Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar

An hour will come, says He, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and truth. For God is a Spirit, and accordingly requires His adorers to be such. John 4:23-24 We are the true adorers and the true priests, who, praying in spirit, sacrifice, in spirit, prayer — a victim proper and acceptable to God, which assuredly He has required, which He has looked forward to for Himself! This victim, devoted from the whole heart, fed on faith, tended by truth, entire in innocence, pure in chastity, garlanded with love, we ought to escort with the pomp of good works, amid psalms and hymns, unto God’s altar, to obtain for us all things from God. For what has God, who exacts it ever denied to prayer coming from spirit and truth? How mighty specimens of its efficacy do we read, and hear, and believe! Old-world prayer, indeed, used to free from fires, Daniel 3 and from beasts, Daniel 6 and from famine; and yet it had not (then) received its form from Christ. But how far more amply operative is Christian prayer! It does not station the angel of dew in mid-fires, nor muzzle lions, nor transfer to the hungry the rustics’ bread; 2 Kings 4:42-44 it has no delegated grace to avert any sense of suffering; but it supplies the suffering, and the feeling, and the grieving, with endurance: it amplifies grace by virtue, that faith may know what she obtains from the Lord, understanding what — for God’s name’s sake — she suffers. every creature prays; cattle and wild beasts pray and bend their knees; and when they issue from their layers and lairs, they look up heavenward with no idle mouth, making their breath vibrate after their own manner. Nay, the birds too, rising out of the nest, upraise themselves heavenward, and, instead of hands, expand the cross of their wings, and say somewhat to seem like prayer. What more then, touching the office of prayer? Even the Lord Himself prayed; to whom be honour and virtue unto the ages of the ages!

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

Let us therefore repent, and pass from ignorance to true knowledge, from foolishness to wisdom, from unrighteousness to righteousness, from godlessness to God. The enjoyment of many other good things comes from this, to which God Himself alludes, speaking by Isaiah: “There is an inheritance for those who serve the Lord” (54,17). Not gold and silver, nor that which moth destroys and thieves steal (Mt 6.19), but the inestimable treasure of salvation… This is the inheritance with which God’s eternal covenant invests us, assuring us of his gifts; and thus our tenderly loving Father ceases not to exhort, to train, to love and to save us. “Become righteous,” says the Lord. “All you who are thirsty, come to the water; and you who have no money, come; buy without money and drink (Is 55,1). He invites us to the purifying bath, to salvation, to illumination… The saints of the Lord shall inherit the glory of God and his power, a glory which “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, and which has not entered the human heart” (1Cor 2,9)… You have this divine promise of grace; you have heard, on the other hand, of the threats of punishment: by these two ways the Lord saves… Why do we delay? Why do we not receive the free gift? Why do we not choose the better part?… “Behold,” he says, “I have set before you death and life.” (Dt 30,15) The Lord tries to make you choose life.” He counsels you like a father… To whom shall the Lord say, “Yours is the kingdom of heaven”? (Mt 5,3) It is yours if you want it, if your choice is set on God. It is yours, if you will only believe and follow the essence of the message, just as the Ninevites obeyed the message of the prophet and obtained a gracious salvation thanks to their sincere repentance, instead of the destruction that threatened them.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

Following the commandment of prayer,
I have not entered the chamber of the heart in spirit,
Nor in a corner of the public square,
To have at least one human reward. But I was negligent in both cases:
For appearances and reality;
For my laziness has triumphed over hope,
And earthly and heavenly! Now, He who by nature is your Father in heaven,
That you gave us by your grace,
Grant me to invoke perfectly
With a pure heart his Name, May the Kingdom of the Lord
Arrives to rule my soul;
And on this earth in me be fulfilled
His will, as well as in heaven. The bread of each day and the Bread that always is,
Remedy of my body and Remedy of the soul,
May he give them abundantly to me, to me who is in need:
Both the spiritual and the material. May he forgive me my faults, my debtor,
As I also remit to him who owes me;
Or above all that He brings back
On both sides, so that it can be handed over to me. And let him not allow the Tempter
To tempt me, cowardly, like an intrepid one;
But let him keep me from his sword;
May He Himself fight against the Evil One!

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team