TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

SAINTS OF THE DAY: FEAST DAY ~ OCTOBER 4TH

Greetings and blessings, beloved family. Happy Friday of the Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time and Happy Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi!

St. Francis of Assisi is the Patron Saint of Animals. We pray for the safety and well-being of all animals. May St. Francis intercede for all our pets and animals all over the world, especially those animals that have no homes / shelter or who to care for them. With special intention, we pray for all our pets. May St. Francis of Assisi intercede for them and us all. Amen 🙏🏽

Today, on this feast day, we continue to pray for the sick and dying, especially those who are mentally, physically and critically ill and those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. We pray for our children and children all over the world, for students, for those seeking for the fruit of the womb, for the poor and needy, we pray for difficult marriages, for peace, love, and unity in our marriages, our families and our world. Amen 🙏

We continue to pray for the gentle repose of the soul of our loved ones who recently passed away, we pray for the repose of the souls of all those who will die today, asking God to have mercy on their souls and to lead them into Eternal Life. And we continue to pray for the repose of 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 and souls of all the faithful departed 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 and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen🙏

Watch “Holy Mass and Holy Rosary on EWTN on YouTube” | October 4, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary from Lourdes France” | October 4, 2024 |

Pray “The Chaplet of Divine Mercy in song”| October 4, 2024 |

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

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

Today’s Bible Readings: Friday October 4, 2024
Reading 1, Job 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 139:1-3, 7-8, 9-10, 13-14
Gospel, Luke 10:13-16

SAINTS OF THE DAY: MEMORIAL OF SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI, DEACON, FOUNDER OF THE FRANCISCAN ORDER – FEAST DAY ~ OCTOBER 4TH: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi, Deacon, Founder of the Franciscan Order. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for God’s Divine Grace and Mercy. We pray for the sick and dying, especially those who are mentally and physically ill and those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. We pray for the souls in Purgatory and the repose of the souls of the faithful departed. We pray for all widows and widowers. We pray for the poor and needy, for peace, love, and unity in our marriages, our families and our world. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Bishops, 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…. Amen🙏

SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI, DEACON, FOUNDER OF THE FRANCISCAN ORDER: St. Francis, Founder of the Franciscan Order (1182-1226) was an Italian deacon who brought renewal to the Church through his decision to follow Jesus’ words as literally as possible. St. Francis is well known and remembered for his dedication to the Lord, his unique commitment to the service of God and in living humbly in poverty, poor in the eyes of the world and yet rich in the sight of God. His examples and life can very well serve as good inspirations for each one of us. St. Francis of Assisi, is the one who inspired the name of our current reigning Pope, Pope Francis.

St. Francis was born Francis Bernardone in 1181 at Assisi, Umbria, Italy. He originally received the name Giovanni (or John), but became known as Francesco (or Francis) by his father’s choice. The son and one of the several children born to a wealthy cloth merchant, Pietro Bernardone and his wife Pica. Unlike many medieval saints, St. Francis was neither studious nor pious in his youth, he lived a lavish and irresponsible life. His father’s wealth gave him access to a lively social life among the upper classes, where he was known for his flashy clothes and his readiness to burst into song. Later a patron of peacemakers, he aspired to great military feats in his youth and fought in a war with a rival Italian city-state. At the age of twenty, he went to war against Perugia, but was captured and imprisoned. This period of imprisonment during that conflict turned his mind toward more serious thoughts, as did a recurring dream that suggested his true “army” was not of this world. During his imprisonment he experienced a vision from Christ and changed his life completely, he abandon everything for Christ. He returned to Assisi due to illness in 1205, and there began consider a life of voluntary poverty. His father became extremely displeased at his action, and disinherited him. He left all his possessions and embraced complete poverty, taking the Gospel as his rule of life.

