God's gracious gift to us

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God's gracious gift to us

What is the significance of John the Baptist and his message for our
lives? When God acts to save us he graciously fills us with his Holy
Spirit and makes our faith come "alive" to his promises. Each and
every day the Lord is ready to renew us in faith, hope, and love. Like
John the Baptist, the Lord invites each of us to make our life a
free-will offering to God. God wants to fill us with his glory all the
days of our lives, from birth through death. Renew the offering of
your life to God and give him thanks for his mercy and favor towards
you.

"Lord Jesus, you bring hope and salvation to a world lost in sin,
despair, and suffering. Let your grace refresh and restore your people
today in the hope and joy of your great victory over sin and death."

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SEP 30 – ST JEROME
NOT PULLING ANY PUNCHES

Christians don’t always have to be nice. Catholic teaching allows for
the defense of self. And the Lord excoriated the hypocritical and the
self-righteous. It is a false-piety, a deception, and a danger, a
heresy, really, to believe only in Jesus-The-Warm-Fuzzy. In the
matter of Scripture, the wider availability of Scripture from the
Greek and Hebrew may not have happened until MUCH later, if it were
not for St Jerome! St Jerome was not a warm fuzzy. To accomplish
what he did when he did, he couldn’t afford to be. It wouldn’t have
worked. He didn’t worship a God Who was either. Let’s be careful out
there where our politics dictates our God, rather than the other way
around. St Jerome was never confused in this way. He was born
Eusebius Hieronymous Sophronius, around the year 342 AD.

“St. Jerome was a fighter.

Popes, soldiers, widows, monks, archdeacons – it didn’t matter – none
were safe from the sharp and nimble pen of this 4th-century resident
of Bethlehem. He wrote against many who had distanced themselves from
the Church by error or faulty preaching, and so he got a name for not
pulling punches. His letters link phrases together like opposing
storms and unshaken faith, errors and eternal bondage, heretics and
doomed to perish. Granted he was fighting to defend the Faith, but did
he have to be so combative?

St. Jerome was such a fighter because he believed there was something
worth fighting for: brotherhood.

If you read some of his letters, you’ll notice that St. Jerome covers
a variety of themes (Scripture, schism, vows of virginity, poetry,
bathing habits), but in all of these he always finds a way to mention
brotherhood. He is constantly mentioning his brothers, sisters, and
spiritual sons and daughters as he critiques this bishop’s preaching
or consoles that widow’s mourning; counsels this Roman soldier, or
teases that prelate’s hygiene. Whether he spoke in jest, irritation,
or anger, all he did was for the sake of fraternity.

Brotherhood for Jerome was a teaching of Christ, Who called His
disciples brothers (Mt 23:8). A helpful way to look at how St. Jerome
thought of brotherhood is to view it in light of another teaching of
Christ: chastity, poverty, and obedience.

St. Jerome thought that brotherhood is chaste, because it’s about an
undivided love. Chastity is a virtue that keeps the heart set on a
real and authentic love, and real love is undeterred by false forms of
friendship that lack depth in the love of God. St. Jerome spoke of
brotherhood as a kind of chastity because his authentic love for
others was rooted in a love for God. Chastity unites us to God with an
undivided heart. So too we undividedly love our brothers by this love
we have for God:

The links which bind spirit to spirit are stronger than any physical
bond. For you, my reverend friend, cling to me with all your soul, and
I am united to you by the love of Christ (Letter 62).

St. Jerome was the first to recognize a real love between himself and
another. But if that love was lacking, he was quick to call his
brother back into friendship. Even in harsh words Jerome pursued the
friendship of his brother by being close to Christ: “Our only gain is
that we are thus knit together in the love of Christ” (Letter 60).

Brotherhood for Jerome is also poor because it gives up everything for
another. In emptying himself Christ gave everything to become our
brother, and we, in our poverty, give up everything for the sake of
our brothers in Christ. St. Jerome cared not a thing for his
reputation or position in the world, provided that his words and
gestures had the chance of calling a brother back from a straying
path. Such a friendship that divests itself of all extras is a true
friendship, and this is why it is priceless:

Love is not to be purchased, and affection has no price. The
friendship which can cease has never been real (Letter 3).

True brotherhood is also obedient. To be obedient is to delight in
another’s will, and so have a true and lasting unity with that person.
Christ gives us the grace and example to be obedient to our heavenly
Father. Brothers who dwell in unity first have an obedience to God
that then outpours into a harmony in the Church. It’s in the heart of
the Church that we strive to live in Christ with one heart and soul
(Acts 4:32).

But such harmony is only possible when there is openness to truth
between friends. St. Jerome held to this standard of truth when
relating to others. “True friendship ought never to conceal what it
thinks, and real brotherhood will leave enough room to hear the truth,
even when it is difficult (Letter 81).”

While his words were at times harsh, nothing St. Jerome said was
without a further purpose of drawing others close to Christ in real
brotherhood. Jerome’s life gives us the example of how to knock at the
door of others and offer them friendship – even to those who would
consider us enemies. Christ has knocked at the door of our hearts and
by grace we have consented to a divine friendship with Him. He now
uses us to knock on the hearts of others to offer that same
friendship:

“I have now knocked at the door of friendship: if you open it to me
you will find me a frequent visitor (Letter 145).”

https://soul-candy.info/category/september/page/3/
-by Br Athanasius Murphy, OP


Saint Quote:
At the resurrection the substance of our bodies, however
disintegrated, will be united. We must not fear that the omnipotence
of God cannot recall all the particles that have been consumed by fire
or by beast, or dissolved into dust and ashes, or decomposed into
water, or evaporated into air.
--St. Augustine, The City of God

Bible Quote:
O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God!
How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways!
[Romans 11:33 ] DV


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From The Glories Of Mary, by Saint Alphonsus de Liguori:

QUEEN of Heaven, most Holy Mary, I was once a slave of sin, but now I
consecrate myself to thee as thy client forever. I give myself to
thine honor and service for the rest of my life. Do not reject me as I
deserve, but accept me as thy servant.

I have placed all my hope in thee as my Mother. I bless and thank
Almighty God, because in His mercy He has given me this confidence in
thee. It is true that in the past I have shamefully fallen into sin;
but I trust that, through thy prayers and the merits of Jesus Christ,
I have been forgiven. But yet, my Mother, this is not enough. One fear
I have which troubles me: that I may fall into sin again and lose the
grace of God.

The dangers are constant; my enemies never sleep; and new temptations
will assail me. O my Lady, protect me. Help me in the assaults of
Hell, so I may never again offend thy Divine Son Jesus.

Let not the same thing happen again, that I lose my soul, Heaven, and
God. This is the grace I beg of thee, O Mary; this is what I long for;
obtain this grace for me through thy prayers.
Amen.
Thus, I hope. Thus, may it be.