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July 29, 2009 -  Wednesday of Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time      LITURGICAL/THEME MEDITATION: Martha said to Jesus, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day" UNIVERSAL CHURCH/WORLD EVENT(S): Vietnamese Police Maul 2 Priests SAINT OF THE DAY St. Martha  GENERAL MARIOLOGY THE DIVINE HISTORY AND LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER OF GOD Book Four - Chapter VII  THE PRESENTATION OF THE INFANT JESUS IN THE TEMPLE.  DIVINE MERCY Divine Mercy in My Soul NOTEBOOK V  TEACHING/TESTIMONY/CONVICTION: Testimony of former abortion provider Joseph Randall, MD

DAILY LITURGICAL MEDITATION

Wednesday (7/29): Martha said to Jesus, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day" Scripture: John 11:19-27  (alternate reading: Matthew 13:44-46) 19 many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary sat in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 And even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you." 23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." 24 Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." 25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" 27 She said to him, "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world." Meditation: What gives us hope and joy in the face of death? The loss of a loved one naturally produces grief and anguish of heart. When Martha, the sister of Lazarus and a close friend of Jesus, heard that Jesus was coming to pay respects for the loss of Lazarus, she immediately went out to meet him before he could get to her house. What impelled her to leave the funeral party in order to seek Jesus out? Was it simply the companionship and consolation of a friend who loved her brother deeply? Or did she recognize in Jesus the hope that God would restore life? Martha, like many Orthodox Jews, believed in the life to come. The loss of her brother did not diminish her hope in the resurrection. She even gently chides Jesus for not coming soon enough to save Lazarus from an untimely death. Jesus does something unexpected and remarkable both to strengthen her faith and hope in the life to come and to give her a sign of what he was to accomplish through his own death and resurrection. Jesus gave to her belief a new and profound meaning: He came from the Father to defeat sin and death for us and to restore life to those who believe in him. Jesus states unequivocally the he himself is the Resurrection and the Life. The life he offers is abundant life – life which issues from God himself. And eternal life – the fulness of life which knows no end. Do you seek the abundant life which Jesus offers to those who believe in him? "Lord Jesus, you are the Resurrection and the Life. Strengthen my faith and hope in your promises that I may radiate the joy of the gospel to others." Psalm 126:1-6 1 When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. 2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them." 3 The LORD has done great things for us; we are glad. 4 Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like the watercourses in the Negeb! 5 May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy! 6 He that goes forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.   www.dailyscripture.net   RETURN TO TOP

UNIVERSAL CHURCH/WORLD EVENTS

Vietnamese Police Maul 2 Priests 500,000 Protest Anti-Catholic Violence   HANOI, Vietnam, JULY 28, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Catholics organized protests in several Vietnamese cities after two priests and other laypeople were savagely beaten by police and thugs. AsiaNews reported today that Father Paul Nguyen Dinh Phu and Father Peter Nguyen The Binh are in critical condition after the attacks. The former has broken ribs and head injuries, and the latter was beaten into a coma and then thrown from a 2nd floor window. The Diocese of Vinh released a statement condemning the police violence against the priests and other Catholics over the past week. On July 20, hundreds of Catholics were attacked at the church of Tam Toa, where they had gathered to erect a cross and altar. The 120-year-old church, damaged after an American bombing in 1968, was seized in 1996 by the government to create a "U.S. war crimes memorial." The people were too poor to rebuild their church immediately, but they still regard it as the seat of their parish and come together there for ceremonies. After repeated requests for the return of the land, Bishop Paul-Marie Cao Dinh Thuyen of Vinh celebrated a Feb. 2 Mass at the parish, which was attended by 14 priests and thousands of faithful. Last week, when the faithful gathered again to bring a cross and an altar, police launched tear gas bombs at them, and then began to beat them with sticks and stun guns. Many were injured, and others were carried away in police vans. Prayer and appeal A protest was planned for Sunday, joining people in different cities to denounce this violence and request the return of imprisoned Catholics. Some 500,000 people, along with 170 priests and 420 religious, joined in the peaceful march, praying the rosary through the streets of cities in the Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Binh regions. Father Dinh Phu Nguyen was on his way to the Tam Toa parish that morning, to celebrate Mass along with five other priests before the demonstration, when he was attacked. He had been trying to intervene to protect three women being beaten by a group of men. He said that the gang recognized him as a priest and turned to beat him "with brutality" instead, while some 30 uniformed policemen watched. A group of laypeople came to save him and take him to the hospital. The diocese issued a public complaint to People's Committee of Quang Binh province, and asked Father Nguyen The Binh, the pastor of a nearby parish, to visit the hospitalized priest, along with the vice governor, Tran Cong Thuat. However, the gang who beat the first priest was surrounding the hospital, armed with clubs. Thuat fled, and the thugs attacked the abandoned pastor, beating him unconscious and then throwing him from an upper level of the building. Protests against this violence have arisen in many cities. Monday evening in Ho Chi Minh City, over 2,000 Catholics attended a prayer vigil to appeal to the Vietnamese government to stop this persecution. Last Friday, the Vinh Diocese publicized a statement calling for the government to "stop immediately the distortion of truth, the defamation of religion, and the instigation of hatred between Catholics and non-Catholics." TURN TO TOP

