FORTIFY me with the grace of Your Holy Spirit
and give Your peace to my soul
that I may be free from all needless anxiety,
solicitude and worry.
Help me to desire always
that which is pleasing and acceptable to You
so that Your will may be my will.
Month: July 2022
What Does That Say? / ¿Qué Dice Eso?
We see signs all over the place. Signs that tell us to stop our cars at an intersection, signs that tell us where to cross the street, signs that tell us the name of a street. Our daily lives are inundated with signs, I’d be curious to count up all the signs that I drive past in a day. We see so many signs that it only makes sense that we’d want to see signs in our spiritual lives as well. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that we’d almost *expect* to see signs.
So what happens when those signs don’t happen? Or God maybe reveals Himself to us in a way that we weren’t asking for or weren’t expecting? Often, we become disappointed while still demanding for our sign to be fulfilled in the way that we asked for.
When we do that, though, we are placing constraints on God. We are projecting our own will onto His. Our God is so much bigger and more powerful than our own finite human plans. He works outside of time and outside of space and He often works in ways that we do not expect.
This is exactly what the scribes and Pharisees did in today’s Gospel. They demanded to see a sign because they refused to accept and acknowledge Jesus’ previous miracles. Because they wanted a sign according to their own agenda (and their agenda always was to trap Jesus), He would not give them the satisfaction.
God loves to be merciful. He loves when we ask Him for things and He wants to grant the deepest wishes and desires of our hearts. We have to remember, though, that God created our hearts and knows them better than we do. That means He will answer our needs according to what He knows is best for us – that includes when we might ask for a sign.
How will we notice them, then? Simply, when the Lord reveals Himself to us through signs, we notice the signs better usually when we are in tune with His heart – when we’ve been spending time with Him in prayer, when we’ve been making Him a priority in our lives. When we spend time focusing on things of the Lord instead of things of the world, we will notice even better when He moves and works in our lives.
Vemos señales por todos lados. Señales que nos dicen que nos paramos en una intersección, señales que nos dicen por dónde cruzar la calle, señales que nos dicen el nombre de la calle. Nuestra vida diaria está inundada de señales, me gustaría contar todos las señales que veo en un día. Vemos tantas señales que tiene sentido que también queramos ver señales en nuestra vida espiritual. De hecho, hasta me atrevería decir que casi “esperamos” ver señales.
Entonces, ¿qué sucede cuando no recibimos esas señales? ¿O tal vez Dios se nos revela de una manera que no estábamos pidiendo o no esperábamos? A menudo, nos decepcionamos mientras exigimos que nuestra señal se cumpla de la manera que lo pedimos.
Sin embargo, cuando hacemos eso, estamos imponiendo restricciones a Dios. Estamos proyectando nuestra propia voluntad sobre la Suya. Nuestro Dios es mucho más grande y más poderoso que nuestros propios planes humanos finitos. Él trabaja fuera del tiempo y del espacio y, a menudo, obra de maneras que no esperamos.
Esto es exactamente lo que hicieron los escribas y fariseos en el Evangelio de hoy. Exigieron ver una señal porque se negaron a aceptar y reconocer los milagros anteriores de Jesús. Debido a que querían una señal de acuerdo a su propia agenda (y su agenda siempre fue atrapar a Jesús), Él no les daría la satisfacción.
A Dios le encanta ser misericordioso. Le encanta cuando le pedimos cosas y quiere conceder los deseos y anhelos más profundos de nuestro corazón. Sin embargo, debemos recordar que Dios creó nuestros corazones y los conoce mejor que nosotros. Eso significa que responderá a nuestras necesidades de acuerdo con lo que sabe que es mejor para nosotros, incluyendo cuándo podríamos pedir una señal.
Entonces, ¿cómo nos damos cuenta de ellas? Simplemente, cuando el Señor se nos revela a través de las señales, y las reconocemos mejor cuando estamos en sintonía con Su corazón, cuando hemos pasado tiempo con Él en la oración, cuando lo hemos hecho una prioridad en nuestras vidas. Cuando pasamos tiempo enfocándonos en las cosas del Señor en lugar de las cosas del mundo, reconoceremos aún mejor cuando Él se mueve y obra en nuestras vidas.
Erin is a Cleveland native and graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville. She is passionate about the Lord Jesus, all things college sports and telling stories and she is blessed enough to get paid for all three of her passions as a full-time youth minister and a freelance sports writer.
