"Which will love him more?"

[Weedy]

"Which will love him more?"
Meditation: Luke 7:36-50

What fuels the love that surpasses all other loves? Unbounding
gratitude for sure! No one who met Jesus could do so with
indifference. They were either attracted to him or repelled by him.
Why did a rabbi invite Jesus to a nice dinner and then treat him
discourteously by neglecting to give him the customary signs of
respect and honor? Simon was very likely a collector of celebrities.
He patronized Jesus because of his popularity with the crowds. Why did
he criticize Jesus' compassionate treatment of a woman of ill repute -
most likely a prostitute? The Pharisees shunned the company of public
sinners and in so doing they neglected to give them the help they
needed to find healing and wholeness.

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July 21st – St. Praxedes, Virgin

St. Praxedes According to her legend was a Roman maiden, the sister of
St. Pudentiana, who, when the Emperor Marcus Antoninus was hunting
down Christians, sought them out to relieve them with money, care,
comfort and every charitable aid. Some she hid in her house, others
she encouraged to keep firm in the faith, and of yet others she buried
the bodies; and she allowed those who were in prison or toiling in
slavery to lack nothing. At last, being unable any longer to bear the
cruelties inflicted on Christians, she prayed to God that, if it were
expedient for her to die, she might be released from beholding such
sufferings. And so on July 21 she was called to the reward of her
goodness in Heaven. Her body was laid by the priest Pastor in the tomb
of her father, Pudens, and her sister Pudentiana, which was in the
cemetery of Priscilla on the Salarian Way.

This saint was. certainly buried in the catacomb of Priscilla, near to
St. Pudentiana. But that she was the sister of that saint, or that
either of them was the daughter (as later legends aver) of a Roman
senator, Pudens, converted by St. Peter, there is no reason to
believe. She was at first venerated as a martyr in connection with
the ecciesia Pudentiana, but afterwards a separate church was built in
her honour, on the alleged site of her house, to which, when it was
rebuilt by Pope St. Paschal I (the present Santa Prassede), her relics
were translated.

In the Acta Sanctorum the legend of the two sisters is printed in the
fourth volume of May. A commission appointed by Pope Benedict XIV to
revise the Breviary declared the "acts" to be spurious and unworthy
of credence. On the cult and "title "of St. Praxedes see particularly
De Waal in the Römische Quartalschrift, vol. xix (1905), pp. 169-180
(archaeological section). Cf. Marucchi, Basiliques et églises de Rome
(1909), pp. 323 seq. and 364 seq., and CMH, pp. 263, 388. The Roman
virgin Praxedes is said to have been the daughter of the Roman senator
Saint Pudens and sister of Saint Pudentiana. All three were
legendarily converted by Saint Peter. Praxedes is said to have used
all her wealth to relief the distress of the poor and her physical
strength in succoring the martyrs by which she hoped to share in their
heavenly reward. She died in peace and was buried in the cemetery of
Priscilla on the Valerian Way.


Saint Quote:
The accidents of life separate us from our dearest friends,
but let us not despair. God is like a looking glass in which souls
see each other.
The more we are united to Him by love,
the nearer we are to those who belong to Him.
-- St. Elizebeth Ann Seton

Bible Quote:
Amen, amen, I say to you: He that entereth not by the door into the
sheepfold but climbeth up another way, the same is a thief and a
robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the
sheep. To him the porter openeth: and the sheep hear his voice. And he
calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. And when he hath
let out his own sheep, he goeth before them: and the sheep follow him,
because they know his voice. But a stranger they follow not, but fly
from him, because they know not the voice of strangers. (John 10:1-5)
DRB


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17. With those who are perfect and walk with simplicity, there is
nothing small and contemptible, if it be a thing that pleases God; for
the pleasure of God is the object at which alone they aim, and which
is the reason, the measure, and the reward of all their occupations,
actions, and plans; and so, in whatever they find this, it is for them
a great and important thing.
--St. Alphonsus Rodriguez

This is the reason why St. Aloysius Gonzaga, St. John Berchmans, St.
Mary Magdalen de' Pazzi, and so many others were so observant even of
the least Rule, so exact in all their ordinary occupations and so
careful to perform well every work trusted to them, however trifling
it might be. It is stated that the celebrated Father Ribera kept up
through his whole life the same exact observance which marked his
novitiate.

(Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints". July: Simplicity)