Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Tuesday 30 of June Prayer for Our Earth


All powerful God,
you are present in the whole universe
and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Pour out upon us the power of your love,
that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live
as brothers and sisters, harming no one.

.....
O Lord, seize us with your power and light,
help us to protect all life,
to prepare for a better future,
for the coming of your Kingdom
of justice, peace, love and beauty.
Praise be to You!
Amen

Pope Francis

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Saturday June 27 Gospel of the Day





Daily Prayer for June 27

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:15–16, NIV
Lord God, help us to be holy as you are holy, and free us from all the earthly things that try to torment us. Grant us your Spirit so that we do what is right. May we always hold your hand confidently. Protect your children everywhere on earth, and help them do what is right even if the whole world does what is wrong. Help us, so that all we do becomes holy and pleasing in your sight. Let your grace grow among us and among the nations, and let your hand be strong to bring in your day, your day when everything is made new. May your name be kept holy, your kingdom come, and your will be done on earth as in heaven. Amen.

Daily Dig for June 27

Fyodor Dostoyevsky
If everyone abandons you and even drive you away by force, then when you are left alone fall on the earth and kiss it, water it with your tears, and it will bring forth fruit even though no one has seen or heard you in your solitude. Believe to the end, even if all went astray and you were left the only one faithful; bring your offering even then and praise God in your loneliness. And if two of you are gathered together – then there is a whole world, a world of living love. Embrace each other tenderly and praise God, for if only in you two his truth has been fulfilled.
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Friday, June 26, 2015

Friday June 26 Gospel for the Day- Jesus Heals the Leper


Jean-Marie Melchior Doze - 1864

Daily Dig for June 26

Mother Teresa
I feel that we too often focus only on the negative aspect of life – on what is bad. If we were more willing to see the good and the beautiful things that surround us, we would be able to transform our families. From there, we would change our next-door neighbors and then others who live in our neighborhood or city. We would be able to bring peace and love to our world, which hungers so much for these things.
Source: No Greater Love


Daily Prayer for June 26

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:3, NIV
O Lord our God, grant that we may have fellowship with you every day. May our hearts be ready to fulfill your commandments and to do what you want in all things. Hear our prayer. Hear and answer when we pray for the nations, for the whole world, and let your holy will be done. Remember all who are in distress, and lead them on the right way. May we go with joyful hearts wherever you lead us. Your name will be our help, your glory will come, and the world will be full of your love, your power, and your splendor. Amen.

Monday, June 22, 2015

Monday June 22. We Judge this Sweet Lamb as the Bad one of the Family. How So?


This sheep looks sweet to me.
Can't tell the book from the cover.
“Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” 
― Robert Louis Stevenson

Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.” 
― Dietrich BonhoefferThe Cost of Discipleship

We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation.” 
― Paulo CoelhoBy the River Piedra I Sat Down and W

“He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” 
― Immanuel Kant

“When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself” 
― Earl Nightingale

Friday, June 19, 2015

Friday 19 - Late Issue but Hot Off The Press

103






Daily Prayer for June 19

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:10, NIV
Lord, O great and almighty God, we thank you that you have given us the Savior, in whom we can become united and have peace on earth. May he, the Savior, work powerfully among us. May your Spirit come into people’s hearts so that they learn to acknowledge you as their leader and their God and to rejoice in their lives, which are intended for eternal life. Bless us through your Word and through all the good you do for us. Constantly renew and strengthen us in faith and in patience through the grace you send us. Remember all the peoples who should become yours in the name of Jesus Christ. May they all confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord, to the honor of God the Father. We praise you for the promise you have given us of a wonderful new day of help for all. We praise you that you have created all people to recognize their true calling and their way to salvation. Amen.


Daily Dig for June 19

Ignatius
It is better to be silent and be, than to talk and not be.… Those who possess the word of Jesus are truly able to hear even his very silence, that they may be perfect and may both act as they speak, and be recognized by their silence. There is nothing which is hid from God, but our very secrets are near to him. Let us therefore do all things as those who have him dwelling in us, that we may be his temples, and he may be in us as our God.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Thursday June 18 Jesus Teaches the "Our Father"

PSALM 27:14

by achristianpilgrim
Psalms_27-14

Daily Dig for June 18

Madeleine L’Engle
To be human is to be fallible, but it is also to be capable of love and to be able to retain that childlike openness which enables us to go bravely into the darkness and towards that life of love and truth which will set us free.

