Take It or Leave It
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Wednesday of the
Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
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Luke 9: 1-6
Jesus summoned the
Twelve and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure
diseases, and he sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the
sick. He said to them, "Take nothing for the journey, neither walking
stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic.
Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there. And as for those
who do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake the dust from your
feet in testimony against them." Then they set out and went from village
to village proclaiming the Good News and curing diseases everywhere.
Introductory Prayer: Lord, You are the author of life and the
giver of all that is good. You are the Prince of Peace and my mainstay. You
are my healer and the cure itself. I need You, and I need to give You. I love You and commit myself to You entirely, knowing You could never let me down or
deceive me. Thank You for giving me your very self.
Petition: Lord, help me to rely on Your grace and not
on worldly things.
1. The Mission: Christ sends out his apostles to preach the
good news with inadequate supplies. They are charged to trust in Providence.
Jesus shrinks their suitcases to practically nothing. How could they touch
people? Like St. Paul they were able to understand that Jesus was guiding
their steps from a discreet distance: “I consider all as loss for the
surpassing knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).Jesus gave
them restrictions to teach them that their strength in bearing fruit lies in
their love for him rather than in their material possessions or management
skills. Do I carry this same conviction in the home, in the office, or
running the errands? Am I willing to go two miles if the local Church
community presses me into service for one mile?
2. Detached from All
Things: Christ warns us
about hoarding possessions, not so much by what he says, but by what he does.
He doesn’t send his friends out like sheep among wolves so he can retire to a
comfortable sofa all weekend long. By giving them a good example first, Jesus
has already demonstrated what is necessary for apostolic success. He was born
in a musty cave. His first bed was an animal trough. His first apostolic
success, at the age of twelve, was cut short by his parents who intimated to
him that his timing was off. He sent Peter to pull coins out of a fish’s
mouth because he had no money to pay the tax. He allowed simple things — a
woman at a well, a funeral march in a village — to become moments remembered
worldwide, for ages to come, by countless followers. Later, he would be laid
in someone else’s grave. Material welfare alone cannot obtain what the Lord
is sending us to accomplish!
3. A Free Choice: Jesus didn’t make the disciples go off to a
survival camp. Nevertheless, the harder the conditions were, the more
attraction they felt at being involved. These Galilean fishermen freely
accepted an unknown trade. They had discovered a treasure that so filled them
with enthusiasm they sold everything in order to get hold of it and share it.
This treasure is Christ. The Gospel says, “Then they set out and went from
village to village....” It didn’t take the apostles long to decide what they
wanted to do, for within their vessels of clay they carried a treasure which
needed to spread far and wide.
Conversation with
Christ: Lord Jesus, as
wonderful as material things are, they do not amount to anything compared to
possessing You and teaching others about You. See the efforts I so intensely
perform for Your sake and bless them. Lord, help me, as You helped St. Paul,
to continue fighting for a heavenly crown that doesn’t fade or rust.
Resolution: Today I will find a moment to make a visit
to the Blessed Sacrament and pray earnestly for the missionary intentions of
the Holy Father for this month.
Excerpts from the
DIARY of Saint Faustina Kowalska
301 Proclaim that mercy is the
greatest attribute of God. All the works of My hands are crowned with mercy.
341 November 5, 1934. One morning,
when it was my duty to open the gate to let out our people who deliver baked
goods, I entered the little chapel to visit Jesus for a minute and to renew
the intentions of the day. Today, Jesus, I offer You all my sufferings,
mortifications and prayers for the intentions of the Holy Father, so that he
may approve the Feast of Mercy. But, Jesus, I have one more word to say to
You: I am very surprised that You bid me to talk about this Feast of Mercy,
for they tell me that there is already such a feast[81] and so why should I talk about it? And
Jesus said to me, And who knows anything about this feast? No one! Even
those who should be proclaiming My mercy and teaching people about it often
do not know about it themselves. That is why I want the image to be solemnly
blessed on the first Sunday after Easter, and I want it to be venerated
publicly so that every soul may know about it. Make a novena for the Holy
Father's intention. It should consist of thirty-three acts; that is,
repetition that many times of the short prayer-which I have taught you-to The
Divine Mercy.
