Benedictine monk, called Theristus or Â?Harvester.Â? He was of Calabrian lineage, born in Sicily. His mother was a slave of the Saracens. John escaped at a young age and became a monk.
Category: Parish News & Events
Prayer For Courage: Prayer of the Day for Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Dear God, give me courage,
for perhaps I lack it more than anything else.
I need courage before men against their threats
and against their seductions.
I need courage to bear unkindness,
mockery, contradiction.
I need courage to fight against the devil,
against terrors and troubles, temptations,
attractions, darkness and false lights,
against tears, depression, and above all fear.
I need Your help, dear God.
Strengthen me with Your love and Your grace. …
The Perfect Prayer
In the First Reading we hear, “So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what pleases me, achieving the end for which I sent it” Isaiah 55:11. This verse is reassuring. It reminds me that God always has a plan and a purpose, and nothing is wasted. I think this is one reason why it’s necessary to know God’s word. Scripture is full of truth, beauty and goodness. When we know the Word, we know Truth.
The Gospel gives us the prayer Jesus taught. How often do we pray the Lord’s Prayer? It is part of liturgies, of other prayers, and it may be one of the first prayers we learned as children. Jesus taught it to his disciples to remind them that prayer, to be effective, is best when it is sincere. Long winded prayers which attract attention are not God is looking for from us. I think about this also when I am praying with a group and ask if anyone has prayer intentions. Some people give you so much information about the person and situation that I get more wrapped up in the story than the prayer needed. I tend to be more of a minimalist, a first name and short request, relying on the fact that Jesus said, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
And what about the prayer itself? It really does cover all our needs. Notice though, before it gets to “me” we give honor and glory to God. We pray for the coming of his kingdom. Then we pray for ourselves, for our physical and spiritual well-being. Of course, Jesus would give us the perfect prayer. Now it is up to us to make good use of it. Sometimes when we pray the same prayer repeatedly, it becomes words that come out of our mouth without any thought of meaning or intention.
Today might be a good day to slow down and pray the Our Father slowly. Taking time with each phrase to pray for specific intentions. For example: Our Father (thank you for being the perfect Father, help me to love and care for others as you do), who art in heaven (I give you glory Lord) hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come (may all people come to know that you are God, who made them and wants their good), they will be done (Father, I want to do your will, guide me today to follow you). I think you get the idea. If this is not appealing to you, then simply slow down, carefully enunciate the words so that you hear them, and they lift your heart and mind to God. After all, isn’t that what prayer is?
Just as God’s word fulfills the purpose it is meant, our prayers, said in faith in trust, fulfill their purpose.
Deanna G. Bartalini, MEd, MPS, is a Catholic educator, writer, speaker, and retreat leader. She has served in ministry for over 40 years as a catechist, religious education director, youth minister, liturgical coordinator, stewardship director and Unbound prayer minister. For all of Deanna’s current work go to DeannaBartalini.com.
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St. Polycarp: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Imagine being able to sit at the feet of the apostles and hear their stories of life with Jesus from their own lips. Imagine walking with those who had walked with Jesus, seen him, and touched him. That was what Polycarp was able to do as a disciple of Saint John the Evangelist. But being part of the second generation of Church leaders had challenges that the first generation could not teach about. What did you do when those eyewitnesses were gone? How do you carry on the correct teachings …
Grace Before and After Meals: Prayer of the Day for Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Before: Bless us, O Lord! and these Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
After: We give Thee thanks for all Thy benefits, O Almighty God, who livest and reignest world without end. Amen. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
Are You Blessed by Faith?
Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” The answers varied from a prophet to John the Baptist. He then asks the question each of us should carefully contemplate our answer to, “But who do you yourselves say that I am?”
Who is Jesus in your life? Simon Peter knows He is “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Remarkably not by the words of man but through God—from heaven above. For this proclamation, Jesus responds to Peter, “Blessed are you.” In the Scriptures, we meet others, who were likewise referred to as blessed for believing the revelations of God. At the Visitation, Elizabeth cries out to Mary, “blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.”
