Glory To Jesus, Honour To Mary! All The Real Catholics Please Stand Up!

hey sis, hope you are still in Lagos and not just for the weekend and you had the time to attend full mass.
I wonder wir everyone have gone to, na wao wetin dey happen.

hey Oby sup sis
na real wa, we all disappeared!
i hv been ard but got too busy n our connectn gets in a bad mood these days
howdy?
hapi Childrens day

Lindiwe, sup sis
as Oby said,hp your will be stayn here for a while. . ._{hw soon is so soon}

seems we will need to send search party to get Carl
hope your good bro

Lady, Ebos, Imhotep, Pamperme et al
where u'all at??

hey oby, it's stretching me 3 much sef. but thank God for His mercies sha.

well lindiwe, how long are you staying in lag?

been able to make mass this week at church of assumption. it's really ethereal

happy democracy day in advance peeps.

READINGS AND GOSPEL FOR TODAY

Readings for 
Thursday, 29th May, 2008 
 
FIRST READING:               1Peter 4: 2-5, 9-12

You are new born, and, like babies, you should be hungry for nothing but milk - the spiritual honesty which will help you to grow up to salvation - now that you have tasted the goodness of the Lord.

He is the living stone, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him; set yourselves close to him so that you too, the holy priesthood that offers the spiritual sacrifices which Jesus Christ has made acceptable to God, may be living stones making a spiritual house.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people set apart to sing the praises of God who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people at all and now you are the People of God; once you were outside the mercy and now you have been given mercy.

I urge you, my dear people, while you are visitors and pilgrims to keep yourselves free from the selfish passions that attack the soul. Always behave honourably among pagans so that they can see your good works for themselves and, when the day of reckoning comes, give thanks to God for the things which now make them denounce you as criminals.

Responsorial Psalm:     Ps99
Response:                        Come before the Lord,
                                            singing for joy.

1. Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth.
    Serve the Lord with gladness.
    Come before him, singing for ,joy.                Response

2. Know that he, the Lord, is God.
    He made us, we belong to him,
    we are his people, the sheep of his flock.   Response

3. Go within his gates, giving thanks.
    Enter his courts with songs of praise.
    Give thanks to him and bless his name.     Response

4. Indeed, how good is the Lord,
    eternal his merciful love.
    He is faithful from age to age.                       Response

GOSPEL: Mark 10: 46-52

As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus (that is, the son of Timaeus), a blind beggar, was sitting at the side of the road. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout and to say, 'Son of David, Jesus, have pity on me'. And many of them scolded him and told him to keep quiet, but he only shouted all the louder, 'Son of David, have pity on me'. Jesus stopped and said, 'Call him here'. So they called the blind man. 'Courage,' they said 'get up; he is calling you.' So throwing off his so cloak, he jumped up and went to Jesus. Then Jesus spoke,  'What do you want me to do for you?' 'Rabbuni,' the blind man said to him 'Master, let me see again.' Jesus said to him, 'Go; your faith has saved you'. And immediately his sight returned and he followed him along the road.


 

hey Pam where did u disappear to ie assuming u r really back
whatz up with u?

seems we r all tired of this thread
how sad, miss u guys!

hey I'm very well thnk u
how r u?
so nice to at least meet someone here

been a while thou
how is May devotn goin?
ending moro, i blv itz been a wondaful month for u because itz has been splendid for me

Todays Saint:

St. Gregory VII  
The tenth century and the first half of the eleventh were dark days for the Church, partly because the papacy was the pawn of various Roman families. In 1049, things began to change when Pope Leo IX, a reformer, was elected. He brought a young monk named Hildebrand to Rome as his counselor and special representative on important missions. He was to become Gregory VII.
Three evils plagued the Church then: simony (the buying and selling of sacred offices and things), the unlawful marriage of the clergy and lay investiture (kings and nobles controlling the appointment of Church officials). To all of these Hildebrand directed his reformer’s attention, first as counselor to the popes and later (1073-1085) as pope himself.

Gregory’s papal letters stress the role of bishop of Rome as the vicar of Christ and the visible center of unity in the Church. He is well known for his long dispute with Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV over who should control the selection of bishops and abbots.