Daily Prayer for June 18

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. He has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. 2 Timothy 1:8–9, NIV
Lord our God, radiant, light giving, and almighty God through all the ages, be with us in our time too. Strengthen the grace we have received from Jesus Christ, and let it be known over all the world so that your name may be honored everywhere. Bless us, we pray, and let your blessing spread from us to others, to the glory of your name. Grant that the good may be strengthened in us, the good you have let us hear about for so many years. May everything that belongs to your Word come alive in us and in the world. May your blessing be on our actions, for we want to remain under your blessing, to the glory of your righteousness and truth. Amen.
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Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Wednesday June 17 No matter what age we are, we all give good or bad example to others







Daily Prayer for June 17

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Mark 1:15, NIV
Lord our God, we come into your presence and bow down before you, the Almighty. We come before you and repent, believing in you and in your will to save us. Your will to save goes out over the whole world, over the whole godless world, that all may repent and be redeemed. Grant us the thoughts of your heart so that we may begin to understand your will. We dedicate ourselves to you, the holy, just, righteous, and merciful God. Grant that we may be your children, led and guided by you every day. Turn our hearts to you so that you can make us more and more as you want us to be. Turn our hearts to you until your goal of atonement and redemption is reached through the quiet working of your almighty power. Amen.

Daily Dig for June 17

Thomas Merton


The importance of detachment from things, the importance of poverty, is that we are supposed to be free from things that we might prefer to people. Wherever things have become more important than people, we are in trouble. That is the crux of the whole matter.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Tuesday June 16 - The Gospel again talks about Love and Forgiving and Loving our Enemies.

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Daily Prayer for June 16

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. John 14:2–3, NIV
Lord God, we thank you that you have upheld us and brought us to the Savior. Help us to remember this truth through your Holy Spirit, and constantly remind us while still on earth to live in heaven with all your angels. We are helpless without you. Your Spirit alone can overcome our sinful nature so that we never forget to be in heaven with the Savior now and in eternity. Amen.


Daily Dig for June 16

Eberhard Arnold

All life – including the variety we see in nature – is a parable of the future community of the kingdom of God. Just as the air surrounds us, or as a blowing wind engulfs us, we need to be immersed in the blowing Spirit, who unites and renews everything. And just as water washes and cleanses us every day, so in the symbol of baptism we witness to our purification from everything that is of death.
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Monday, June 15, 2015

Monday June 15 Not an eye for an eye but Forgiveness

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Daily Dig for June 15

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The poet Stifter once said, “Pain is a holy angel, who shows treasures to men which would otherwise remain forever hidden; through him men have become greater than through all the joys of the world.” It must be so and I tell myself this in my present situation over and over again. The pain of suffering and of longing, which can often be felt even physically, must be there, and we cannot and need not talk it away. But it needs to be overcome every time, and thus there is an even holier angel than the one of pain; that is, the one of joy in God.
Source: The Martyred Christian: 160 Readings




Daily Prayer for June 15

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. John 1:14–16, NIV Lord God, help us who are allowed to hear your Word. Help us come with all our hearts to the Savior, who leads us into your arms. Hear our pleading and let your countenance shine over the world. Send a new age soon, a new salvation to the earth, to the glory of your name. Show us that what we have learned about you is the truth and that we may live in the truth and find the way through to heaven, to the glory of your name. Hear us, O Lord our God. Often it seems that you are far away. But we know that our voices still reach you and that those roused by your Holy Spirit will become your workers for the Lord Jesus. Send your Spirit soon, O Lord God. Send the Comforter, who leads us into all light and all truth. We entrust ourselves and our daily lives to you. We want to be faithful. Help us to be your children, to remember at every step that we belong to you, Lord God. No matter how dark it is on earth, help us remember that we are with you, your children in eternity. Amen.
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Saturday, June 13, 2015

Sunday June 14th The Kingdom of God is like a man who goes out and scatter seeds upon the ground.

