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Saturday, July 9, 2016

Catholic News World : Saturday July 9, 2016 - SHARE

 2016


Wow Catholic #Homeschool 6 Sisters are Star Singers! #Cimorelli Family has Millions of Fans...SHARE

Wow this group of Catholic homeschooled sisters has become famous with millions of fans.The six sisters (from a family with five brothers also) started in 2007 making a cappella covers of famous songs. The second eldest sister Katherine even says on their Website that one of her favorite things is going to Daily Mass.
They were offered a record deal and moved to LA. Sister Lauren said; “It doesn’t matter what people around you are saying, and if anyone says you can’t do something, you have to believe in yourself. Believe it.” The Cimorelli sisters released their latest album "Up At Night", on iTunes.
Website: http://www.cimorellimusic.com/
 

Saint July 9 : St. Augustine Zhao Rong and Companions of #China

(17th-20th centuries)

Christianity arrived in China by way of Syria in the 600s. Depending on China's relations with the outside world, Christianity over the centuries was free to grow or was forced to operate secretly.

The 120 martyrs in this group died between 1648 and 1930. Most of them (87) were born in China and were children, parents, catechists or laborers, ranging from nine years of age to 72. This group includes four Chinese diocesan priests.
The 33 foreign-born martyrs were mostly priests or women religious, especially from the Order of Preachers, the Paris Foreign Mission Society, the Friars Minor, Jesuits, Salesians and Franciscan Missionaries of Mary.
Augustine Zhao Rong was a Chinese solider who accompanied Bishop John Gabriel Taurin Dufresse (Paris Foreign Mission Society) to his martyrdom in Beijing. Augustine was baptized and not long after was ordained as a diocesan priest. He was martyred in 1815.
Beatified in groups at various times, these 120 martyrs were canonized in Rome on October 1, 2000.


Comment:

The People's Republic of China and the Roman Catholic Church each have well over a billion members, but there are over 12 million Catholics in China. The reasons for that are better explained by historical conflicts than by a wholesale rejection of the Good News of Jesus Christ. The Chinese-born martyrs honored by today's feast were regarded by their persecutors as dangerous because they were considered allies of enemy, Catholic countries. The martyrs born outside China often tried to distance themselves from European political struggles relating to China, but their persecutors saw them as Westerners and therefore, by definition, anti-Chinese.The Good News of Jesus Christ is intended to benefit all peoples; today's martyrs knew that. May 21st-century Christians live in such a way that Chinese women and men will be attracted to hear that Good News and embrace it.
Quote:

A year after these martyrs were canonized, Saint John Paul II addressed a group of Chinese and Western scholars, gathered in Rome for a symposium honoring the 400th anniversary of the arrival in Beijing of Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit scholar and Chinese intellectual.

After noting the positive contributions that Christianity had made to China, especially in health care and education, Pope John Paul II continued: "History, however, reminds us of the unfortunate fact that the work of members of the church in China was not always without error, the bitter fruit of their personal limitations and of the limits of their action. Moreover, their action was often conditioned by difficult situations connected with complex historical events and conflicting political interests. Nor were theological disputes lacking, which caused bad feelings and created serious difficulties in preaching the Gospel….

"I feel deep sadness for these errors and limits of the past, and I regret that in many people these failings may have given the impression of a lack of respect and esteem for the Chinese people on the part of the Catholic Church, making them feel that the church was motivated by feelings of hostility toward China. For all of this I ask the forgiveness and understanding of those who may have felt hurt in some way by such actions on the part of Christians."
Text shared from American Catholic - Image Google Images

#PopeFrancis “only if our elderly dare to dream and our young imagine great things..." #Argentina message

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a letter to the President of the Argentinian Episcopal Conference on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the country's independence. In the letter he invites people in his homeland to "dare to dream".
On the 9th of July 1816 Argentina declared independence from its then ruler Spain. To mark this major event in the country’s history Pope Francis has sent a letter to the President of the Argentinian Episcopal Conference, José María Arancedo, in which he addresses those in authority and the Argentinian people on the occasion of his homeland’s bicentennial celebrations.
In the letter the Pope says he desires “that this celebration will make us stronger in the path taken by our ancestors two hundred years ago,” and invites the people of the country “not to sell the Motherland” and to resist “all forms of colonisation”.
In particular he draws attention to those who suffer the most in Argentinian society, such as the sick, those living in poverty, prisoners, those who are lonely, those who have no work, victims of trafficking, child victims of abuse and young people who are suffering from the scourge of drugs.
The Holy Father also looks to the elderly and to young Argentinians to chart the path forward for the country saying, “I would like to ask the elderly, who have a good memory of history, to look past this throwaway culture that has been forced upon us and dare to dream. We need their dreams, they are a fount of inspiration.”
He goes on to say,  “I ask young people not to live a retired life in a bureaucratic quietism they are encouraged into by many opportunities that lack excitement and heroism”.
The Pope concludes by saying that, “only if our elderly dare to dream and our young imagine great things, can the Homeland be free. We need elderly people who dream and motivate young people, who in turn run forth armed with the creativity of imagination, inspired by these very dreams.”

