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.
1 PT 4:14
If a tiny spark of God’s love already burns within you, do not expose it to the wind, for it may get blown out.
A sermon by St Charles Borromeo
Charles Borromeo (Italian: Carlo Borromeo, Latin: Carolus Borromeus, 2 October 1538 – 3 November 1584) was the Latin archbishop of Milan from 1564 to 1584 and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was a leading figure of the Counter-Reformation combat against the Protestant Reformation together with St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Philip Neri. In that role he was responsible for significant reforms in the Catholic Church, including the founding of seminaries for the education of priests. He is honored as a saint by the Catholic Church, with a feast day on November 4.
FRATELLI TUTTI
OF THE HOLY FATHER
FRANCIS
ON FRATERNITY AND SOCIAL FRIENDSHIP
CHAPTER ONE
DARK CLOUDS OVER A CLOSED WORLD
LACKING A PLAN FOR EVERYONE
Conflict and fear
28. The loneliness, fear and insecurity experienced by those who feel abandoned by the system creates a fertile terrain for various “mafias”. These flourish because they claim to be defenders of the forgotten, often by providing various forms of assistance even as they pursue their criminal interests. There also exists a typically “mafioso” pedagogy that, by appealing to a false communitarian mystique, creates bonds of dependency and fealty from which it is very difficult to break free.
Or the love that God has for us ceases to be transforming.
Bishop Patrick J. Zurek, A Reflection on Christian Life
a comfortable-catholic in fear questions why a disciple should hate, because i do not want to be hated, and instead of waiting with courage i create a “false communitarian mystique” of church that “creates bonds of dependency and fealty from which it is very difficult to break free”…
a maga-catholic in fear questions and grumbles about father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, that hate president trump, and i become stouthearted in waiting for the “defenders of the forgotten” unborn to assist me, even as those same defenders “pursue their criminal interests”…
a socialist-catholic in fear questions and grumbles about president trump, and i wait for the “various forms of assistance” to come while hating a system that seems to have abandoned me…
Catholics in LOVE do everything without grumbling or questioning, as we wait for the LORD while hating anything that can blow out the “tiny spark of God’s love” within us!!!
Today’s Scriptures
Do everything without grumbling or questioning,
PHIL 2:14
R. (1a) The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.
PS 27:14
“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters,
and even his own life,
he cannot be my disciple.”
LK 14:26
Catholic Bicycle 