Sept. 20

September 20, 2014:  "Korean Martyrs":

SS. Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn, Priest,

Paul Chŏng Ha-sang, and Companions, Martyrs

Today is San Fernando Regional Congress!
Catch it live:  Go out with Joy!

Look

• 'Wheat' pin:  "What you sow is ... a bare kernel of wheat" (1st reading)
• 'Sparkling body' pin (oops, forgot; see here):  "'What kind of body will the dead have when they're raised?'  You fool!" (1st reading)

• 'Bird' tie pin:  Birds ate the seed that fell on the path (gospel)
• 'Rock' pin:  Seed that fell on rocky ground withered (gospel)
• 'Roses' pin:  Thorns choked the seed that fell among them (gospel)
• 'Apple' pin:  Seed in good soil bore abundant fruit (gospel)
• Red in shirt:  Korean martyrs

• Brown slacks, belt, and sandals:  wood of the Cross (Sunday and Monday readings)

Listen

• Jesus Christ, my sure defense/ von Schwerin, Henrietta of Brandenburgh tr. Winkworth (improvisation) (lyrics+) (1st reading)
• Hymn of promise/ Sleeth (lyrics+) (1st reading)
• Unless a grain of wheat/ Farrell (1st reading)
• When I am afraid (Psalm 56)/ Cook
• What time I am afraid I put my trust in thee/ Burnap (psalm)
• Almighty God, thy word is cast/ Cawood (lyrics+) (gospel)
• Sow in the morn thy seed/ Montgomery (alt. tune) (lyrics+) (gospel)
• Christ, you walked among the grain fields/ Gillette (lyrics+) (gospel)
• Christ taught us of a farmer/ Gillette, to The Church's one foundation tune (Aurelia) (gospel)
• Seed, scattered and sown/ Feiten (gospel)
• Psalm 65:  The seed that falls on good ground/ Celoni (gospel-inspired)

Pope Francis on the Economy

To the 2nd Catholic Social Days for Europe (in Madrid):  Find ways to bring Gospel light to pressing issues like youth unemployment and popularism.  Pursue holiness through personal prayer and conversion, and offer coherent, joyful witness to awaken consciences that temporal goods and society must serve the human person and their ultimate fulfilment in God.  A Church that attends to the needs of the suffering proclaims truth and salvation to those who hunger for life and those who “call you to account for the hope in you” (1 Pet 3:15).

Read

• 1 Cor 15:35-37, 42-49 You fool if you ask, "How are the dead raised?"!  The dead will be raised incorruptible, glorious, and powerful as spiritual bodies.  As we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly one.

• Ps 56:10c-12, 13-14  "I will walk in the presence of God, in the light of the living."  I trust in God who rescued me and is with me.

• Lk 8:4-15  “As a sower sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds ate it, some fell on rocky ground and withered, some fell among thorns and got choked by them, and some fell on good soil, grew, it produced fruit a hundredfold.  Hear!  Meaning:  The seed is God's word.  Those on the path heard, but the Devil took away the word.  Those on rocky ground received the word with joy but have no root and so fall away.  Those that fell among thorns heard, but life's anxieties and riches choke them.  Those that fell on rich soil embrace the word with a generous heart, persevere, and bear fruit.

Reflect

• Creighton:  The Korean Church spread mainly entirely through the agency of laypeople who heard about the Christian faith through Jesuits in China.  Only the receptive soil is fruitful.  When we align our desires and actions with Jesus, we nourishes the Seed bringing forth God’s Reign.  To do so, we must pray so the word finds a home in us.

• One Bread One Body:  If we took Jesus' promise of the hundredfold seriously, we'd show more reverence to God's word, read it daily, share it with family, and be transformed by it.

• Passionist:  St. Andrew Tae-gŏn is tied closely to the foundation of Christianity in Korea.  Rulers not pleased to have this "foreign" religion in Korea outlawed it and persecuted adherents.  St. Andrew's parents remained faithful to Christianity.  Andrew, first Korean to become a priest, returned home after ordination to help organize the Church and bring the sacraments to the faithful but only lasted a year before being martyred.  May the faith of him and those martyred afterwards inspire us to be faithful and give fearless witness in our daily life.

• DailyScripture.net:  Prejudiced hearers of the Word close their minds, shallow ones don't think things out or through and so wander, and scattered/preoccupied ones don't hear what's important, but God is ready to give us understanding.  A receptive heart and mind that listens attentively, tuning out distractions, can hear God and being transformed.  What do I pay most attention to?

• Universalis:  Korea had been closed to outside influences including contact with foreigners, but some laymen learned of Christianity and were converted.  Some 10,000 were martyred in the first century thereafter. “The death of these martyrs became the leaven of the Church and led to today’s flowering of the Church in Korea.  Their spirit sustains the Christians of the Church of Silence in the north.” –Pope John Paul II as he canonized the Korean Martyrs

• Sacred Space

Preview tomorrowDress your life!