Posts Tagged ‘St. Alphonsus Liguori’

The way to Heaven is straight and narrow: they who wish to arrive at that place of bliss by walking in the paths of pleasure shall be disappointed; and therefore few reach it, because few are willing to use violence to themselves in resisting temptations.

March 7, 2010

My Daily Prayers and Readings for 03/07/2010

< >< My Daily Prayer >< >

Abba Father, Lord Jesus, in the Spirit, one God the Abba Father, Christ Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Keenly aware of my helplessness, I open myself to Your presence and with prayer ask that by faith I may be justified and that In seeking Christ Jesus’ image I to find my food is in doing Your will without thought or concern, and that by drinking the water He gives will stop thirsting for the things under the sun.

In Jesus name I ask and pray, that You bless me and mine for fulfillment of Your will and that You create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit within me, for one walk; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

< >< Jesus Calling Daily Devotion >< >

March – When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. John 10:4

Today – LET ME HELP YOU through this day. The challenges you face are far too great for you to handle alone. You are keenly aware of your helplessness in the scheme of events you face. This awareness opens up a choice: to doggedly go it alone or to walk with Me in humble steps of dependence. Actually, this choice is continually before you, but difficulties highlight the decision-making process. So, consider it all joy whenever you are enveloped in various trials. These are gifts from Me, reminding you to rely on Me alone.

PSALM 63:7-8; JAMES 1:2-3 (AMP)

< >< Today’s Mass Readings >< >

Reading I

Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15 or Ex 17:3-7

Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

There an angel of the LORD appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed.

So Moses decided, “I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned.”

When the LORD saw him coming over to look at it more closely, God called out to him from the bush, “Moses! Moses!” He answered, “Here I am.”

God said, “Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.

I am the God of your father,” he continued, “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

But the LORD said, “I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering.

Therefore I have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey,

“But,” said Moses to God, “when I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ if they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what am I to tell them?”

God replied, “I am who am.” Then he added, “This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you.”

God spoke further to Moses, “Thus shall you say to the Israelites: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. “This is my name forever; this is my title for all generations.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 103:1-4, 6-8, 11 or Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
The Lord is king and merciful, the Lord is king and merciful

Bless the LORD, my soul; all my being, bless his holy name!

Bless the LORD, my soul; do not forget all the gifts of God,

The Lord is king and merciful, the Lord is king and merciful

Who pardons all your sins, heals all your ills,

Delivers your life from the pit, surrounds you with love and compassion,

The Lord is king and merciful, the Lord is king and merciful

The LORD does righteous deeds, brings justice to all the oppressed.

His ways were revealed to Moses, mighty deeds to the people of Israel.

The Lord is king and merciful, the Lord is king and merciful

Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger, abounding in kindness.

As the heavens tower over the earth, so God’s love towers over the faithful.

The Lord is king and merciful, the Lord is king and merciful

READING II

Rom 5:1-2, 5-8 or 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12
Brothers and sisters:
Since we have been justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have gained access by faith
to this grace in which we stand,
and we boast in hope of the glory of God.

And hope does not disappoint,
because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For Christ, while we were still helpless,
died at the appointed time for the ungodly.
Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person,
though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die.
But God proves his love for us
in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

Gospel
Jn 4:5-42 or 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42 or Luke 13: 1 – 9

Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,
near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.
It was about noon.

A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
“Give me a drink.”
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him,
“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
—For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—
Jesus answered and said to her,
“If you knew the gift of God
and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘
you would have asked him
and he would have given you living water.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep;
where then can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob,
who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself
with his children and his flocks?”
Jesus answered and said to her,
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;
the water I shall give will become in him
a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty
or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Jesus said to her,
“Go call your husband and come back.”
The woman answered and said to him,
“I do not have a husband.”
Jesus answered her,
“You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’
For you have had five husbands,
and the one you have now is not your husband.
What you have said is true.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;
but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her,
“Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do not understand;
we worship what we understand,
because salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and is now here,
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;
and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.
God is Spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in Spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him,
“I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ;
when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
Jesus said to her,
“I am he, the one speaking with you.”