DAILY LITURGICAL SAINT

July 29, 2009 St. Martha  Martha, Mary and their brother Lazarus were evidently close friends of Jesus. He came to their home simply as a welcomed guest, rather than as one celebrating the conversion of a sinner like Zacchaeus or one unceremoniously received by a suspicious Pharisee. The sisters feel free to call on Jesus at their brother’s death, even though a return to Judea at that time seems almost certain death. No doubt Martha was an active sort of person. On one occasion (see Luke 10:38-42) she prepares the meal for Jesus and possibly his fellow guests and forthrightly states the obvious: All hands should pitch in to help with the dinner. Yet, as biblical scholar Father John McKenzie points out, she need not be rated as an “unrecollected activist.” The evangelist is emphasizing what our Lord said on several occasions about the primacy of the spiritual: “...[D]o not worry about your life, what you will eat [or drink], or about your body, what you will wear….But seek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:25b, 33a); “One does not live by bread alone” (Luke 4:4b); “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness…” (Matthew 5:6a). Martha’s great glory is her simple and strong statement of faith in Jesus after her brother’s death. “Jesus told her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world’” (John 11:25-27). Comment: Scripture commentators point out that in writing his account of the raising of Lazarus, St. John intends that we should see Martha’s words to Mary before the resurrection of Lazarus as a summons that every Christian must obey. In her saying “The teacher is here and is asking for you,” Jesus is calling every one of us to resurrection—now in baptismal faith, forever in sharing his victory over death. And all of us, as well as these three friends, are in our own unique way called to special friendship with him. Quote: “This great company of witnesses spurs us on to victory, to share their prize of everlasting glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Preface of Holy Men and Women I).   http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintofDay RETURN TO TOP