Today's Mass Readings and Video : Saturday July 9, 2016 - #HolyMass


Saturday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 388


Reading 1IS 6:1-8

In the year King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne,
with the train of his garment filling the temple.
Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings:
with two they veiled their faces,
with two they veiled their feet,
and with two they hovered aloft.

They cried one to the other,
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!
All the earth is filled with his glory!”
At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook
and the house was filled with smoke.

Then I said, “Woe is me, I am doomed!
For I am a man of unclean lips,
living among a people of unclean lips;
yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me,
holding an ember that he had taken with tongs from the altar.

He touched my mouth with it and said,
“See, now that this has touched your lips,
your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
“Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?”
“Here I am,” I said; “send me!”

Responsorial PsalmPS 93:1AB, 1CD-2, 5

R. (1a) The Lord is king; he is robed in majesty.
The LORD is king, in splendor robed;
robed is the LORD and girt about with strength.
R. The Lord is king; he is robed in majesty.
And he has made the world firm,
not to be moved.
Your throne stands firm from of old;
from everlasting you are, O LORD.
R. The Lord is king; he is robed in majesty.
Your decrees are worthy of trust indeed:
holiness befits your house,
O LORD, for length of days.
R. The Lord is king; he is robed in majesty.

Alleluia1 PT 4:14

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you,
for the Spirit of God rests upon you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

GospelMT 10:24-33

Jesus said to his Apostles:
“No disciple is above his teacher,
no slave above his master.
It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher,
for the slave that he become like his master.
If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul,
how much more those of his household!

“Therefore do not be afraid of them.
Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;
rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy
both soul and body in Gehenna.
Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?
Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.
Even all the hairs of your head are counted.
So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Everyone who acknowledges me before others
I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.
But whoever denies me before others,
I will deny before my heavenly Father.”

Saint July 9 : St. Veronica Giuliani : #Capuchin #Mystic

July 9
Born:
1660, Mercatello in the Duchy of Urbino
Died:
9 July 1727, Città di Castello
Canonized:
1839 by Pope Gregory XVI
Major Shrine:
Monastery of St. Veronica Giuliani, Città di Castello
Born at Mercatello in the Duchy of Urbino, Italy, 1660; died at Citt' di Castello, 9 July, 1727. 
Born at Mercatello in the Duchy of Urbino, Italy, 1660; died at Citt' di Castello, 9 July, 1727. Her parents, Francesco Giuliana and Benedetta Mancini, were both of gentle birth. In baptism she was named Ursula, and showed marvelous signs of sanctity. When but eighteen months old she uttered her first words to upbraid a shopman who was serving a false measure of oil, saying distinctly: "Do justice, God sees you." At the age of three years she began to be favoured with Divine communications, and to show great compassion for the poor. She would set apart a portion of her food for them, and even part with her clothes when she met a poor child scantily clad. These traits and a great love for the Cross developed as she grew older. When others did not readily join in her religious practices she was inclined to be dictatorial. In her sixteenth year this imperfection of character was brought home to her in a vision in which she saw her own heart as a heart of steel. In her writings she confesses that she took a certain pleasure in the more stately circumstances which her family adopted when her father was appointed superintendent of finance at Piacenza. But this did not in any way affect her early-formed resolution to dedicate herself to religion, although her father urged her to marry and procured for her several suitors as soon as she became of marriageable age. Owing to her father's opposition to her desire to enter a convent, Veronica fell ill and only recovered when he gave his consent.
In 1677 she was received into the convent of the Capuchin Poor Clares in Citt' di Castello, taking the name of Veronica in memory of the Passion. At the conclusion of the ceremony of her reception the bishop said to the abbess: "I commend this new daughter to your special care, for she will one day be a great saint." She became absolutely submissive to the will of her directors, though her novitiate was marked by extraordinary interior trials and temptations to return to the world. At her profession in 1678 she conceived a great desire to suffer in union with our Saviour crucified for the conversion of sinners. About this time she had a vision of Christ bearing His cross and henceforth suffered an acute physical pain in her heart. After her death the figure of the cross was found impressed upon her heart. In 1693 she entered upon a new phase in her spiritual life, when she had a vision of the chalice symbolizing the Divine Passion which was to be re-enacted in her own soul. At first she shrank from accepting it and only by great effort eventually submitted. She then began to endure intense spiritual suffering. In 1694 she received the impression of the Crown of Thorns, the wounds being visible and the pain permanent. By order of the bishop she submitted to medical treatment, but obtained no relief. Yet, although she lived in this supernaturally mystical life, she was a practical woman of affairs. For thirty-four years she was novice-mistress, and guided the novices with great prudence. It is noticeable that she would not allow them to read mystical books. In 1716 she was elected abbess and whilst holding that office enlarged the convent and had a good system of water-pipes laid down, the convent hitherto having been without a proper water supply. She was canonized by Gregory XVI in 1839. She is usually represented crowned with thorns and embracing the Cross.