NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
SAINTS OF THE DAY ~ FEAST DAY: JUNE 6, 2024
NOVENA TO THE SACRED HEART: Novena dates: May 29 – June 6, 2024. June 7, 2024: Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart (Novena link below)
Greetings beloved family. Happy Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time!
We pray and thank God for the successful completion of the Novena to the Sacred Heart in preparation for the celebration of the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart, tomorrow June 7, 2024.
We continue to pray for the safety and well-being of our children, youths, students and children all over the world. With special intention for all students graduating this school. year. May God continue to grant them all wisdom, knowledge and understanding and may He empower them as they walk into the future with faith, hope, and love guided by the Holy Spirit through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary. Amen🙏
Watch ” Holy Mass and Holy Rosary on EWTN on YouTube | June 6, 2024 |
Watch “Holy Mass from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | June 6, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary from Lourdes, France” |June 6, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | June 6, 2024 |
Pray “The Chaplet of Divine Mercy | from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | June 6, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary ALL 20 Mysteriels VIRTUAL🌹JOYFUL🌹LUMINOUS🌹SORROWFUL🌹GLORIOUS” on YouTube |
Memorare Chaplet | Prayer in Difficult Times (Powerful Prayer) |
Today’s Bible Readings: Thursday, June 6, 2024
Reading 1, Second Timothy 2:8-15
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14
Gospel, Mark 12:28-34
NOVENA TO THE SACRED HEART: Novena dates: May 29 – June 6, 2024. June 7, 2024: Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart | https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/devotions/novena-prayer-to-the-sacred-heart-311
SAINTS OF THE DAY: MEMORIAL OF SAINT NORBERT OF XANTEN, BISHOP AND SAINT MARCELLIN CHAMPAGNAT, RELIGIOUS ~ FEAST DAY: JUNE 6TH Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Norbert of Xanten, Bishop and Saint Marcellin Champagnat, Religious. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, Mother of the Church and the Saints on this feast day, Saint Norbert who was called the “Apostle of the Blessed Sacrament” and Saint Marcellin Champagnat, we humbly pray for us to have a great love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, too. We pray for all expectant mothers, for safe delivery. We pray for peace, love and unity in our families and our world. We also pray for the poor and the needy, the sick 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 NORBERT OF XANTEN, BISHOP: St. Norbert of Xanten was called the “Apostle of the Blessed Sacrament”. Also known as Norbert Gennep, was bishop and founder of the Premonstratensian order of canons regular. St. Norbert was born at Xanten in the Rhineland, about 1080. The early part of his life was devoted to the world and its pleasures. He even entered upon the ecclesiastical state in a worldly spirit. He was ordained subdeacon, but fear of greater restraint prevented him from receiving higher orders. An accident became the occasion of a wonderful change of heart. A stroke of lightning frightened Norbert’s horse, whereupon he was thrown to the ground and knocked senseless; on regaining consciousness, he became a sincere penitent. He left the court and withdrew to Xanten, where he began to lead a retired and penitential life. A retreat the Saint made in the monastery of St. Sigebert, near Cologne, completed his conversion, and he spent two years preparing himself for the priesthood, which he received at Cologne. Soon after, he resigned his ecclesiastical benefices, sold his property and gave the proceeds to the poor, and traveled to Languedoc, where Pope Gelasius II was at that time.
St. Norbert went from place to place, preaching penance. Finally, he settled at Premontre, where he established the Order of Premonstratensians, which became very numerous even during the life of the holy founder. He was forced to accept the dignity of Archbishop of Magdeburg, about the year 1125, but in this exalted station he practiced the same austerity that had been familiar to him in the cloister. St. Norbert’s zeal effected a great reformation in his diocese, though, like other Saints, he had enemies in those to whom his life was a reproach. Together with St. Bernard he labored much to extinguish the disorders caused by the schism of the anti-Pope, Anacletus. Upon his return from a journey to Rome with Emperor Lothaire, he fell ill, and, after four months of sickness, died June 6, 1134. He was canonized in 1582 by Pope Gregory XII. He’s Patron Saint of peace, invoked during childbirth for safe delivery; Kingdom of Bohemia (now Czech Republic), Magdeburg.
