Sharing our Talents:
- From: Weedy <richarra@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2011 10:19:41 -0700 (PDT)
Sharing our Talents
So, it is very important for us to spend some time in reflecting on
what are my unique 'talents' or gifts or abilities and then to ask how
and to what end I am using them? And the time to do that is today
because, as we have been amply warned, we do not know when our
'employer' is coming back to check his accounts with us. The end of
today's passage indicates that if we do not move forward, or are not
productive, then we go backwards. We cannot remain static or purely
passive in God's service. To do nothing is not a possible option. The
more we give and share with others from the resources we have the more
we are personally enriched; on the other hand, to cling to our gifts
and keep them just for ourselves is to become smaller in every way.
Meditation for the Day
The spiritual life depends upon the Unseen. To live the spiritual
life, you must believe in the Unseen. Try not to lose the
consciousness of God's spirit in you and in others. As a child in its
mother's arms, stay sheltered in the understanding and love of God.
God will relieve you of the weight of worry and care, misery and
depression, want and woe, faintness and heartache, if you will let
Him. Life up your eyes from earth's troubles and view the glory of the
unseen God. Each day try to see more good in people, more of the
Unseen in the seen.
<<>><<>><<>>
September 24th - Our Lady of Ransom
(also called Our Lady of Mercy. Her Order's establishment 1218)
The story of Our Lady of Ransom is, at its outset, that of Saint Peter
Nolasco, born in Languedoc about 1189. At the age of twenty-five he
took a vow of chastity and made over his vast estates to the Church.
After making a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Montserrat, he went to
Barcelona where he began to practice various works of charity. He
conceived the idea of establishing an Order for the redemption of
captives seized by the Moors on the seas and in Spain itself; they
were being cruelly tormented in their African prisons to make them
deny their faith. He spoke of it to the king of Aragon, James I, who
knew him well and already respected him as a Saint; for the king had
already asked for his prayers when he sent out his armies to combat
the Moors, and he attributed his victories to those prayers.
In effect all the Christians of Europe, and above all of Spain, were
praying a great deal to obtain from God the remedy for the great evil
that had befallen them. The divine Will was soon manifested. On the
same night, August 1, 1218, the Blessed Virgin appeared to Saint
Peter, to his confessor, Raymund of Pennafort, and to the king, and
through these three servants of God established a work of the most
perfect charity, the redemption of captives.
On that night, while the Church was celebrating the feast of Saint
Peter in Chains, She came from Heaven and appeared first to Saint
Peter, saying that She indeed desired the establishment of a religious
Order bearing the name of Her mercy. Its members would undertake to
deliver Christian captives and offer themselves, if necessary, as a
gage. Word of the miracle soon spread over the entire kingdom; and on
August 10th the king went to the cathedral for a Mass celebrated by
the bishop of Barcelona. Saint Raymund went up into the pulpit and
narrated his vision, with admirable eloquence and fervor. The king
besought the blessing of the bishop for the heaven-sent plan, and the
bishop bestowed the habit on Saint Peter, who emitted the solemn vow
to give himself as a hostage if necessary.
The Order, thus solemnly established in Spain, was approved by Gregory
IX under the name of Our Lady of Mercy. By the grace of God and under
the protection of His Virgin Mother, the Order spread rapidly. Its
growth was increased as the charity and piety of its members was
observed; they very often followed Her directive to give themselves up
to voluntary slavery when necessary, to aid the good work. It was to
return thanks to God and the Blessed Virgin that a feast day was
instituted and observed on September 24th, first in this Order of Our
Lady, then everywhere in Spain and France. It was finally extended to
the entire Church by Innocent XII.
Reflection: Saint Peter Nolasco and his knights were not priests, and
yet they considered that the salvation of their neighbor was entrusted
to them. We, too, can by good counsel and by prayer, but above all by
holy example, assist the salvation of our brethren, and thereby secure
our own.
Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul
Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 11; Little Pictorial Lives
of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler's Lives of the Saints and
other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York,
1894).
Saint Quote:
Let my soul live as if separated from my body. -St. John of the Cross
Bible Quote:
So also you now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again, and
your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you.
(John 16:22)
<><><><><>
A prayer to our Lord for intercession of Our Lady of Perpetual
Succour:
O Lord, grant unto us Thy grace, we beseech Thee, so as to realize
Thine
almighty power wrought by the intercession of Our Lady of Perpetual
Succour. Thy Spirit surrounds us, Thine all-seeing eyes fix upon us,
and
Thy Divinely Sacred Heart yearns for us, that we may cease to tremble
at
the smites of the Godless, and no longer shrink from the ridicule of
those
who serve the Prince of this world. May we take good courage and
perform
Thy Will in the work that Thou wouldst give us to do in this life, and
may
Our Lady of Perpetual Succour's intercession lift us above the
sufferings
we face, leading us finally into Thy heavenly abode. Grant we may
come
unto Thee, to rest in the peace only Thou dost give, singing Thy
praises,
and those of Our Lady, for endless Ages. Amen.
.
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