Audio Prayer for the intercession of St.Padre Pio
“Pray, pray to the Lord with me, because the whole world needs prayer. And every day, when your heart especially feels the loneliness of life, pray. Pray to the Lord, because even God needs our prayers.”
couples struggling with the challenge of infertility in Omaha on September 20, 2011.Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:17 — 17.7MB) | Embed
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We apologize for some of the noise in the recording. The microphone was inadvertently attached to a file on the podium and was jostled during the talk…it’s not that bad and the talk is fantastic!
Event sponsored by the Pro Sanctity Movement
St. Matthew, one of the twelve Apostles, is the author of the first Gospel.Son of Alphaeus, he lived at Capenaum on Lake Genesareth. He was a Roman tax collector, a position equated with collaboration with the enemy by those from whom he collected taxes. Jesus’ contemporaries were surprised to see the Christ with a traitor, but Jesus explained that he had come “not to call the just, but sinners.” Matthew’s Gospel is given pride of place in the canon of the New Testament, and was written to convince Jewish readers that their anticipated Messiah had come in the person of Jesus. He preached among the Jews for 15 years; his audiences may have included the Jewish enclave in Ethiopia, and places in the East.
Listen to none other than Mark Hart the Bible Geek about the great work of St. Matthew…of course, the Gospel according to St. MatthewPersonal note, my favorite Matthew passage (from Chapter 25): “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.‘ Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
800+ years later,800+ years later, VATICAN CITY, 14 SEP 2011 (VIS) –
This morning the Holy Father travelled by helicopter from the Apostolic Palace at Castelgandolfo to the Vatican, where he held his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall. In his catechesis he dwelt on the first part of Psalm 22, focusing on the theme of prayers of supplication to God.
The Psalm, which remerges in the narrative of Christ’s Passion, presents the figure of an innocent man persecuted and surrounded by adversaries who seek his death. He raises his voice to God “in a doleful lament which, in the certainty of faith, mysteriously gives way to praise”.
The Psalmist’s opening cry of “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” is “an appeal addressed to a God Who appears distant, Who does not respond”, said the Holy Father. “God is silent, a silence that rends the Psalmists heart as he continues to cry out incessantly but finds no response”. Nonetheless, he “calls the Lord ‘my’ God, in an extreme act of trust and faith. Despite appearances, the Psalmist cannot believe that his bond with the Lord has been severed entirely”.
The opening lament of Psalm 22 recurs in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark in the cry the dying Jesus makes from the cross. This, Benedict XVI explained, expresses all the desolation the Son of God felt “under the crushing burden of a
mission which had to pass through humiliation and destruction. For this reason He cried out to the Father. … Yet His was not a desperate cry, as the Psalmist’s was”.
Violence dehumanises
Sacred history, the Pope continued, “has been a history of cries for help from the people, and of salvific responses from God”. The Psalmist refers to the faith of his ancestors “who trusted … and were never put to shame”, and he describes his own extreme difficulties in order “to induce the Lord to take pity and intervene, as He always had in the past”.
The Psalmist’s enemies surround him, “they seem invincible, like dangerous ravening beasts. … The images used in the Psalm also serve to underline the fact that when man himself becomes brutal and attacks his fellow man, … he seems to lose all human semblance. Violence always contains some bestial quality, and only the salvific intervention of God can restore man to his humanity”.
At this point, death begins to take hold of the Psalmist. He describes the moment with dramatic images “which we come across again in the narrative of Christ’s Passion: the bodily torment, the unbearable thirst which finds an echo in Jesus’ cry of ‘I am thirsty’, and finally the definitive action of his tormenters who, like the soldiers under the cross, divide among themselves the clothes of the victim, whom they consider to be already dead”.
At this point a new cry emerges, “which rends the heavens because it proclaims a faith, a certainty, that is beyond all doubt. … The Psalm turns into thanksgiving. … The Lord has saved the petitioner and shown him His face of mercy. Death and life came together in an inseparable mystery and life triumphed. … This is the victory of faith, which can transform death into the gift of life, the abyss of suffering into a source of hope”. Thus the Psalm leads us to relive Christ’s Passion and to share the joy of His resurrection.
In closing, the Pope invited the faithful to distinguish deeper reality from outward appearance, even when God is apparently silent. “By placing all our trust and hope in God the Father, we can pray to Him with faith at all moments of anguish, and our cry for help will turn into a hymn of praise”.
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Published by VISarchive 02 – Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Ave Maria…the invocation of the name of Mary is a powerful prayer…Ave Maria…every time we say it we cry out to our Mother. What mother doesn’t rush to the aid of her child when he or she cries out her name? Hail Mary. Not just a name, but a supreme gift of grace to us all…the gift of a mother who loves unconditionally, who loves always, who loves each and every one of her children given to her by God. Hail Mary, when we say it we unlatch the door and allow our mother in, when we say it we pick up the phone and converse with the greatest of human counselors, when we say it we acknowledge the reality of the presence of the “Woman” clothed with the Sun, with the moon under her feet, crowned with the stars who labors to see all of her children “birthed” into heaven. Mary….Mary….Mary. The Holy Name of….Mary.
