September 17, 2016

Bellarmine/Hildegard

September 17, 2016:  Saturday, 24th week, Ordinary Time

St. Robert Bellarmine, Bishop and Doctor

St. Hildegard of Bingen, Religious and Doctor

See 12 connections with today?
Legend below
Listen


Pope Francis to Jesuit alumni/ae at Migration and Refugee Crisis conference
In the face of tens of thousands forcibly displaced, we must move beyond statistics and realize migrants and refugees are no different than our family and friends.  Each has a name, face, story, and a right to live in peace and aspire to a better future for their children.  There's great need for people who hear the cry of the poor and respond with mercy and generosity.  Responses should be through acts of mercy that promote integration.
Authentic hospitality is a profound gospel value that nurtures love and is our greatest security against hateful acts.  Jesuits have the important role of educating refugee children, many of whom grow up without access to schools.  By helping transform this reality, you can build a stronger Europe and a brighter future for refugees.  Transform your communities into places of welcome where all God’s children have the opportunity to grow, flourish, and bear fruit.
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.
Bonus, heard at today's SFPR Regional Congress
Reflect

    • Creighton:  We trip on rocks of temptation and get choked in thorns of anxiety and desire for riches or pleasure on the way towards the rich soil of generosity and good hearts.  God’s word will take root in us if we persevere.  Even great saints hated to give up their sins. Pleasures and riches attract us even as they hurt us. May we seek such lives of generosity and happiness....
    • One Bread, One Body:  "Word work":  Ground is valued by its fertility.  Jesus tells us how to bear fruit:  Hear the word in a spirit of openness, retain it in your heart, meditate on it, and make it part of your being.  God's Word bears the fruit if we persevere in cooperating with the Spirit in dispensing his Word (Mt 24:45), teaching it, and overcoming our tendencies to slack off.  "If we don't relax our efforts, we'll reap our harvest.
    • Passionist:  God’s word, being, and life is hidden in each of us like a seed waiting to sprout, take root, and blossom.  God who loves us and lives in us wants to come fully alive in each of us.  But we neither sow nor harvest the seed. If we embrace the word “with a generous and good heart” and care for it, God will come alive in us.
    • DailyScripture.net:  "If you have ears to hear, hear":  God is always ready to speak to us and give us understanding of his word.  Different ways of accepting God's word produce different kinds of fruit:  the closed-minded prejudiced hearer is unteachable and blind to things of God, and the shallow hearer who doesn't think things through lacks spiritual depth and eventually wanders.  The person with many interests and cares who can't hear and understand what's truly important is too busy to listen and reflect on God's word.  Whose voice gets most of your attention?  A receptive heart and open mind are ready to hear God; they discern the meaning of God's word for them and let it grow and produce good fruit.  They hear with a listening ear and teachable spirit. They tune out noise and distractions to pay attention to God's word.  God's word can change and transform each of us if we receive it with trust and allow it to take root in us.  God's word is our daily food to nourish and strengthen us....
    St. Robert Bellarmine
    St. Robert Bellarmine
    • Catholic sources and the Declaration of Independence/ Rager:  Long before the Declaration, its principles were traditional among Catholic churchmen,  Declaration framers drew inspiration, encouragement, and political ideals from Catholic sources, particularly from Bellarmine.
    Choir of angels
    St. Hildegard of Bingen
    Dress legend
    • San Fernando Regional Congress music ministry badge/lanyard:  Today is the SFPR Regional Congress, gospel-themed ("Planting seeds")
    • Wheat' pin:  "What you sow is ... a bare kernel of wheat" (1st reading)
    • 'Sparkling body' pin:  "'What kind of body will the dead have when they're raised?'"... (1st reading)
    • 'John's Jokers' tie:  "... You fool!" (1st reading)
    • 'Feet' pin:  You rescued my feet from stumbling... (psalm)
    • 'Walker' tie pin:  ...that I may walk before God (psalm)
    • '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)

    • 'Heart' pin:  Embrace the word with a generous and good heart; bear fruit... (gospel)

    • Green shirt:  Ordinary Time sesason
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