Feature Image Credit: Malachi Brooks, unsplash.com/photos/SmgvToT3nbA
St. Frederick: Saint of the Day for Monday, July 18, 2022
St. Frederick, Bishop of Utrecht, Martyr Frederick was trained in piety and sacred learning among the clergy of the Church of Utrecht. Being ordained priest, he was charged by Bishop Ricfried with the care of instructing converts, and about 825 he was chosen to succeed him as bishop of Utrecht. The new bishop at once began to establish order everywhere, and sent St. Odulf and other zealous and virtuous labourers into the northern parts to dispel the paganism which still subsisted there. …
Act of Faith: Prayer of the Day for Monday, July 18, 2022
O my God, I firmly believe that you are one God in three divine persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I believe that your divine Son became man and died for our sins, and that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the holy catholic Church teaches, because in revealing them you can neither deceive nor be deceived.
What a Difference a Year Makes! / ¡Un Año Hace Tanta Diferencia!
I can’t even begin to explain how different this summer has been from last summer. On July 9th we celebrated one year of complete wellness for my young son, after suffering repeated infections from a burst appendix.
This year, the kids have been outside for hours everyday and we have been enjoying rivers, lakes and pools. The weather has been sunny and mild, I have a new job that I love and my baby girl is almost a year old. What a difference a year makes!
Surely Abraham and Sarah could say the same in today’s Old Testament reading. They had surely spent their whole young lives suffering from infertility and praying for a child and then they finally conceived in their old age. I’m sure they were both overjoyed!
In hindsight we are able to see the fruits of our sufferings but oh, how hard it is to be strong and bear them in the moment! How different my summer would have been last year if I would have been able to say along with St. Paul: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake”!
As a child, I was taught to offer up my sufferings. Perhaps for the poor souls in Purgatory, or my neighbor who was ill, or a classmate whose parents were getting a divorce, or my dad who was struggling at his job, etc. Yet as an adult I have a much harder time with it. I like to be in control and have a hard time when things go south or don’t go the way I planned. I often choose to brood or complain rather than calming my heart in prayer and offering it up to our Lord.
Mary teaches us this calm and the importance of prayer in today’s Gospel. She sits at the feet of Jesus to spend time with Him and listen to Him. I think if we spent more time like this, the difficult times in our lives would feel much less like a storm. These calm, prayerful moments would anchor us in faith, so that we wouldn’t feel like we are being washed away.
My prayer today is that we may remember to rejoice in our sufferings, learn to offer them up and find constant strength in our loving Lord. And perhaps next year we can all exclaim together, “What a difference a year makes!”
Ni siquiera puedo comenzar a explicar cuán diferente ha sido este verano del verano pasado. El 9 de julio celebramos un año del bienestar completo para mi hijito, después de sufrir infecciones repetidas por un apéndice reventado.
Este año, mis hijos han estado afuera por varias horas todos los días y hemos nadado en ríos, lagos y piscinas. El clima ha sido soleado y templado, tengo un nuevo trabajo que me encanta y mi niña ya va a cumplir un año. ¡Un año hace tanta diferencia!
Seguramente Abraham y Sara podrían decir lo mismo en la lectura de hoy del Antiguo Testamento. Seguramente habían pasado toda su juventud sufriendo de infertilidad y suplicando a Dios tener hijos y finalmente concibieron en su vejez. ¡Estoy seguro de que ambos se pusieron tan felices!
En retrospectiva, podemos ver los frutos de nuestros sufrimientos, pero ¡qué difícil es ser fuerte y soportarlos en el momento! ¡Qué diferente hubiera sido mi verano el año pasado si hubiera podido decir junto con San Pablo: “Ahora me alegro de mis sufrimientos por Él”!
De niño, me enseñaron a ofrecer mis sufrimientos como sacrificio. Tal vez por las almas del Purgatorio, o mi vecino que estaba enfermo, o un compañero de clase cuyos padres se estaban divorciando, o mi padre que estaba batallando en su trabajo, etc. Sin embargo, como adulto, se me dificulta bastante. Me gusta mantener el control y me pongo mal cuando las cosas no van bien o no salen como las planeé. Con frecuencia elijo enojarme o quejarme en lugar de calmar mi corazón en la oración y ofrecérselo a nuestro Señor.
María nos enseña esta calma y la importancia de la oración en el Evangelio de hoy. Se sienta a los pies de Jesús para pasar tiempo con Él y escucharlo. Creo que si pasáramos más tiempo así, los momentos difíciles de nuestras vidas se sentirían mucho menos como una tormenta. Estos momentos de tranquilidad y oración nos anclarían en la fe, para que no sintiéramos que la lluvia y el viento nos arrastra.
Le pido a Dios que recordemos regocijarnos en nuestros sufrimientos, aprendamos a ofrecerlos a Dios y encontremos la fortaleza constante en nuestro amoroso Señor. Y tal vez el próximo año podamos exclamar todos juntos: “¡Un año hace tanta diferencia!”