PRAYER: O God, who made the Bishop Saint Norbert a servant of your Church outstanding in his prayer and pastoral zeal, grant, we ask, that by the help of his intercession, the flock of the faithful may always find shepherds after your own heart and be fed in the pastures of salvation. 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. Saint Norbert of Xanten… Pray for us🙏
SAINT MARCELLIN CHAMPAGNAT, RELIGIOUS: St. Marcellin Champagnat (1789–1840) was born on May 20, 1789 to a peasant family near Lyons, France, in the same year the French Revolution erupted. He was a priest of the Society of Mary and the founder of the Little Brothers of Mary, a congregation of brothers devoted to the education of the young. He was the ninth child of a very pious catholic family and develpoed a very deep devotion to Mary as a young boy, which he learned from an aunt who was a religious. He also had a great capacity for work, which he learned from his father. Champagnat left school at the age of seven, and when, at the age of 14, he discovered through the help of a priest his own vocation to the priesthood, he had to begin to study again almost from scratch. Aware of his limitations, and against the advice of those around him, he entered the minor seminary and struggled to learn the fundaments of schooling. However, never losing sight of the will of God for him, he struggled through these difficult years with his eyes fixed on the horizon of God’s call. In the major seminary he became friends with the future Curé of Ars, Jean-Marie Vianney. He was ordained with his companions on July 22, 1816, the feast of St. Mary Magdalen. One of his desires was to found a congregarion devoted to the name of Mary in order to re-evangelize French society in the wake of the French Revolution. He saw his main task as the Christian education of the young, and this inclination was quickened and solidified upon encountering a dying young boy who had nearly no knowledge of the faith.
He founded the Little Brothers of Mary on January 2, 1817, when two young men decided to join him in his mission. He set about at once, in addition to his parish ministry, to educate uncultured young boys and turn them into ardent apostles of Jesus Christ, all the while living in abject poverty and trusting totally in the will of God, and the solicitous protection of the Virgin Mary, to whom he gave all, for the sake of the Lord Jesus. He made his school year flexible with the farming seasons, and the fees were affordable to the poor. His congregation, The Little Brothers of Mary, now called The Marist Brothers. They were dedicated to the education of youth, especially the most neglected. When Marcellin died his order had 48 establishments in France with 278 Brothers. Today there are 5,100 Brothers working in over 80 countries. St. Marcellin Champagnat died on June 6, 1840 at the age of 51, his health having been worn out by his immense workload and an illness. At his canonization in 1999 by Pope John Paul II, the Holy Father said of him, “St Marcellin proclaimed the Gospel with a burning heart. He was sensitive to the spiritual and educational needs of his time, especially to religious ignorance and the situations of neglect experienced in a particular way by the young.”
All to Jesus through Mary, and all to Mary for Jesus.” – St. Marcellin Champagnat
St. Marcellin Champagnat ~ Pray for us🙏
SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS
Bible Readings for today, Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time | https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading
Gospel Reading ~ Mark 12:28-34
“There is no commandment greater than these”
“One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied, “The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, He is One and there is no other than he. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And no one dared to ask him any more questions.”
In today’s Gospel reading, one of the Jewish scribes comes up to Jesus and asks Him, ‘Which is the first of all the commandments?’ There were a lot of rules and regulations in the Jewish religion at that time. He wanted to know which one was the most important. In His answer Jesus gave more than He was asked for. He was asked for the first commandment; He gave the first and second commandment, the first being to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and the second being to love our neighbour as ourselves. In that way Jesus was showing that these two commandments are inseparable. We cannot love God without loving our neighbour, and in loving our neighbour we are, at the same time, loving God. Yet, the two commandments are not on the same level, one is first and one is second. It is the love of God which is to be the primary love in our lives. We owe the greatest devotion to God. As Jesus says in one of the other Gospels, ‘Seek first the kingdom of God’. God as revealed in Jesus is to be our greatest love. If we are caught up into a loving relationship with God, it will overflow into a love of all those whom God loves, and our various human loves for other people will reflect something of God’s love for them.
