Daily Reflections

“Jesus, meek and humble of Heart, make our hearts like unto Thine“

Luke 1:13, 15; Judges 13:5

The angel said to Zechariah:
Your wife will bear you a son,
and you must name him John;
he will drink no wine or any strong drink,
and he will be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother’s womb.
– For the boy is to be a Nazarite consecrated to God.

The angel of the LORD appeared to the wife of Manoah and said to her:
You shall conceive and bear a son,
and no razor must touch his head.
– For the boy is to be a Nazarite consecrated to God.

Friday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

Vigil of St. John the Baptist (Traditional)

Saint Audrey Etheldreda (England)

Our LORD instructs us, “Store up treasures for yourselves in Heaven…. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Mt. 6:19-23)Saint Paul lists his treasures: “three times I have been beaten with sticks; once I was stoned; three times I have been shipwrecked….” With Paul, we will show that our treasure is God’s strength, not our own. As His light illumines this treasure, the only boasting from our mouth will proclaim, “I will bless the LORD at all times, His praise always on my lips” (Psalm 33:1)

VIGIL OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST

Lo! the first beginnings of Christian Joy, O LORD, whereby erstwhile, the sanctified Voice preceded the Word about to be born in flesh, and the herald of light signally announced the rising of the Daystar, Himself had witnesses: by him, both Faith’s Mysteries have produced marvels: he is approved whose conception is miracle, whose birth is joy; therefore do we beseech Thee, that we who with glad ovations hail the birthday of Thy Precursor, may with purified hearts draw nigh likewise onto thine own Nativity: so that the Voice which preached Thee in the desert, may cleanse us in the world; and he who, preparing the way for the coming LORD, washed in his baptism the bodies of living men, may now, by his prayers, purify our hearts from vices and errors; so that, following in the footprints of the voice, we may deserve to come to the Promises of the Word.

May the prayer of blessed John Baptist, O LORD, plead for us, that we may both understand and merit the mystery of Thy Christ.

O Almighty and Eternal God, Who in the days of Blessed John Baptist, didst fulfill the institutions of the Law and the declaration of the holy prophets, grant we beseech thee, that figures and signs being ended, Truth Himself, by His own manifestation, may speak, Jesus Christ Our LORD.

ST. (AUDREY) ETHELDREDA, VIRGIN

Around 640, there was an English princess named Ethelreda, but she was known as Audrey. She married once, but was widowed after three years, and it was said that the marriage was never consummated. She had taken a perpetual vow of virginity, but married again, this time for reasons of state. Her young husband soon grew tired of living as brother and sister and began to make advances on her. She continually refused. He eventually attempted to bribe the local bishop, Saint Wilfrid of York, to release Audrey from her vows.

Saint Wilfrid refused, and helped Audrey escape. She fled south, with her husband following. They reached a promontory known as Colbert’s Head, where a Heaven sent seven day high tide separated the two. Eventually, Audrey’s husband left and married someone more willing, while Audrey took the veil, and founded the great Abbey of Ely, where she lived an austere life. She eventually died in 679 A.D.of an enormous and unsightly tumor on her neck, which she gratefully accepted as Divine retribution for all the necklaces she had worn in her early years. Throughout the Middle Ages, a festival, “St. Audrey’s Fair”, was held at Ely, on her feast day. The exceptional shodiness of the merchandise, especially the neckerchiefs, contributed to the English language the word “tawdry”, a corruption of “Saint Audrey.”

From a treatise on the LORD’s Prayer by Saint Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr
(Nn. 23-24: CSEL 3, 284-285)

We are God’s children; let us abide in His Peace

Christ clearly laid down an additional rule to bind us by a certain contractual condition: we ask that our debts be forgiven insofar as we forgive our own debtors. Thus we are made aware that we cannot obtain what we ask regarding our own trespasses unless we do the same for those who trespass against us. This is why He says elsewhere: The measure you give will be the measure you get. And the servant who, after his master forgives all his debt, refuses to forgive his fellow servant is thrown into prison. Because he refused to be kind to his fellow servant, he lost the favour his master had given him.