GENERAL MARIOLOGY

THE DIVINE HISTORY AND LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER OF GOD BOOK FOUR Describing the Anxieties of Saint Joseph on Account of the Pregnancy of Most Holy Mary,the Birth of Christ our Lord, His Circumcision,the Adoration of the Kings, the Presentation of the Infant Jesus In the Temple, the Flight into Egypt, the Death of the Holy Innocents, and the Return to Nazareth. CHAPTER IX. THE SWEET INTERCOURSE OF JESUS AND MARY; THEIR RETURN FROM EGYPT. They departed for Palestine in the company of angels as on their way thence. The great Queen sat on the ass with the divine Child on her lap and saint Joseph walked afoot, closely following the Son and Mother. On account of the loss of such great Benefactors their acquaintances and friends were very sorrowful at the news of their departure; with incredible weeping and sighing they saw Them leave, knowing and loudly complaining, that they were now losing all their consolation and refuge in their necessities. If the divine power had not interfered, the holy Family would have found great difficulty in leaving Heliopolis; for its inhabitants began to feel the night of their miseries secretly setting upon their hearts at the parting of the Sun, which had dispersed and brightened its darkness (John 1, 9). In traversing the inhabited country they passed through some towns of Egypt, where They scattered their graces and blessings. The news of their passage spreading about, all the sick, the afflicted and disconsolate gathered to seek Them out, and they found themselves relieved in body and soul. Many of the sick were cured, many demons were expelled without their knowing who it was that thus hurled them back to hell. Yet they felt the divine power, which compelled them and wrought such blessings among men. They reached Nazareth, their home, for the Child was to be called a Nazarene. They found their former humble house in charge of the devout cousin of saint Joseph, who, as I have mentioned in the twelfth chapter of the third book, had offered to serve him while our Queen was absent in the house of Elisabeth. Before They had left Judea for Egypt, saint Joseph had written to this woman, asking her to take care of the house and what it contained. They found it all in good condition and his cousin received Them with great joy on account of her love for the great Queen, though at the same time she did not know of her dignity. The heavenly Lady entered with her Son and saint Joseph, and immediately She prostrated Herself in adoration of the Lord and in thanksgiving for having led Them, safe from the cruelty of Herod, to this retreat, and preserved Them in the dangers of their banishment and their long and arduous journeys. Above all did She render thanks for having returned in company with her Son, now grown both in years and in grace and virtue (Luke 2, 40). Taking counsel with her divine Child She proceeded to set up a rule of life and regulate her pious practices; not that She had failed to observe a rule of life on her journey; for the most prudent Lady, in imitation of her Son, had always observed the most perfect order according to circumstances. But being now peacefully settled in her home She wished to include many exercises, which on the journey were impossible. Her greatest solicitude was always to cooperate with her most holy Son for the salvation of souls which was the work most urgently enjoined upon her by the eternal Father. Toward this most high end our Queen directed all her practices in union with the Redeemer, and this was their constant occupation, as we shall see in the course of this second part. The holy Joseph also ordered his occupations and his work so as most worthily to earn sustenance for the divine Child and his Mother as well as for himself. That which in other sons of Adam is considered a punishment and a hardship was to this holy Patriarch a great happiness. For while others were condemned to sustain their natural life by the labor of their hands in the sweat of their brows, saint Joseph was blessed and consoled beyond measure to know, that he had been chosen by his labor and sweat to support God himself and his Mother, to whom belonged heaven and earth and all that they contain (Esther 13, 10). The Queen of the angels herself undertook to pay the debt of gratitude due to saint Joseph for his labors and solicitude. Accordingly She provided his meals and attended to his comforts with incredible care and most loving gratitude. She was obedient to him in all things and humbled Herself before Him as if She were his handmaid and not his spouse, or, what is more, not the Mother of the Creator and Lord of all. She accounted Herself unworthy of existence and of being suffered to walk upon the earth; for She thought it just, that She should be in want of all things. In the consciousness of having been created out of nothing and therefore unable to make any return for either this benefit or, according to her estimation, for any of the others, She established in Herself such a rare humility, that She thought Herself less than the dust and unworthy to mingle with it. For the least favor She gave admirable thanks to the Lord, as to the first cause and origin of them all, and to creatures as to the instruments of his bounty. To some She gave thanks because they conferred favors upon Her, to others because they had denied them; and to others again because they bore with Her in patience. She acknowledged Herself as indebted to all of them, though She filled them with the blessings of sweetness and placed herself at the feet of all, seeking ingenious means and artifices to let no instant and no occasion pass for practicing the most perfect and exalted virtues to the Admiration of the angels and the pleasure and the delight of the Most High.    RETURN TO TOP