Tami Urcia grew up in Western Michigan, a middle child in a large Catholic family. She spent early young adulthood as a missionary in Mexico, studying theology and philosophy, then worked and traveled extensively before finishing her Bachelor’s Degree in Western Kentucky. She loves tackling projects, finding fun ways to keep her little ones occupied, quiet conversation with the hubby and finding unique ways to love. She works at for Christian Healthcare Centers, is a guest blogger on CatholicMom.com and BlessedIsShe.net, runs her own blog at https://togetherandalways.wordpress.com and has been doing Spanish translations on the side for over 20 years.
Feature Image Credit: Fauzan Ardhi, unsplash.com/photos/rqclLm60c1k
Carmelite Nuns of Compiegne: Saint of the Day for Sunday, July 17, 2022
Sixteen Carmelites caught up in the French Revolution and martyred. When the revolution started in 1789, a group of twenty-one discalced Carmelites lived in a monastery in Compiegne France, founded in 1641. The monastery was ordered closed in 1790 by the Revolutionary govÂernment, and the nuns were disbanded. Sixteen of the nuns were accused of living in a religious community in 1794. They were arrested on June 22 and imprisoned in a Visitation convent in Compiegne There they openly resumed …
Prayer to St. Raphael, Angel of Happy Meetings: Prayer of the Day for Sunday, July 17, 2022
O Raphael, lead us towards those we are waiting for, those who are waiting for us! Raphael, Angel of Happy Meetings, lead us by the hand towards those we are looking for! May all our movements, all their movements, be guided by your Light and transfigured by your Joy.
Angel Guide of Tobias, lay the request we now address to you at the feet of Him on whose unveiled Face you are privileged to gaze. Lonely and tired, crushed by the separations and sorrows of earth, we feel the need of calling …
Justice for the Gentiles / Justicia para los Gentiles
There is a long-lingering rumor, one I have never been able to confirm, that my father’s family has Jewish origins, and some ancestor back in time converted to Catholicism, possibly to avoid persecution, possibly to better gain acceptance from neighbors, possibly because of a true conversion of faith. That’s the trouble with family rumors — they only go so far, and you have to try to fill in the blanks yourself. Don’t even get me started on why my Sicilian ancestors had to leave Chicago back around 1920. That’s a story for another day.
Still, this bit of family history I’ve shared came to mind when reading today’s Gospel, where Matthew quotes a section of Isaiah that contains the word “Gentile” twice. Even for us who might have Jewish origins, those passages pertain to all of us Gentiles out here. Isaiah was telling his listeners that the suffering servant would “proclaim justice to the Gentiles,” as well as “in his name the Gentiles will hope.”
Matthew quotes the passage to specifically tell us: Jesus is that suffering servant. And He suffered not just for the Jews, but for the Gentiles, too — all of us get to share in His justice and the hope His name provides.
Truly believing in that justice and that hope changes everything for us. Take our First Reading, where the prophet Micah, paints a pretty gloomy picture: There are people out there planning evil, in Micah’s time and our own. “They covet fields, and seize them; houses, and they take them. They cheat an owner of his house, a man of his inheritance.” God is not ignoring this, Micah tells us. Rather, God is “planning against this race an evil from which you shall not withdraw your necks.”
Is it all evil and vengeance, Micah? Some actually might want that, as we hear the Psalmist say, “Why, O Lord, do you stand aloof? Why hide in times of distress?” Yet the Psalmist does seem to get it, as we are reminded in our last verse today, “On you the unfortunate man depends.”
Back we go to Matthew quoting Isaiah, where we get the answer to it all: “He will not contend or cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory.”
Jesus brings about the victory in His suffering, in His death on the cross, and His rising in triumph from the dead. To this day, we have a hard time grasping a conquering king dying by crucifixion instead of directing an army. But God’s ways are not our ways. Perhaps the evil Micah prophesied was not against the wicked, but the very type of death God chose for His son, a true sacrifice for us who did not deserve it, all out of His infinite love, mercy and justice.
As the priest in my mother’s parish proclaims at every Mass, “God is good!” To which the congregation replies, “All the time!” Just a small portion of that infinite goodness is His justice and hope. May we Gentiles cling to them always.
Existe un rumor desde hace mucho tiempo, uno que nunca he podido confirmar, que la familia de mi padre tiene orígenes judíos, y algún familiar en algún momento se convirtió al catolicismo, posiblemente para evitar la persecución o para ganarse la aceptación de los vecinos, o porque verdaderamente se convirtió a la fe. Eso es el problema con los rumores familiares: solo llegan hasta cierto punto y uno tiene que tratar de llenar la información que falta por sí mismo. Ni siquiera voy a hablar del por qué mis antepasados sicilianos tuvieron que salirse de Chicago alrededor de 1920. Esa es una historia para otro día.