At that moment his disciples returned,
and were amazed that he was talking with a woman,
but still no one said, “What are you looking for?”
or “Why are you talking with her?”
The woman left her water jar
and went into the town and said to the people,
“Come see a man who told me everything I have done.
Could he possibly be the Christ?”
They went out of the town and came to him.
Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.”
But he said to them,
“I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
So the disciples said to one another,
“Could someone have brought him something to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“My food is to do the will of the one who sent me
and to finish his work.

Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’?
I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.
The reaper is already receiving payment
and gathering crops for eternal life,
so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.
For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’
I sent you to reap what you have not worked for;
others have done the work,
and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”

Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him
because of the word of the woman who testified,
“He told me everything I have done.”
When the Samaritans came to him,
they invited him to stay with them;
and he stayed there two days.
Many more began to believe in him because of his word,
and they said to the woman,
“We no longer believe because of your word;
for we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”

< >< Today’s Video Reflection >< >

>

The way to Heaven is straight and narrow: they who wish to arrive at that place of bliss by walking in the paths of pleasure shall be disappointed; and therefore few reach it, because few are willing to use violence to themselves in resisting temptations.

— St. Alphonsus Liguori

< >< Online Sources for Devotion Scripture References & Daily Mass Readings >< >

Link to Devotion Scriptures unless noted from New International Version BibleGateway.com

Links for today’s readings from USCCB using the New American Bible or

Links for today’s readings from EWTN using the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

For audio link to today’s readings from USCCB using the New American Bible click:

http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/10_03_07.mp3

For link to today’s video Reflection http://www.usccb.org/video/reflections.shtml

< >< Other sources of inspiration on God’s Word >< >

EWTN

Today in the Word

Moody Radio Online

Today in the Word Radio Online

< >< Bible Online >< >

BibleGateway.com Devotion Scriptures unless noted from New International Version

< >< One Walk >< >

Follow what I am thinking, listening and reading visit www.RichardAngulo.com

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To receive My Peace, you must change your grasping, controlling stance to one of openness and trust. The only thing you can grasp without damaging your soul is My hand.

February 5, 2010

My Daily Prayers and Readings for 02/05/2010

< >< My Daily Prayer >< >

Abba Father, Lord Jesus, in the Spirit, one God the Abba Father, Christ Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit.

My Lord God help me! Have mercy on me!

For the sake of His sorrowful passion have mercy on us and on the whole world. Help us to make the right choices moment by moment always grasping Your hand as we open our stance and release our worries by focusing our mind on You with a grateful heart and awakened mind conscious of each blessing.

In Jesus we have a teacher who has walked under the sun with more burdens and reasons the worry than any of us could ever imagine; yet in Jesus we have an example of the power of oneness. For while He was and is One God with You the Abba Father, He was man, the Son of Man; and thought our thoughts, felt what we feel and was challenged and tempted beyond our ability to comprehend or understand.

So there is no reason to not seek His Face except our foolish nature to control that which we cannot control. In today’s devotion He tells us simply ‘change your stance’. Chose wisely in each moment what we grasp onto, making sure it is His hand and not the ways under the sun.

Have mercy on me! My Lord God help me!

In Jesus name I ask and pray, that You bless me and mine for fulfillment of Your will and that You create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit within me, for one walk; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

< >< Jesus Calling Daily Devotion >< >

February – “Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.” Psalm 105:4

Today – SEEK MY FACE, and you will find not only My Presence but also My Peace. To receive My Peace, you must change your grasping, controlling stance to one of openness and trust. The only thing you can grasp without damaging your soul is My hand. Ask My Spirit within you to order your day and control your thoughts, for the mind controlled by the Spirit is Life and Peace.

You can have as much of Me and My Peace as you want, through thousands of correct choices each day. The most persistent choice you face is whether to trust Me or to worry. You will never run out of things to worry about, but you can choose to trust Me no matter what. I am an ever-present help in trouble. Trust Me, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.

