Posted in CHRIST the WORD and WISDOM, CHRIST, the WAY,TRUTH,LIFE, DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, QUOTES for CHRIST, QUOTES on SACRED SCRIPTURE, QUOTES on THE LIGHT of CHRIST, QUOTES on WISDOM, The HEART, The O ANTIPHONS, The WILL of GOD, The WORD

Quote/s of the Day – 16 February – Sacred Scripture – A Light for our Path

Quote/s of the Day – 16 February – Readings: Genesis 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10, Psalms 29:1 and 2, 3-4, 3 and 9-10, Mark 8:14-21

Sacred Scripture – A Light for our Path

“Do you not yet understand or comprehend?
Are your hearts hardened?”

Mark 8:17

“O KEY OF DAVID,
and Sceptre of the House of Israel,
who opens and no-one shuts,
who shuts and no-one opens.
Come and bring forth
the captive from his prison,
he who sits in darkness
and in the shadow of death.”

O Lord,
You have given us Your word
for a light to shine upon our path,
grant us so to meditate on that word
and follow its teaching,
that we may find in it,
the light that shines more and more
until the perfect day.
Amen

“Let sleep find you holding your Bible
and when your head nods,
let it be resting on the sacred page.”

St Jerome (343-420)
“The Man of the Bible”
Father and Doctor of the Church

“Jesus, open the eyes of my heart,
that I may hear Your word
and understand and do Your will.
Open the eyes of my mind
to the understanding
of Your Gospel teachings.
Speak to me the hidden
and secret things of Your wisdom.
Enlighten my mind and understanding
with the light of Your knowledge,
not only to cherish those things
that are written
but to do them.
Amen”

St John Chrysostom (347-407)
Father and Doctor

“The Sacred Scriptures grow
with the one who reads them.”

St Pope Gregory the Great (540-604)
“Father of the Fathers” and Doctor of the Church

“All who ask receive, those who seek find
and to those who knock it shall be opened.
Therefore, let us knock
at the beautiful garden of Scripture.
It is fragrant, sweet and blooming
with various sounds of spiritual
and divinely inspired birds.
They sing all around our ears,
capture our hearts,
comfort the mourners,
pacify the angry
and fill us with everlasting joy.”

St John Damascene (676-749)
Father and Doctor of the Church

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Posted in DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, ONE Minute REFLECTION, QUOTES on SACRED SCRIPTURE, SAINT of the DAY, The HOLY SPIRIT, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 16 February – “Do you not yet understand or comprehend?” – Mark 8:17

One Minute Reflection – 16 February – Readings: Genesis 6:5-87:1-510Psalms 29:1 and 23-43 and 9-10Mark 8:14-21 and the Memorial of Blessed Philippa Mareri OSC (c 1195-1236)

“Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened?” – Mark 8:17

REFLECTION – “I know, O Lord God Almighty, that I owe You, as the chief duty of my life, the devotion of all my words and thoughts, to Yourself… In our want we shall pray for the things we need. We shall bring an untiring energy to the study of Your prophets and apostles and we shall knock for entrance at every gate of hidden knowledge.
But it is Yours to answer the prayer, to grant the thing we seek, to open the door on which we beat (Lk 11,9). Our minds are born with dull and clouded vision, our feeble intellect is penned within the barriers of an impassable ignorance concerning Your mysteries.
But the study of Your revelation, elevates our soul to the comprehension of sacred truth and submission to the faith, is the path to a certainty beyond the reach of unassisted reason. And, therefore, we look to Your support for the first trembling steps of this undertaking, to Your aid, that it may gain strength and prosper. We look to You, to give us the fellowship of that Spirit who guided the prophets and apostles, that we may take their words in the sense in which they spoke and assign its right shade of meaning, to every utterance… Grant us, therefore, precision of language, soundness of argument, grace of style, loyalty to truth. Enable us to utter the things that we believe.” – St Hilary (315-368) Bishop of Poitiers, Father and Doctor of the Church – The Trinity, I, 37-38

PRAYER – God of mercy, teach us to live as You have ordained. Help us to follow Your commandments with courage and steadfast devotion. Let our Saviour, true Light of the world, be our master. Fill us with the fire of the Holy Spirit, that we grow in holiness. Grant blessed Trinity, that by the prayers of Bl Philippa Mareri, we may strive towards our heavenly home. Through Jesus our Lord, in unity with the Holy Spirit, one God forever. Amen

Posted in ONE Minute REFLECTION, QUOTES on HYPROCRISY, SAINT of the DAY, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 18 February – ‘Spiritual schizophrenia’ 

One Minute Reflection – 18 February – Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time, Year A, Readings: James 1:12-18, Psalm 94:12-15, 18-19, Mark 8:14-21 and the Memorial of Saint Francis Regis Clet CM (1748-1820) Priest and Martyr

And he cautioned them, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”…Mark 8:15

REFLECTION – “Jesus tells us to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.   That leaven is hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy is an internal division, you say one thing and do another.   It is a sort of spiritual schizophrenia.   Furthermore a hypocrite is a phoney – he seems good, courteous but he has a dagger behind him.   A hypocrite is two-faced.   He is a phoney. Jesus, speaking of these doctors of the law, affirms that they say one thing but do not do. This is another form of hypocrisy, it is existential nominalism – those who believe that, by saying things, everything is in order.   No, things must be done, not just said.   On the contrary, a hypocrite is a nominalist, he believes that everything is done with words. Moreover, a hypocrite is incapable of blaming himself, he never finds a smudge on himself, he blames others.   Just think of the speck and the log, this is precisely how we can describe this leaven which is hypocrisy.
May the Lord give to us, to all of us, the Holy Spirit and the grace of the clarity to tell ourselves what is the leaven I grow with, which is the leaven I act with.   Am I a just and transparent person or am I a hypocrite?”…Pope Francis – Santa Marta, 14 October 2016mark-8-15-take-heed-beware-of-the-leaven-jesus-tells-us-pope-francis-19-feb-2019-no-2 and 18 feb 2020

PRAYER – God of mercy, teach us to live as You have ordained.   Help us to follow Your commandments with courage and steadfast devotion.   Let our Saviour be our master, help us to learn from Him, the ways of prayer in silence.   Fill us with the fire of the Holy Spirit, that we may learn.   Grant blessed Trinity, that by the prayers of St Francis Regis Clet, we may grow in holiness.   Through Jesus our Lord, in unity with the Holy Spirit, one God forever. Amenst francis regis clet pray for us 18 feb 2020