Posted in "Follow Me", CHRIST the WORD and WISDOM, DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, ONE Minute REFLECTION, QUOTES on GREED, WEALTH, QUOTES on THE WORLD, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 7 September – ‘ … Slaves of a piece of senseless, soulless metal [worse – of paper]! … ‘

One Minute Reflection – 7 September – “Month of The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary and The Holy Cross” – Ferial Day – St Cloud (c522-560) Abbot, Confessor – Galatians 5:16-24, Matthew 6:24-33 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

No man serve two masters …” – Matthew 6:24

REFLECTION – “See what benefits Jesus Christ promises and how beneficial His commands are to us, since they set us free from such great evils. The misery caused you by riches, He says to us, is not just that of arming thieves against you and filling your mind with impenetrable gloom. The great wound they inflict, is to snatch you away from the blessed service of Jesus Christ, to make you slaves of a piece of senseless, soulless metal [worse – of paper]!

You cannot serve both God and mammon.” My brethren, let us shudder at the thought that we are forcing Jesus Christ to speak to us about money, as though it were an alternative divinity to God! But surely, you will say, did not the patriarchs of old find it possible to serve God and money at the same time? Certainly not! But how, then, was it that Abraham and Job set such store by their wealth? I reply that there is no question here of invoking those, who possessed riches but those who were possessed by them. Job was a rich man; he made use of money without being its slave; he was its master, not its worshipper. He considered his wealth as though it had been another’s and saw himself as its administrator, not its proprietor. … That was why he was not the least bothered when he lost it.” – St John Chrysostom (345-407) Bishop of Constantinople, Father and Doctor of the Church (Sermons on Saint Matthew’s Gospel No 21).

PRAYER – Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord God, unto all Thy servants, that they may remain continually in the enjoyment of soundness, both of mind and body and by the glorious intercession of the Blessed Mary, always a Virgin, may be delivered from present sadness and enter into the joy of thine eternal gladness.Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who lives and reigns with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen (Collect).

Posted in "Follow Me", CHRIST the WORD and WISDOM, CHRIST, the WAY,TRUTH,LIFE, CONFESSION/PENANCE, DOCTORS of the Church, GOD ALONE!, MARIAN QUOTES, MARIAN REFLECTIONS, MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, PRACTISING CATHOLIC, QUOTES on BAD CONVERSATION, QUOTES on CONSCIENCE, QUOTES on GREED, WEALTH, QUOTES on HUMILITY, QUOTES on PRIDE, QUOTES on PURITY, QUOTES on PURITY of INTENTION, QUOTES on REPARATION/EXPIATION, QUOTES on SANCTITY, QUOTES on SELF-DENIAL, QUOTES on SIN, QUOTES on the DEVIL/EVIL, QUOTES on THE WORLD, St Francis de Sales, The FAITHFUL on PILGRIMAGE, The WORD

Quote/s of the Day – 4 September – ‘ … No more world, no more sins!’

Quote/s of the Day – 4 September – Feria – Galatians 5:16-24, Matthew 6:24-33 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

No man can serve two masters.

Matthew 6:24

Penance is a needful thing to the sinner,
who desires to recover health of his soul.
And, in doing penance, there be three things
to be considered:
serious compunction of heart,
confession of mouth
and satisfaction by deed.”

St John Fisher (1469-1535)

Worldly love aims at pleasing everyone
and saddening no-one.
Many call this politeness!
but, it is simply
self-praise and flattery!

If you wish to rid yourself of self-love,
purify your intentions
and, in every action,
seek what is pure
and what alone, will give honour to God.

St Anthony Mary Zaccaria (1502-1539)

Lord, forgive this great sinner.
Give me time to do penance.
No more world, no more sins!

St Camillus de Lellis MI (1550-1614)

To advance well,
we must apply ourselves
to make good way
on the road nearest to us
and do, the first day’s journey.