DIVINE MERCY

Divine Mercy In my soul   The Mercy of the Lord I will sing Forever. Divine Mercy in my soul. Sr. Faustina, Diary   NOTEBOOK V J.M.J. O Divine Spirit, Spirit of truth and of light, Dwell ever in my soul by Your divine grace. My Your breath dissipate the darkness, And in this light may good deeds be multiplied. O Divine Spirit, Spirit of love and of mercy, Who pour the balm of trust into my heart, Your grace confirms my soul in good, Giving it the invincible power of constancy. O Divine Spirit, Spirit of peace and of joy, You invigorate my thirsting heart And pour into it the living fountain of God’s love, Making it intrepid for battle. O Divine Spirit, my soul’s most welcome guest, For my part, I want to remain faithful to You; Both in days of joy and in the agony of suffering, I want always, O Spirit of God, to live in Your presence. O Divine Spirit, who pervade my whole being And give me to know Your divine Threefold Life, Initiating me into Your divine Essence, Thus united to You, I will live a life without end. It is with great zeal that I have prepared for the celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God. I have made an extra effort to keep recollected in spirit and have meditated on that unique privilege of Our Lady. And thus my heart was completely drowned in Her, thanking God for having accorded this great privilege to Mary. I prepared not only by means of the novena said in common by the whole community, but I also made a personal effort to salute Her a thousand times each day, saying a thousand “Hail Mary’s” for nine days in Her praise. This in now the third time I have said such a novena to the Mother of God; that is, a novena made up of a thousand Aves each day. Thus the novena consists in nine thousand salutations. Although I have done this now three times in my life, and two of these while in the course of my duties, I have never failed in carrying out my tasks with the greatest exactitude. I have always said the novena outside the time of my exercises; that is to say, I have not said the Aves during Holy Mass or Benediction. Once, I made the novena while lying ill in the hospital. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Apart from recreation, I have only prayed and worked. I have not said a single unnecessary word during these days. Although I must admit that such a matter requires a good deal of attention and effort, nothing is too much when it comes to honoring the Immaculate Virgin.   RETURN TO TOP