ROMANS 8:6; PSALM 46:1-2

< >< Today’s Mass Readings >< >

Reading I
Sir 47:2-11
Like the choice fat of the sacred offerings,
so was David in Israel.
He made sport of lions as though they were kids,
and of bears, like lambs of the flock.
As a youth he slew the giant
and wiped out the people’s disgrace,
When his hand let fly the slingstone
that crushed the pride of Goliath.
Since he called upon the Most High God,
who gave strength to his right arm
To defeat the skilled warrior
and raise up the might of his people,
Therefore the women sang his praises,
and ascribed to him tens of thousands
and praised him when they blessed the Lord.
When he assumed the royal crown, he battled
and subdued the enemy on every side.
He destroyed the hostile Philistines
and shattered their power till our own day.
With his every deed he offered thanks
to God Most High, in words of praise.
With his whole being he loved his Maker
and daily had his praises sung
;
He set singers before the altar and by their voices
he made sweet melodies,
He added beauty to the feasts
and solemnized the seasons of each year
So that when the Holy Name was praised,
before daybreak the sanctuary would resound.
The Lord forgave him his sins
and exalted his strength forever;
He conferred on him the rights of royalty
and established his throne in Israel.
Responsorial Psalm
18:31, 47 and 50, 51
R.  (see 47b)  Blessed be God my salvation!
God’s way is unerring,
the promise of the LORD is fire-tried;
he is a shield to all who take refuge in him.
R.        Blessed be God my salvation!

The LORD live! And blessed be my Rock!
Extolled be God my savior.
Therefore will I proclaim you, O LORD, among the nations,
and I will sing praise to your name.
R.        Blessed be God my salvation!
You who gave great victories to your king
and showed kindness to your anointed,
to David and his posterity forever.
R.        Blessed be God my salvation!

Gospel
Mk 6:14-29
King Herod heard about Jesus, for his fame had become widespread,
and people were saying,
“John the Baptist has been raised from the dead;
that is why mighty powers are at work in him.”
Others were saying, “He is Elijah”;
still others, “He is a prophet like any of the prophets.”
But when Herod learned of it, he said,
“It is John whom I beheaded. He has been raised up.”

Herod was the one who had John arrested and bound in prison
on account of Herodias,
the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married.
John had said to Herod,
“It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”
Herodias harbored a grudge against him
and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.
Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man,
and kept him in custody.
When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed,
yet he liked to listen to him.

Herodias had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday,
gave a banquet for his courtiers, his military officers,
and the leading men of Galilee.
His own daughter came in and performed a dance
that delighted Herod and his guests.

The king said to the girl,
“Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.”
He even swore many things to her,
“I will grant you whatever you ask of me,
even to half of my kingdom.”
She went out and said to her mother,
“What shall I ask for?”
Her mother replied, “The head of John the Baptist.”
The girl hurried back to the king’s presence and made her request,
“I want you to give me at once on a platter
the head of John the Baptist.”
The king was deeply distressed,
but because of his oaths and the guests
he did not wish to break his word to her.
So he promptly dispatched an executioner
with orders to bring back his head.
He went off and beheaded him in the prison.
He brought in the head on a platter
and gave it to the girl.
The girl in turn gave it to her mother.
When his disciples heard about it,
they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

< >< Today’s Video Reflection >< >

What does it cost us to say: “My God help me! Have mercy on me!” Is there anything easier than this? And this little will  suffice to save us if we be diligent in doing it.

— St. Alphonsus Liguori

< >< Daily Mass Readings Online Sources>< >

USCCB and EWTN

For link to Scripture readings and Bible search click:

New American Bible USCCB

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition EWTN

For audio link to today’s readings click:

http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/10_02_05.mp3 Audio

For link to today’s video Reflection click:

http://www.usccb.org/video/reflections.shtml Video

< >< Other sources of inspiration on God’s Word >< >

EWTN

Today in the Word Devotional

Moody Radio Online

Today in the Word Radio Online

< >< Bible Online >< >

BibleGateway.com Devotion Scriptures unless noted from New International Version

< >< One Walk >< >

Follow what I am doing, visit www.raagroup.com

Follow what I am thinking, listening and reading visit www.RichardAngulo.com