Three major incidents confirmed Francis in this path. In Assisi, he overcame his fear of disease to kiss the hand of a leper. Afterward, he made a pilgrimage to Rome, where he deposited his money at Saint Peter’s tomb and exchanged clothes with a beggar. Soon after he returned home, St. Francis heard Christ tell him in a vision: “Go, Francis, and repair my house, which as you see is falling into ruin.” St. Francis began to use his father’s wealth to restore churches. This led to a public quarrel in which the cloth-merchant’s son removed his clothing and declared that he had no father except God. He regarded himself as the husband of “Lady Poverty,” and resolved to serve Christ as “a herald of the Great King.” St. Francis wore ragged old clothes, begged for food and preached peace. During the year 1208, the “herald” received the inspiration that would give rise to the Franciscan movement. At Mass one morning, he heard the Gospel reading in which Christ instructed the apostles to go forth without money, shoes, or extra clothing. This way of life soon became a papally-approved rule, which would attract huge number of followers within Francis’ own lifetime. He began to attract followers, when his companions numbered twelve, in 1209, St. Francis sought and received approval of Pope Innocent III to lead a life according to the Rule of the Holy Gospel, and with the papal blessing he founded the Friars Minor (Franciscans). They became a band of roving preachers of Christ in simplicity and lowliness. Thus began the “Friars Minor,” or “Lesser Brothers”. Then in 1212 with St. Clare of Assisi he founded the foundation of the Order of “Poor Ladies,” now known as the “Poor Clares.” He also founded the “Third Order of Penance” (the Third Order) which included lay people. The religious order of Franciscans, whose brothers preached the gospel, made poverty holy, and worked hard to bring the word of God to the world that desperately needed it. Out of humility Francis never accepted the priesthood but remained a deacon all his life. He had a great love for God’s creatures and called them his brothers and sisters. His ardent love of God merited for him the name of Seraphic.

St. Francis’ devotion to the Passion of Christ prompted him to make a missionary journey to the Holy Land. Through his imitation of Christ, Francis also shared in the Lord’s sufferings. He miraculously received Christ’s wounds, the stigmata, in his own flesh in September of 1224. He was the first person (recorded) to receive the stigmata (the five wounds of Christ). His health collapsed over the next two years, a “living sacrifice” made during two decades of missionary preaching and penance. Worn out by his tremendous apostolic efforts, pained by the Stigmata he had received in 1224, and blinded by eye disease, St. Francis of Assisi died at sunset, October 3, 1226 at Portiuncula, Assisi, Italy at approximately 44 years, while singing the eight verse of Psalm 142: “Lead me forth from prison that I may give thanks to Your Name.” His holiness was so widely attested that only two years after his death the Church proclaimed him a saint. He was canonized by Pope Gregory IX, his friend and devotee, less than two years later on July 16, 1228, Assisi, Papal States. St. Francis of Assisi has captured the heart and imagination of people of all religious persuasions by his love for God and neighbor, as well as all God’s creatures, by his simplicity, directness, and single-mindedness, and by the lyrical aspect of his multifaceted life. However, he was far more that an inspired individualist. He was a man possessed of vast spiritual insight and power; a man whose all-consuming love for Christ and redeemed creation burst forth in everything he said and did. St. Francis of Assisi is the Patron Saint against fire; animals; Catholic Action; dying alone; ecology; ecologists; merchants, the environment; families; fire; lacemakers; peace; zoos; Italy; Assisi, Italy; Colorado; Sante Fe, New Mexico; archdiocese of San Francisco, California; archdiocese of Denver, Colorado; archdiocese of Sante Fe, New Mexico; diocese of Salina, Kansas. His feast day is October 4th.

QUOTES OF SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI
☆”If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.”
☆”Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.”
☆”Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
☆”It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.”
☆”For it is in giving that we receive.”
☆”All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.”
☆”It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.”
☆”While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.”
☆”Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self.”
☆”Where there is injury let me sow pardon.”
☆”No one is to be called an enemy, all are your benefactors, and no one does you harm. You have no enemy except yourselves.”

SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI PEACE PRAYER: MAKE ME AN INSTRUMENT OF YOUR PEACE: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.🙏

PRAYER: God, You enabled St. Francis to imitate Christ by his poverty and humility. Walking in St. Francis’ footsteps, may we follow Your Son and be bound to You by a joyful love. Amen 🙏
 

SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS

Bible Readings for today, Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi | USCCB | https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading

Gospel Reading ~ Luke 10:13-16

“Whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me”

“Jesus said to them, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And as for you, Capernaum, ‘Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.’ Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus seems very frustrated with some of the towns of Galilee, Chorazin, Bethsaida and, even, Capernaum where Jesus engaged in a great deal of His ministry. He is exasperated that the response of many in these towns to Him has been so ungenerous. They witnessed His deeds of power and, yet, were unmoved by what they saw. They heard His preaching and teaching and, yet, were unresponsive to what they heard. We might be tempted to ask, ‘How could people be so resistant to all that Jesus said and did?’ Yet, we are of the same flesh and blood as the people of those towns named by Jesus. We too can be unresponsive to the Lord who continues to speak and work among us. At the end of the Gospel reading, Jesus identifies Himself very closely with His disciples, ‘whoever listens to you, listens to me’. We are being reminded that the Lord continues to come to us in and through His followers, the community of His disciples, which we call the church, just as He came in person to the people of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum. Yet, like them, we can be blind and deaf to His coming to us, His daily coming. The Lord may be as frustrated with us at times as he was with them. We need to keep our ears and our eyes open to the many ways the Lord speaks to us and moves among us, and, then, respond to His presence with that generosity of heart which many of His contemporaries lacked.

We live in a culture which very much values success. Sometimes our worth can be judged by how successful we are at something or what we do. Today’s Gospel reading suggests that Jesus did not always experience success. Rather, He, who was so accepting of others, was often rejected by others. Jesus goes on to say in the Gospel reading that rejection of His messengers is rejection of Himself, ‘Anyone who rejects you, rejects me’. As people of faith we will sometimes experience rejection. Our faith, the Gospel we try to proclaim by our lives, will not always be well received by others. Sometimes those who matter most to us will not receive or value our faith and all it entails. Such rejection can be painful, as it was for Jesus, as it was for those He sent out. Yet, God worked powerfully through Jesus’ most extreme experience of rejection, his death on a cross. Human rejection of the Gospel never has the last word. God can be powerfully at work for the spread of the Gospel through such experiences in ways that we are not always fully aware of at the time. All the Lord asks of us is that we be faithful in our witness, regardless of how it is received.

In our first reading today from the Book of Job, the Lord told Job of everything that He had done, in all the wonders which He has performed throughout all Creation and time, and He showed Job how limited his human perceptions and understanding are, as compared to God’s infinite wisdom, truth and power. This must be understood in the context of how Job, who had faced a lot of sufferings and hardships due to the attacks of the evil one, while he remained fully faithful and firm in his conviction to follow the Lord, and not blaming Him for all of his misfortunes, but he did encounter moments of despair and hopelessness as he continued to be battered by those sufferings and at the same time also attacked and criticised by his own peers who alleged that Job must have committed sin before God to endure such sufferings. Thus Job himself assumed that it must have been because of his mistakes, faults and blame that he had to suffer such tribulations, sufferings and hardships. This was where God rebuked him lightly with love and told Job that he must not assume such things, as truly, he was beloved by God, just like all of us here today. No one can be separated from the love of God, and we are reminded therefore not to easily give in to despair, to all the temptations to disobey the Lord and to abandon Him despite all the many hardships and obstacles we face. We truly must have faith in the Lord and believe that in Him alone there is hope and salvation. We must not think that there is something that God cannot solve or provide for us, and think that we are beyond redemption.