CATHOLIC  TEACHING/CONVICTION/TESTIMONY

Testimony of former abortion provider Joseph Randall, MD (This testimony was originally given at a "Meet the Abortion Providers" workshop sponsored by the Pro-life Action League of Chicago, directed by Joe Scheidler. Priests for Life offers their video, "Inside the Abortion Industry," containing excerpts of the testimonies of many former providers. Contact us for more details.)  (continued) The other thing that was shocking to this science of fetology that may have been talked about today was well-developed now. Interestingly enough, almost parallel with the abortion movement, this (I am sure God set this up, of course) was to show everyone that at the same time we are killing babies to tell us that they really were babies. I think the greatest thing there is-- there are all sorts of details on babies feeling things and having brain waves and being so well-developed and almost indistinguishable really from us and our own sensitivities--but I think the greatest thing that got to us was the ultrasound. At that time, the ultrasound was a sound wave picture which was moving, called real-time ultrasound, to show the baby really on TV. The baby really came alive on TV and was moving and that picture--that picture of the baby on the ultrasound bothered me more than anything else, because as I didn't know then really, you bond with that picture. Women get those pictures even if they are still pictures, and boy, it's their baby and they put it up on walls, they bring it in to show it to me, and they don't even know what's there, but they see head, arm, leg all typed out for them so they know what it is, but they know it's a baby. Anyway, the nurses had to help with this, had to look at this to stage how far along the D&E was, because you got paid more if it was 14, 16, more if it was 18 weeks and so on. In other words, the larger the pregnancy, the more you got paid, and the more the clinic got also. So it was very important for us to do that and to make sure they weren't too large for us to do. When we started, we lost two nurses. They couldn't take looking at it. Some other staff was lost. The turnover got greater when we started doing the D&Es and mostly, as I said, the ultrasounds. So I think the ultrasound was one of the keys there. The other thing, too, is because the women who are having the abortions are never allowed to look at the ultrasound, because we know even if they heard the heart beat that many times they wouldn't have the abortion, and you wouldn't want that. No money in that. So that science, my intellectual development and my heart development, were kind of running parallel at that time. Well, I was undaunted. I was going to still search for the "truth" and so I decided to start giving a little bit more. I had kind of been a taker all my life--at this time of my life, I was quite a taker--so I was going to give back to people, so I joined the Lion's Club, and I roared with the best of them. And I got plaques for doing good stuff, for myself, really--it made me feel good. But it didn't--it still came up empty, so that didn't work too well so I decided to become active in the medical community. I got active in the hospitals and got all sorts of boring committees and things. Back in my earlier life, even in college, I was in the campus religious council, and we went out and painted churches and did all sorts of good stuff. It made me feel good. When I was in high school, we did some of those things, so I kind of went back to that. I thought maybe that would help this empty feeling. So I did that, and that came up empty. I was Vice President of the Medical Society--so what? It just didn't come up getting me what I needed. I even went out and got into searching for the truth in the occult. This was actually quite interesting. I got into astroprojection--this is where you lie in your bed with candles on, humming this funny stuff and vibrating one toe, and then the next and pretty soon your whole body and then-- poof! You pop out. But beware, because getting back isn't always as easy as going out, you know. So that was kind of cool. But what that really did was leave me with this dreadful fear, such that this macho man with a leather jacket and a motorcycle had to sleep with his light on at night--a nightlight for macho man, you know. That didn't work, so I said I will try one more thing (I was getting desperate, by this time). I decided to try psychic surgery--this has got to be it! Psychic surgery is it! What I had to do was read a lot of this stuff--Mexico seemed to be a hot bed for this--so I was even going to go down there, but anyway, I started reading about this, and getting into this. At the same time I was doing this searching which didn't get me anywhere, obviously, God put in my life an activist…a Christian activist who worked for me part-time, but for God, full-time. He put her right in my office, I'll call her Becky (that was her name). Becky was married and she did something very interesting. She became a friend of mine partly because she took in foster children--hundreds of foster children. She adopted a couple a little later on, but see I appreciated that because I was in foster homes before I was adopted and I liked that, and God knew that. So, he put her in there and we became friends. Now the key about Becky was that Becky, I knew, didn't like abortions. Everyone knew Christians were those picket-line freakos, you know. They didn't like abortions. She never judged me; she never put me down; she became my friend. She loved me. Despite the fact that every week, a couple of times a week, I would go down to the clinic and do my abortions in great numbers. But she stuck with it. She also took me to church, a large church that believes in spreading the truth about the Gospel of Jesus Christ to everybody, every week, embarrassingly calling you up front to make a decision for Christ. Now, I knew about that, really. I knew about all that stuff I read in the Bible. I have plaques for reading the Bible. I knew about that stuff and I even agree that it probably was true--a lot of that stuff. But I had chosen not to do that when I was around 19, just before I went off to college years ago. So I kind of listened for about a year and a-half. Now I am coming back to my occult experience that I dropped off at before, and I was just about ready to get into psychic surgery. I had a course all lined up at the Foundation of Truth, I kid you not, that was their name--Foundation of Truth. I knew I had come down to the point where I knew I was looking for truth, and so I was all set to take this course down at this institution which was right around the corner from the abortion clinic. How convenient. After I finished the abortion Saturday, I could go down there and take my course. The course was cancelled; I missed out! But at that same time, I became gradually convinced that what they said in church was truth--that God did come down here, in the form of Jesus Christ; that He did die for our sins; and that I wanted to have a relationship through God that would guarantee me getting into heaven--not upon what I could do, because I couldn't do enough. I tried, but I couldn't do it. So, I wanted to become a Christian, but I knew I couldn't be a good Christian abortionist. It just didn't make sense. It's sort of like being a good Christian gangster, as alluded to in Chuck Colson's book--you can't be a good bad guy. So I was on the fence. (to be continued)     RETURN TO TOP

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