Aún así, esta parte de la historia familiar que he compartido me vino a la mente al leer el Evangelio de hoy, donde Mateo cita una sección de Isaías que contiene la palabra “gentil” dos veces. Incluso para nosotros que podríamos tener orígenes judíos, esos pasajes pertenecen a todos los gentiles que estamos aquí. Isaías estaba diciendo a sus oyentes que el siervo sufriente “proclamaría justicia a los gentiles”, así como “en su nombre esperarán los gentiles”.
Mateo cita el pasaje para decirnos específicamente: Jesús es ese siervo sufriente. Y Él sufrió no solo por los judíos, sino también por los gentiles: todos nosotros podemos compartir Su justicia y la esperanza que brinda Su nombre.
Creer de verdad en esa justicia y esa esperanza nos lo cambia todo. Toma nuestra Primera Lectura, donde el profeta Miqueas, pinta un cuadro bastante sombrío: Hay gente por ahí planeando el mal, en el tiempo de Miqueas y en el nuestro. “Codician los campos, y se apoderan de ellos; casas, y se las llevan. Estafan al dueño de su casa, al hombre de su heredad.” Dios no está ignorando esto, nos dice Miqueas. Más bien, Dios está “planeando contra esta raza un mal del cual no retirarán sus cuellos”.
¿Todo es maldad y venganza, Micah? Algunos en realidad podrían querer eso, como escuchamos al salmista decir: “¿Por qué, oh Señor, te mantienes apartado? ¿Por qué esconderse en tiempos de angustia?” Sin embargo, el salmista parece entenderlo, como se nos recuerda en nuestro último versículo de hoy: “De ti depende el desgraciado”.
Volvemos a Mateo citando a Isaías, donde encontramos la respuesta para todo: “Él no contenderá ni clamará, ni nadie oirá su voz en las calles. No quebrará la caña cascada, ni apagará la mecha que humea, hasta que haga triunfar la justicia”.
Jesús produce la victoria en Su sufrimiento, en Su muerte en la cruz y Su resurrección triunfante de entre los muertos. Hasta el día de hoy, nos cuesta entender a un rey conquistador muriendo crucificado en lugar de estar dirigiendo a un ejército. Pero los caminos de Dios no son los nuestros. Quizás el mal profetizado por Miqueas no era contra los malvados, sino el mismo tipo de muerte que Dios escogió para Su hijo, un verdadero sacrificio para nosotros que no lo merecíamos, todo por Su infinito amor, misericordia y justicia.
Como proclama el Padre en cada Misa en la parroquia de mi mamá , “¡Dios es bueno!” Y la congregación responde: “¡Todo el tiempo!” Sólo una pequeña porción de esta bondad infinita es Su justicia y esperanza. Que los gentiles nos aferremos siempre a Él y su bondad.
Mike Karpus is a regular guy. He grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, graduated from Michigan State University and works as an editor. He is married to a Catholic school principal, raised two daughters who became Catholic school teachers at points in their careers, and now relishes his two grandchildren, including the 3-year-old who teaches him what the colors of Father’s chasubles mean. He has served on a Catholic School board, a pastoral council and a parish stewardship committee. He currently is a lector at Mass, a Knight of Columbus, Adult Faith Formation Committee member and a board member of the local Habitat for Humanity organization. But mostly he’s a regular guy.
Feature Image Credit: Vanesa Guerrero, rpm, www.cathopic.com/photo/2174-pasion-cristo-
St. Carmen: Saint of the Day for Saturday, July 16, 2022
According to my resources, the name Carmen is a derivation of Carmel which is one of the titles given to Our Blessed Mother, namely, Our Lady of Mount Carmel. This is the patronal feast of the Carmelites. The Order of Carmelites takes its name from Mount Carmel, which was the first place dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and where a chapel was erected in her honor before her Assumption into Heaven. July 16 is also the feast of the “Scapular of Mount Carmel”. On that day in 1251, pious …
A Parent’s Prayer for Their Children: Prayer of the Day for Saturday, July 16, 2022
O Father of mankind,
who hast given unto me these my children,
and committed them to my charge to bring them up for Thee,
and to prepare them for everlasting life:
assist me with Thy heavenly grace,
that I may be able to fulfil this most sacred duty and stewardship.
Teach me both what to give and what to withhold;
when to reprove and when to forbear;
make me gentle, yet firm;
considerate and watchful;
and deliver me equally from the weakness of indulgence,
and the excess …