13th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) - 26 June
26th June 2022
13th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) - 26 June
“I tell you that you have less to suffer in following the Cross than in serving the world and its pleasures.” - St John Vianney
A reflection on today's Second Reading (Gal 5:1, 13-18) by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"Why avoid excesses either in drinking or eating or smoking or carnality? As long as the ego sets itself up as the absolute, there is no reason for doing so. But suppose there is someone we love more than ourselves. We can renounce something of a lower value for something of a higher value, provided we know the higher value. The more intense the love, the less we think of a sacrifice involved to secure what we love. Jacob heeded not the years of toil for Rachel because of his love for her.
"When there is no love, there is not much point in asking men to deny themselves or to set a limitation upon their pleasure in order to increase the real joy of living. Knowing nothing above themselves, they can never make a surrender of the tinsel they count as gold. Surrender also seems great when the love is little; but where there is a practical love of God, and all that is implied in the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, then the lesser pleasures are readily abandoned for the ecstatic peace that the world cannot take away. Hearts then become like giant ships that were once embedded in the mud; now that the giant tide of love moves in, it lifts them above their slimy attachments and sends them forth on the bosom of the waters of peace.
"The tendency to evil in us is like the gravitation which pulls us down to the animal; but there is another law of gravitation, which is spiritual, which urges us to seek the things that are above, particularly the fullness of Truth for our minds and the fullness of Love for our wills. There is a law in the mind and there is a law in the body, and sometimes they pull against each other, like a team of horses, one of which goes to the right and the other to the left. The mainspring of a watch when it is detached from its pivot does not stop immediately; but when uncontrolled it spins so rapidly as to ruin the mechanism. So we work well when controlled by the Law of God; but when we are in disharmony with what is best for our higher nature, we kill inner peace and happiness. There a number of people in the world who are mental cases, or in plain old-fashioned language, crazy. But there are a number of people who have so often violated the laws of conscience and ruined the mechanism of their minds and hearts that they think they can be cured by the same therapy as the crazy people. This is impossible, because their trouble is in the moral order and not the functional or organic order. They have ruined their lives by uncontrolled licence, as a glass would ruin itself if used to break rocks.
"Nobody likes to hear the word 'sin' today; but we will begin to be happier when we realise that maybe most of our trouble comes from the fact that we are sinners. Sin is de-ordination and in the broad sense of the term every de-ordination, if it is wilful and deliberate, is sin. Once one admits the plain fact that he has done wrong, he can be put on the right path by being shown that the same energy that he used to sin can now be diverted in the other direction. A sliver in a finger momentarily checks the circulation, but the blood flows on, trying to overcome the obstacle. This causes pressure, fever and congestion. The circulation is good, but here in this case it becomes an evil. So with sin. The action of our power and energies continues, but in the wrong direction. From this unholy marsh poisonous gases arise that affect the mind. As a train that is derailed destroys itself by its speed, so does the man ruin himself who leaves the track of Divine Law. But, thanks to God’s 'grace and forgiveness,' we can get back on the track and the same energy we used in the wreck can now be used to speed toward happiness. Sin is really power in reversed action, and the grace of God makes it flow in the right direction." (Thoughts for Daily Living)
Marriage & Family Sunday - 26 June
This Sunday, being Marriage & Family Sunday, we also join with the Holy Father in praying for families, in particular those men and women who have chosen the vocation of married life.
Prayer for Married Couples
God our Father, we give you thanks for the gift of marriage; the bond of life and love, and the font of the family. The love of husband and wife enriches Your Church with children, fills the world with multitude of spiritual fruitfulness and service, and is the sign of the love of Your Son, Jesus Christ, for His Church. The grace of Jesus flowed forth at Cana at the request of the Blessed Mother. May Your Son, through the intercession of Mary, pour out upon us a new measure of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit as we join with all people of good will to promote and protect the unique beauty of marriage. May Your Holy Spirit enlighten our society to treasure the heroic love of husband and wife, and guide our leaders to sustain and protect the singular place of mothers and fathers in the lives of their children. Father, we ask that our prayers be joined to those of the Virgin Mary, that Your Word may transform our service so as to safeguard the incomparable splendour of marriage. We ask all these things through Christ our Lord, Amen. 🙏💐💖
Prayer for Priests
O Jesus, Eternal Priest, keep Thy priests within the shelter of Thy Sacred Heart, where none may touch them. Keep unstained their anointed hands, which daily touch Thy Sacred Body. Keep unsullied their lips, daily purpled with Thy Precious Blood. Keep pure and unworldly their hearts, sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood. Let Thy Holy Love surround them from the world’s contagion. Bless their labours with abundant fruit, and may the souls to whom they minister be their joy and consolation here and their everlasting crown hereafter. Amen.
Mary, Queen of the Clergy pray for us: obtain for us numerous and holy priests. Saints Peter and Paul, martyred priests of Christ, pray for us. St John Vianney, patron saint of priests, pray for us. 💖🙏💐