by Faith Central & Steve Welsh
“R. (52b) Glory and praise for ever!
‘Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;
And blessed is your holy and glorious name,
praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.’ …”
“… The name ‘James’ is the translation of Iakobos, the Graecised form of the name of the famous Patriarch, Jacob. The Apostle of this name was the brother of John and in the above-mentioned lists, comes second, immediately after Peter, as occurs in Mark (3: 17); or in the third place, after Peter and Andrew as in the Gospels of Matthew (10: 2) and Luke (6: 14), while in the Acts he comes after Peter and John (1: 13). This James belongs, together with Peter and John, to the group of the three privileged disciples whom Jesus admitted to important moments in his life. …”
Catholic TV Mass for the Feast of Saint James, Apostle, Tuesday, July 25, 2017, from Catholic TV in the Archdiocese of Boston. [Click here for Mass Readings]
Catholic TV Mass for the Feast of Saint James, Apostle, Tuesday, July 25, 2017, from Our Lady of Loretto Abbey in Toronto. [Click here for Mass Readings]
[featured image adapted from image at Creative Commons Wikimedia Commons Pjposullivan, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Loretto_Abbey_chapel_interior,_Toronto.JPG, with additional conditions stated at that link and in the alt-tag here]
“… Jesus summoned them and said,
‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,
and the great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you.
Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.
Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served
but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.'”
“We live in difficult times for the Church; from many sectors the very legitimate cry for reform goes up frequently. Beyond the sexual abuse scandal there are also deep concerns regarding the uncertain trumpet of Catholic preaching, lukewarm and nominal Catholics, an overall lack of self-discipline among Catholics, and a lack of disciplining by the bishops and clergy of those Catholics (lay and clergy) who cause scandal. The list of concerns is long, and in general I have been sympathetic on this blog to the need for reform and greater zeal in the Church.The Gospel this Sunday, however, featuring the Parable of the Wheat and Tares, cautions against overzealousness in the attempt to root out sin and sinners from the Church. The Lord’s warning to the farmhands who wanted to tear out the weeds was that they might harm the wheat as well. He wants them to wait until the harvest. There will come a day of reckoning, but it is not now.
This does not mean that we are never to take notice of sin or to rebuke a sinner. There is certainly the need for discipline in the Church; other texts call for it as well. But today’s Gospel is meant to warn against a scouring that is too thorough, a puritanical clean sweep that overrules God’s patience and seeks to turn the Church from a hospital for sinners into a germ-free (and hence people-free) zone. …”
“I am writing to you, my brothers, so you might know that, since the day when Adam was created until the end of the world, the Evil One wages war against the saints without respite (Rev 13,7)… You should know, then, beloved brethren, that in all those who have prepared their soul to provide good soil for the heavenly sowing, the enemy makes haste to sow his tares … But now, brothers, take heart and don’t be afraid of anything. Don’t allow yourselves to be frightened by the imaginations stirred up by the enemy. Don’t give in to a confused restlessness in prayer by multiplying unnecessary petitions, but receive the Lord’s grace with contrition and repentance … Take heart, be comforted, hold fast, concern yourselves with your souls, persevere in prayer with all zeal … For all those who seek God in truth will receive divine strength in their soul and, in receiving this heavenly unction, they will feel within themselves the taste and sweetness of the world to come. May the peace of the Lord, that peace which was with all the holy fathers and kept them safe from every temptation, be also with you.”
Catholic TV Mass for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 23, 2017, from Heart of the Nation in Wisconsin [Click here for Mass Readings]
[featured image is file photo, from different time and location]
Catholic TV Mass for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sunday, July 23, 2017, from the Archdiocese of Toronto. [Click here for Mass Readings]
[featured image adapted from image at Creative Commons Wikimedia Commons Pjposullivan, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Loretto_Abbey_chapel_interior,_Toronto.JPG, with additional conditions stated at that link and in the alt-tag here]
“… ‘The Kingdom of Heaven may be likened to a man
who sowed good seed in his field.
While everyone was asleep his enemy came
and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.
* * *
‘… Let them grow together until harvest;
then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters,
“First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning;
but gather the wheat into my barn.'”‘”