Along with His other precepts Christ lays this down even more forcefully with a most vigorous condemnation. He says: When you stand up to pray, if you have anything against anyone, let it go, so that your Heavenly Father may also forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses. You will have no excuse on the Day of Judgment, for then you will be judged just as you have judged, and you will suffer whatever you have done to others.

God bids us to be peace-loving, harmonious and of one mind in His House; He wants us to live with the New Life He gave us at our Second Birth (Baptism). As sons of God, we are to abide in peace; as we have one Spirit, we should be one in mind and heart. Thus God does not receive the sacrifice of one who lives in conflict, and He orders us to turn back from the altar and be first reconciled with our brother, that God too may be appeased by the prayers of one who is at peace. The greatest offering we can make to God is our Peace, harmony among fellow Christians, a people united with the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

When Cain and Abel first offered their sacrifices, God considered not so much the gifts as the spirit of the giver: God was pleased with Abel’s offering because He was pleased with his spirit. Thus Abel the just man, the peacemaker, in his blameless sacrifice taught men that when they offer their gift at the altar they should approach as he did, in the fear of God, simplicity of heart, ruled by justice and peaceful harmony. Since this was the character of Abel’s offering, it was only right that he himself should afterward become a sacrifice. As martyrdom’s first witness and possessing the LORD’s qualities of justice and peace, he foreshadowed the LORD’s Passion in the glory of his own death. Such, then, are the men who are crowned by the LORD and will be justified with Him on the Day of Judgment.

But Saint Paul and the Sacred Scriptures tell us that the quarrelsome man and the troublemaker, who is never at peace with his brothers, cannot escape the charge of internal dissension even though he may die for Christ’s name. For it is written: He who hates his brother is a murderer, nor can he attain the Kingdom of Heaven. God cannot abide a murderer. He cannot be united with Christ, who has preferred to imitate Judas rather than Christ

How to Maintain Our Treasure in Heaven

When Jesus summarised the Law and the prophets, He quoted Deuteronomy 6:5: You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the First Commandment. The Second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two Commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also. (Mt 22:37-40). You need to cultivate love for God as your deepest love, so that you can love others well with God’s grace and strength. You may have natural virtues, good habits, and a kind nature, but you will not raise a godly family apart from God’s Grace.

You love the LORD with all your heart. Jesus is your Saviour and LORD; He is the One who has chosen you and cherishes you. He laid down His Life to restore your relationship to your Heavenly Father; you owe Him everything. You love the LORD with all your soul through your growth in virtue and your struggle against an inclination to sin. He provides the Grace you need through Spiritual direction and the Sacraments. He strengthens your will so that you struggle against sloth while increasing your devotion to and faithful obedience to Him. You love the LORD with all your mind by renewing your mind through studying the Faith; then your prayer and participation in the Sacraments is enriched…. You can make time now, in small amounts, for reading the lives of saints or Spiritual reading—it is time spent loving God with your mind.

Prayer is the breath of the soul, “the life of the new heart”, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2697)…. When Saint Paul instructs believers, pray constantly (1 Th 5:17), he is addressing ordinary Christians with active family lives. He does not expect them to devote hours to prayer; rather he wants them to permeate the day with prayer.

Kimberly Hahn

Kimberly Hahn is a convert to Catholicism and a prominent speaker and author. She is the wife of Dr. Scott Hahn. [From Graced and Gifted: Biblical Wisdom for the Homemaker’s Heart. © 2008, Kimberly Hahn, St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, Steubenville, Ohio. 

Ephesians 4:1, 3, 4; Romans 15:5, 6

I implore you to lead a life worthy of the vocation to which you have been called.
Be careful to preserve the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace.
– There is but one Hope given to you by your calling.

May God grant you to live in harmony with one another,
so that together you may glorify God with one voice.
– There is but one Hope given to you by your calling.