In our first reading today from the Epistle of St. Paul to St. Timothy, the Apostle speaks about the salvation which the Lord has shown all of us, and which He has generously and constantly promised to us, and renewed that promise through all that He had done, through the coming of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, by Whom the whole world has been shown the sure path to God’s grace and eternal life. This is what St. Paul wanted to remind all of us, the faithful people of God, of just how wonderful God’s love has been, and how fortunate we truly are for having been beloved in such a manner. This is why all of us are reminded of this great love of God, and what we all as Christians ought to be doing henceforth, in loving God, our Lord and Master, and in loving one another, our fellow brothers and sisters, at all times. We have truly been very blessed to be in God’s love and favour, and we must never squander the opportunities and the great generosity that God has shown us all these while. Otherwise we may lose sight on what truly matters for us in life, especially if we allow ourselves to be swayed by the many temptations and pleasures of the world around us. This is why we must remind ourselves always to be ever committed to the Lord, to His love and kindness.
As we reflect on the words of the Sacred Scriptures today, we are all reminded of the love of God which He has given to all of us, as He grants us all the most wonderful graces and blessings, constantly reaching out to us and showing us His love throughout all of history. He has loved us all from the very beginning, and He has indeed created us all out of His ever enduring and patient love. He spared us from destruction and eternal damnation because of this same love, and gave us all the perfect gift of love, manifested in His only begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we are reminded this day that we should not take God’s love for granted, and we are also reminded that we have to love Him and our fellow brothers and sisters in the same way. Through the great examples showed by the lives of the Saints and Holy men and women, especially St. Norbert and all the Saints, who we celebrate today, let us all be inspired to follow the Lord ever more faithfully and to commit ourselves thoroughly to His cause. Let us all remind ourselves and one another not to be swayed easily worldly temptations and desires, but as we recall the ever enduring and generous love which God has always had for us, let us all continue to love Him first and foremost and do our very best so that we may truly be committed to God at all times and be the good and worthy role models for our fellow Christians, our fellow brothers and sisters around us, whom we also ought to love and care for, as much as we can. May God in His infinite grace and mercy, grant us His grace to follow the footsteps of the faithful servants of God and be good examples and role models of faith ourselves, now and always. Amen 🙏
DEVOTION OF THE MONTH OF JUNE: The month of June is set apart for devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “From among all the proofs of the infinite goodness of our Savior none stands out more prominently than the fact that, as the love of the faithful grew cold, He, Divine Love Itself, gave Himself to us to be honored by a very special devotion and that the rich treasury of the Church was thrown wide open in the interests of that devotion.” These words of Pope Pius XI refer to the Sacred Heart Devotion, which in its present form dates from the revelations given to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1673-75.
THE POPE’S MONTHLY INTENTIONS FOR 2024: FOR THE MONTH OF JUNE – FOR MIGRANTS FLEEING THEIR HOMES: We pray that migrants fleeing from war or hunger, forced to undertake journeys full of danger and violence, find welcome and new opportunities in the countries that receive them.
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 beķķen in vain. Now, Lord, come to our ajnid! 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 🙏
On this special feast day, as we continue to celebrate our risen Lord, with special intention through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, and the Saints, we pray for the Clergy and religious as they serve in the Lord’s Vineyard. We also pray for the sick and dying. We especially pray for our loved ones who have recently died and we continue to remember our beloved, we 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🙏
Prayers for Peace | https://mycatholic.life/catholic-prayers/prayers-for-peace/
PRAYER INTENTIONS: As we begin 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 Lord of all Truth, You look upon the humble souls with graciousness and mercy, and You reveal to them the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. Please give me the gift of humility, dear Lord, so that I may always turn to You with every question in life. Fill me with the gift of understanding so that I may know how to love and serve You more faithfully each and every day. Jesus, I trust in You ~ Amen🙏
Save Us, Savior of the World. Our Most Blessed Mother Mary, Mother of the Church and Saint Norbert of Xanten and Saint Marcellin Champagnat ~ Pray for us🙏
Thanking God for the gift of the Holy Spirit 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 grace-filled and fruitful week🙏
Blessings and Love always, Philomena 💖