 
THE GROWTH OF THE CHURCH
(A biblical refection on THE ELEVENTH ORDINARY SUNDAY – June 14, 2015)
Gospel Reading: Mark 4:26-34
First Reading: Ezekiel 17:22-24; Psalms: Psalm 92:2-3,13-16; Second Reading: 2Corinthians 5:6-10
IN24_VATICAN_POPE_E_570508f
MUSTARD SEEDSThe Scripture Text
And He said, “The Kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how. The earth produces of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.’’
And He said, “With what can we compare the Kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
With many such parables He spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to His own disciples He explained everything. (Mark 4:26-34 RSV)
parable of the sower - 02No one has actually seen a tree grow. Its growth is too slow for the human eye to perceive. Nor, for that matter, has anyone ever seen a child grow. It is only after you have not been with a child for some time, that you notice how tall he has become. Living things grow slowly.
The Church, too, grows slowly because it is a living organism. It is made up of human beings who, like the cells of human body, form the mystical body of Jesus Christ. Growth is what our Lord is talking about in today’s Gospel. He started with the twelve apostles, a very small group of men. Those men after Pentecost went out and began the conversion of the whole world, so that today the Church has really many people as its members. Based on the July 2013 world statistics, total world population is estimated at 7.1 billions, of which 31.5 % are Christians (Roman Catholic Church alone: 16.85%; source: WIKIPEDIA). When Pope John summoned the Second Vatican Council, more than two thousand bishops from every nation responded to his call. If the apostles could come back to earth today, they would be amazed at the growth of the Church.
The growth of the Church is of course due to the power of God, and God’s power cannot be frustrated by either the evil or the incompetence of men. As a seed planted in the earth has an almost mysterious ability to develop while the farmer sleeps, so the Church has an inner divinely given dynamism which ensures its continuing and spreading from age to age. And yet the role of the members of the Church is far from passive in God’s plan. What God could do all by Himself, He has decided to do with and through the members of the Church.
POPE PIUS XII - 112Back in 1943 when he wrote his encyclical on the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ, Pope Pius XII put it this way: “Dying on the cross Christ left to His Church the immense treasury of the redemption; towards this she contributed nothing. But when those graces come to be distributed, not only does He share this task of sanctification with His Church, but He wants it in a way to be due to her action” (46), That we (you and I) are Catholics today is traceable to the action of those who have preceded us in the faith. That the Church spread from Palestine over the centuries to all the countries of the world is due, under God, to the goodness and holiness of the members of the Church.
When we think of how the Church began with such a small group and see what it is today we are indeed amazed, but we must never become complacent. Now it is our turn to do something, for we bear the responsibility for continuing the spread of Christ’s Church. We know that we should give good example and try to talk to people about the Church. Today, however, let’s try to focus on something very important, something that may escape our realization.
The Church is like a human body. As the vitality of the body depends on the health of its cells, to the vitality of the Church depends on the holiness of its members. We may think that the sins we commit offend God alone and harm only ourselves. That is not true. Sin damages the whole Church, just as an infection in any part of the body affects the whole body. On the other hand, we may feel that we are not very important, that our prayers and penances cannot accomplish very much. That too is not true. When we try to live good lives as Jesus has taught us, we are very instrumental in the building up of the whole Church.
06500_all_04-06-praying-Rahmen-1Listen to these words of Pope Pius XII from the same encyclical on the Mystical Body: “Deep mystery this, subject of inexhaustible meditation, that the salvation of many depends on the prayers and voluntary penances which the members of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ offer for this intention …” (ibid.). Deep mystery indeed: God wills that the salvation of others should come about through our prayers and penances. Subject of inexhaustible meditation, something we must never forget, that the goodness of our lives can ready benefit others.
Prayers: Heavenly Father, Your love gives us strength to follow Your Son, Jesus Christ. We rejoice in the faith that draws us together in the Church as His Mystical Body, fully aware that selfishness can drive us apart. Let Your encouragement be our constant strength. Keep us one in the love that has sealed our lives, help us to live as one family the Gospel we profess. Amen.
Jakarta, 12 June 2015 [SACRED HEART OF JESUS]
A Christian Pilgrim