375 Particular interior practice;
that is, the examination of conscience. Self-denial, denial of my own will.
I. The denial of my reason. Subjecting it to the reason of those who represent God to me here on earth. II. The denial of my will. Doing the will of God, which is revealed in the will of those who represent God to me and which is contained in the rule of our order. III. The denial of my judgment. Accepting immediately and without reflection, analysis or reasoning all orders given by those who represent God to me. IV. The denial of my tongue. I will not give it the least bit of freedom; but in one case only I will give it complete freedom; that is, in proclaiming the glory of God. Whenever I receive Holy Communion, I will ask Jesus to fortify and cleanse my tongue that I may not injure my neighbor with it. That is why I have the greatest respect for the rule which speaks about silence.
378 Once as I was talking with my
spiritual director, I had an interior vision-quicker than lightning-of his
soul in great suffering, in such agony that God touches very few souls with
such fire. The suffering arises from this work. There will come a time when
this work, which God is demanding so very much, will be as though utterly
undone. And then God will act with great power, which will give evidence of
its authenticity. It will be a new splendor for the Church, although it has
been dormant in it from long ago. That God is infinitely merciful, no one can
deny. He desires everyone to know this before He comes again as Judge. He
wants souls to come to know Him first as King of Mercy. When this triumph
comes, we shall already have entered the new life in which there is no
suffering. But before this, your soul [of the spiritual director] will be
surfeited with bitterness at the sight of the destruction of your efforts.
However, this will only appear to be so, because what God has once decided
upon, He does not change. But although this destruction will be such only in
outward appearance, the suffering will be real. When will this happen? I do
not know. How long will it last? I do not know.[89] But God has promised a great grace
especially to you and to all those... who will proclaim My great mercy. I
shall protect them Myself at the hour of death, as My own glory. And even if
the sins of soul are as dark as night, when the sinner turns to My mercy he
gives Me the greatest praise and is the glory of My Passion. When a soul
praises My goodness, Satan trembles before it and flees to the very bottom of
hell.
379 During one of the adorations,
Jesus promised me that: With souls that have recourse to My mercy and with
those that glorify and proclaim My great mercy to others, I will deal
according to My infinite mercy at the hour of their death.
My Heart is sorrowful, Jesus said, because even chosen souls do not understand the greatness of My mercy. Their relationship [with Me] is, in certain ways, imbued with mistrust. Oh, how much that wounds My Heart 1 Remember My Passion, and if you do not believe My words, at least believe My wounds.
962 + I often see a certain person
dear to God. The Lord has great love for him, not only because he is striving
to spread the veneration of God's mercy, but also because of the love he has
for the Lord God, although he does not always feel this love in his own heart
and is almost always in Gethsemane. However, this person is always pleasing
to God, and his great patience will overcome all difficulties.
1046 Then suddenly, I saw how the
two rays, as painted in the image, issued from the Host and spread over the
whole world. This lasted only a moment, but it seemed as though it had lasted
all day, and our chapel was overcrowded all day long, and the whole day
abounded in joy.
1074 When I went for adoration, I
heard these words: My beloved daughter, write down these words, that today
My Heart has rested in this convent [the Cracow house]. Tell the world
about My mercy and My love.
The flames of mercy are burning me. I desire to pour them out upon human souls. Oh, what pain they cause Me when they do not want to accept them! My daughter, do whatever is within your power to spread devotion to My mercy. I will make up for what you lack. Tell aching mankind to snuggle close to My merciful Heart, and I will fill it -with peace. Tell [all people], My daughter, that I am Love and Mercy itself. When a soul approaches Me with trust, I fill it with such an abundance of graces that it cannot contain them within itself, but radiates them to other souls.
1075 Souls who spread the honor of My mercy I shield
through their entire lives as a tender mother her infant, and at the hour of
death I will not be a Judge for them, but the Merciful Savior. At that last
hour, a soul has nothing with which to defend itself except My mercy. Happy
is the soul that during its lifetime immersed itself in the Fountain of
Mercy, because justice will have no hold on it.