Gregory fiercely resisted any attack on the liberty of the Church. For this he suffered and finally died in exile. He said, “I have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore I die in exile.” Thirty years later the Church finally won its struggle against lay investiture.

Comment:

The Gregorian Reform, a milestone in the history of Christ’s Church, was named after this man who tried to extricate the papacy and the whole Church from undue control by civil rulers. Against an unhealthy Church nationalism in some areas, Gregory reasserted the unity of the whole Church based on Christ and expressed in the bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter.

Quote:

Gregory has much to say to our age in which civil or national religion is making subtle demands: “In every country, even the poorest of women is permitted to take a lawful husband according to the law of the land and by her own choice; but, through the desires and evil practices of the wicked, Holy Church, the bride of God and mother of us all, is not permitted lawfully to cling to her spouse on earth in accordance with divine law and her own will” (A Call to the Faithful).

hey Lady, can see ur on too
sup with ya!

hw class?
wher did u trvl to Nig?
how is your Mom?
hp u are doin the may devotion? I'm using cral's recipe n itz workn just fine. .  .

wishing you all a nice weekend.

Amen  and Amen


great wkend people

SAINT OF THE DAY

June 2, 2008

Sts. Marcellinus and Peter

(d. 304)
 
 
Marcellinus and Peter were prominent enough in the memory of Church to be included among the saints of the Roman Canon. Mention of their names is optional in our present Eucharistic Prayer I.
Marcellinus was a priest and Peter was an exorcist, that is, someone authorized by the Church to deal with cases of demonic possession. They were beheaded during the persecution of Diocletian. Pope Damasus wrote an epitaph apparently based on the report of their executioner, and Constantine erected a basilica over the crypt in which they were buried in Rome. Numerous legends sprang from an early account of their death.

Comment:

Why are these men included in our Eucharistic prayer, and given their own feast day, in spite of the fact that almost nothing is known about them? Probably because the Church respects its collective memory. They once sent an impulse of encouragement through the whole Church. They made the ultimate step of faith.

Quote:
"The Church has always believed that the apostles, and Christ's martyrs who had given the supreme witness of faith and charity by the shedding of their blood, are quite closely joined with us in Christ" (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 50).

amen amen and amen.

i dey trowey salute o my people. work has been hectic and we thank God for His graces.

keep praying for one another.

take care.

Today's Saint

Blessed John XXIII (1881-1963) 
 
Although few people had as great an impact on the 20th century as Pope John XXIII, he avoided the limelight as much as possible. Indeed, one writer has noted that his “ordinariness” seems one of his most remarkable qualities.

The firstborn son of a farming family in Sotto il Monte, near Bergamo in northern Italy, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was always proud of his down-to-earth roots. In Bergamo’s diocesan seminary, he joined the Secular Franciscan Order.

After his ordination in 1904, Angelo returned to Rome for canon law studies. He soon worked as his bishop’s secretary, Church history teacher in the seminary and as publisher of the diocesan paper.

His service as a stretcher-bearer for the Italian army during World War I gave him a firsthand knowledge of war. In 1921 he was made national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith; he found time to teach patristics at a seminary in the Eternal City

In 1925 he became a papal diplomat, serving first in Bulgaria, then in Turkey and finally in France (1944-53). During World War II, he became well acquainted with Orthodox Church leaders and with the help of Germany’s ambassador to Turkey, Archbishop Roncalli helped save an estimated 24,000 Jewish people.

Named a cardinal and appointed patriarch of Venice in 1953, he was finally a residential bishop. A month short of entering his 78th year, he was elected pope, taking the name John, his father’s name and the two patrons of Rome’s cathedral, St. John Lateran. He took his work very seriously but not himself. His wit soon became proverbial and he began meeting with political and religious leaders from around the world. In 1962 he was deeply involved in efforts to resolve the Cuban missile crisis.

His most famous encyclicals were Mother and Teacher (1961) and Peace on Earth (1963). Pope John XXIII enlarged the membership in the College of Cardinals and made it more international. At his address at the opening of the Second Vatican Council, he criticized the “prophets of doom” who “in these modern times see nothing but prevarication and ruin.” Pope John XXIII set a tone for the Council when he said, “The Church has always opposed,  errors. Nowadays, however, the Spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity.”

