2015
Benjamin Netanyahu wins Election in Israel as the Prime Minister
Today's Mass Readings : Wednesday March 18, 2015
Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Lectionary: 246
Reading 1IS 49:8-15
Thus says the LORD:
In a time of favor I answer you,
on the day of salvation I help you;
and I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people,
To restore the land
and allot the desolate heritages,
Saying to the prisoners: Come out!
To those in darkness: Show yourselves!
Along the ways they shall find pasture,
on every bare height shall their pastures be.
They shall not hunger or thirst,
nor shall the scorching wind or the sun strike them;
For he who pities them leads them
and guides them beside springs of water.
I will cut a road through all my mountains,
and make my highways level.
See, some shall come from afar,
others from the north and the west,
and some from the land of Syene.
Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth,
break forth into song, you mountains.
For the LORD comforts his people
and shows mercy to his afflicted.
But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.”
Can a mother forget her infant,
be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
I will never forget you.
In a time of favor I answer you,
on the day of salvation I help you;
and I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people,
To restore the land
and allot the desolate heritages,
Saying to the prisoners: Come out!
To those in darkness: Show yourselves!
Along the ways they shall find pasture,
on every bare height shall their pastures be.
They shall not hunger or thirst,
nor shall the scorching wind or the sun strike them;
For he who pities them leads them
and guides them beside springs of water.
I will cut a road through all my mountains,
and make my highways level.
See, some shall come from afar,
others from the north and the west,
and some from the land of Syene.
Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth,
break forth into song, you mountains.
For the LORD comforts his people
and shows mercy to his afflicted.
But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.”
Can a mother forget her infant,
be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
I will never forget you.
Responsorial PsalmPS 145:8-9, 13CD-14, 17-18
R. (8a) The Lord is gracious and merciful.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.
The LORD is faithful in all his words
and holy in all his works.
The LORD lifts up all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.
The LORD is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.
whoever believes in me will never die.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.
The LORD is faithful in all his words
and holy in all his works.
The LORD lifts up all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.
The LORD is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful.
Verse Before The GospelJN 11:25A, 26
I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord;whoever believes in me will never die.
GospelJN 5:17-30
Jesus answered the Jews:
“My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.”
For this reason they tried all the more to kill him,
because he not only broke the sabbath
but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.
Jesus answered and said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own,
but only what he sees the Father doing;
for what he does, the Son will do also.
For the Father loves the Son
and shows him everything that he himself does,
and he will show him greater works than these,
so that you may be amazed.
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life,
so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes.
Nor does the Father judge anyone,
but he has given all judgment to the Son,
so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.
Whoever does not honor the Son
does not honor the Father who sent him.
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word
and believes in the one who sent me
has eternal life and will not come to condemnation,
but has passed from death to life.
Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God,
and those who hear will live.
For just as the Father has life in himself,
so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself.
And he gave him power to exercise judgment,
because he is the Son of Man.
Do not be amazed at this,
because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs
will hear his voice and will come out,
those who have done good deeds
to the resurrection of life,
but those who have done wicked deeds
to the resurrection of condemnation.
“I cannot do anything on my own;
I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just,
because I do not seek my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.”
“My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.”
For this reason they tried all the more to kill him,
because he not only broke the sabbath
but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.
Jesus answered and said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own,
but only what he sees the Father doing;
for what he does, the Son will do also.
For the Father loves the Son
and shows him everything that he himself does,
and he will show him greater works than these,
so that you may be amazed.
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life,
so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes.
Nor does the Father judge anyone,
but he has given all judgment to the Son,
so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.
Whoever does not honor the Son
does not honor the Father who sent him.
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word
and believes in the one who sent me
has eternal life and will not come to condemnation,
but has passed from death to life.
Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God,
and those who hear will live.
For just as the Father has life in himself,
so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself.
And he gave him power to exercise judgment,
because he is the Son of Man.
Do not be amazed at this,
because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs
will hear his voice and will come out,
those who have done good deeds
to the resurrection of life,
but those who have done wicked deeds
to the resurrection of condemnation.
“I cannot do anything on my own;
I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just,
because I do not seek my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.”
#PopeFrancis “A society can be judged by the way it treats its children”
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis today turned his thoughts to the countless children across the world who live in poverty and need.
Addressing the crowds in St. Peter’s Square gathered for the weekly General Audience, the Pope continued in his catechesis on the family, focusing this time on children.
Pope Francis said that children are a great gift for humanity and for the Church. Recalling the many happy children he met during his recent journey to Asia brimming with life and enthusiasm, he said that on the other hand he thinks of the countless children throughout our world who are living in poverty and need.
“A society can be judged by the way it treats its children” he said.
The Pope said that children remind us that from our earliest years we are dependent on others. We see this in Jesus himself, who was born a child in Bethlehem. This – he said – is a precious reminder of the fact the necessary condition to enter the reign of God is to never consider ourselves self-sufficient, but in need of help, love and forgiveness.
He said that children also remind us that we are always sons and daughters. This identity – he said – reminds us that we have been given the gift of life, that we never cease to be radically dependent.
And speaking of the many gifts that children bring to humanity, Francis said they challenge us to see things with a simple, pure and trusting heart.
They have the capacity to receive and to offer warmth and “tenderness”, to laugh and cry freely in response to the world around us.