To the no longer doubting Thomas, Jesus says, “Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” There seems to be a pattern emerging of how one becomes blessed. It is not through some heroic deed but through faith—the kind that comes from the heart and not through the eyes. I long to be known as blessed, to imitate the trust exemplified in Mary, Peter and Thomas, not superhuman actions but acts of incredible faith.
The author of Hebrews illuminates the meaning of faith, writing, “Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen…By faith, we understand that the world has been created by the word of God so that what is seen has not been made out of things that are visible.” Then, one by one, he shares the power of and the remarkable results to be someone living by faith.
By faith, they received approval from God and his righteousness. By faith, they found heaven and were taken into the presence of God. By faith, they could do the impossible. By faith, they were saved and not condemned. By faith, they were called out of a place and into their inheritance, into the Kingdom of God. Hebrews 11 unfolds blessing after blessing of living your life by faith. Although considered people of old, their legacy is ours as daughters and sons of a Heavenly Father. By faith, we, too, by simply believing, can do great things for the glory of God and have the resolute assurance of the promises of Christ.
How do you answer Jesus’ question? Who do you say Jesus is? Do you believe what you read in the Gospels? Do you believe the prophets, do you trust what you feel in your heart, laid there by the power of the Holy Spirit? Do we need to be like Thomas and touch Jesus’ wounds, or can we be blessed because we believe, although we do not see? Like Mary, we can choose to believe that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken by the Lord. Lastly, like Peter in today’s Gospel, we too can be blessed by proclaiming with our lips and from our hearts that Jesus is indeed the Christ, the son of God, our Savior and Redeemer.
Allison Gingras works for WINE: Women In the New Evangelization as National WINE Steward of the Virtual Vineyard. She is a Social Media Consultant for the Diocese of Fall River and CatholicMom.com. She is a writer, speaker, and podcaster, who founded ReconciledToYou.com and developed the Stay Connected Journals for Catholic Women (OSV).
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St. Margaret of Cortona: Saint of the Day for Monday, February 22, 2021
Margaret of Cortona, penitent, was born in Loviana in Tuscany in 1247. Her father was a small farmer. Margaret’s mother died when she was seven years old. Her stepmother had little care for her high-spirited daughter. Rejected at home, Margaret eloped with a youth from Montepulciano and bore him a son out of wedlock. After nine years, her lover was murdered without warning. Margaret left Montpulciano and returned as a penitent to her father’s house. When her father refused to accept her and her …
For the Family: Prayer of the Day for Monday, February 22, 2021
Great protector of the family, St. Gerard, we ask your prayers for all parents, that they may receive the grace to live in the love of God and bring up their children to know and love him with all their hearts.
We ask you to pray that those who take the lives of unborn innocents and attack the dignity of motherhood may come to see the error of their ways, and that all men may value the holiness of Christian family life.
God, our loving Father, your love gives life to the world. Bless and make …
God’s Covenant
Gn 9:8-15 is one of our first introductions to the word “covenant”. The word speaks of God’s promise to us. It is not through our works that we will receive grace, but through God’s goodness. In His covenant to Noah, God vows to make a covenant between Himself and the earth. Is this not a foreshadowing of the ultimate covenant He establishes for us in sending His only begotten Son, God incarnate, to us?
As we recall in today’s Gospel, Christ came down to live the human experience, both its joys and its sorrows. His forty days in the desert are only the beginning of this great sacrifice. Through Christ, God shows that His love for us surpasses all. In times where we may question “where are you Lord?” we must recall that God is always with us through His beloved Son Christ. How infinitely blessed are we, who, made from dust, can now encounter the joys of eternal salvation!
Dr. Alexis Dallara-Marsh is a board-certified neurologist who practices in Bergen County, NJ. She is a wife to her best friend, Akeem, and a mother of two little ones on Earth and two others in heaven above.
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St. Severian: Saint of the Day for Sunday, February 21, 2021
Bishop and martyr. The bishop of Scythopolis in Galilee. He attended the Council of Chalcedon (451) and took part in the complete triumph of the orthodox Christian cause against the heretics of the era. On his return home he was assassinated by a group of heretics at the command of Emperor Theodosius II.