Without fanfare or expectation, out of nowhere came the name of Mary, literally…a moment which illuminated for me the bright light of the Blessed Mother’s presence, and not just at that particular moment in time. Like the brightest star in the night sky, it became clear to me that she had been there truly, truly guiding me all along, even in the darkest moments of doubt and pain. That she had not, and would never, “leave me alone”. That I was indeed responding to HER call and in turn she had responded to mine. Mary. It was she who traveled with me on that journey and who would continue to do so in the days and years ahead. Mary.Father, in the video below, talks about the orgin of this feast day… it’s really quite a lovely homily.
Kate Wicker is OUTSTANDING and her book “Weightless: Making Peace with Your Body” 
does so much more than it’s title offers…it reminds us how our faith can help us bring peace into our hearts!!!! I love it! The blessing of our femininity, a joy in the gift of the daughter of God we have been created to be, the peace that comes with a prayerful relationship with the Father…these are just some of the fruits that come from Kate Wicker’s work in “Weightless”. More than “self-help”, it’s really about letting the saints help, letting your faith help… ultimately, letting God help. Insights, quotes, guidance, reflections, this book is perfect for individual or group study …check it out!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:48 — 27.3MB) | Embed
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What a fun and encouraging interview…it was one of those I just didn’t want to end. Take time to listen, then get a copy of the book for yourself and pass other copies to the women in your life.
There’s a wave of body dissatisfaction sweeping across society. While bookstore shelves are well-stocked with tomes on how to overcome body image problems, very few take a faith-based, much less Catholic, approach to self-healing. Weightless: Making Peace With Your Body speaks not only to those who may have faced an eating disorder, but also to anyone who wants to live an abundant life, unencumbered by our culture’s obsession with thinness, physical beauty, youth, or food.
Be sure to visit Kate’s website at katewicker.com
Get a copy of the book here (and get a copy for a friend…they’ll thank you for it!)
“We ask you, in your compassion to bring healing to those who, because of their presence here that day, suffer from injuries and illness. Heal, too, the pain of still-grieving families and all who lost loved ones in this tragedy. Give them strength to continue their lives with courage and hope.
“We are mindful as well of those who suffered death, injury, and loss on the same day at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Our hearts are one with theirs as our prayer embraces their pain and suffering.
“God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world: peace in the hearts of all men and women and peace among the nations of the Earth. Turn to your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred.
“God of understanding, overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy, we seek your light and guidance as we confront such terrible events. Grant that those whose lives were spared may live so that the lives lost here may not have been lost in vain. Comfort and console us, strengthen us in hope, and give us the wisdom and courage to work tirelessly for a world where true peace and love reign among nations and in the hearts of all.” AMEN
VATICAN CITY, 7 SEP 2011 (VIS) – This morning Benedict XVI travelled by helicopter
from the Apostolic Palace in Castelgandolfo to the Vatican for his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.
Continuing a series of catecheses on the subject of “the school of prayer”, the Holy Father turned his attention to Psalm 3 which recounts David’s flight from Jerusalem when Absalom rose against him. “In the Psalmist’s lament”, the Pope said, “each of us may recognise those feelings of pain and bitterness, accompanied by faith in God, which, according the biblical narrative, David experienced as he fled from his city”.
In the Psalm, the king’s enemies are many and powerful, and the imbalance between David’s forces and those of his persecutors “justifies the urgency of his cry for help”. Nonetheless his adversaries “also seek to break his bond with God and to undermine the faith of their victim by insinuating that the Lord cannot intervene”.
Thus, the aggression “is not only physical, it also has a spiritual dimension” aimed at “the central core of the Psalmist’s being. This is the extreme temptation a believer suffers: the temptation of losing faith and trust in the closeness of God”, the Holy Father said.
Yet, as the Book of Wisdom says, the unrighteous are mistaken because “the Lord … is like a shield protecting those who entrust themselves to Him. He causes them to raise their heads in sign of victory. Man is no longer alone … because the Lord hears the cry of the oppressed. … This intertwining of human cry and divide response is the dialectic of prayer and the key to reading the entire history of salvation. A cry expresses a need for help and appeals to the faithfulness of the other. To cry out is an act of faith in God’s closeness and His willingness to listen. Prayer express the certainty of a divine presence which has already been experienced and believed, and which is fully manifested in the salvific response of God”.
Psalm 3 presents us “a supplication replete with faith and consolation. By praying this Psalm we share the sentiments of the Psalmist: a just but persecuted figure which would later be fulfilled in Jesus. In pain, danger and the bitterness of misunderstanding and offence, the words of this Psalm open our hearts to the comforting certainty of faith. God is always close, even in times of difficulty, problems and darkness. He listens, responds and saves.
“However”, the Pope added, “it is important to be able to recognise His presence and to accept His ways: like David during his humiliating flight from his son Absalom, like the persecuted righteous of the Book of Wisdom and, finally and fully, like the Lord Jesus on Golgotha. In the eyes of the unrighteous it appeared that God did not intervene and that His Son died, but for believers it was at that precise moment that true glory was manifested and definitive salvation achieved”.
The Pope concluded: “May the Lord give us faith, may He come in aid of our weakness and help us to pray in moments of anguish, in the painful nights of doubt and the long days of pain, abandoning ourselves trustingly to Him, our shield and our glory”.
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hy, O Lord, are they multiplied that afflict me? many are they who rise up against me.