We fight the monsters of Africa
in imagination
but, from lack of attention,
we allow ourselves, in reality,
to be killed by the little serpents
which lie in our way!

(Intro to the Devout Life III:37)

St Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Doctor of Charity of the Church

Let us be humble like Mary.
Let us make God’s glory,
rather than our own satisfaction,
the object of our actions.
Only one thing should count with us
and that is, the testimony
of a good conscience before God.
Everything else is passing and futile
.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

Posted in "Follow Me", CHRIST the WORD and WISDOM, CHRIST, the WAY,TRUTH,LIFE, DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, GOD ALONE!, ONE Minute REFLECTION, QUOTES on GREED, WEALTH, QUOTES on THE WORLD, QUOTES on WEALTH/RICHES, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 4 September – No man can serve two masters. – Matthew 6:24

One Minute Reflection – 4 September – “Month of The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary and The Holy Cross” – St Rose of Viterbo (c1233 – 1251) Virgin – Galatians 5:16-24, Matthew 6:24-33 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

No man can serve two masters.” – Matthew 6:24

REFLECTION – “To want to place one’s hope and trust in passing things, is to want to set one’s foundations in running water! Everything passes, God abides. To be attached to what is transitory is to cut oneself off from what endures. For who, carried away by the angry whirling of a rapid, can stand firm in that roiling flood? So, if you wish to avoid being carried away by the current, then flee from all that flows away. Otherwise, the object of our love, will make us finish by doing exactly what we wanted to avoid! Whoever attaches himself to transitory things, will surely be dragged along, to wherever the things he is clinging to, are drifting.

So, the first thing we must do, is to keep ourselves from loving material goods; the second is, not to put our trust in such of those goods, as are entrusted for our use and not our enjoyment. The soul, who is attached to goods which only pass away, very soon loses its own stability. The current of this present life carries off, whoever it bears and, it is a foolish delusion, for whoever this current carries, to try to stand upright in it!” – St Gregory the Great (540-604) Pope, Father and Doctor of the Church (Morals on Job, 34).

PRAYER – Protect Thy Church by Thine abiding mercy, we beseech Thee, O Lord and since all mortals fall without Thee, may Thy help keep them from danger and guide them to salvation. May the prayers of Thy virgin the blessed Rose, assist us on our journey to Thee. Through Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who lives and reigns with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen (Collect).

Posted in "Follow Me", CHRIST the WORD and WISDOM, FRANCISCAN OFM, QUOTES on THE WORLD, QUOTES on WEALTH/RICHES, The KINGDOM of GOD, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 7 August – No man can serve two masters … – Matthew 6:24

One Minute Reflection – 7 August – “The Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” – St Cajetan (1480-1547) Confessor – Ecclesiasticus 31:8-11, Matthew 6:24-33 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

“No man can serve two masters …” – Matthew 6:24

REFLECTION – “I firmly believe that you know the Kingdom of Heaven is promised and given, by the Lord, only to the poor (cf Mt 5:3) because, she who loves what is temporal, loses the fruit of love.

It is not possible to serve God and mammon, for either the one is loved and the other hated, or the one is served and the other despised; one clothed cannot fight another naked because she who has something to be caught hold of, is more quickly thrown to the ground: someone who lives in the glory of earth, cannot rule with Christ; it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (cf Mt 6:24).

Therefore, you have cast aside your garments, that is, earthly riches, so that instead of being overcome, by the one fighting against you, you will be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven through the straight path and the narrow gate (cf Mt 7:13-14).” – St Clare OSC (1193-1252) Foundress of the Poor Clares (1st Letter to Saint Agnes of Prague 25-29).

PRAYER – O God, Who bestowed upon St Cajetan, Thy Confessor, the grace to follow the apostolic way of life; grant us we beseech Thee, by his intercession and example, ever to trust in Thee and to long only for the things of Heaven.Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who lives and reigns with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen (Collect).