22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) - 1 September
1st September 2024
“The pure soul is a beautiful rose, and the Three Divine Persons descend from Heaven to inhale its fragrance.” - St John Vianney
A reflection on today's Gospel reading by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"If goodness on the outside is not the release of goodness on the inside, it is show or hypocrisy. What the rudder is to the ship, what the spring is to the watch, that the heart is to actions. It is the mint where evil deeds and good deeds are coined; the anvil on which is forged behaviour; the blueprint of the edifice of life. As the pulse-beat is healthy or ill according to the condition of the heart, so a man in his life is what he is already in his thoughts and desires.
"Nothing shows more thoughtlessness than the idiocy that ‘it makes no difference what you believe; it all depends on the way you live.’ On the contrary, we act on our beliefs; our ideas are motor-springs in action; if our thinking is bad our actions will be bad. Would we say it made no difference to the editor of a newspaper if each of his readers believed that he should be shot? Let everybody believe that way and the editor soon will be shot.
"Many men are perverted from carrying out their beliefs in action; that is why there are insane asylums. A vicious horse is not the more gentle animal when he is bound with kicking straps. Our Divine Lord said that even though our evil thoughts could not be actualised, the evil act was nevertheless to be imputed to us as guilt. ‘Everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.’ If it is wrong to do a certain thing, it is wrong to desire to do that thing. If it is wrong to stuff Aunt Sophie’s mattress with old razor blades, it is wrong to want to do it. Keep the thoughts clean and the behaviour will be good.
"Environment may condition our lives, but it does not determine them. Adam lived in a good environment but produced an act of rebellion. Judas lived in an excellent environment, but he betrayed his Saviour. With justice then did Our Divine Saviour say: ‘It is not what enters one’s mouth that defiles that person; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one.’
"Environment, economic conditions and grandmothers who love too much or too little are circumstances that do help to make a man, but they make him only to the degree he permits them to make him. Our life would be healthier if our politics and our education more generally struck the same note. Our politics insist on freedom: freedom of press, suffrage, choice of work, etc. But much education teaches that man is not responsible; either his glands, or his want of playgrounds, or the lack of dance halls made him what he is; therefore he is not responsible for what he does. But to say he is not responsible is to say that he is not free. Our political concepts are right; these particular educational theories are wrong.
"If we are free, we are self-determining; if we are self-determining, then our actions are willed from the inside; if they are willed from the inside, then ‘Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.’"
(Thoughts for Daily Living)
Prayer for Purity
Jesus, Lover of chastity, Mary, Mother most pure, and Joseph, chaste guardian of the Virgin, to you I come at this hour, begging you to plead with God for me. I earnestly wish to be pure in thought, word and deed in imitation of your own holy purity.
Obtain for me, then, a deep sense of modesty which will be reflected in my external conduct. Protect my eyes, the windows of my soul, from anything that might dim the luster of a heart that must mirror only Christlike purity.
And when the "Bread of Angels becomes the Bread of me" in my heart at Holy Communion, seal it forever against the suggestions of sinful pleasures.
Heart of Jesus, Fount of all purity, have mercy on us. Amen. 🙏💐💖
Did you Know?
The Church has instituted sacramentals. These are sacred signs and objects which bear a connection to the Sacraments but do not of themselves confer divine grace. Rather, the sacramentals dispose us to receive the effects of the Sacraments and to cooperate with divine grace.
Among the sacramentals of the Church is Holy Water.
Holy water reminds us of baptism when we were cleansed from original sin and born into the family of God, the Church. Therefore, any time we use holy water we are reminded of our birth into the Church. This is why we use holy water when we enter into a Catholic church. We dip our hands into the water and make the Sign of the Cross saying the words of our baptism: “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
Then we can use holy water to sprinkle our homes and especially our bedrooms. This is because holy water repels the devil and the fallen angels. The demons cannot remain near to a person who has been sprinkled with holy water nor can they stay in a place that has been sprinkled with holy water.
Holy water can also be used to sprinkle one’s own property, crops and gardens, cars and sheds, or other personal belongings.
Water can be simply blessed by a priest, or even better, it can be exorcised (taken out of the power of the devil) and blessed.
Always have some holy water in your house.
Artwork by C. Domenichino, 1622