And he pointed to a child’s spontaneous trust in his mother and father, in God, Jesus and in Our Lady and said Jesus urges us to become like children, since God’s Kingdom belongs to such as these (cf. Mt 18:3).
Pope Francis concluded inviting all to “welcome and treasure our children, who bring so much life, joy and hope to the world”.
“How sad and bleak would our world be without them!” he said.
Saint March 18 : St. Cyril of Jerusalem : Bishop of Jerusalem and Doctor of the Church,
 Information:
|
BISHOP OF JERUSALEM, DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH
born about 315; died probably 18 March, 386. In the East his feast is observed on the 18th of March, in the West on the 18th or 20th. Little is known of his life. We gather information concerning him from his younger contemporaries, Epiphanius, Jerome, and Rufinus, as well as from the fifth-century historians, Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret. Cyril himself gives us the date of his "Catecheses" as fully seventy years after the Emperor Probus, that is about 347, if he is exact. Constans (d. 350) was then still alive. Mader thinks Cyril was already bishop, but it is usually held that he was at this date only as a priest. St. Jerome relates (Chron. ad ann. 352) that Cyril had been ordained priest by St. Maximus, his predecessor, after whose death the episcopate was promised to Cyril by the metropolitan, Acacius of Caesarea, and the other Arian bishops, on condition that he should repudiate the ordination he had received from Maximus. He consented to minister as deacon only, and was rewarded for this impiety with the see. Maximus had consecrated Heraclius to succeed himself, but Cyril, by various frauds, degraded Heraclius to the priesthood. So says St. Jerome; but Socrates relates that Acacius drove out St. Maximus and substituted St. Cyril. A quarrel soon broke out between Cyril and Acacius, apparently on a question of precedence or jurisdiction. At Nicaea the metropolitan rights of Caesarea had been guarded, while a special dignity had been granted to Jerusalem. Yet St. Maximus had held a synod and had ordained bishops. This may have been as much as the cause of Acacius' enmity to him as his attachment to the Nicene formula. On the other hand, Cyril's correct Christology may have been the real though veiled ground of the hostility of Acacius to him. At all events, in 357 Acacius caused Cyril to be exiled on the charge of selling church furniture during a famine. Cyril took refuge with Silvanus, Bishop of Taraus. He appeared at the Council of Seleucia in 359, in which the Semi-Arian party was triumphant. Acacius was deposed and St. Cyril seems to have returned to his see. But the emperor was displeased at the turn of events, and, in 360, Cyril and other moderates were again driven out, and only returned at the accession of Julian in 361. In 367 a decree of Valens banished all the bishops who had been restored by Julian, and Cyril remained in exile until the death of the persecutor in 378. In 380, St. Gregory of Nyssa came to Jerusalem on the recommendation of a council held at Antioch in the preceding year. He found the Faith in accord with the truth, but the city a prey to parties and corrupt in morals. St. Cyril attended the great Council of Constantinople in 381, at which Theodosius had ordered the Nicene faith, now a law of the empire, to be promulgated. St. Cyril then formally accepted the homoousion; Socrates and Sozomen call this an act of repentance. Socrates gives 385 for St. Cyril's death, but St. Jerome tells us that St. Cyril lived eight years under Theodosius, that is, from January 379. |
SOURCE: http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/C/stcyrilofjerusalem.asp#ixzz1pTue7f76
Pope Francis approves Miracle of Louis and Azelie Martin and Approves 7 more on path to Sainthood
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday received the Cardinal Angelo Amato, SDB, the Prefect for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, in a private audience. During the audience, the Holy Father authorized the Congregation to promulgate decrees concerning several causes for saints.
Most notably, the Pope has approved a decree recognizing a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Louis Martin and Blessed Marie-Azélie Guérin, the parents of St Thérèse of Lisieux.
The Congregation also promulgated decrees of heroic virtue for seven individuals who are on the path to canonization. The Servants of God whose heroic virtues were recognized on Tuesday are:
Fr Francesco Gattola, a diocesan Priest, and Founder of the Congregation of the Suore Figlie della Santissima Vergine Immaculata of Lourdes. He was born in Naples in 1822 and died there in 1899.
Pietro Barbarić, a Jesuit Scholastic, from Bosnia Herzegovina, born 1874, died 1897.
Mary Aikenhead, born in Cork, Ireland, in 1787, the Founder of the Institute of the Religious Sisters of Charity in Ireland. She died in Dublin in 1858.
Elisabetta Baldo, a widow, who founded the Pia Casa di San Giuseppe a Gavardo, and was co-Founder of the Congregation of the Umili Serve del Signore. Born in Italy in 1862; died 1926.
Vincenza of the Passion of the Lord (née Edvige Jaroszewska), Founder of the Congregation of the Benedictine Samaritan Sisters of the Cross of Christ. Born 1900 in Poland; died 1937.
Giovanna of the Cross, a professed religious of the Third Order of Saint Francis. She was Abbess of the Convent of Santa Maria della Croce in Cubas di Madrid. Born in Spain in 1481; died 1534.
And Maria Orsola Bussone, a young laywoman associated with the Focolare Movement in Italy. She was born in 1954, and died in 1970.
With the Pope’s decree, these holy men and women are now referred to as Venerable.
No comments:
Post a Comment