1083 + That beautiful soul who is
spreading this work of divine mercy throughout the world is, by his deep
humility, very pleasing to God.
1652 Adore, my soul, the mercy of
the Lord,
O my heart, rejoice wholly in Him, Because for this you have been chosen by Him, To spread the glory of His mercy. His goodness no one has fathomed, no one can measure, His compassion is untold. Every soul that approaches Him experiences this. He will shield her and clasp her to His merciful bosom. Happy the soul that has trusted in Your goodness And has abandoned herself completely to Your mercy. Her soul is filled with the peace of love. You defend her everywhere as Your own child. O soul, whoever you may be in this world, Even if your sins were as black as night, Do not fear God, weak child that you are, For great is the power of God's mercy.
1680 Low Sunday. Today, I again
offered myself to the Lord as a holocaust for sinners. My Jesus, if the end of
my life is already approaching, I beg You most humbly, accept my death in
union with You as a holocaust which I offer You today, while I still have
full possession of my faculties and a fully conscious will, and this for a
threefold purpose:
Firstly: that the work of Your mercy may spread throughout the whole world and that the Feast of The Divine Mercy may be solemnly promulgated and celebrated. Secondly: that sinners, especially dying sinners, may have recourse to Your mercy and experience the unspeakable effects of this mercy. Thirdly: that all the work of Your mercy may be realized according to Your wishes, and for a certain person who is in charge of this work... Accept, most merciful Jesus, this, my inadequate sacrifice, which I offer to You today before heaven and earth. May Your Most Sacred Heart, so full of mercy, complete what is lacking in my offering, and offer it to Your Father for the conversion of sinners. I thirst after souls, O Christ.
1692 I adore You, Lord and
Creator, hidden in the Blessed Sacrament. I adore You for all the works of
Your hands, that reveal to me so much wisdom, goodness and mercy, O Lord. You
have spread so much beauty over the earth, and it tells me about Your beauty,
even though these beautiful things are but a faint reflection of You,
Incomprehensible Beauty. And although You have hidden Yourself and concealed
Your beauty, my eye, enlightened by faith, reaches You, and my soul
recognizes its Creator, its Highest Good; and my heart is completely immersed
in prayer of adoration.
My Lord and Creator, Your goodness encourages me to converse with You. Your mercy abolishes the chasm which separates the Creator from the creature. To converse with You, O Lord, is the delight of my heart. In You I find everything that my heart could desire. Here Your light illumines my mind, enabling it to know You more and more deeply. Here streams of graces flow down upon my heart. Here my soul draws eternal life. O my Lord and Creator, You alone, beyond all these gifts, give Your own self to me and unite Yourself intimately with Your miserable creature. Here, without searching for words, our hearts understand each other. Here, no one is able to interrupt our conversation. What I talk to You about, Jesus, is our secret, which creatures shall not know and Angels dare not ask about. These are secret acts of forgiveness, known only to Jesus and me; this is the mystery of His mercy, which embraces each soul separately. For this incomprehensible goodness of Yours, I adore You, O Lord and Creator, with all my heart and all my soul. And, although my worship is so little and poor, I am at peace because I know that You know it is sincere, however inadequate...
1749 + God's Infinite Goodness in
Adorning the Whole World with Beauty
in Order to Make Man's Stay on Earth Pleasant. O God, how generously Your mercy is spread everywhere, and You have done all this for man. Oh, how much You must love him, since Your love is so active on his behalf. O my Creator and Lord, I see on all sides the trace of Your hand and the seal of Your mercy, which embraces all created things. O my most compassionate Creator, I want to give You worship on behalf of all creatures and all inanimate creation; I call on the whole universe to glorify Your mercy. Oh, how great is Your goodness, O God!
1796 Today, 254 I saw the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the sky,
in the midst of a great brilliance. The rays were issuing from the Wound [in
His side] and spreading out over the entire world.
(Diary
of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-I-301, 341, 375, 378-379)
(Diary
of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-II-962)
(Diary
of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-III-1046, 1074-1075, 1083)
(Diary
of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-VI-1652, 1680, 1692, 1749, 1796)
http://www.saint-faustina.com/Diary/DMIMS10.shtml
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