As we reflect on the words of the Sacred Scriptures today, we are all reminded of the greatness of God and how unfathomable and vast His majesty and power is, and at the same time, we are also reassured of His love and generosity in having reached out to us, considering us all as His own beloved children, having always desired to seek for us and reach out to us to help and guide us in our journey towards Him, that we may find Him and be reconciled and reunited with Him through His forgiveness and grace. We must not take God’s love for us for granted, as if we continue to disobey Him and rebel against Him, as the Lord Himself had made it clear that we will have to account for everything on the Day of Judgment, the time when we have to face the judgment for our eternal fate. As Christians, it is our calling and mission to embrace God’s mission and to go forth actively, proclaiming Him to all the people of all the nations, in our every words, actions and deeds. We must not be idle or ignorant of what we all have been called to do, but we have to strive to do our part in the mission and works of the Church, through our best efforts in living a most virtuous and worthy Christian living at all times. We are reminded of the need that we have in obeying God and His Law, in following Him and entrusting ourselves to Him, and as the Saints and Holy men and women, especially, the account of the life of St. Francis of Assisi, his works and ministry. Let us all therefore reflect well and carefully upon our own lives as Christians, as God’s holy and beloved people. Let us all remember that we should always put the Lord as the first and most important One in each and every one of our lives, as our focus and the emphasis of our lives in everything that we say and do. Like Job who has trusted in the Lord in all things despite the challenges and struggles that he faced, and that of St. Francis of Assisi, who gave up on everything, on status and material wealth to follow the Lord, let us all therefore do the same in our own lives as well, to do God’s will in all things and at all times and opportunities. May the Lord, our most loving and compassionate God continue to watch over us, strengthen us in our faith and help us in our journey towards Him, so that we all, having been inspired by the great examples of His Saints, may continue to grow in holiness and love for Him, and that we ourselves may be good role models and examples for everyone around us. May God in His infinite grace and mercy, grant us His grace and may the Lord continue to bless us and guide us all in all things, and help us so that we may always be ever inspired to live our lives each day ever more worthily, now and always, forevermore. May St. Francis of Assisi intercede for us sinners. Amen🙏

DEVOTION OF THE MONTH OF OCTOBER:

MONTH OF THE HOLY ROSARY: The Catholic Church designates and dedicate October as the Month of the Holy Rosary. During this month the faithful venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary especially under her title of Our Lady of the Rosary, and make special effort to honor the Holy Rosary with group recitations and rosary processions. The Lady of the Rosary honors a large battle between the Catholic Church and the Muslim caliphate of the Ottoman Empire. This battle, in the Gulf of Patras, near Greece, took place in the 16th century, on October 7, 1571. St. Dominic de Guzman, the founder of the Order of Preachers, is the Saint to whom Our Lady famously appeared and gave the prayers of the Holy Rosary to assist him as a spiritual weapon in combating heresy and leading souls back to the one, true Catholic faith. Our Blessed Mother Mary ~ Pray for us 🙏

THE MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY: Until about the 15th century hundreds of mysteries were part of the Rosary devotion then the 15 mysteries that we know today were definitively fixed as “the Mysteries of the Rosary.” Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, in 2002 added the five Luminous Mysteries.

Through the meditations of the complete Rosary one recalls and has impressed on his mind, the Popes tell us, “the chief mysteries of the Christian religion,” “the mysteries of our Redemption,” “the great mysteries of Jesus and His Mother united in joys, sorrows, and triumphs.” The twenty mysteries are divided into four equal groups, known as “The Joyful,” “The Sorrowful,” “The Glorious,” and “The Luminous Mysteries.”

PRAYER OF ST. LOUISE DE MONTFORT: O Jesus living in Mary, come and live in Your servants, in the spirit of Your holiness, in the fullness of Your might, in the perfection of Your ways, in the truth of Your virtues, in the communion of Your mysteries. Subdue every hostile power, the devil, the world and the flesh, in the strength of Your Spirit, for the glory of Your Father, Amen 🙏🏽

https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/overviews/months/10_1.cfm

THE POPE’S MONTHLY INTENTIONS FOR 2024: FOR THE MONTH OF OCTOBER – FOR A SHARED MISSION: We pray that the Church continue to sustain in all ways a Synodal lifestyle, as a sign of co-responsibility, promoting the participation, the communion and the mission shared among priests, religious and lay people.

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 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, and 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 merciful Lord, You call me to daily repent of my sin and to do so through the manifest signs of sitting “in sackcloth and ashes.” Give me the grace of true sorrow for my sins and help me to sincerely repent as I trust in Your mercy. As I do, please also guide me so that I may humble myself and express my sorrow in manifest ways toward those against whom I have sinned. May this humble act bring healing and unity 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 Blessed Mother Mary; Saint Francis of Assisi ~ 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, and relaxing weekend and month of October 🙏🏽

Blessings and Love always, Philomena💖