Friday, June 12, 2015

Friday June 12 Feast of the Sacred Heart God So Loved the World, He gave us His Only Son

 

 
 
 
June 13  Saturday  - Feast of Saint Anthony of Padua.
Founder of Lost Article
( So they say)
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Daily Dig for June 12

Henry David Thoreau
We need the tonic of wildness, to wade sometimes in marshes where the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe; to smell the whispering sedge where only the wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground. At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and titanic features, the sea-coast with its wrecks, the wilderness with its living and its decaying trees, the thunder cloud, and the rain which lasts three weeks and produces freshets. We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander.
Source: Walden
 

Daily Prayer for June 12

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
And when he comes, he will prove to the people of the world that they are wrong about sin and about what is right and about God’s judgment. They are wrong about sin, because they do not believe in me; they are wrong about what is right, because I am going to the Father and you will not see me any more; and they are wrong about judgment, because the ruler of this world has already been judged. John 16:8–11, TEV

Lord our God, we thank you that throughout our lives you continually renew your Spirit in us. We thank you that your Spirit enables us to understand Jesus Christ and to follow him all our days on earth. Bless us, and let the revelation of your Spirit come to the world, to the people of all nations, a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit in each heart. But there must still be punishment for sin. For the sake of justice the world has to suffer punishment through judgment. For you, Almighty God, are Lord, and not even Satan, the prince of this world, can act against your will. You will carry out your will through the Holy Spirit. Our task is simply to follow Jesus all our days. This shall be our joy, this priceless gift of following the Lord Jesus. Praise to your name that we have him and his witness in the gospel every day. Praise to your name that every day, even through great distress, we can joyfully follow him in the strength of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Thursday, June 11, 2015

Thursday June 11 Feast of Saint Barnabas

 
Saint Barnabas and Paul.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Daily Prayer for June 11

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 36:5, 7, NIV

Lord our God, we turn our hearts and minds to you. Be with us and grant us your Spirit. May your Word be a blessing for us. We thank you that this Word is given us in Jesus Christ, our Savior. Almighty God, stretch out your hand over the whole world. Let your Spirit bring a new age, an age of truth, righteousness, and love, an age of peace that comes from you. O Lord God, we are your children, and as your children we pray to you in the name of Jesus Christ. You will hear us, and we look forward with joy to the time when all promises will be fulfilled, the time spoken about by the prophets, and especially by your Son, Jesus Christ. Be with us and gather us in your Spirit. Amen.

Daily Dig for June 11

Sadhu Sundar Singh
Are not our desires inseparably intertwined with the continuation of life? Even the idea of eliminating desire is fruitless. The desire to eliminate all desire is still itself a desire. How can we find release and peace by replacing one desire with another? Surely we shall find peace not by eliminating desire, but by finding its fulfillment and satisfaction in the One who created it.



Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Wednesday June 10 "I have not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them." Matthew 5:17-19

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Daily Dig for June 10

Basil of Caesarea
“I am wronging no one,” you say, “I am merely holding on to what is mine.” What is yours! Who gave it to you so that you could bring it into life with you? Why, you are like a man who pinches a seat at the theater at the expense of latecomers, claiming ownership of what was for common use. That’s what the rich are like; having seized what belongs to all, they claim it as their own on the basis of having got there first. Whereas if everyone took for himself enough to meet his immediate needs and released the rest for those in need of it, there would be no rich and no poor.
Source: Ownership: Early Christian Teaching



Daily Prayer for June 10

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us – so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. Psalm 67:1–2, NIV


Lord, Almighty God, you are our Father and we are your children, who want to live for you through Jesus Christ our Lord. Strengthen and renew our hearts. When discouragement and fear try to mislead us, may your Holy Spirit help us again and again to hold fast, for no matter what difficulties arise, your will is being done and your will is good. Your name will be honored. Your kingdom will come for all nations. Your reign will come over all peoples, for they are all yours and must acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Lord, to your honor, O Father. Amen.