On his deathbed he said: “It is not that the gospel has changed; it is that we have begun to understand it better. Those who have lived as long as I have…were enabled to compare different cultures and traditions, and know that the moment has come to discern the signs of the times, to seize the opportunity and to look far ahead.”

Pope John Paul II beatified him on September 3, 2000, and assigned as his feast day October 11, the day that Vatican II’s first session opened.

Quote

In 1903, young Angelo wrote in his spiritual journal: “From the saints I must take the substance, not the accidents of their virtues. I am not St. Aloysius, nor must I seek holiness in his particular way, but according to the requirements of my own nature, my own character and the different conditions of my life. I must not be the dry, bloodless reproduction of a model, however perfect. God desires us to follow the examples of the saints by absorbing the vital sap of their virtues and turning it into our own life-blood, adapting it to our own individual capacities and particular circumstances. If St. Aloysius had been as I am, he would have become holy in a different way” (Journal of a Soul).
 

MEDITATION OF THE DAY
According to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Righteousness refers to the state of being in conformity with God's will. It is achieved by faith in Christ, whom God made "our righteousness"(1 corith 1:30).  Those who trust in Christ become in Christ all that God desires them to be, all that they can never be in themselves.  God desires to guide us, prompt us, and teach us so that we are ready to meet him in the new heavens and new earth that await us at the end of time.  God has a plan for us, a plan that includes our salvation.  He is infinitely patient with us, not wanting one of us to be lost. "The Lord is not slow about his promise,  but is forbearing toward us, not wishing that any should perish" (2 Peter 3:9).  In the business our everyday existence, we often lose sight of the greatness of the life to which we are called as Christains.  We view our lives through human eyes, oblivious to the divine reality of our union with Christ effected through baptism and living in us through faith.  His deepest desire is for us to know the depth of his love for us.  He wants us to be a people who would love him so much that their witness would bring the world to repentance and conversion.
God calls us to be molded into the character of Christ; to be obedient as Jesus was obedient; faithful as Jesus was faithful; victorious over sin, Satan and the world as was his beloved Son.  When we take on the life of Christ within us, we will desire what God desires; that the gospel be preached to all and that ll be saved for the great and glorious coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

PRAYER
"Father, in your mercy and love for us, grant us the knowledge of your love through the death and resurrection of your Son.  Give us divine  clarity so that we may desire and strive to live the Christain life according to your plan."

CATHOLICS SPEAK TODAY
When Christ's earthly life ended and he ascended into heaven, he did not remove his life from man.  He left himself on earth, in the Sacred Host and in the heart of man.  CARYLL HOUSELANDER

What Makes for a Good Confession?

Contrition
Contrition is “sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin again.” the reception of this ought to be prepared for by the examination of conscience made in the light of the Word of God. The passage best suited for this can be found in the Ten Commandment, the moral catechesis of the Gospels and the apostolic letters, such as the Sermon on the Mount and the apostolic teachings

The confession of sins
Confession to a priest is an essential part of the sacrament of penance. “All mortal sins of which penitents, after a diligent self-examination, are conscious of must be recounted by them in confession, even if they are most secret…”
Without being strictly necessary, confession of everyday faults (venial sins) is nevertheless strongly recommended by the Church. Indeed, the regular confession of our venial sins helps us form our conscience, fight against evil tendencies, let ourselves be healed by Christ ad progress in the life of the Spirit. By receiving more frequently, through this sacrament, the gift of the Father’s mercy, we are spurred to be merciful as He is merciful.

Satisfaction
Absolution takes away sin, but it does not remedy all the disorders sin has caused. Raised up from sin, the sinner must still recover his full spiritual health by doing something more to make amends for the sin: He must “make satisfaction” or “expiate” his sins. this satisfaction is also called “penance”
The penance the confessor imposes must take into account the penitent’s personal situation and must seek his spiritual good.
…it can consist of prayer, an offering, works of mercy, service of neighbour, voluntary self-denial, sacrifices, and above all, the patient acceptance of the cross we must bear!

I'm holding on tight to him and will never let him go.  How is everything?