no selfish concern in our giving, the Lord can enrich us with His blessings and greatly bless others through our giving. We are called to share in the Lord’s self-giving love not grudgingly or as if under compulsion but willing and gladly, in response to the Lord’s abundant love of us. The church and the world need ‘cheerful givers’. That is our calling.
As we reflect on the words of the Sacred Scriptures today on this special feast day of St. Lawrence, we are all called to be generous in giving and committing our lives to God’s will, and reminded by the examples shown by Holy men and women, Saints and Martyrs, like St. Lawrence, Holy Martyr and Deacon. Let us all therefore discern how we can be better disciples of the Lord, in being more proactive in living our faith and in being more committed to the works of charity and the many other efforts and outreach of the Church to our community and to all around us who are in need and in which we are in the perfect position to help them. Let us all not ignore their plight and need, and let us be moved to action, and be committed to walk in the same path that the saints, particularly that of St. Lawrence has shown us. May the Lord be with us all, and may He continue to guide us on our journey of life. May God bless our every good work and endeavour so that we may always glorify Him by our every action and that we may be inspiration for one another just as the Saints like St. Lawrence had done for us. We pray on this feast of St Lawrence that, may God in His infinite grace and mercy, grant us the grace to be as generous and as cheerful in our giving as St. Lawrence, Holy servant of God and courageous martyr of the Faith was. 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 sacrificial Lord, You gave Your precious life away to all out of love. The total self-giving of Your life resulted in the salvation of those who will accept this glorious gift. Help me to not only open myself to this freely given gift of Yours but to also imitate Your selfless life by giving myself in service of You and others. Saint Lawrence, deacon and martyr, pray for us. 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 Lawrence, Deacon, and Martyr ~ 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💖